Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps #1) by R.L. Stine

Title: Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps #1)

Author: R.L. Stine

Publication Date: July 1992

Length: 123 pages

It's been a long time since I actually wrote a book review! I've always had trouble keeping up with them and at some point it became hard to do them at all. But I've been reading my R.L. Stine collection in order by publishing date (roughly; I'm missing a few), and I've finally reached the start of the Goosebumps books, something I've been looking forward to for ages! So I figured it would be fun to try to review them all! I'm also going to watch the corresponding episodes of the TV series, where applicable, and review them at the same time. So, to start with, the first ever Goosebumps book, Welcome to Dead House!

So, Josh and Amanda, along with their parents and dog, move into an old house in Dark Falls after inheriting it from an unknown relative. Right away, the dog knows something's up and runs away, found sniffing around the cemetery. Meanwhile, Amanda keeps thinking she's seeing people in the windows and in her bedroom. The kids make some friends, but all the other kids act pretty strangely, won't stay out when it's bright out, and more than one of them claims to have lived in Amanda and Josh's house before.

Spoilers ahead! I feel like it's hard to talk about the Goosebumps books and show without revealing twists.

Quite a bit of time is spent on the buildup, relative to the short length of the book. The first half of the book is basically the family unpacking and Amanda seeing ghosts, before they meet anyone else. Ultimately it turns out everyone in town is dead (in kind of a zombie/ghost hybrid sort of way), and every year they trick people into moving into the house so they can get fresh blood. Amanda and Josh manage to escape from one of the kids trying to kill them, by melting his flesh with a flashlight. Then they have to rescue their parents, who've been captured by the other adults and are about to be killed in this sort of amphitheatre thing in the cemetery. The amphitheatre is shaded by a tree, and they manage to knock it down, hitting all the dead people with sunlight, and escape. In a little ending twist (common in the series), as they leave another family is moving into the house. (So are there more dead people around that weren't killed?? Apparently!)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one, but I know the series will get even better, because really the dead people in Welcome to Dead House are not as interesting as the average Goosebumps monster. Still, a solid 4 stars! In the last couple years I've read a bunch of the early Fear Street books, Point Horror and some stand alone horror, and Goosebumps is just so much better! While R.L. Stine's teen horror has a lot of unlikable characters, toxic relationships, etc., his Goosebumps books have none of those issues and are just pure fun horror. I love it!

Now, for the episode of the TV show! While I did read some of the books when I was a kid, ultimately a lot of my "big Goosebumps fan" energy comes from the TV series. My dad taped (what we thought was) every episode off of YTV when I was a kid, and I've seen them countless times. I still love the show, cheesiness and all! But, it turns out we missed a couple, and maybe the only time I've seen those ones was when the whole series was on Netflix and I watched it through. Welcome to Dead House, Parts 1 and 2, are among those missing episodes! So when I watched it this week after reading the book, it was barely even familiar to me.

I was surprised how many changes were made in adapting this book, and now I'm curious to see if other episodes are similar! There were little things, like the fact that the family actually bought the house in the show, as opposed to inheriting it, and that they've actually managed to sell their old house, unlike in the book where they still have it to go back to. But there are also big things, like the way the dead people are way more zombified than in the book, and the addition of a magical old wreath that protects the family and scares the dead people. Also, there's no amphitheatre and the big fight takes place at the house.

Not my favourite of the Goosebumps episodes (though how much of that is because it doesn't have the nostalgia of episodes I've watched many times?), but still good. Highlights include some very 90s outfits on Amanda, and the fact that Josh is played by Ben Cook, who is also Jerry in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder (one of my favourites) and Marty in A Shocker on Shock Street. It's always fun to recognize the repeat stars!

Tune in next time for the second Goosebumps book, Stay Out of the Basement!

Deadlight Jack by Mark Onspaugh

Title: Deadlight Jack
Author: Mark Onspaugh
Publication Date: January 26, 2016
Length: 288 pages (ebook)

Deadlight Jack is a follow-up to The Faceless One, but can also stand on its own.

After the events of The Faceless One, Jimmy and George have settled into a normal routine, sharing a house in Seattle. When George gets a call that his grandson has disappeared in Louisiana, the two unlikely heroes hop on a plane to join in the search. But George's past soon begins to haunt him, both in the form of an estranged family and of a long-forgotten encounter with the dark magic of Deadlight Jack.

I was super excited for this sequel, as I adored The Faceless One. Jimmy and George make great heroes; I could read a whole series about them! Deadlight Jack, however, didn't quite live up to the first one for me. It felt a bit slower in pace. Also, I felt like their slightly-offensive-banter routine got a bit tired (which Jimmy actually acknowledges within the story).

That being said, it's still good horror, and Deadlight Jack himself was terrifying. I also particularly liked the insight into George's past, since we already knew about Jimmy's childhood from The Faceless One. There's also a great sense of place. Between George's comfort in the muggy heat of the bayou and Jimmy's extreme discomfort with it (he's originally from Alaska), I could practically feel the humidity.

So, even though I liked The Faceless One more, I still recommend this sequel. And I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for future books by Mark Onspaugh, especially if they star Jimmy and George! 3 stars.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Faceless One by Mark Onspaugh

Title: The Faceless One
Author: Mark Onspaugh
Publication Date: October 28, 2013
Length: approx. 410 pages (ebook)

When an archaeological dig in Alaska unearths an ancient mask, an evil god called the faceless one is unleashed. While he can't reach full power until someone puts on the mask, he still manages to brutally murder anyone who comes into contact with it. Jimmy Kalmaku, a Tlingit shaman who is now living in a Seattle retirement home, is the only one with the knowledge required to return the faceless one to his icy prison.

This book was unlike any horror novel I've ever read. First of all, the use of Tlingit mythology was a refreshing change. Jimmy is guided in his mission by Raven, and has to make use of the shamanic skills his uncle taught him when he was a child. I don't know enough about the Tlingit to judge the accuracy, but it certainly felt real.

Jimmy is a great character with a lot of depth. Trained to be his village's shaman as a kid, he came into the position just as his people began to adopt the white people's ways. Now, living in a retirement home far removed from his native land and from his traditional ways, he feels disconnected. George, Jimmy's best friend, is also a delight, always a loyal friend and eager for an adventure.

If I have one complaint about this book it's that Jimmy and George didn't get enough focus, as the story also follows a number of other characters, including the family of the first victim, a New York cop who starts off investigating the murder and gets more involved than he'd planned on, and various lawyers who are connected to the case. The cop, Stan Roberts, does have a good story line of his own and is well-developed, but Jimmy and George were my favourites.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. And while the ending wraps up the story nicely, it does leave an opening for a possible sequel, so here's hoping!

5 stars. Highly recommended for horror fans looking for something a bit out of the ordinary.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Taltos by Anne Rice

Title: Taltos (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #3)
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1994
Length: 556 pages

Warning: This is a review of the third book in the series, and therefore contains spoilers of the first two books.

This book had so much going on, it's difficult to write a plot summary. (Admittedly, I'm writing this review many months after reading the book, so that doesn't help.) Along with continuing story lines from The Witching Hour and Lasher, new ones are introduced. A new major character is Ashlar, who is a Taltos (like Lasher) and has been living amongst humans. This is an interesting turn of events, because it shows that the Taltos are not all crazy adult-sized babies like Lasher. Ashlar, while still odd, is also kind, and perfectly capable of blending in with humans in spite of his strange appearance.

In this book, we also get the history of the Taltos as told by Ashlar, which was really interesting, as well as the continuing antics of Mona, who I know is kinda messed up but I can't seem to help adoring her. There's also more about the Talamasca, which thrilled me. Honestly I'd love a whole series centred around the Talamasca!

Taltos had its ups and downs for me, mostly because it was pretty long (the number of pages is deceptive as Anne Rice books tend to have tiny type) and had so many plot lines going on at once, some more interesting than others. But enough of the story lines were interesting that I do recommend finishing off the trilogy if you've read and enjoyed the first two books.

As a sidenote, this series is great fun if, like me, you're a genealogist. I actually have the (incomplete) Mayfair family tree on my computer.

4 stars.

Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

Title: Red Moon
Author: Benjamin Percy
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Length: 531 pages

Red Moon follows a bunch of a different characters through their own, somewhat related, stories. There's Claire, a lycan (werewolf), who's on the run after a mysterious man broke into her home and killed her parents. Patrick is the only survivor of a lyncan killing spree on an airplane. There's also a politician who's pushing anti-lycan laws and a lycan gang that's fighting for lycan rights in a violent way, and throughout it all there's a war going on in the country the lycans formed for themselves, which is under US occupation.

There is a lot going on in this book. Having waited too long to write this review, I'm having trouble remembering a lot of it. There are so many story lines, which are kind of related, but still make you feel like you're jumping around a lot.

One thing that was perhaps overdone, but I liked overall, was the rewriting of history to include lycans. Historical events in US civil rights are mentioned, but in this world it was lycans, not black people, fighting for their rights. The present-day treatment of the lycans is an obvious parallel to present-day Islamophobia in the US: one lycan kills the passengers on a plane, and it sparks nationwide fear and hatred of lycans, even ones who have been living peaceful lives amongst their human neighbours.

Red Moon is well-written, and takes werewolves to a place I've never really seen before. It has a lot going on, but for the most part I was interested in each of the characters' stories.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Ghosts Beneath Our Feet by Betty Ren Wright

Title: Ghosts Beneath Our Feet
Author: Betty Ren Wright
Publication Date: 1984
Length: 137 pages

After the death of her step-father, Katie is moving to a small town for the summer with her mom and step-brother, and she's excited for the change. But the town isn't all she'd hoped for; it's practically deserted, and some of the other kids don't seem very nice. The superstitious Cornish residents of the town  tell tales of the ghosts of the miners that died in the mine 30 years ago, and are now trying to escape.

Like a lot of Betty Ren Wright's books, this one has sort of an interesting twist, in that what's a ghost and what's not, and what the intentions of said ghosts are, is not necessarily what you'd expect along the way.

In addition to the mystery of the "knackers" (the ghosts of the miners) and the ghost of a girl that Katie keeps seeing, there's the story of Katie's family. Her step-brother, Jay, is going through a hard time after the death of his father, and acting out as a result. I enjoyed the changing dynamics between Katie and Jay as the story progressed.

4 stars.

Lasher by Anne Rice

Title: Lasher
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1993
Length: 628

Warning: This is a review of the second book in the series, and may contain spoilers from the first book, The Witching Hour.

Rowan has run off with Lasher, and is now travelling the world with him. Apparently she has stayed with him because her scientific curiosity would not allow her to let him go (which, in my opinion, is straight up crazy). Somewhere along the way, she becomes his prisoner, and he continually tries to impregnate her, leading to multiple miscarriages. Meanwhile, Michael is looking for her, and the Mayfairs are dealing with the women in the family dying of miscarriages.

Later on in the book, Lasher tells his story, and we finally learn more about who he was before he became "the man" to the Mayfairs. It's strange, because Lasher often seems like a sympathetic character when he's telling his story, which is so at odds with his thoughtless cruelty in the present.

I know so many people who loved The Witching Hour and didn't like this book, which I just don't understand! I actually liked this one even better than the first. I especially like Mona Mayfair. I think most people don't like her because she's a young teenager who goes around having sex with older men. But as disturbing as that is, Mona's such a powerful character that I can't help but love her. She has the potential to be a very powerful witch, since she has more Mayfair blood than almost anyone else, thanks to the horrifying degree of incest in her family. (This book actually made me realise I need a family tree to understand the Mayfairs, which I have started creating on my computer, much like Mona did.) But Mona's also powerful in the more mundane ways. Despite her young age, she knows exactly what she wants and isn't afraid to go get it.

This is another one of those epic Anne Rice books. There's so much going on, I can't do justice to it all. You also get to learn a lot more about Julien Mayfair in this book. Lasher is a great continuation to The Witching Hour, and I can't wait to read the conclusion in Taltos.

5 stars.

The Ghost Witch by Betty Ren Wright

Title: The Ghost Witch
Author: Betty Ren Wright
Publication Date: 1993
Length: 101 pages

Jenny and her mom inherit a house from an old lady named Miss Nagle, and Jenny's excited to be able to move out of their tiny apartment. That is, until she goes to the house, and starts seeing giant snakes, dragons, and other beasts. It turns out Miss Nagle's grandmother was a witch, and now she's a ghost witch who haunts this house. Jenny has to find a way to get the ghost witch to leave her alone so she can live in peace.

This is the first Betty Ren Wright book I've reviewed on this blog, but I've loved her books for a long time. I discovered her in the children's section of the public library when I was a kid, and then a few years ago I found a bunch of her books at the library book sale so I quickly scooped them up!

I love the way Jenny figures out how to deal with the ghost witch, making a deal with her that will let her scare way more people than just those that live in her house. Characters in Betty Ren Wright books tend not to just run away in fear, but instead confront it and find a way to deal with it, which I quite like. This was a fun ghost story.

5 stars.

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen

Title: The Uninvited
Author: Liz Jensen
Publication Date: July 5, 2012
Length: about 416 pages (ebook)

Who doesn't love a good story about kids going crazy and killing people? It's a concept that never fails to terrify. In this case, kids start killing adults, while developing the same weird behaviours as the adults who are sabotaging their businesses and then killing themselves.

The story took a while to really get moving. I thought that a bit too much of the book was taken up by investigations of the people who were sabotaging their businesses and then committing suicide. It was interesting, but a bit slow moving. I enjoyed the story a lot more once it became more about the kids. When the kids start forming packs and developing their own society, the story was both fascinating and scary.

The story is narrated by a character with Asperger's, which was an interesting (in a good way) choice. Faced with a terrifying pattern of attacks, Hesketh has the perfect analytical mind to find the patterns.

The final explanation for what was actually going on was really cool, though a little vague for my liking. I loved the angle it took. I just would have liked a little more about how things actually turned out after the fact. But at least it wasn't an open ending. There's enough to extrapolate how things would go.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Title: 'Salem's Lot
Author: Stephen King
Publication Date: 1975
Length: 427 pages

'Salem's Lot is a small town in Maine with more than its fair share of secrets. Ben Mears returns to the town, where he grew up, to write about the creepy Marsten House that scarred him as a child. But the Marsten House has strange new occupants, and before long people in the town start dying from mysterious blood loss.

This was my third Stephen King novel, and my least favourite so far. The first thing that bothered me was the writing. Stephen King is an amazing writer. But when he's writing mostly in the voices of uneducated people, his brilliance doesn't really shine through. I'm all for authenticity, but the slang and poor grammar can get tiresome to read.

Also, the sheer number of characters made this book one of those ones that I couldn't keep up with. I kept forgetting who people were, because it had been like 30 pages since that person had last spoken.

This is a good vampire story. I did really like that part of it. But I found it a bit drawn out. It seemed like I wasn't supposed to know ahead of time that the book was about vampires, so there was slow, spooky build up to that. But, I already knew, because this book is famous. So I kept thinking, have these people really not realised that it's vampires yet?

3 stars.

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Title: The Witching Hour
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1990
Length: 1038 pages

The Witching Hour is a tough book to summarise, because there's just so much going on! It's really, really long, and just packed with plot. We have Michael, an architect originally from new Orleans, who lives in California. He falls into the ocean and drowns, and when he's revived, he has the power to see things when he touches objects with his hands. Then there's Rowan Mayfair, designated at birth as the eventual beneficiary of the enormous legacy of her old, New Orleans family, but adopted at birth by cousins and raised in California with no knowledge of her history.

And then of course, almost every significant Mayfair has a part in the story. A huge chunk of the book is the file compiled by the Talamasca on the history of the Mayfair witches. As Michael reads this, we get to, too. (It took me considerably longer than the two days it took Michael to read it!) It was great to be able to get so much back story; I've never read a book with so much backstory! However, it was very hard to keep straight. I recommend drawing a family tree as you go. I wish I had! It would be very tangled looking, though, because of all the incest. So much incest!

Whichever Mayfair inherits the legacy also inherits a mysterious being known as Lasher. Lasher's motives are not clear through most of the book. Most seem to agree that he's bad, or at least only cares about his own ends, whatever they may be. But several of the Mayfair witches did seem to have close relationships with him. We don't see him firsthand until he comes to Rowan, at which point it becomes pretty clear that Lasher is bad, though apparently it's not clear to Rowan.

I loved the way the different characters' stories interweaved (specifically Michael, Rowan, and Aaron). I also got very attached to each character. I was totally invested in the romance between Michael and Rowan, and my emotions were very tied up with theirs. So, the ending, which was quite shocking, was painful to read (in the good way, because I was so involved, not because it wasn't good). Rowan's actions near the end of the book seem kind of out of character, so it was very surprising, but I've heard that the second book reveals things which make her actions make more sense, so hopefully soon, when I read Lasher, things will come together!

I feel like I haven't done this book justice with this review. It's just a really hard book to adequately describe because it's so big and there's so much going on. But it's Anne Rice at her best. The characters are so well-developed, and the setting, as always, is so real it's like you're really there. (Seriously, because of Anne Rice I feel like I've been to New Orleans, and walked the streets of the Garden District, despite never having been there.)

4 stars.

This book counts towards the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge (hosted by The Beauty of Eclecticism) for September. For October, my book for the challenge was The Capture (Animorphs #6) by K.A. Applegate. (Which is not that interesting now, month's after the fact; it took me a while to finish this book and write the review!) This book also counts for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge, and is one of my longest books.

Fog by Caroline B. Cooney

Title: Fog
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
Publication Date: 1989
Length: about 213 pages (ebook)

Christina Romney (lol, bad time to read about a character with that name) lives on a small island off the coast of Maine, called Burning Fog Isle. She's about to start grade 7, which means boarding on the mainland. Christina is excited to experience mainland life, but her older friends, who have been there before, warn her that everyone teases island kids.

When they get to the Schooner Inne, where they'll be boarding, the home of the principal and his wife, things immediately start to go poorly. Mrs. Shevvington is awful, and accuses Christina of having a bad attitude whenever she questions anything. Mr. Shevvington seems nice at first, but becomes increasingly disturbing as he makes everyone around Christina doubt her sanity.

This book turned out to be something other than I expected. It's very much a psychological horror story. It's kind of weird because it's written for pre-teens, yet it's filled with what is basically emotional torture. So, I enjoyed it, and found it terrifying, but I'm in my 20s. But then, I don't usually understand age guidelines. Anywho, at times it's suggested that the sea is what's out to get them, and that's rather creepy in itself, but most of the time I found it clear that the Shevvingtons were the ones to be worried about; they were straight up horrifying.

This is one of those stories that really makes me feel the character's pain. Every time someone doesn't believe her, or becomes convinced she's crazy, I just wanted to yell at them. It was very powerful. I think that's one of the scariest things a horror story can be about: your loved ones turning on you because they think you're the bad guy.

5 stars. The night I finished it, I was up half the night because I could not put it down.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Title: The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
Author: Susan Hill
Publication Date: 1983 (audiobook: 2011)
Length: approx. 4.5 hours
Read by: Ralph Cosham

I made the mistake of reading this book after watching the movie, and actually quite soon after. So when there were differences, I got confused, whereas when watching a movie after a book it's easy to just roll with it. So, I'm having trouble separating the book and movie in my head, in some ways. I'll start by saying, both were really good! So this will sort of be a review of both.

The Woman in Black tells the story of Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer from London, sent to a distant small town called Crythin Gifford to settle the affairs of a recently deceased widow named Alice Drablow. Mrs. Drablow lived in the delightfully creepy Eel Marsh House, which becomes completely cut off from the mainland at high tide.


This is a great, gothic-style horror story. The atmosphere is amazing, and was captured well both by the excellent reader in the audiobook, and by the movie. The creepy house, surrounded by marsh, with mists in which you could easily lose your way and suddenly sink, the sound of a pony and trap sinking in the marshes, and a child screaming for help... it's perfect!

I can't say much more without spoiling it. The ending was not what I expected. The ending is also quite a bit different between the book and the movie. I think I like the book's ending better. I do recommend both!

4 stars.

Carrie Read-a-Long: Part 2: Prom Night

This post is the second of three updates for the Carrie Read-a-Long, which covers part 2 of the book, called Prom Night. Part 1 is here. This post will contain spoilers. You have been warned!

My main impression while reading this book is that Carrie is not the villain. That might be obvious, but as I read it I can imagine people calling Carrie a villain. I mean, she does kill an awful lot of people. But the real villains are her mother, who ruined her life by raising her all crazy-like, and Chris and Billy, who make the people who bullied me as a kid look like teddy bears.

During the prom, Carrie seemed so hopeful. Like her life could have turned out all right if it weren't for the horrible people surrounding her. So mostly I just feel sad for her. She proved that she could dress up nice, carry on normal conversations, and just basically fit in, if given the chance. But then that chance is taken away from her, and it's just heartbreaking.

Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice

Title: Memnoch the Devil
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1995 (audiobook: 2000)
Length:

Memnoch the Devil is much different from the earlier Vampire Chronicles, especially the first three. Its events take place entirely in the present. In this one, Lestat starts by telling us about this man he's hunting. He's taken to choosing a victim and then stalking him for months before killing him. This time he's picked a high up drug dealer who collects religious artwork. He's also become rather attached to the victim's daughter, a tv evangelist. The second half of the book covers a more-or-less unrelated story, as Memnoch, the devil, takes Lestat on a tour of heaven, Earth, and hell, while trying to convince Lestat to be his lieutenant.

This book basically gets rid of all the aspects of the Vampire Chronicles that I like, and emphasises all the ones I don't like. In other words, all the interesting characters (other than Lestat himself) have only minor roles, and there's an unbearable amount of philosophising. A good chunk of the book is just telling the history of how Memnoch went from being one of God's angels to being his adversary (though he still works for him, so it's kind of complicated). Essentially, this book is boring, because it has none of the spark of the earlier books. I want Louis's whining, and Marius's wisdom, and heck, even Armand's... whatever it is that Armand has! And I want Lestat to be the brat prince! I don't want to read about Lestat going on a grand tour and occasionally weeping.

As for the audiobook, after the previous ones read by the incomparable Frank Muller, this one was rather painful. It was read by a man with a dull voice, who couldn't do a proper English accent, and who made all the voices sound more-or-less the same. So if you are going to read this one, I recommend reading it with your eyes.

2 stars.

This book counts for the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

Carrie Read-a-Long: Part 1: Blood Sport

This post is the first of three updates for the Carrie Read-a-Long, which covers part 1 of the book, called Blood Sport. This post will probably contain spoilers from the first half of the book. You have been warned!

I've seen the movie Carrie several times, and love it, so I'm happy to find that I'm loving the book, too. This is only my second Stephen King novel (my first was The Shining), and one thing I've learned is that that man can write! I hang on his every word!

The first part of the book basically sets the stage, showing you who Carrie is, and what she's had to deal with. She starts her first period in the worst way possible: in the locker room, surrounded by girls who hate her, and thinking she's bleeding to death. While the teachers ask themselves "why didn't her mom tell her about this?" I just kept asking "why hasn't this 17 year old taken sex ed?!". I guess that's the 70s for you.

One thing I've really been enjoying is how the story is interspersed with excerpts from books written about what happened to Carrie, after the fact. So you get little glimpses of what's going to happen. Like mini-spoilers. I find they really help to build the suspense.

I'm loving this book so far! Now I'm off to read part 2. :)

The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice

Title: The Tale of the Body Thief
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1992 (audiobook: 1994)
Length: 19:15 (audiobook)

The Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth book in the Vampire Chronicles, and the third one "written" by Lestat. He tells the story of his experience with a man named Raglan James, a body thief, who offers Lestat a chance to temporarily switch bodies, allowing him to regain his lost humanity, see the sun, etc. You're probably thinking that this was a stupid idea for Lestat to buy into, as there are no shortage of things that could go wrong. You're right, of course, but Lestat's not all that bright when his mind is clouded by temptation.

This was the first time in my foray into audiobooks (which have all been the Vampire Chronicles) that I've actually enjoyed the audiobook more than the original book. Maybe it's just because Frank Muller is wonderful (as I've described in my reviews of the previous books), and my appreciation for him seems to grow with each book I listen to. Or maybe it's because I never liked this book as much as the previous ones in the first place. Certainly I still found myself getting a headache from rolling my eyes so much as Lestat makes stupid mistake after stupid mistake, but I still can't help but love the brat prince, and Frank Muller has really given him a whole new dimension for me that makes me love him even more.

4 stars.

This book counts for the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

The Mummy by Anne Rice

Title: The Mummy or Ramses the Damned
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date:
Length: 416 pages

Anne Rice's tale of The Mummy is very different from any other version I've seen. Nowhere in this book will you find a dead body, raised by a curse, walking slowly and clumsily towards people who scream, rather that simply walking quickly away. Instead, Ramses the Damned is a charming, sexy man, who took an elixir that made him immortal. After having himself wrapped like a mummy and sleeping in a burial chamber for several thousand years, he awakens when exposed to the sun by an English Egyptologist.

I'd almost describe The Mummy as a romance novel rather than the horror story I expected. It's a love story between Julie Stratford (the daughter of the Egyptologist) and Ramses, and between Ramses and his long-dead love, Cleopatra. Oh Ramses, such a ladies' man.

Of course, this story also examines the idea of immortality, which I always enjoy. In this case, immortality is especially terrifying, as it's not the you-could-die-in-a-fire-or-the-light-of-the-sun kind of immortality, or the you'll-live-forever-as-long-as-you-keep-drinking-this kind. It's the kind where you could sink to the bottom of the ocean and have no choice but to just keep on living. Theoretically, the sun could explode, and bits of your body could just float through space forever, still feeling. *shudders* Anywho.

4 stars. A good Anne Rice novel.

This book counts towards the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge (hosted by The Beauty of Eclecticism) for May (again, a little delayed in posting). For June, my book for the challenge will be The Visitor (Animorphs #2) by K.A. Applegate. This book also counts for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

Title: The Queen of the Damned
Author: Anne Rice
Narrator: Frank Muller
Publication Date: 1988 (audiobook: 1994)
Length: approx. 23 hours and 45 minutes (audiobook)

I've read this book once before, but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. Something to note about that is that I don't seem to have overall very positive feelings about this whole audiobook thing. Sometimes I like it but often I really don't, and it makes me take forever to get through a book, as you may have noticed. So I fear that that might be impacting my reviews of these books, since I've been rating them lower this time than when I originally read the books.

The Queen of the Damned more or less picks up where The Vampire Lestat left off, with a little overlap, but like the first two books a good chunk of it is stories being told about the past. The overarching story is that people all over the world, both mortals and vampires, are having mysterious dreams about a pair of red-haired twins, who eat a heart and a brain and then are viciously attacked, one having her tongue cut out, and the other having her eyes plucked out. Meanwhile, Lestat has his rock concert, waking up the ancient vampire Akasha, who goes on a murderous rampage trying to "save" the world. These two threads intertwine to bring together a group of vampires, ranging from the oldest vampires in existence to ones only just made immortal.

I definitely preferred The Queen of the Damned over The Vampire Lestat. There were still lots of philosophical discussions, but they were of the "Men are nothing but trouble so why don't we just kill them all? Well, that's a good point, but it's still wrong." type rather than the "I'm so evil! But what IS evil?" type that made me want to punch Lestat during his autobiography. This book also has more of a variety of stories in it. You get a bit of background from a whole bunch of characters. I LOVE all the parts about the twins. I think their story is just so interesting, and of course I love the whole Great Family thing (I am a genealogist, after all).

This is slightly off-topic, but I actually love the Queen of the Damned movie. I know, it's blasphemous! It does not even remotely follow the book. Rereading the book, I realised I'd forgotten just how much it does not follow the book. But it's an entertaining movie, Aaliyah is amazing as Akasha, and the soundtrack rocks. Just don't watch it expecting to see Anne Rice's vision. :)

The audiobook was narrated by Frank Muller, just like the last two, so see my review of Interview With the Vampire for more about how awesome he is.

4 stars.

This book counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.

The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Title: The Vampire Lestat
Author: Anne Rice
Narrator: Frank Muller
Publication Date: 1985
Length: approx. 23 hours (audiobook)

I've read this book twice before, but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I must say, I did not remember so much of this book being one very long series of philosophical discussions. Repetitive philosophical discussions. Lestat's all "but what's up with this good and evil stuff?"... and that's pretty much what's happening for like half the book.

That being said, this book still has a great story. And the philosophy never bothered me before, so maybe it's the audio format again? Maybe I did some skimming when I read the book. Anywho, once you've read Interview With the Vampire, it's important that you read The Vampire Lestat, so you don't spend the rest of your life seeing Lestat from Louis' point of view. In this book, you finally get to know Lestat's backstory. Also, Gabrielle is in it, which is reason enough to read it. Also Marius. I could read a whole series just about those two.

As for the audiobook format, it was the same narrator as for Interview With the Vampire, so see my review of that for more details. Basically, he has a great voice, and I have only the same minor quibbles as before (primarily Louis being pronounced incorrectly).

This one gets 3 stars (even though when I read this book a couple years ago I gave it 5 stars...) because of the repetitive philosophical discussions. Still required reading for a Vampire Chronicles fan, though!

This book counts for the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge and the 2012 Anne Rice Challenge.