Skeleton Crew, a review by Lianna

Book Title : Skeleton Crew
Format: Hardcover
Author: Stephen King
Length/number of pages: 566
Price : 8.99

"In this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine-A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction-a trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell-a woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise-an idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil-and a desert island is the scene of the most terrifying struggle for survival ever waged." 

~ Summary from Barnes And Noble website

This book is extremely well written and clever. King is at his best with a great mixture of humor and horror. The characters feel like real people even though they are only in short stories,and they are generally well-rounded. The stories are also truly  horrifying at some points and will have you on the edge of your chair with suspense. 
    
The only bad points are that a few of the characters, despite being well-written are not very likeable. Because of this some of them are not relatable. Also some stories are not as good as others, but overall most of them are excellent.

Rating (out of five chocolate bars) 4.5 I would give this a five but some of the stories are not as good as others.

Appropriateness: Death. This book is not only pee your pants scary, it is full of swearing and other content I would only recommend this book to people who are comfortable with this kind of content. 

Cover Thoughts: I think the cover was kind of boring. All it is is a bunch of skulls.

All the Mountains of Madness, a review by Beren

Title:  At the Mountains of Madness 

Author:  H.P.Lovecraft.

Format: Hardback copy containing many writings of different books, so it is a large volume, but costing the low price of  $12.95.    

A team of scientists goes on an exploration into the antarctic looking for ancient fossils and rock, and after some time a giant mountain range is found, taller than the Himalayas. While drilling for rock they uncover a cave filled with fossils of the ancient past, and after exploring the cave discover several preserved creatures unlike anything ever before seen: gray, tubular, tentacled, vile looking things of anatomy unlike anything seen before. 

Contact is lost with the group exploring this area, and once help from the rest of the expedition arrives, they find the area in shambles from a storm, but more disturbingly several of the creatures are gone, and several are seemingly buried in a grave. Everyone who was at the camp is found mangled and dismembered, and a dog and a human are found to be dissected in the camp. 

The remaining members go on an expedition over the mountains to explore what no one else ever again find, and discover a vast ancient city, seemingly entirely  abandoned, with architecture unlike anything else seen on Earth. They then enter the city, and soon find horrors they will never forget...

William Dyer is a professor of geology at Miskatonic University, and the story is told from his point of view, addressing the reader about what happened on the expedition. His motivation is for finding fossil and rock samples and gathering information, though ultimately it is curiosity. The writing of his is an informative narrative, and it seems the only growth he has had is through his gained knowledge and viewpoint. 

Another major character is Danforth, a graduate student from the university who is also on the expedition. He and Dyer are the only humans to see the city. He is shaken after the story and has never quite recovered from the expedition, feeling paranoid and often breaking down, and having trouble speaking about the events that occurred. There are no other major characters, as it is mostly Dyer documenting what happened and trying to dissuade future explorers. 

The theme seems to be on human curiosity and the unknown, although it is written mostly to present a interesting narrative, and it could be considered horror to an extent as well. 

I enjoyed the book very much, particularly the ending, which I found to be a very good way to wrap up such a story. The writing is very unique, and is very well written; I cannot find any weaknesses to it. I have a collection of works by this author, and will definitely read more stories, I am glad to have learned about this author. 

The cover is interesting, but has nothing to do with this story in particular, as the book contains many of Lovecraft's writings. 

The book is slightly horror, but I would say if you have the reading level to be able to understand the writing you are certainly mature enough to handle it. 

I would say this book is five out of five.

TOP MOVIES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BOOKS FIRST

Post by Up North Girl

I know, I know. Long title. The point is, I was watching a movie, and the thought struck me; Hey, this would have made a really good book. I don’t mean the novelizations that are written after the movie is out; those never do it justice. I mean, the real thing. Good books that were written before the movie was a movie. So here is a list of the movies I think would have made good books. Each one will contain a short synopsis of the plot from netflix.com, and why I thought it would make a good movie.


5. Wicked Little Things

When a grieving widow moves her two daughters to a rustic house in the Pennsylvania mountains, she hopes the solitude will help them work through feelings of abandonment. But they hardly have time to reflect, as they discover unexpected neighbors. As it turns out, the ghosts of children who were killed in a tragic accident more than 90 years before are still "playing" in the mine shaft nearby, and would love to have the neighborhood kids join them.

This movie was, well, just plain creepy. But I like those kinds of movies. I prefer them as books, though, because then there aren’t things jumping out and scaring the crap out of you. I made the unfortunate mistake of watching this at midnight… yeah. I think it would have been a very good book. If you like scary movies, definitely check this one out.


4. Despicable Me
Villainous Gru (Steve Carell) lives up to his reputation as a despicable, deplorable and downright unlikable guy when he hatches a plan to steal the moon from the sky. But he has a tough time staying on task after three orphans land in his care.
OK, this one is just for funzies. I loved this movie. Yes, I am in eighth grade, and yes, I did love this little kid movie. I am not ashamed to say it. I think it would have made a pretty amazing book, too. Since most of the movies on this list are horrors, I decided to lighten it up by throwing this one in.




3. Sherlock Holmes (2010)

London sleuth Sherlock Holmes, joined by Dr. Watson, face off against the villainous Blackwood.
Yeah, I know what you’re going to say. “But Sherlock Holmes is already a book!” I know. I’ve read them. But this movie was a really phenomenal story line, and I think it would have been a really great book. I always loved when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle threw possible paranormal phenomena into his Sherlock Holmes stories, and this one was especially good.




2. Frozen

Three friends hit the slopes for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding. But when they convince the chairlift operator to let them take one last run before closing, Parker, Joe, and Dan find themselves stranded in midair, alone and freezing. It'll be days before anyone returns to the slopes, and their chances of survival are looking slimmer by the minute.

Wow. That is really all I have to say about this movie. It gave me shivers (No pun intended) and I was on the edge of my seat for the whole movie. I won’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it; it’s an Indie film. I love books that keep you biting your nails throughout the whole thing, and I think this movie would do just that, had it been a book. Out of all the movies on this list, this is one of the ones I would most want to see as a book.


1. Season of the Witch

In 14th-century Europe, a courageous knight leads a group of weary warriors across impossibly treacherous terrain in order to transport a suspected witch believed to be responsible for spreading the devastating Black Plague.
This. Movie. Was. Amazing. I loved this movie! Can I say anymore? The whole movie I was thinking THIS NEEDS TO BE A BOOK! It was so suspenseful and perfectly balanced action with plot. Some movies have too much action and no plot, but that is not the case with this. It had an amazing plot, and amazing action. It’s definitely not for the squeamish, though.

So there you have it. My top five movies that should have been books first. I recommend you check out these movies if you haven’t, especially Frozen. But Frozen, Wicked Little Things, and Season of the Witch are definitely not for the faint of heart. Until next time, happy reading!

A freaky good book

I recently read a book called Cirque Du Freak: Tunnels of Blood by Darren Shan.  This is the third book in the Cirque Du Freak series.  I haven't read the other books in the series, but I saw the movie, and I saw this book in my teacher's room, so I really wanted to read it.  I'm glad I did!  It's really good.

It's about this half-vampire named Darren. His master goes into a city to destroy a vampaneze by the name of Murlough. Darren goes on a thrilling adventure to save his friend Evra's life.

One of the strengths of the book is the description.  When Crepsley was fighting with Murlough, it was really action-packed, but the pacing was also really quick, too.

Another strength was that there are very good characters.  Well, Evra--he's the snake boy--he's like a reptile but still a human.  He never had parents, so he was really excited to get into the city because he had never been away from the circus.  He was my favorite character.

The book is amazingly realistic, even though it has characters who are from old stories that people used to tell.  It didn't really have any weaknesses to me.

I think this is a very good book, and I think you would like it.

Review by Jessica