Tommy
I really loved this collection! All three stories were excellent. I can already see myself making it a yearly tradition.
An informative, engaging read. There were times when the book felt a little padded but I still learned a ton of new stuff, especially about the later films from the original run. I just wish they'd gotten to see out the last two movies from the Blumhouse trilogy because, love them or hate them, there's so much there to unpack.
Never quite lives up to the classic Halloween film it's based on, but still makes for a great seasonal read. I could see myself coming back to this someday.
An entertaining seasonal short story from a promising new author. I really enjoyed it!
Opting for an ensemble of shifting viewpoints instead of a strong central lead makes it a little hard to invest at first, but about halfway through the book finally hooks you. Overall, it's a decent little creature feature. I definitely agree with the comparisons to Tremors!
An excellent read for fans of pro wrestling! Makes a great companion piece to the equally wonderful The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez. Read that one first because it covers the actual pro wrestling side of the WCW story in more detail, then graduate to this one to learn all about the company's calamitous corporate culture. Some people may find NITRO a little less entertaining than The Death of WCW because it deals more in boardrooms than brainbusters, but I personally thought it was fascinating.
If you're wondering why it took me a year and a half to read this 230 page book, well, it's because every time I picked it up it gave me a serious case of the creeps.
As a person with a lifelong interest in the paranormal, I don't scare easily... but something about black eyed kid sightings really unnerves me. Every time I'd open this book my skin would crawl and I'd get this uneasy feeling that someone strange would soon come knocking at my door. I rarely made it through more than a chapter - and these aren't long chapters - in a go before I'd get weird and shut the book, often leaving it shut for weeks or even months at a time. Tonight an odd urge hit me and I stayed up late, devouring the last few chapters in one go, still unable to shake the feeling that if I kept reading something otherworldly would come calling for me in the dead of night. Nothing did, of course, but tonight isn't over just yet...
My experience with this book was so strange. I'm glad to be done with it because it gave me the willies. That said, the author did a good job; it's a great read with lots of chilling encounters and interesting theories. If you're intrigued by the subject, it's definitely the book to start with!
Another good book from Jonathan Janz. This one was a real bloodbath! The characters were memorable and the story was interesting throughout. I do wish the lore was a little more developed but I think Janz must've been going for something quick and nasty with this one, which he achieved.
A solid read. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for more from such a fun concept. It started strong but after like two issues the charm began wearing off a bit.
Gothic horror isn't something I have a ton of experience with, but I've yet to read a Jonathan Janz book I didn't like so I decided to give this a go. I mostly enjoyed it! It's lower tier Janz for me and I left wishing the story had a little more meat on the bone, but I liked the characters and loved both the setting and the general vibe on display. It was fun watching an author I admire adapt their style to fit the norms of a subgenre I know only peripherally. While it wasn't exactly the read I envisioned, it piqued my interest in this style of genre fiction enough to make me want to try more down the line.
It has some good ideas, but ultimately feels more like the outline of a story than an actual story. I definitely prefer the movie.
More quality work from the King of horror! My only complaint is that it felt a bit short; everything happened so fast that there was no room to let the story breathe. Usually I prefer a brisker pace but I felt like there was a lot of meat left on the bone here. Still an excellent read, though.
This was so good! Stellar storytelling backed up by amazing artwork. Definitely gonna have to get (and stay) caught up on this series.
A few years back I listened to some random podcast's interview with R.L. Stine. He came across really well and it made me appreciate him more as an author, but the main thing that stuck with me was the way he described this book. He felt that it was a bit too scary for its target audience, and mentioned an intentional choice to reign that in a bit as he began work on the rest of the Goosebumps series. Honestly? I wish he hadn't! I don't remember reading this one as a kid, but now that I have I'll say that it compares very favorably to the ones I did read. More nuanced and less gimmicky, with a creepy ending that I would've loved back in the day... and honestly quite liked today! A whole slew of Goosebumps books more like this would've been great!
The journey was pretty good, but I wasn't particularly thrilled with the destination.
A quick and mostly compelling read, but it's a little too short for its own good and the ending isn't very satisfying. That said, I would definitely give this author another go because the finer moments of this showed great potential.
An impressive debut, teeming with vivid prose and plenty of genuinely unnerving horror. I'll definitely be on the lookout for whatever this author does next!
If you look at this as the work of fiction it so clearly is, it's not bad. It's actually pretty gripping in places, even if it starts to feel a little repetitive and padded out as the days of the Lutz family's stay at Amityville pile on. Overall, I'm torn - it was a solid read and I don't regret it, but I also feel like it's a cash grab that shouldn't exist in the first place. I'll go 3/5 because, as a story, the good mostly outweighs the bad. It's decent schlock.
Dark as hell but excellently written! I'd love to read more by Samantha Kolesnik; here's to hoping for a future release with a little more meat on the bone.
A breezy, enjoyable read with a nice tonal balance of horror and comedy.
I was initially a bit salty about this title because it was positioned as a replacement for the excellent, seemingly cancelled Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Since Archie is finally bringing that book back (!!!) next month, I decided to stop being so tribal and finally give this one a go. I'm glad I did! As a diehard horror fan, I spend so much time reading and watching horror proper that I don't make enough time for lighter spooky fair. This scratched that itch perfectly!
When I started this book I figured there was zero chance that I'd finish it by Christmas, but the story was so captivating that I'm done with time to spare! For such a chonker of a novel the pages just flew by. Joe Hill is an amazing author and I look forward to devouring even more of his works.
