Review: The Dead of Winter

The Dead of Winter by Chris Priestley
Publication date: January 31, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury

After Michael's parents die, he is invited to stay with his guardian in a remote old country house. He begins to suspect something is not quite right on the day he arrives, when he spots a mysterious woman out in the frozen mists. But little can prepare him for the solitude of the house itself. His guardian is rarely seen, and there's a malevolent force lurking in an old hallway mirror. As the chilling suspense builds, Michael realizes that the house and its grounds harbor more secrets - both dead and alive.

The Dead of Winter is horrorlicious. It's a scary book that actually scared me. Priestley does a great job of giving his novel a classic Gothic feel. A few times I had to remind myself that this book wasn't written in the 19th century. The prose is classic and well-written. I loved it.

The horror:

The Dead of Winter is full of frightening scenes and these moments wouldn't have worked without Priestley's truly creepy descriptions. The book played out as a movie in my head and left me terrified. I can't say much without spoiling it, but one of the scenes involving the priest's hole scared the crap out of me. I was like, "OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR!"

The negative:

The mystery solved is a bit...lackluster. Don't get me wrong, the climax is exciting but the sort of "whodunit" left me wanting more. It's also too short. Much too short. It doesn't read like a full length novel, but more as a novella. I finished the book in about an hour. I would normally have no problem with this but I wouldn't recommend spending $16.99 for it. It's more of a paperback purchase or a library borrow. Though, you can currently purchase The Dead of Winter for the Kindle for $4.66!

Review: White Crow

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Some secrets are better left buried; some secrets are so frightening they might make angels weep and the devil crow. Thought provoking as well as intensely scary, White Crow unfolds in three voices. There's Rebecca, who has come to a small, seaside village to spend the summer, and there's Ferelith, who offers to show Rebecca the secrets of the town...but at a price. Finally, there's a priest whose descent into darkness illuminates the girls' frightening story. White Crow is as beautifully written as it is horrifically gripping. A modern gothic thriller about what awaits us after death - angels or the devil.

Hey! Hey, guys! Remember in my last review when I said I was going to find a happy book to read? Well I guess I immediately forgot and said "ooh!" when my eyes fell on White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick. Dang you White Crow and your awesome cover.

First warning, do not start this book if you do not have the time to finish it in one sitting. I have been severely punished for doing this. All day. I began White Crow last night and got about half way through before I had found a place where I could safely stop. That spot I found seemed to be the only place to stop. Unbeknownst, I went to work and began to read it on my lunch break and the book got INTENSE. I don't think I've ever had this much anxiety over a novel before. I feel really bad for the first customer I had to help after lunch...

Second warning, the book has a very slow suspenseful build-up, which I didn't mind. I liked it, actually, because it made the action towards the end that much more exciting. I also really enjoyed how Sedgwick chooses to show and not tell. We don't get Rebecca's full back story at the very beginning and we don't get Ferelith's either. Their individual histories are revealed piece by piece until you have it all at the finish.

Third warning, the book is quite graphic in its gore. It's not a gory book, per se, but there are two scenes that I remember vividly and the first occurred while I was eating lunch. With the anxiousness I was already feeling, I ended up putting my lunch away.

The books gothic atmosphere and philosophical ideas of religion, the afterlife, and science make me recommend this to older teens. I'm not saying it's too smart for the younger ones, but the pacing may be a bit too slow for them. White Crow is not a book with a clean "wrap it all up in a bow" ending. Its intention is to make you think about you've just read. Also, the book is just plain creepy.

So, with that all said, there was just something missing for me when I finished it. I know, it doesn't make sense, right? I don't know why and it's so frustrating! If you've read it, I'm curious as to your own opinions. Maybe you can figure out what it is that left it feeling incomplete for me. And no, it was not the ending.

Review: The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray

I want to give a review of a book that's been out for about seven years and one that I had never heard of (P.S. I usually like to pretend I've heard of everything). I am aware of who the author Chris Wooding is, but I was not familiar at all with his book The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray until a co-worker placed it into my hands and told me I needed to read it. So I read it, and now I want to share it with you.

Wooding introduces us to an alternative Victorian-like London where seventeen-year-old Thaniel Fox lives and works as a wych-hunter, a hunter of the daemonic wych-kin. It's when Thaniel meets Alaizabel Cray that his entire world changes. It happens that an evil occult is beginning to take over London, and Thaniel's new companion may be at the center of it.

The prose in this book is incredible. It reads at such a smooth pace and the details, particularly the action scenes, are so descriptive it's like watching a movie. The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray is a young adult Gothic thriller at its best. Wooding's London streets are haunted by wych-kin, wolves, thieves, and a very disturbing serial killer named Stitch-Face. The novel, itself, is intelligent, shocking, creepy, dark, and will keep you turning the pages until you've reached the last; I didn't want it to end. Wooding has an amazing imagination and that imagination has made the book an intensely suspenseful read; something to keep you up at night.