horror

Cover image of Dracula

Is Dracula Worth Reading?

I am not a vampire fan. I am not a fan of weird Halloween decorations. It's downright creepy: ghouls, spider webs, zombie costumes, and, yes, ...
Read More

Poe: Stories and Poems: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Gareth Hinds

Poe: Stories and Poems is just as gripping, psychological, and scary in this well done graphic novel format as it is in the original prose.  ...
Read More

The Haunting of Falcon House by Eugene Yelchin

A ghost story for middle-graders by Eugene Yelchin offers an atmospheric portrait of Czarist Russia. The Haunting of Falcon House by Eugene Yelchin.  Henry Holt, ...
Read More

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The movie version of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children opens today, and since none of us regular reviewers have read the book, we're happy ...
Read More

Newbery Buzz: The Nest by Kenneth Oppel

Continuing our series of middle-grade fiction touted as possible Newbery winners: Janie: Kenneth Oppel is best known for light-hearted steampunk fantasy, like the Airborn series ...
Read More

The Uses of Terror

Yesterday I made a distinction between “terror” stories and “horror” stories—the latter based squarely on our elemental fear of death, often with buckets of blood ...
Read More

Scary Stuff

In honor of the holiday this week that celebrates spooks and skeletons, here's a post from a few years ago. Everybody has their favorite C. ...
Read More

The Night Gardener

The Night Gardener, by Jonathan Auxier. Amulet, 2014, 350 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Maturity Level: 4 (age 10 and up) Teenage Mollie ...
Read More

Far as the Curse is Found: Two Novels Dealing with Death

This seems like an odd time of year to talk about death, but the joy of the Christmas season wouldn’t be joyful at all if ...
Read More

Ghost Stories

Do you believe in ghosts?  I discount many of the ghost stories I hear, but can’t quit discount the whole phenomenon.  That is, there is ...
Read More
The Perilous Gard

*The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001, 288.  Age/interest level 12-up. Reading Level: Teens/Young Adults Recommended for: Ages 15-18 Bottom line: ...
Read More
The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud

The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud: The Amulet of Samarkand (Hyperion/Miramax, 2003), The Golem's Eye (2004), Ptolemy's Gate (2005). Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-14 ...
Read More