Scott Smith - The Ruins

It's kinda sad but I'm an absolute sucker for horror movies, even though I get completely terrified. Why I torture myself, I have no idea. I read a review about the movie, The Ruins (which I haven't seen), and found out that it was based on a book. I do enjoy a good horror read too so I decided to look for this book on BookMooch. I took this along with me on my honeymoon in May and I finished reading this on the flight to Bali. I won't give it the same kind of lavish praise that Stephen King did, but The Ruins is a decent horror novel. It was sufficiently creepy with plenty of WTF moments and a constant growing sense of doom and despair. Sure, the story was riddled with plot holes like a slice of Swiss cheese, but once it picked up pace, all of that was inconsequential and it was hard to pull away from the tale. I would have preferred it if at least one of the characters found a way to beat the vines and escape (just one happy moment, please!) but I guess the tragic ending really reinforces the utter bleakness of the situation, which is probably what the author was aiming for. The film is certified fresh on RottenTomatoes so I'm looking forward to see how it compares against the novel.

William Sleator - The Beasties

I picked this up at a library book sale, thinking I would be in for an old-school horror treat, especially after seeing the endorsement by R.L. Stine on the back cover; I was sadly mistaken. The book starts out okay but quickly develops into a strange mix of gory horror with an environmental agenda. I guess kudos to the author for trying something different and attempting to use this medium to convey a serious message about environmental issues and its impacts to his young audience, but in my opinion, it didn't work at all. I didn't particularly care for the characters either, so in the end, nothing much about the book really appealed to me, which is a true shame as I had been rather looking forward to this one. Oh well... moving on!

Shannon Drake - The Awakening

There is one more book that I forgot to post about. I had forgotten about it because I didn't finish it. This is why...

I had to give up even though I had managed to get to page 256. There was just so much waffle and the mistakes drove me bonkers! Twice (once could be justified as an oversight; when it happens twice, that's just really poor!), "it's" was used instead of "its", and "they're" was used instead of "their"! These were just the mistakes that I actually caught because I was only glancing through certain bits; who knows what else is there?! I also thought the story was just so... cheesy... Just how the story was framed, it came across really corny and tacky to me. I also hadn't known it involved vampires; not that I think there is anything wrong with vampire reads because I do like my supernatural books, but it just didn't feel like it fit in this context. The beginning of the book was heavily focused on the supernatural aspects (like demons, witchcraft etc.) but from the perspective that this was happening to ordinary folk. When I skipped to the end of the book to see if I should keep pushing through and read that there were vampires and werewolves involved, I thought, wtf?! That's when I knew I had to drop it. Maybe if I had continued, I would have gotten into the story but I think I've tried hard enough.

John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In

I bought this book last year but didn't read it until now. I found out that a Swedish movie had been made based on this book and I decided to read the book first before checking out the movie. This was a very interesting novel, but also quite strange and disturbing at the same time. It tackles a diverse range of controversial issues and they're all wrapped up in this weird vampire love story. First, there's Oskar who is incessantly bullied at school and fantasizes about being a mass murderer (that screams major therapy issues right there). Then there's Eli, a vampire stuck at 12 years of age, who looks like a girl but is actually a boy before he got castrated in some former life and now possesses no form of genitals, and is in a relationship of sorts with Oskar. Throw in Håkan, who is a pedophile and looks after Eli because he's driven by his own twisted desires and he is willing to do pretty much anything for her, including murdering people to get fresh blood for her. And there's more from where all that came from! It's an absolutely fascinating read but it does get uncomfortable at times. It's still a haunting story though, and it captures a wide range of emotions: despair; loneliness; helplessness; yearning; and hope. It did get a little confusing at times; there was a myriad of supporting characters and my unfamiliarity with Swedish names made it a little difficult to follow the story occasionally. The film was a simplified version of the novel, leaving out some of the more challenging aspects, but still remained very faithful to the book and captured a lot more of the story than I thought it would. There is going to be an English (Hollywood) remake to be released in 2009 or 2010, so it will be interesting to see how that turns out. Overall, definitely a worthwhile read but with its subject matter, it probably won't be for everybody.

Stephen King - Duma Key

Well, it sure was a bad idea to pick up this book because once I did, I was just glued to it even though I really should have been focusing on doing my household chores. I was hooked right from the beginning and once the story picked up pace, I just had to keep going till I had an answer to the mystery unravelling before my eyes. I have not read much of Stephen King's vast portfolio (the last book of his that I read was The Cell) but what I've read so far, I have always enjoyed them. Duma Key was certainly another thrilling read - a little too long perhaps, but even if it were double its current length, I would still have raced through it to get to the end. There may have been some plot inconsistencies (and some unnecessary and irrelevant political viewpoints) but not major enough to distract from the main storyline and Stephen King portrayed such real and engaging characters that really drew me in as a reader into the story. The description of the drawings that Edgar painted were also so vivid that they jumped off right the page; it would have been really neat if there were illustrations included in the book. I really enjoyed the supernatural theme of the story, although it did get a tiny bit silly at times with talk of vampires and zombies, which felt out of place in the book. Overall though, this was a fantastic read and I think I will seek out Stephen King's earlier work from the library.