Cell - Stephen King

WHERE WERE YOU ON OCTOBER 1ST AT 3:03 P.M.?

Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction.

And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone

If you like a good end of the world story, or at least the end of the world as we know it, I would recommend Cell for you. Being a New Englander I loved the setting. I think it added to the chill factor for me that my husband has worked in many of the towns mentioned, and would likely be in one of them should the "pulse" ever actually hit us. I did read some reviews before I bought the book, and noticed quite a few people were unhappy with the ending. Several felt that it was left unresolved. King has often left room for the reader's own imagination and that is not a style that bothers me. The ending is whatever you make of it. I am satisfied with the ending that was conjured in my mind.

Terror Town by James Roy Daley

"Killer on the warpath. Monsters on the street. Vampires in the night. Zombies on the hunt. Welcome to Terror Town, the place where no one is safe. Nothing is sacred. All will die. All will suffer.

From the mind of James Roy Daley, author of The Dead Parade, comes one of the most brutally violent horror stories ever written"


What a frightfully good read! This book brought back childhood fears that were long forgotten, but are now fresh in my mind once again. As a child I always knew there were monsters in the basement, and psycho killers living in the house down the street. Terror Town has brought them all back to life for me. I'm not sure if I'll have nightmares tonight, about my friends and family turning into razor sharp, needle toothed creatures, or whether I'll have pleasant dreams of the lazy Saturday afternoons I spent as a kid watching creature double feature while thumbing through much beloved copies of the old horror comic books. Terror Town brought those memories back for me too. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a scary good time. I received a complimentary copy of Terror Town in exchange for review

The Fright Factory-William R. Potter

THE FRIGHT FACTORY -A cozy cabin on a lake. A few glasses of wine. Erotic conversation. What could go wrong?

Wesley and Robin Tate became empty-nesters in their early forties when their daughter left home for college.

Jesse Lawless is an indie film maker intent on producing the next great horror classic despite lacking the funds for actors, effects, or a script. He will stop at nothing to capture and upload his chilling masterpiece to satisfy his rabid internet fan base.

With a secluded resort cottage as the setting and the Tates as his cast, Lawless sets in motion a plan to produce the most realistic slasher flick ever.

The Fright Factory is Jesse's version of reality show and movie premise rolled into one. For the Tates, no acting ability is necessary as the terror becomes all too real. In each round, Jesse turns up the brutality in a game where killing your best friend may be the only way to survive.

I was given a complimentary copy for review.

It was a quick read that heads straight for the shock value, reminiscent of an Edward Lee novel or perhaps a Rob Zombie film where people are thrown together to be raped tortured and murdered.

I had issues with a few of the details where I would have to flip back a page to see if I had missed something. For example where one victim jumps from a boat and begins swimming to shore, even though as far as I could ascertain the boat had not yet left the shore.

The main character Wes is not particularly likable and I was not able to muster up much concern for whether or not he would live to the end of the story. The other characters and the relationships between them were not as well developed as I would have liked.

The Disappearance by Bentley Little

Description
When Gary's girlfriend Joan vanishes, calls to her parents' home yield only dead air. Her school records are gone. There is no longer any evidence that she even existed. Most disturbing of all is what Gary does find: a warning and a tantalizing clue, leading to a mysterious backward cult known as the Homesteaders. Now Gary may be the next to disappear.

I can usually count on Bentley Little to grab my attention and get my heart pounding from the very first chapter if not the very first page. This one just didn't do that for me. The first few chapters dragged a bit. Once it got going, it was an enjoyable, albeit predictable tale.