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Anila H.

"No Rest For The Wicked" by Dane Cobain Cover Reveal

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Hello Bookworms

Welcome to my first cover reveal. The book "No Rest for the Wicked" is a fast-paced supernatural thriller in which a priest and a local businessmen have to face a sinister force of silent killers, set against a backdrop of London and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

Book Description: 

When the Angels attack, there’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED.

Father Montgomery, an elderly priest with a secret past, begins to investigate after his parishioners come under attack, and with the help of Jones, a young businessman with an estranged child, Montgomery begins to track down the origin of the Angels.

The Angels are naked and androgynous. They speak in a dreadful harmony with no clear leader. These aren’t biblical cherubs tasked with the protection of the righteous – these are deadly creatures of light that have the power to completely eradicate.

When Jones himself is attacked, Father Montgomery knows he has to act fast. He speaks to the Angels and organises a final showdown where he’s asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Author

Dane Cobain is a writer and poet from a place you’ve probably never heard of, somewhere in England. His debut novella, a supernatural thriller called ‘No Rest for the Wicked’, will be released by Forsaken in the summer of 2015. When he’s not writing books, he’s reading and reviewing them on his book blog, SocialBookshelves.com – Charles Bukowski, Graham Greene and Phillip Pullman are favourites. He’s very sad that Terry Pratchett died, and is hoping to come across Death in a Forsaken book so he can ask him what he’s playing at. Find him at Facebook.com/DaneCobainMusic or follow @DaneCobain on Twitter.

Have a great day!

Happy Scary Reading!

Starving Skeleton? Gashadokuro

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Hello Bookworms

Welcome to another post of “In Search of Monsters”. Today we are going to talk about a giant skeleton called Gashadokuro. If you have seen the movie Hellboy: Sword of Storms, then you might remember the scene when a huge skeleton rises from the ground of the cemetery, and attacks Hellboy with his monsters. Well, that is Gashadokuro, kind of.

He doesn’t create monsters, or use them to attack people, but he does slice the neck off lone travelers at night. Gashadokuro means “starving skeleton”, and he is a Japanese creature. He is created by the bones of people, who died from starvation.

Is he not creepy yet?

Oh, I forgot to tell you that he also can be invisible. Good luck if you see him! Tell him I said hi, because I am not going to interview that huge skeleton. I don’t think my alien pet stands a chance against Gashadokuro, my best friend Dracula can’t drink his blood since he doesn’t have flesh, or blood, my childhood friend Blade might have some cool tools to kill vampires, but he is not a vampire. And most of all, Hellboy won’t respond my email, because he is angry at me for not interviewing him.

With  love 

Your journalist of the horror world. 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs Review

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*This book was purchased by me.

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author:  Ransom Riggs

Description: A mysterious island.



An abandoned orphanage.


A strange collection of very curious photographs.



 It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. 

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

Review:

While reading the book: When you read the story, you feel like you are Jacob Portman. The book doesn’t give you the extra information, which Jacob doesn’t know. And it’s strange the way the writer tell us the story. It’s like Jacob’s way of thinking is similar to yours. Let me explain this. When I read a mystery book, I start thinking, you know, resolving the mystery. Sometimes I resolve this mystery before the main character, and this is so frustrating. Sometimes I resolve the mystery after the main character, and that is equally frustrating. It’s not my fault; it’s the author’s fault. Maybe there was too much information in the book, or maybe there wasn’t enough information. But if you have the same problem like me, then you are in deep trouble. The author gives you enough information for solving the mystery at the same time with Jacob. That’s why I liked the book. The author doesn’t let you solve the mystery until the end, and you just can’t put it down.

The extra element:  

What made me immediately like this book were the vintage photos. Other readers have described them as somehow creepy, but I didn’t find them that much. Some of them were quite odd, for example the little girl with the fire, but everything fitted the story perfectly. Every detail is weir, and odd. This book was made for me.

What I didn’t like: 

Overall I enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t what I expected. I expected it to be horror, but all I got was a tingling sense of creepiness washing over me in some scenarios. It was scary in a safe measure. If I would have read this book years ago, I would have loved it for its creepiness. Now, I am used to horror, nothing fazes me, haha!

Recommended To:  

People who want to read something creepy, but not be scared for one whole month.

Rating:

Similar Books:

Have a great day!

Happy Scary Reading!

Books & Rome

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Hello bookworms

I hope you are doing well on this fine Wednesday. I had this idea long time ago about 

incorporating my travels and books in one post. I love travelling. It is a recent passion of mine. I didn't know I had it, until I realized that I truly do love travelling. I love different cultures, and since I spend most of my free times learning about them, travelling is like a haven to me.

Therefore I decided to start this new series called "Anila's Travels", where I will be talking about book culture in these cities, or countries.

For this episode we have Rome. I have lived in Rome for two years and a half, and now I go every three months there for my medical check-ups.

I've noticed that in Rome, there are a lot of libraries and bookstores. When I say a lot, I mean too much! Wherever you go, you will find a bookstore near. I have a library in the hospital I go, and there is a shelf full of books in my hospital room.

When I take the subway, I love to look at people, and make up stories about them. Most of the people in the subway are reading, no matter if they are reading hardcovers, or ebooks. Don't get me started on those newspapers.

There are a lot of talented Italian writers, and I have noticed that people tend to read their writers, rather than translated books. Though that is just my observation! There are a lot of religious bookstores in Rome, and you find them everywhere. You can even buy nonfiction there.

Unfortunately, I have noticed that young people don't read much, not as much as the others.

But God, having a conversation with a middle aged Roman woman is like heaven. You discuss about a lot of things, jumping from one conversation to the other quite naturally, and most of their speeches start with "I've read a book...”

Of course, I am not implying that only Italians read books, or that all Italians are book lovers, but this is an occurrence you find in Rome.

My favorite bookstores have to be the modern ones. In particular I love the bookstore in Euroma 2

,and "Borri Books" in Roma Termini Railway Station.

I hope you liked this post. Until next time my dear bookworms.

Have a great day!

Happy Scary Reading!

Guestpost ~Eric Turowski for "Inhuman Interest"

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Hello Bookworms

Today’s post is a bit special. Please welcome our talented writer Eric Turowski.

Title: Inhuman Interest (Story by Tess Cooper #1)

Author: Eric Turowski

Description: Thirteen words in a want-ad turn Tess Cooper’s world upside down after she signs on as a paranormal research assistant to the mysterious Davin Egypt. He reveals a world of grave robbing, clockworks artifacts in blue amber, antique revolvers that fire strange ammo, and powerful forces beyond human comprehension.

As ancient occult energies threaten to destroy her city, Tess must use her journalistic instincts to stay one step ahead of the public works director, Drew Dawson, whose agenda seems bent on destruction rather than maintenance. And possibly murder, but will anyone believe her?

Yeah, right. When garbage trucks fly.

If Tess teams up with the hunky police lieutenant, Kirk Gunther, and the pale, oddball Mr. Egypt, they might be able to save the city in time. That is, if Egypt even wants to. And if Tess overcomes her phobias long enough to do battle in Granddad’s 1983 Subaru Brat.

Things are about to get icky."

The Guestpost:

Why did you write that?

How does a book about the inability of the Western mind to successfully cope with paranormal phenomena due to the cultural blinkers of Science and Christianity sound? Really, really boring, right? Well, you’re in luck. I didn’t write that book.

While I like the idea that the unknown remains so due to the culture we live in, some dry, vaguely philosophical oeuvre didn’t seem like a book that would attract many readers. Probably rightly so. I could’ve gone on and on about how our belief in the strange hinges on what we can measure, collect and quantify; or what we can (or cannot) shoehorn into a belief system.

Instead, I wrote Inhuman Interest: Story by Tess Cooper. Tess is a reporter, a skeptic, and frequently clumsy. Her new boss, Davin Egypt, is an occult researcher, didactic, and consistently spooky. Together, they investigate bizarre events that threaten to destroy their city. Tess wants to stop it. Egypt just wants to observe it.

I chose a zany, scary, fun quick-read thriller for a bunch of reasons. The first reason is kinda dumb. My friend Julia Park Tracey sent me an e-mail: “Write a short, snappy novel in February and we’ll promote it in May. It’s a thing,” she said. Prior to this, Julia had offered other insane-o ideas. “Write an entire novel in November. It’s a thing.”That thing turned out to be NaNoWriMo, and I wrote Willing Servants, my first novel, which got snapped up by a publisher. So despite my usual misgivings, I went ahead and did it. Dumb? Yeah, dumb like a fox!

The second reason is that my first professional sale was “Thingies in the Hills,” a short science fiction horror story told from the point of view of a teenage girl. It was easy to write, it was fun to write, it got sold for pro rates, it only took a couple days. It was funny, and scary, and snappy. I wanted to try it again, in a longer work.

The most important reason was that I wanted to write something accessible to a broad spectrum of readers. I learned the hard way that straight horror is not for everyone. As I proudly hawked my first novel, a young guitar student of mine wanted to read it. She was thirteen at the time, and while I thought she could handle it just fine, I didn’t want an angry call from her parents. I told her to read it when she turned eighteen. I didn’t want to write books I couldn’t recommend to everyone. So I picked two of the most popular writers, and mashed their stuff together.

In this case, I chose the unlikely pairing of Janet Evanovich and Stephen King. They’re not as different as would appear from the high concept. One writes about crime in a Trenton, NJ suburb, the other about horror in small town Maine, both write character-driven novels, both are hugely successful, and, c’mon, is it really that hard to imaging Stephanie Plum picking up a skip in ’Salem’s Lot?

Hopefully, the big takeaway, other than plain old fun, is that readers consider the occult in a new way, argue with my undefined version of the paranormal, and consider their own stand on things beyond comprehension. That, and that you’re dying to read the next one.

Book Links:

 Goodreads

Contact the author:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

Have a great day!

Happy Scary Reading!

If Dracula was my BFF Part 3

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Hello bookworms

What are you up to? Happy Monday! *evil laugh* Ok, ok, let's continue with our post.

Monday morning, 5:00 AM

Anila is reading, while happily drinking her cappuccino. Her best friend Dracula decided to pay her a visit, before going to his coffin.

Dracula: What do you think you are doing? You better have an explanation for this!

Anila: Good morning to you too!

Dracula: Do not tell me good morning! I have to go to sleep, but before I do, I want you to explain me this.

*shows Anila her review of “’Salem’s Lot”*

Anila: Explain you what? That is my review.

Dracula: Your review? What are these words about Kurt? He is so frightening? Who is you best friend then? Kurt Barlow? I hate him. He wants to be like me. What a cheap imitation of a great vampire lord.

Anila: Stop acting like a child, ok? He is quite frightening.

Dracula: I don’t know you anymore.

Anila: Come on! Look at him. He is bone chilling.

Dracula: I am seriously reconsidering our friendship.

Anila: When will you get over the fact that Vampira chose him instead of you?

Dracula: Why are we friends anyways?

Anila: Because we hate everyone.

Dracula: You're right.

Creatures mentioned here:

The vampire lord Kurt Barlow from Stephen King’s “’Salem’s Lot”

Vampira – character created by Maila Nurmi

By the way, here’s my review of “’Salem’s Lot” ;)

Have a great day!

Happy Scary Reading!