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Circle of Fire (Damask Circle #1)
Circle of Fire (Damask Circle #1)
Keri Arthur | 2001 | Paranormal, Romance
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
120 of 250
Book
Circle of Fire ( Damask Circle book 1)
By Keri Arthur

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Sixteen teenagers taken from their homes. Eleven bodies recovered, each completely drained of blood. Some believe vampires are responsible, but Jon Barnett knows it's something far worse. To stop the killers in Taurin Bay, he becomes enmeshed in a web of black magic and realizes he needs help. But fate gives him only one choice in the form of recluse Madeline Smith.

Madeline Smith has retreated to an isolated farmhouse, afraid of the psychic abilities she can't control-abilities that have killed. But when "ghost" Jon Barnett brings a warning of danger and her nephew disappears, Maddie has to leave her haven. She also has to learn to control the abilities she fears and place her trust in Jon Barnett, a man who is neither human nor ghost.

But as the search for the teenagers becomes a race against time, and the noose of sorcery threatens to kill Maddie and Jon, the greatest danger to them both could be the feelings they have for each other-feelings that they refuse to acknowledge.



This is one of those books where you realise after 2 chapters you have actually read it! Didn’t stop me flying through it again and actually enjoyed more the second time round. Keri Arthur is one of those authors that just drags you into her worlds! She is a very good writer. This will go into my collection I’m determined to own all her books!
  
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Growing up I didn't have an older brother, so all my music was formed by my mother and father. The latter would play old Irish folk songs and outlaw music by Johnny Cash and the only thing my mother would play was heavy melancholy orchestral movements like Night On Bald Mountain. What my mother would make me do is sit on the floor and tell my father to tell a story while putting on this record. This was big for me. I was probably four years old at the time. It sounded eerie, spooky and epic. My dad would make up these ghost stories but what he was really doing was recreating these children's story soundtracks that I'd listened to! I was too young to understand what he was doing at the time, but he was just making his personalised version of The Little Prince or Tales of Witches, Ghosts And Goblins. So he'd be like [eerie voice]: ""The ghosts would move up the Catskill Mountains..."" and I'd just sit there freezing in fear of these ghost stories! It was like having a musical campfire in your living room. Also, this song featured on the film Fantasia, which was my whole life up until the age of ten. It stuck with me and it was embedded in there now you're mixing visuals. I wasn't into the Mickey Mouse aspect of it, but when you watch the eerie castle and spooky ghosts, this is just feeding a young boy's imagination and this is the world he's going to confront when he grows up. These were all the ingredients going into my soup."

Source
  
The Dead and the Dark
The Dead and the Dark
Courtney Gould | 2021 | Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Captivating look at the supernatural and the pull of family
In Snakebite, Oregon, teenagers keep disappearing or turning up dead. Things just seem off. The locals blame Brandon and Alejo Ortiz-Woodley, two former Snakebite residents who are back in town. They now host a popular ghost hunting show and travel the country with their daughter Logan. Wanting to clear the family name, Logan winds up joining forces with Ashley Barton, whose boyfriend was the first to go missing. Ashley is sure she can feel his presence guiding her around Snakebite. But as the two team up, they discover some pretty terrifying and dangerous things about Snakebite.

I loved this book so much. Sometimes it feels like I read similar books over and over. Not this time. Gould’s book is original and spellbinding. This is such a dark and ominous read. Gould truly brings you into Snakebite, the supernatural, creepy, and quite unwelcoming small town. It’s atmospheric and spooky. I could not put this book down!

DARK is filled with LGBTQIA representation, between Logan’s dads, the fact that she’s an out lesbian, and her own burgeoning friendship (and more) with Ashley. I loved everything about all of it.

This book is part horror story, part exploration of the meaning and depths of darkness, and part look at family dynamics. It’s an extremely well written ghost story with a sapphic love interest. It really doesn’t get much better than that! (It’s so good, read it—and it’s a debut!)

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press / Wednesday Books and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
  
MH
Mr Harrigan's Phone (2022)
2022 | Horror
7
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
Mr Harringan's phone is a film based on a short story by Stephen King. Like a lot of Kings work the film is a slow burn but one without much of a pay off.
Mr Harringan's phone follows Craig, a young boy who is hired by the reclusive Mr Harringan. After working for him for a few years Mr Harringan dies. During his period of grief Craig phones Mr Harringan's old phone and tells him about the problems he is having with a bully, the bully dies soon after and Craig is sure the dead Mr Harringan has something to do with it.
Mr Harringan's phone has the potential to be a great ghost film but it doesn't manage to pull it off. The first 40 to 50 minutes of the film builds up the relationship between Craig and Mr Harringan leaving around an hour for the spooky stuff. However there is little actual horror, there are only 2 deaths due to the ghost and you don't see either of them. The film give what could be natural reasons for the deaths and tries to focuse on the effect they have on Craig as he thinks that he caused them but even this seems lacking.
The film feels like it's trying to be a 'classic' set in the modern day, like a Charles Dickens novel set in the naughties and it does pull this off but still seems to be lacking something.
If you are looking for something like the ring then this probably isn't for you but if you want a slow burn in the gothic/Dickens vain then it may be worth a watch.
  
The Unquiet Spirit (Spirited Encounters #1)
The Unquiet Spirit (Spirited Encounters #1)
Penny Hampson | 2025 | Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
couldn't see where this was going!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Once in a while, a review request comes through that is a little out of my normal reads, and the blurb piqued my interest. This is one of those times!

Kate is left a house, and she runs to it, after her love life is left in tatters. As a historian, she can work from home, so moving to Cornwall is no real hardship. That the house has a ghost, however, is another matter. And just what is up with her new neighbour, Tom?

For a long time, I couldn't see where this was going, with the ghost, the diary, the connection between them and Tom's extended family, I really couldn't and I do LOVE being kept on my toes! I really did not see how it was going to come together, and when it did?? So not what I was expecting.

It's well written, the spooky bits come across wonderfully and the blossoming romance is very much faded to black. Not totally clean, but it's all behind closed doors.

BUT

Only Kate has a say and I would love to have heard from Tom at key points along the way. I always want to hear from everyone but I think here, it's needed.

I've not read anything by this author before, I might look at her back list! This is what I love MOST about reviewing: finding new-to-me authors with back lists.

4 very VERY good stars.

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
2007 | Horror
Great anthology stories that overlap (3 more)
Great characters
Good make-up effects
Good cast
A new Halloween classic
A great collection of Halloween tales that overlap each other on one Halloween night in a small town. It has some great moments in the 4 main stories, mixing up an urban ghost story, scary creatures, slasher and just the plain weird. It has a good cast including Brian Cox looking a little John Carpenter like and Anna Paquin of True Blood. The film also reminds the viewers of the reasons behind some of the traditions. A bit short at 80mins but very enjoyable, one of the best horror anthologies around! This could become a cult film taking into account it didn't get a cinema release....who knows why!? Plenty of extras on the DVD as well.
  
40x40

Maddie (37 KP) rated Oxenfree in Video Games

Nov 16, 2017  
Oxenfree
Oxenfree
2016 | Action/Adventure, Horror
Actions have consequences (2 more)
Great characters
Art was beautiful
Sometimes bugged, resulting in closing the game (0 more)
Short to play, but incredibly fun
Oxenfree was a beautifully styled coming-of-age story that pulled the player into the relationships between characters as much as into the drama of the ghost story. At times intense and a little scary (I'm a baby about stuff like that though), but also sweet and compelling. I really wanted everyone to be okay, although I fudged a bunch and not everyone made it out alive.

The actions have consequences aspect is great. The choices felt like realistic situations for the teenagers and each bad/good decision was believable.



Plan on playing this again in the near future to try and better improve my favorite character's chances!
  
CI
Come In and Cover Me
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book tells the story of Ren an archeologist who can see ghosts. Her first experience is with her older brother who was killed in a car accident when she was 12. It carries over into her work in the field years later when she sees a young, Native American girl chopping off her hair in a creek. Lynay as the ghost comes to be known leads Ren to various discoveries, both about herself & ancient culture.
The story had absolutely no action to it. It was well written, but I unfortunately found myself getting bored with at multiple points in the plot. The summaries I read prior to reading the book sounded good... an interesting idea, intriguing characters, but the execution was poor. Not worth the time really.
  
Tales From the Hood (1995)
Tales From the Hood (1995)
1995 | Horror
8
7.2 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Tales From The Hood is a horror anthology made up of four short stories as well as a into and ending sequence.

The stories are:
Welcome to My Mortuary
Rogue Cop Revelation
Boys Do Get Bruised
KKK Comeuppance
Hard-Core Convert

Welcome to My Mortuary (ending)



I grew up watching this movie and even as a kid I always enjoyed it but as the older I got I really grew to understand that it is not just a horror movie in the sense that is deals with zombies, monsters, living dolls, and ghost but that it is a horror movie in the sense that it deals with real life horrors such as police brutality, abuse, racism, and gang violence all of which still hold extreme relevant 22 years after the movie was released.
  
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Lenard (726 KP) rated Brightburn (2019) in Movies

Jun 2, 2019 (Updated Jun 3, 2019)  
Brightburn (2019)
Brightburn (2019)
2019 | Horror
We need to talk about Brandon
A childless couple in small town Kansas discover a spacecraft in their barn with a baby inside. They raise the child as their own, trying to give him flyover zone morals. So far, the story seems very familiar. However, ten years later, puberty hits Brandon hard. He gains super strength, the power to fly at the speed of light, and glowing red heat vision. He is also obsessed with human anatomy, but not the usual body parts, more like the liver and kidneys. His grey-haired mother and farmer father try to set him straight, but his alien vehicle calls out to him and tells him to destroy the world. What in the name of Caesar's Ghost is going on in Kansas?