Search

Search only in certain items:

It was an interesting take on ghost stories, certainly one I've never read before--or that I think I have...though the Charley Davidson series is kinda like it, I guess.

I was drawn in early on and although Alona was a little annoying at the start I have to say she'd grown on me (and Will) by the end. Will was just different from the start, not wanting to be popular and unable to be even if he wanted to with his ability to the see the dead.

The possibility of a romance between these two and moving to college makes me want to read the next one in the series and I'll be hunting it out from somewhere at some point in the future.
  
The Red Grouse Tales: The Little Dog and Other Stories
The Red Grouse Tales: The Little Dog and Other Stories
Leslie W.P. Garland | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry, Paranormal, Thriller
7
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Related as stories told between friends in the Red Grouse pub, each of these tales has a thread of the paranormal and philosophy running through them, to varying degrees. There are four stories to enjoy (I have also reviewed each of these separately in depth)

The Little Dog is the story of a forester who is forced to work with a much disliked colleague for a week. Each day is tense and stressful, but is Blackman just unsociable or actually evil?

The Crow focuses on a local politician, generally held in high regard but the tale of his life as related by a bitter and dying priest casts doubt on his motives.

The Golden Tup is the tale of a local couple who are notorious for having killed their baby. But just perhaps not everything is as it seems. Has an old evil been awoken?

The White Hart finishes the stories with a very rare thing - a heartwarming and feelgood ghost story that touches on the power that men wield over women, and vice versa.

Each of these tales has a different tone but are a complete story in their own right, even if some make mention of places and events in others. The story telling makes this a great collection to dip into and read. As each story also carries a philosophical theme they have a depth and resonance beyond the actual tale being told.

A good collection of paranormal and interesting stories, definitely worth a read. Each story is also available separately (and I have posted full reviews for them separately too)
  
The Moor
The Moor
Sam Haysom | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Horror
4
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Moor is Sam Haysom’s debut novel and though it seems to have pretty high ratings, I found it to fall short of my expectations. The book encompasses the story of a handful of thirteen-year-old boys on a hiking trip through the moors. During this trip, things go wrong and… well, that’s where it tries to be two stories at once: a ghost story and a creature feature.

The ghost story side of this book is fantastic. It’s written in a way that captures the reader’s imagination and honestly, I could picture the details quite well. What I didn’t like was the creature feature side of the book. The monster that makes up this horror tale should be terrifying, but instead I found it to be one dimensional–in fact, every single time the creature shows up, it’s described the same way which really put me off.

I felt no emotions or connections to the boys in the book, and this greatly diminished the emotional/fright factor of the novel for me. I really wanted to taste the fear that these teenaged boys were going through.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima
2020 | Action/Adventure
I absolutely loved this game because of the story and side quest stories. The open world exploration for me was incredible and the game is beautiful. I found myself playing with photo mode a lot taking lots of pictures standing in fields of pretty flowers, patting cute foxes, or just standing atop a mountain taking in the amazing view. The combat in the game was fun for me and it wasn't too challenging to figure out which stances to use to gain an advantage. I liked the accessibility of the game with making the subtitles easy to read and having simplified controls. I also liked that you can easily change the difficulty settings on the game. The characters in the game are interesting and I found myself liking all of them because of their interaction with the main character Jin and getting to know them during their side story quests. I could tell where they drew inspiration from Kurosawa films like Seven Samurai and it was very well done. Ghost Of Tsushima overall is a fantastic game and I was impressed with how much thought and detail went into the game. You can read my full review here: http://lorrie28-mothergamer.blogspot.com/2020/08/ghost-of-tsushima-beautiful-samurai.html
  
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