Book Review: Sleepless by Lou Morgan

Don't take pills you brought off the internet...that ain't googable victims.

The real nightmare begins when you’re awake…
 
Young, rich and good-looking, Izzy and her friends lead seemingly perfect lives. But exams are looming – and at a school like Clerkenwell, failure is not an option. Luckily, Tigs has a solution. A small pill that will make revision a breeze and help them get the results they need. Desperate to succeed, the friends begin taking the study drug.

In terms of don't mess with drugs messages that have appeared in Red Eye books this is the better one. So this was one of the first Red Eye books that were published and I have owned a physical copy since then. It's one of the better ones, so it shame I left it for so long. I have read all the Red Eye books now but Fir by Sharon Jones (working on it).

The Red Eye books are quite happy to have terrible ending which is one of the reasons I appreciated it. The characters stop sleeping and therefore go insane. There are some background stuff hinted at and I feel like we don't get a straight answer about. It doesn't matter.

The Horror starts after Lizzy and her pals take terrible smelling pills (the first major red flag) and after the horror of exams, the shadowy images start appearing from the group and they turn against each other.

The book is in first person, in Lizzy pov, which works well, especially when they start betaying each other. 

Overall, I give it 4/5 stars for Exam freak outs .I think I rank it under Frozen Charlotte but higher than the other four stars books in the series ( Flesh & Bones, The Haunting and Charlotte Says). Actually, I don't know. The Red Eye Series started badly for me, but overall the series on avange the series sits at 3.6. Yeah, one star can really tank an avenge when you do the maths. It could be rounded to 4 stars which is what the series actually sits at for me.

I technically got this book for Review off of NetGalley from the Publisher Stripes. But I was gonna do this anyway and this is my own mission now.

Book Review: The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

If you tell me not to do something, I'm probably gonna do it.

I CURSE ANYONE WHO READS THIS BOOK. 
SCREW YOU, HAPPY READING
 
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.

Elmbridge High School burned down. Three Students were killed in the braze, twenty were injured, and one, Carly Johnson, disappeared.

For two decades, little was uncovered about what became known as the 'Johnson Incident'.

UNTIL NOW.

This is another book I requested off of NetGalley years ago and found in the library so decided to finally started reading it. It was really good so I wished it was of the NetGalley unread books I had brought (there's a large collection of them).

This is a really good horror book, with horrifying outcome.  It has a lot of Horror Tropes, Boarding School, insane asylum, magic, ghost demon things. The Main character Kaitlyn has mental illness issues but it some what a question what is mental illness and what is magic. 

There's is a made-up Scottish Magic in this book which I enjoyed. It was really well thought out so much so I started wonder if this was real thing that I had somehow had not heard about it. It's not a real, just really well done. 

The characters are all quite likeable and started to feel panicky about the character's outcome, which is great considering the amount of horrors that don't even try to have likeable or realistic characters. There is an odd romantic relationship and its up to question.
 
This book is told in "discovered" documents, mainly Kaitlyn's diary. It really works for the mystery thriller side of it.

Overall, I gave this book 4/5 stars for Church Pews. I really enjoyed this book and I am going to autobuy Dawn Kurtagich. I would recommend this to any horror buffs out there.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley years ago and it's published by Orion Children's Books.

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Book Review: Thriteen Chairs by Dave Shelton

You shouldn't go into abandoned buildings...by yourself.

 In an abandoned house, the ghosts gather. They argue, they laugh, and they tell their stories. Some tell their own stories, some tell stories they have heard elsewhere. Some of them are true, some are not. But each tale draws you closer.

One by one, the storytellers depart, until suddenly it's just you and the narrator, alone in the dark...

Usually I read and rated short stories as I read them, but as this is all by one writer I didn't. Instead I'm going back and rated them. This book also has the benefit of illustrations at the start of each story which I will share my favourite of.

Let Me Sleep: This is the standard past deeds coming back to haunt you, typical beware of actions. Probably is a weak start. 3/5 stars for bling.

The Wrong Side of the Road: The standard past deeds coming back to haunt you. Okay, this makes me think of The Midnight's society's first episode, but only because Taxi. Woods. Spoilers. Don't drink drive kids. 2/5 stars for smashed glass.

Oswald: Cats are evil. Oswald is an evil cat, a cat eviler than usual. Basically, torments his owner. Going with the motif of these being stories told, this is the first one that really feels like character telling the story. It works okay. 3/5 stars for ticker bell.

The Red Tree: This is an old grim fairy tale thing going on, matching the character telling the story. It's a good imitation and creepy idea. 3/5 stars for fool's gold.

Tick Tick Tick: This is another mash up. There's this clock tower, the character goes there, you can probably guess what happens. Though, apparently left the other characters 'shaken' besides Jack, when its a pretty dull, obvious ending that makes me want to go read Poe. 2/5 stars for cloak, cloak, cloak.

Beneath the Surface: A boy loses his parents and brother in a boating accident and is haunted by water. I had forgot this story and had to look it up which is one of the reason, why I won't be reviewing short story collections this way again. 3/5 stars for Death Puddles.

Razor: A journalist hears a ghost story about a murder house at a pub and goes for it. 4/5 stars for tidying spirits.

The Girl in The Red Coat: A revenge story, sort of. 4/5 stars for Eyes.

The Patchwork Sailor: A revenge story where Daddy finally comes home. 3/5 stars for odd handed.

Unputdownable: My favourite story in this book. Someone moves into a Writer's Cottage and then must write and write. 5/5 stars for fill-out notebooks. 

Snowstorms: This is set in the North Pole or somewhere really snowing.  The snow messes with you. 4/5 stars for snow globe.

Among the Dead: This is the life story of the leader of this ghost telling affair and what this thing is about. These last two stories connect the narrative

device with the stories. 4/5 stars for coffins.

The House Where the Ghosts Meet: Jack tells us what lead him to the house and just what the deal is. 3/5 stars for bike safety.

Overall, I give this 4/5 stars for ghost meetings. I think it pretty good for Juvenile Horror, people on Goodreads are really harsh towards this book and I don't understand why. The choice of story placement could have been better, especially as the start stories are very similarly theme wise.  It does contain some standard horror stories but it does them well. They're not scary, but I find it odd that adults are rating Juvenile Horror for its fear level. I found this Teen/YA section of the library, I probably place in the kids' section going off the other Juvenile Horrors.

Book Review: Submarine by Joe Duntorn

Starting October with the Horror of Pretentious Teenage Boys.

Meet Oliver Tate, fifteen years old. Convinced that his father is depressed ('Depression comes in bouts. Like boxing. Dad is in the blue corner') and his mother is having an affair with her capoeira teacher ('a hippy-looking twonk'), he embarks on a hilariously misguided campaign to bring the family back together. Meanwhile, he is also trying to lose his virginity - before he turns sixteen - to his pyromaniac girlfriend Jordana. Will Oliver succeed in either aim? Submerge yourself in Submarine and find out . . .

No, I never did find out why this book is called submarine.  This opens greatly and has a lot of good one liners, especially towards the start but after page 200 (the edition I read was 290 pages) I was done with Oliver. Especially, as all of the plot stuff that this novel has was completely resolved (or as much as it gets in this novel). If I liked Oliver as a person or character, then maybe those 90 pages of pointlessness would have been fun. 

Oliver is realistic teenage boy, the sort I personally would hated even as a teenager. His actions make him so unlikable and never learns from his actions. He's really immature for a fifteen, he comes across as thirteen. Sure, they are people like that, but I don't want to read about them. Though, I still want to watch the movie. Less about this book, more to do with who was involved in making it. 

This book has mental illness, relationships in trouble and the teen hormones that lead to what that usually does. It's just there. If you want a glimpse into the life of really annoying person. 

The writing style is meant to be a diary but also obviously breaks that format a lot. Oliver is pretentious so there's some attempt at depth and Dunton manages to capture that pretentious voice of a 15 year old boy that needs to grow up.

Overall, I give this book 2/5 stars for shoe stealing. I don't the main character so I didn't like the book, that's the risk with character driven characters. I didn't anything from this. I don't know who this book is for, teenage boys you want to throw off a bus?