Archive for 2016

"Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past."

Being October, and with Halloween just around the corner what better time to recommend a horror book. It's not often I read a "horror" book not because I get scared mostly because I don't usually find them frightening but I had saw this novel had received good reviews and so thought it was worth a try.

Hex tells the story of a small town called Black Springs which has been haunted by a 17th Century woman by the name of Katherine Van Wyler who appears around town anywhere from living rooms to the woods scaring local residents with her horrible stench and her eyes and mouth sewn shut. The town's residents have accepted her as a way of life and observe her every move, whilst trying to stop outsiders from learning of her existence.

The book starts of calm enough however the books builds and builds getting more horrifying throughout, thing going from bad to worse to beyond. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend picking up a copy, you can find it here, the book was first published in Dutch and according to the author's notes had had its ending changed for this English version so if anyone out there has read the original please get in touch on twitter and let me know the original ending,

You can find more about the author Thomas Olde Heuvelt here.

Thanks For Reading, Sam

Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart. This is an everyday sort of ship, just trying to get from here to there.

But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling. A young Martian woman, hoping the vastness of space will put some distance between herself and the life she‘s left behind. An alien pilot, navigating life without her own kind. A pacifist captain, awaiting the return of a loved one at war.

Set against a backdrop of curious cultures and distant worlds, this episodic tale weaves together the adventures of nine eclectic characters, each on a journey of their own.

"When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.

But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.

Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years... if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful.

But Rosemary isn't the only person on board with secrets to hide, and the crew will soon discover that space may be vast, but spaceships are very small indeed."

The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet is the first book in the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, the book follows Rosemary Harper as she is hired as a clerk and joins the crew of the Wayfarer a tunnelling ship that is past its prime. The book was so much fun to read, its been a while since I have read something like this set in outer-space we meet many different species, you find yourself immersed in the different world, a definite page turner! I personally can't wait for the second book in the series which I believe is out in October this year.

Let me know if you have read this book and what you thought of it, and any recommendations you have.

Thanks for reading, Sam

The leaves were cold and slightly clammy. There was no mistaking them. She had seen their likeness painstakingly sketched in her father’s journal. This was his greatest secret, his treasure and his undoing. The Tree of Lies. Now it was hers, and the journey he had never finished stretched out before her.

When Faith’s father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets. The bigger the lie, the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

The girl realizes that she is good at lying and that the tree might hold the key to her father’s murder, so she begins to spread untruths far and wide across her small island community. But as her tales spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter. . . .

A beguiling tale of mystery and intrigue.

So this book is classed as a children's book, do I think it's just a children's book, definitely not. I will say this book reminded me of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, I felt the books had a similar tone even though the actual stories are very different.

The book is set in Victorian England, and we see how the norms of this time effect Faith, (the main character) in her quest to solve the case of her fathers murder, how women faces struggles as they where seen as "less" then men and we not always taken seriously.

I thought that The Lie Tree was a very good book, and definitely one I would recommend you read, the author Frances Hardinge manages to mix together many different elements, from the creepy and dark, to family, science, religion and as the title would suggest lies, and how even the smallest lie can have the biggest affect.

Let me know if you have read this book and what your thoughts where, and of course don't forget to leave me your book recommendations.

Thanks For Reading,

Sam