Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2016

Monthly Wrap-Up: March 2016

Alright, here we go for an almost disgustingly short (for me, guys. I’m aware I read far more than average in general) monthly wrap-up. See, for a brief time, I was sleeping like a normal person, therefore my reading scaled way back and I was only reading a couple books a week. That’s over now, but… Anyways. For sanity’s sake, I’m only listing the adult-oriented books I read. Not the children’s books.

Reviver Revivers. Able to wake the recently dead, and let them bear witness to their own demise. Twelve years after the first reviver came to light, they have become accepted by an uneasy public. The testimony of the dead is permitted in courtrooms across the world. Forensic revival is a routine part of police investigation. In the United States, that responsibility falls to the Forensic Revival Service. Despite his troubled past, Jonah Miller is one of their best. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is watching. Waiting. His superiors tell him it was only in his mind, a product of stress. Jonah is not so certain. Then Daniel Harker, the first journalist to bring revival to public attention, is murdered, and Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the hunt for answers. Working with Harker’s daughter Annabel, he becomes determined to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Soon they uncover long-hidden truths that call into doubt everything Jonah stands for, and reveal a threat that if not stopped in time, will put all of humanity in danger … – Goodreads Synopsis

When the cosmic fabric separating the dimensions rips open and spits the inhabitants of Purgatory into his hometown, Jack just happens to be in his school’s basement. That’s the only thing that saves him.
The initial rip is so forceful it kills everyone and everything that isn’t indoors or underground. The tag line for this book might be I pray the Lord my soul to take, because the creatures from Purgatory only want one thing: new, unsullied, souls.
Eventually, Jack stumbles across a few other survivors. One is a deaf pit bull named Snake. Together they make their way to a safe house in New Mexico where they are forced to make their final stand.
Not everyone will survive.- Goodreads Synopsis

This novel spans several centuries, following the relationship of the two most iconic monsters in literary history. Once as close as brothers but now sworn enemies, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein meet for a final showdown beneath the streets of New York City.

Night Things (Dracula versus Frankenstein) takes place in a world just like yours with one startling difference: every creature of legend has stepped forward from the shadow and they now exist shoulder to shoulder with humankind! New York City has become a macabre melting pot. Vampires, werewolves, zombies and ghouls are now the new immigrants and they are chasing the American dream. The Night Things have become part of the system. But many humans feel the creatures are dangerous ticking time bombs.

Dracula, considered the messiah of the Night Things, builds an unstoppable army as he plots to wipe humanity from the face of the earth. The mysterious New York crime boss, Johnny Stücke (the creation of Frankenstein) wants to keep the peace between the Night Things and humanity. Stücke fears total extermination of his kind, should Dracula unleash his forces on New York.
The fight for the night begins. – Goodreads Synopsis

Be prepared to take a journey into the pits of hell, courtesy of the Zyne Corporation.
Six people agree to participate in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial. They’re ready to change the face of science, but they’re the ones who start changing. As each subject succumbs to the horror of the trial, they begin to turn against each other…and discover the nightmare within.-Goodreads Synopsis

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas’s life. – Goodreads Synopsis

They hear the most silent of footsteps.

They are faster than anything you’ve ever seen.
And They won’t stop chasing you…until you are dead.

Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.

After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more. – Goodreads Synopsis

When the horror becomes real.

Dani Larson is the queen of horror movie special effects. Grisly murders and mutilated corpses are all in a day’s work for her. Nothing frightens her—not even watching herself torn to pieces on the screen. But now the gore is real, and Dani is terrified. She’s being stalked by the Chill Master, a psychopath who wants to be Dani’s apprentice, her lover, and eventually…her replacement. Can Dani find a way to survive? Or will this real-life horror movie scare Dani to death? – Goodreads Synopsis

Emily has just moved into her first house and is excited to start her adult life, but every night her American dream becomes a nightmare. – Goodreads Synopsis

A tale of horror with a twist of the Twilight Zone. The old, abandoned Saint Vincent Hospital is said to be haunted by the ghost of David Henry Coleman, the notorious serial killer, known as The Mangler. Coleman died on the fourth floor after being shot by police. For the three Jr. High boys, their curiosity gets the best of them as they explore the old hospital, despite ‘Old Man’ Jake’s warning. No one knew of Jake’s dark connection to the killer and the hospital. And now, on the anniversary of The Mangler’s death, a group of high school kids are planning a private party on the haunted fourth floor. Jake must keep everyone out and protect them from the true evil that lurks on Floor Four. – Goodreads Synopsis

When a rare mental disorder begins to consume his small-town neighbors, a young psychiatrist digs up the past for clues to the epidemic’s bone-chilling source in this brilliant supernatural horror debut, written in the bestselling tradition of Peter Straub.

Convinced that evil spirits have overtaken his daughter, a desperate father introduces her to Nat Thayer, a young psychiatrist in their sleepy blue-blooded Massachusetts college town. Thayer quickly diagnoses the girl with Cotard Delusion, an obscure condition sometimes described as “walking corpse syndrome.” But Thayer soon realizes his patient—and many of the local families—are actually being targeted by a malignant force resurrected from the town’s wicked history. Thayer must discover the source of the spreading plague…before there is no one left to save.- Goodreads Synopsis

Malcolm Graves lives by two rules: finish the job, and get paid. After thirty years as a collector, chasing bounties and extinguishing rebellions throughout the solar system, Malcolm does what he’s told, takes what he’s earned, and leaves the questions to someone else—especially when it comes to the affairs of offworlders.

But his latest mission doesn’t afford him that luxury. After a high-profile bombing on Earth, the men who sign Malcolm’s paychecks are clamoring for answers. Before he can object, the corporation teams him up with a strange new partner who’s more interested in statistics than instinct and ships them both off to Titan, the disputed moon where humans have been living for centuries. Their assignment is to hunt down a group of extremists: Titanborn dissidents who will go to any length to free their home from the tyranny of Earth.

Heading into hostile territory, Malcolm will have to use everything he’s learned to stay alive. But he soon realizes that the situation on the ground is much more complex than he anticipated . . . and much more personal. – Goodreads Synopsis

Lyman B. Frank leaves band practice one dark and stormy night. On his way home, a truck runs a red light and smashes into his car. After the horrific accident, Lyman wakes up in a strange, dead world full of terrifying creatures the locals call Somnies.

As he searches for answers, he learns of a man named Dr. Oz that might be able to help him return home. So, he sets out to find him. Along the way, he gains some companions who also seek help from Dr. Oz.

Together, they make their way to Z-Industries, but with malevolent creatures consumed by a hunger for flesh hot on the trail, can they make it to Dr. Oz before it’s too late? – Goodreads Synopsis

Daniel Carter used to be a homicide detective, but his last case-the hunt for a serial killer-went wrong in strange ways and soured the job for him. Now he’s a private investigator trying to live a quiet life. Strangeness, however, has not finished with him. First he inherits a bookstore in Providence from someone he’s never heard of, along with an indignant bookseller who doesn’t want a new boss. She’s Emily Lovecraft, the last known descendant of H.P. Lovecraft, the writer from Providence who told tales of the Great Old Ones and the Elder Gods, creatures and entities beyond the understanding of man. Then people start dying in impossible ways, and while Carter doesn’t want to be involved, he’s beginning to suspect that someone else wants him to be. As he reluctantly investigates, he discovers that Lovecraft’s tales were more than just fiction, and he must accept another unexpected, and far more unwanted inheritance. – Goodreads Synopsis

Even in the future. there are damsels in distress…

In the third installment of the Lunar chronicles, Cress, having risked everything to warn Cinder of Queen Levana’s evil plan, has a slight problem. She’s been imprisoned on a satellite since childhood and has only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress a great hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress involving Cinder, Captain Thorne, Scarlet, and Wolf goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes as a high price. Meanwhile, Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has. – Goodreads Synopsis

The year is 2066. A Caltech intern inadvertently notices an anomaly from a space telescope—something is approaching Saturn, and decelerating. Space objects don’t decelerate. Spaceships do.
A flurry of top-level government meetings produces the inescapable conclusion: Whatever built that ship is at least one hundred years ahead in hard and soft technology, and whoever can get their hands on it exclusively and bring it back will have an advantage so large, no other nation can compete. A conclusion the Chinese definitely agree with when they find out.

The race is on, and an remarkable adventure begins—an epic tale of courage, treachery, resourcefulness, secrets, surprises, and astonishing human and technological discovery, as the members of a hastily thrown-together crew find their strength and wits tested against adversaries both of this earth and beyond. What happens is nothing like you expect—and everything you could want from one of the world’s greatest masters of suspense. – Goodreads Synopsis

Jim Westfield is a messed-up kid thrown into the anarchic community his father lives on where they raise fish on the ocean when they aren’t breaking the law. This is a world filled with strange and dangerous characters that threaten Jim and his family’s lives when a terrorist attack hits Los Angeles. Now Jim must rise above his past if he wants to survive his future.  – Goodreads Synopsis

Books that I’m Currently Reading:

Books (and movies) I reviewed in March 2016 (NEW!) – Links take you to the reviews.

Movies: Batman Versus Superman , 10 Cloverfield Lane , Deadpool, Creed

Books: Ellie Jordan: Ghost Trapper by J.L. Bryan,  by SICK by Christa Wojciechowski, Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton, Anywhere but Here by Jason Morrow, Wave Mandate by A.C. Schneider, Hell House by Richard Matheson, Cress by Marissa Meyer, The American Dream by Johnathan-David Jackson, Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud, Carter & Lovecraft by Johnathan L. Howard, Saturn Run by John Sanford and Ctein, After the Shock by Scott Nicholson, Night Show by Richard Laymon, The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine, The Laptev Virus by Christy Esmahan, Floor Four by A. Lopez, Jr. , Sky High by Helge Mahrt , Shutter by Courtney Alameda, Flex by Ferrett Steinmetz, The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke, Dr. Oz of Z-Industries by Jay Wilson, Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, The Six by Mark Alpert, The Thirteenth Child by David Dean, World War Moo by Michael Logan, Hell Holes by Donald Firesmith