More Ghastly Than Ghostly
355929
Anna is thirty-something, solitary and a bit waspish. She has left Kalamazoo, Michigan and this novels finds her living in The Big Apple. By day she is a teacher.  By night she is a medium who helps her clients connect to 'the other side' and converse with their dearly departed.

One day,late for work she leaves her apartment only to find the lobby blocked by the arrival of a giant grand piano, its owner a giant red headed pianist who is moving into her building. Later she discovers his name is Edward. Suddenly Anna finds her concentration broken by the red head's constant practicing. He has arrived in New York to intensively practice for an important piano competition. The noise interferes with her contact with 'the other side'. In addition she finds herself intruded upon by the ghost of Mozart who gloats over the brilliant performance of Edward and urges her 'to be nice to him'. Even worse the pianist seems to be everywhere, taking up her regular booth at her favorite Greek diner, impringing upon her use of the laundry room, even befriending her annoying brother who has temporarily moved in with her.

Will Anna and Edward find true love? Will Edward win the competition? You can easily guess the answers. The novel is endlessly repetitive. Anna can't sleep, she can't share her Edward plight with her drop-dead gorgeous best friend Stacy. She makes repeated trip to the basement to do her laundary, tabloid papers in hand, or makes trips to the Greek diner as the plot moves forward at a snail's pace. She endlessly ruminates about whether she should reveal her night-time profession to Edward. Should she tell him? If she does will he still love her? Not hard to figure out the end.

Along the tedious way we are treated to an assortment of cliched characters -a jolly gay principal, his mean spirted gay friend who is a clairvoyant, an exotic bi-sexual man named Tommy who is constantly flirting with Anna and trying to get her into bed, the friendly waiter at the diner, and of course the gorgeous best friend. Interspersed with these are juvenile letters that Edwards sends home to a childless couple who are financing his stay in New York while he works towards winning the competition. One cliche is piled upon another.

It takes half the novel for Edward and  Anna to get together: another quarter of the novel for Anna to obsess over calling Edward after their first liasion, and the final quarter of the book to finally tell Edward her secret profession.

The fact that this dreadful mess was written by a woman who is considered a master at leading others to fulfill their creative potential makes matters even worse. Save your money and your eyesight. Don't buy this book. I wish Amazon made it possible to give this zero stars.
2417523
This is the second novel from Audrey Niffenegger, the same author who brought you "The Time Traveler's Wife". If you're looking for something as good as, if not better than "Time Traveler", well, you might want to look elsewhere. The good news: this is a somewhat pleasant, non-formulaic story about a pair of twin sisters who inherit their aunt's home in England when she passes away. There are themes of love and obsession and ghosts. In fact, the ghost has her own point of view, and it is somewhat of a welcome surprise to read that; it's not a scary ghost story by any means. The bad news: the characters are rather flat and two-dimensional and the reader is not compelled to feel strongly for any one of them. Also, the plot moves so very slowly that it is a challenge to stick with this story. The majority of the action of this story takes place in the last 100 pages of this 400 page book. Also, the ending left me scratching my head and wondering "huh?" I would recommend this book, if only for the interesting ghostly aspect, but only if you are prepared to commit to reading 400 pages.
1366369
I still remember the first time I read Shirley Jackson's amazing "The Haunting of Hill House" - it's one of those stories that echoes in your mind for years.  While the author attempts to acknowledge Jackson's work in his opening sentences, 'The Haunted' sadly cannot be considered worthy to stand even in the shadow of the truly great horror tales.

Collings' writing, in and of itself, isn't bad - I do believe he has the potential to write solidly entertaining books, and maybe even scary ones.  But as someone who's loved good horror stories throughout my life, this one seemed forced and trite.  I think 'overkill' is a fair term to use...it's as though the author tried to summon up every type of ghost, telekinetic event, 'scary' noise, and haunting image you may have seen/read in other stories, and crammed them all together in this short book.

The entire burden of the threadbare plot is carried by a couple whose characters are so obscured by the avalanche of apparitions inflicted upon them that they cease to be even mildly interesting or compelling.  I just stopped caring about what was happening to them...I was too busy giggling as I wondered what type of ghost would come next in the endless procession.

I regret being a negative reviewer, as  I believe this author has significant potential.  But even as a super-inexpensive Kindle 'special', this one wasn't worth it.
2441223
To me ,at least, this is not a Halloween book of the traditional sort. Frankly I find it to be a typical blood and guts terror stories. Admittedly I have not read the whole thing as yet. But what I have read lacks the spooky, atmospheric, tales that the older generation would associate with Halloween. This book would fit the typical horror market far better than Halloween. I suppose Hollywood has a lot to take the blame for; as it was the slash and gore movies they produced and associated them with the Halloween season. I suppose younger readers expect blood and gore for Halloween. It is a pity. Chills and spookiness can be far more effective than outright murder and mayhem. Whether or not you like this book will depend on your mental image of Halloween.
3498526
Erica Ridley tries to bring back an atmospheric gothic romance with Too Wicked To Kiss. The blurb on this books states, "A skillful blend of Gothic mystery and steamy romance" from Karen Rose. This is a mystery with a romance, but not so steamy and skilled as I was expecting. My main issue is that Erica laid it on a bit too think with the whole atmosphere of what a gothic romance is. There's a castle that makes a perfect dark setting, a hero who may or may have no killed his parents and is in seclusion, and a heroine on the run from her degenerate step-father who abused her mother. The hapless heroine also has a secret power at her fingertips that would have probably gotten her burned at the stake as a witch if this were Salem, 1692.

Evangeline Pemberton is forced to go to a house party by a truly wretched woman and her annoying twit of a daughter. Mommy Wretch wants Annoying Daughter to snag the alleged parent killer, Gavin Lioncroft. The stage is set much like out of the movie Clue where we have many outlandish characters. Not only does Gavin brood and snarl, but his countess sister, who is married to a faithless abuser, actually smacks her so hard, that she has a very noticeable mark on her cheek. At a dinner party, where the one-dimensional suspects are on display, there is an unneeded extended scene about this horrible display of spousal abuse that really doesn't set the mood or add tension to the overall story. It just shows how a barely restrained Gavin is close to beating his brother-in-law into pulp. Gavin does eventually get his revenge by strangling his brother-in-law to the point he has his own bruising. This seemed odd to me since Gavin has such disdain and disgust for his sister and her family.

But then Gavin's sister's fink of a husband is found murdered in his bed and because of his throat bruising, the guests all assume Gavin must have killed him. From that moment on there is lurking around dark halls, Gavin cornering Evangeline where he tries to kiss her even though she is a sacred rabbit around him. And because she is so scared of him, he takes his anger out on her and acts like a wounded bear. Poor Evangeline, who I really wanted a much better written story for, is doomed from her evil step father who's on his way to take her back, the staff who crosses their fingers whenever they walk by her because they know all about her special powers and the Lady Wretch and her Annoying Daughter who walk around making snide comments.

I'm not sure if Erica meant to poke fun at the Gothics of the past with her own story, but the characters' actions and plot failed to excite and had me rolling my eyes as I turned each page. Unfortunately because of this, I didn't care to know who the killer was and if Gavin would carry Evangeline of the magic hands away to his tower to protect her as well as ravish her in all his angsty, brooding glory.

Katiebabs
1997892
Too bloody gruesome and much longer than necessary to carry the story line. Certainly Harry Hole is an intriguingly haunted figure. But the twists and turns of this dire novel, my first read of Nesbo, were more frustrating than compelling and make highly it unlikely that I will read a another.
2604807
If I'd known there would be ghosts in the plot, I'd never have bought the book.  However, I didn't know, and so read along reasonably happily until about half way through when the ghosts started to appear, at which point the book fell apart for me. Loaded with not to be believed twists and ridiculous coincidences,  the last half was a real disappointment.  The writing is decent, and that's what kept me skimming through to the end, I suppose.  I do not think I would buy another book by this author.
2257488
After the first two episodes, the word "SOULMATE" haunted me. This show felt MADE for me! But it went downhill with the Halloween episodes and hasn't recovered. Ghosts riding in cars, meeting at Starbucks and constantly dry-humping teens is a little too much for me. It lost its sweet subtlety.

I also don't like the Columbine parallels. This is not the right platform to tell that story even a little bit. One of the teenage ghosts quotes one of the murderers asking a victim, "Do you believe in God?" - not cool. To make it worse, when the flashback appears of Tate killing everyone the writers forgot to include that line when he kills the girl. Ugh. Bad on several levels.

Jessica Lange deserves an award for her role though - AMAZING!!! I really want this show to be good and maybe it'll improve by the second season. Right now it's filled with way too many implausibilities - even for a ghost story.
44601
Too much relationship drama and not enough mystery solving. The monster is magically conjured, not unmasked. This movie is trying to be something it isn't! Scared my 7 year old and irritated my teen. Disappointed. We are huge Scooby fans:( Sticking with vintage Scooby for a while.
898639
Coulda been a lot scarier. Seriously, not that many movies have a ghost like this one.
If they had played up her gruesome appearance more, it might have produced some
good scares.

Shoulda been more dramatic. The matriarch's dark secret is truly heinous, and
would've given the movie a more powerful jolt of drama. Instead, it takes a backseat
to the (sic) ghost story.

Woulda been a better movie, had it decided what it
wanted to be: drama, horror or suspense.
4777330
Denis McEoin a.k.a. Jonathan Aycliffe a.k.a. Daniel Easterman relies on a common theme in many of his ghostly novels, i.e. child abuse taken to the grave and beyond.  "Naomi's Room" (1991) and the author's later novel, "The Vanishment" (1993) both expand on this theme and both have first-person narrators who may or may not be involved in foul deeds himself.

Jonathan Aycliffe keeps cranking out the supernatural shocks in "Naomi's Room."  Even though I could sometimes guess what was coming, I had put down this book several times and tell myself, "It's only fiction," before I could keep on reading.  A couple of really bad scenes:

* The narrator is awakened by the thump-thump of something being dragged into the attic, and realizes that his wife is no longer in bed with him.

* A news photographer shows the narrator photographs of his house in Cambridge.  Yeah, there are ghosts peering out of the attic, but also the narrator's wife who he knows was not in Cambridge at the time.

There is a great deal of foreshadowing in this novel, which is to be expected since the narrator is telling his story many years after it took place.  In spite of all of the hints that the author drops, the book's ending is still a shock.  We know that he wakes up in the darkness, night after night, hearing noises, sometimes seeing horrors that he only hints at.  Why does he stay in the house?  Is love or guilt chaining him to the house where so many macabre deeds were performed?

Aycliffe brings in one character toward the end of the novel that I don't think he really needed--if he's already driving the plot forward through the actions of evil ghosts, why drag in evil men?  Also the narrator's attempts to sidetrack the police by leaving fingerprints about from a few detached fingers he happens to have in his possession didn't strike me as something that would fool a CID man for very long.

In spite of the questionable fingerprints and maybe an extra character or two, "Naomi's Room" is a very haunting story.  If a movie is ever made of it, I don't think I could nerve myself up to watch it, even in company with a theatre-full of other people.
4460107
I am a bit disappointed by this one. I really enjoyed Beauty and the Bookworm, and I honestly expected this short one to be as funny as the first one. But it lacked the freshness of the first book. I did not like Mason at all in this one, or the dynamics of his relationship with Shane. His comments on Shanes gullibility seem cruel. He seems to be bored and a bit fed up with him, the vibe is that of a couple on the brink of splitting. On the other hand, the ghost story is scary and entertaining. So the story achieves its goal at the frightening level but it fails in the emotional one. So bad!
3079376
This book has monsters that are very scary, but in a certain way... created, icky, scatological, repulsive, calling forth the human horror of the disgusting.  Example:  the creature (spoiler) is a sort of combinatorial of multiple animals encountered, with a wolf's head and other animal parts and many legs - somewhat like one of the creatures in Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson, but made horrible.  Also made nonsensical, sadly.

Here is a quote:  "Meat from many species of animal all crushed together, the bones jutting slantwise... elements of fish, of serpents --- the head of a wolf hung off one side; its eyes had been sucked out and added to the muscat bunch that stared woodenly from the thing's chest."

That is a partial description of the horrible beastie.  If that scares you or creeps you out, this book is for you.  If that is jejune "horror" then skip.

The plot is non-sensible.  A group of mercenaries on a mission stumble into the horror that encompasses a small town... a troop of heroes against the horror.  They have titles...

The book covers the town of Little Heaven during different eras, as this thing creeps in the background.  There are "shootists". This all feels phony.  Things go "thump".  The writer literally has things go thump.

At a certain point, the horror slows down so that a creepy sense of the brooding "Black Rock" can affect the towns people....

This reads like a 9th grade creative writing project.
315683
When you watch a ghost story, you expect some spooks, chills and a few explanations about the backstory.

What you get in Room 205 is a sometimes badly dubbed film that lacks any scare effect.

Katrine is a troubled young woman who moves away from home after her mother's death. There, she discovers spiteful housemates who want to make her life hell after a bad hook up. During a rave, a ghost suddenly awakens and sets out to destroy them all.

As I watched this film, I kept waiting for that AH-HA moment - the one that pulls everything together in an intriguing twist. I also expected a few scares. I got non of that. The plot was seriously underdeveloped. There were obvious directions it could have gone, but everything was just, well, very dull.

Perhaps this works for European audiences, but it is not for the American horror fan. Save your cash for other Ghost House titles.
3743452
Not the best Stephen King movie-from-fiction I've ever seen. The plot is simple. A hack writer who likes to write books about haunted places gets a recommend about a particular hotel room -- 1408 in The Dolphin. The head concierge of the hotel tries to talk him out of staying the night, but this writer has heard everything before. He's a complete nonbeliever and very angry. He refuses to listen, and stays in the room.

The rest is just an escalating series of supernatural events, climax and denouement. I won't detail it all because too many spoilers. I didn't think the events were all that imaginative. Stephen King can do and has done -- much better work. I thought the events in the haunted room were poorly strung together and rather plotless. I don't like being creeped out just for the sake of being creeped out. There needs to be a reason, a story -- something -- that can connect me to the haunts and weirdness. This was disconnected. I laughed through a lot of it because it was so over-the-top for no particular reason that I could discover. I liked the hack writer goes to haunted hotel beginning --that was a good place to start. But then it deteriorated.
1197320
The first part of this is the Amityville Horror, only not as cool as the original -- James Brolin falling to pieces and freezing to death, can't even compare.  The make believe Ed and Lorraine Warren just makes this sack of crap even worse and offers it a false authenticity.  The smell of rotten meat could indicate demonic activity?  Check the garbage disposal first.  Maybe there are rats dying in the walls.  I only watched this because some website I ran across put in on the list of "Best Horror Movies Of All Time."  Not feeling horrified here.  Despite all of the current fol-de-rol, there are really only two things you need to know to locate restless spirits -- cold air, and a medium who doesn't have his or her head up their ass. The cold air results because the entities need energy to manifest, so they take energy out of warm air and leave it cold.  If this movie scares you, I hate to have to tell you this, but you are pretty wimpy.  I did enjoy the slamming on the walls, kids being dragged across the floor, and tinkling music box Poltergeist moments, although the Lorraine/Mom Poltergeist moments are pretty lame.  Then, of course, we have the Exorcist moments aimed at the little girl -- how very original.  And the door hammering straight out of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. and the equally good movie "The Haunting."  I had a nice nap through the rest of t.
3923467
Freaky.there is way too much emphasis on the characters. Needs improving