Book Review: The Child Thief

The Child Thief by Brom

Release Date: August 25th, 2009

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Format of Novel: Paperback

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Summary (From good reads): Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief—and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life, but his promised land is not Neverland. Fourteen-year-old Nick would have been murdered by the drug dealers preying on his family had Peter not saved him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive and you never grow old. Even though he is wary of Peter's crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, New York City is no longer safe for him, and what more could he possibly lose?

There is always more to lose.

Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries—one where he must learn to fight or die among the "Devils," Peter's savage tribe of lost and stolen children.

There, Peter's dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised and hunted, Peter moves restlessly between the worlds of faerie and man. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to stop the "Flesh-eaters" and save the last, wild magic in this dying land.

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After finally re discovering my love for the classic Peter Pan, I began my search for amazing retellings of it. And after reading this book, I feel in utter love for Brom's writing. His style brought such a dark imagery and realistic vibe and as a reader of horror, I was in love with the concept. The concept of the Pan myth, the concept of Avalon/Babylon, and the religious aspects were a perfect blend of this gory tale. Not only that, I did also enjoy how realistic the vibes and the settings were in this story. Brom brought out

The cast of characters were very twisted and dangerous. Each of the key characters like Nick, Peter, Leroy, (etc) all came from various of difficult backgrounds with abuse and drug usage. The way Brom brought this to life was very well done and eye opening for the reader to emerge into the darkness that was morph throughout his writing and within the characters, and to also understand where some of the main cast came from before joining Peter Pan. Sekiu

With the general concept of Avalon/Babylon; I enjoyed the fact that the author was able to blend it along with the mythical ideal of the god Pan. It gave Peter a somewhat different purpose other than being a trickster. It reminded me of the movie "Horns" with Daniel Radcliffe with the protagonist turning into a twisted hero for the viewer's pleasure.

Overall, I thought this story to be one of the best stories I've read in late 2015 to now. The story twisted my heart in both exciting and depressing ways for the characters, the plot, and the vivid descriptions are still within my memory and I'm dying to read more of Brom's brilliant work. What are your opinions on Brom's work in general? Let me know in the comments below or on twitter and I'll be back soon with another post. Happy Howling! :)

Book Review: Blood and Salt

Blood and Salt: Written by Kim Liggett

Release Date: September 22nd, 2015

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Format of Novel: Hardcover

Rating: 4/5 stars

Summary (from good reads): When you fall in love, you will carve out your heart and throw it into the deepest ocean. You will be all in—blood and salt.” These are the last words Ash Larkin hears before her mother returns to the spiritual commune she escaped long ago. But when Ash follows her to Quivira, Kansas, something sinister and ancient waits among the rustling cornstalks of this village lost to time.

Ash is plagued by memories of her ancestor, Katia, which harken back to the town’s history of unrequited love and murder, alchemy and immortality. Charming traditions soon give way to a string of gruesome deaths, and Ash feels drawn to Dane, a forbidden boy with secrets of his own.

As the community prepares for a ceremony five hundred years in the making, Ash must fight not only to save her mother, but herself—and discover the truth about Quivira before it’s too late. Before she’s all in—blood and salt

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This was one of books I was dying to read this book for a period of time because I love me some horror romance. Coming from a person that enjoys that genre, I decided to take a gander at this novel. Meaningless to say, I did enjoy it quite a bit. It was fast pace and I giggled at some of the chapter names even though I wasn't suppose too. The concept of the story was gripping and suspenseful, considering the elements of a cult and alchemy, I was able to be pleasantly surprise by the events Ashlyn and her twin brother endured while trying to save their mother from becoming a vessel for their ancestor.

The pacing of the story was spot on, though I was slowly loosing interesting because I wanted it to have more suspense into it and a couple of the twists were predictable. But, the significant ones were executed quite nicely. I enjoyed the main cast of characters very much, they were out of it yet a perfect fit for this time of duology.

The only main problem I did have with Blood and Salt was that this book reminded me too much of the Mara Dyer trilogy. It was probably because of the mind bending stuff we see in that trilogy, but I think I had too high of an expectation for this book since Mara Dyer was such a beautiful crafted novel for psychological thrillers in my opinion.

All in all, I found this debut novel compelling, suspenseful, and interesting due to the occult elements that this book. I thought it did lack a little with the twists, but otherwise, I fairly enjoyed this novel. I eagerly await for the sequel that will released next year and possibly other novels from this author as well if she continues her writing in the horror genre.

Online Story Review: A Little Insane-Building a Monster

A Little Insane- Building A Monster: Written by Amyscene
Location of Story: WattPad.com
Number of Chapters: Fourteen
Part of a Series?: Yes.
Summary from WattPad: Hart is supposed to be alone. His dark world has no room for another. Especially not his new victim, Riley. But this time it's different, and there's no going back once this twisted romance unveils
~First book to a series~
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I figure that I'll post a different type of review today since I didn't post as much last week. In this particular review, I am going to focus on a story I quickly fell in love with on watt pad. I shall warn you now, this is a boyxboy/yaoi/male slash story and if you are not into these sort of stories-- then don't read it or read this review.

Any who, let me first say that I absolutely LOVE the cover! It's so beautiful and matches the story as a whole. Feel free to cover lust of Amyscene's talent. Haha. Now, the story in general at a glance feels like a typical thriller/slash feel within the content. However, once you got further into the plot, holy crow its so different because:
 Cue the paranormal and mind blowing undertones!

Its so dark and gory. It's beautiful with character development between Riley and Hart, the romance is creepy yet so right when dealing with a story like this, and the secrets. Man oh man the deep secrets behind Hart's motives with Riley so crazy and confusing, it will keep you wanting to read more and more. That being said, let's talk about the two focused characters. Now I won't go into full details considering this is the first book to Amyscene's series, but I'll give you a small insight on them.

When the story begins, we are introduced to Hart right away. He is know to be very violent, intelligent, and very fashionable in a way. Right away, you can see that he possesses the typical traits of a serial killer, so when we see the interaction between him and Riley, we can tell right away what's going to happen. Yet as the story goes deeper into the mystery depth of it, Hart has a struggling personality, as a reader, you shouldn't connect with him since he is the 'main' villain, but at the same time, you can sympathize with him because he leaves off a vibe that makes you want to hug him till you physically can't breathe, especially with the moments with Riley. Now before I end this review, let's talk about Riley.

Riley is the victim in the story, yet somehow readers like myself can probably feel that he's something completely different the more you read it. I personally enjoy Riley because of how he tries to get to know Hart and trying to escape the house that he's held captive in. He's a sweetheart and I just want to hug him. Amyscene really knows how to create innocent yet crazed male characters and I really look forward to reading the sequel to this series. I'll see you guys later and here is the link to Amyscene's watt pad account. Feel free to take a glance at it and at mine too. Happy howling!

Amyscene's watt pad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/Amyscence
Mine: http://www.wattpad.com/user/xRayneWolfx