Read The Dead House in the day, unless you like nightmares, then by all means, go ahead. Don't say I didn't say, I didn't warn ya. #DarkSummerRead

The Dead House
Author: Dawn Kurtagich (Who, is awesome, just saying.)
Publication Date: August 6th, 2015
Publisher: Orion Children's Books 
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Part-psychological thriller, part-urban legend, this is an unsettling narrative made up of diary entries, interview transcripts, film footage transcripts and medical notes. Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High burned down. Three people were killed and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. Now a diary has been found in the ruins of the school. The diary belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly’s identical twin sister. But Carly didn’t have a twin . . . 

Re-opened police records, psychiatric reports, transcripts of video footage and fragments of diary reveal a web of deceit and intrigue, violence and murder, raising a whole lot more questions than it answers.

Who was Kaitlyn and why did she only appear at night? Did she really exist or was she a figment of a disturbed mind? What were the illicit rituals taking place at the school? And just what did happen at Elmbridge in the events leading up to ‘the Johnson Incident’?

Chilling, creepy and utterly compelling, THE DEAD HOUSE is one of those very special books that finds all the dark places in your imagination, and haunts you long after you've finished reading.

You guys know I love Psychological Thrillers and Horror, right? So having The Dead House as part Psychological Thriller and Horror? The Dead House couldn't get any more of a me book,  and it was one hell of a crazy ride, and honesty? Fucking whoa. That's pretty much what I was thinking the whole way through it.

Two words to appropriately sum up The Dead House (that isn't holy shit, because holy shit.) is psychologically disturbing. I'll get my issue out of the way because I only have one problem with it, and starting it, I thought that it would have been the format of how the story is told, but it wasn't. And it wasn't having a connection, like my major issue in books are, but it wasn't that either (not that I had a connection, because really, I don't expect it with the genre, especially because you can't trust any character. And I mean, any character. My main issues is that I felt two completely different things about the first half and the second half.

Review: The Glory

The Glory
Author: Lauren St. John
Publication Date: March 5th 2015        
Publisher: Orion Children's Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

From the bestselling author of The One Dollar Horse trilogy, a sensational, stand-alone equestrian thriller about a gruelling 1,200 mile race, a girl on the run from the law and a boy on a mission to save a life.

A Girl on the Run from the Law

Alexandra Blakewood has everything any teenager could wish for, apart from the horse she'd love, but she won't stop getting into trouble. Sent to a US boot camp, she dreams of escaping. It seems impossible until she's told about a gruelling 1,200 mile horse race across the American West...

A Boy on a Mission to Save a Life

Will Greyton was the star student at his Tennessee high school until his father was laid off. Now Will works at a burger joint. When his dad falls ill, it seems things can't get any worse. An operation will save him, but there's no way to pay for it. Then Will hears about The Glory, a deadly endurance race with a $250,000 purse, open to any rider daring enough to attempt it...

If The Glory would have stuck more to the Race and the Equestrian side of the story, I would've liked it a lot more than I did. Unfortunately, that's probably the only side of the book I did like. From the sub-plots, third person narrative, no connection and somewhat unlikeable characters and a insta-lust and insta-love romance, you could say I have a few issues with the book.

Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest

The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Publication Date: February 5th 2015        
Publisher: Indigo
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

First things first The Darkest Part of the Forest is completely charming and holy crap, I ship this book. I don't know where it changed for me, from thinking a three to four, that's not a full blown five. It's my first Holly Black, so maybe it's the writing, the enchanting feel, the characters, the story itself, or the story within a story, or the magical way everything just is. I'll tell you one thing, I'm not a lover of Fae books, I've tried a few of them but they're not my thing as such. So it takes a lot, and I mean a lot for me to get into it, and I got sucked in, so you win, book. You win.

Review: The Walled City

The Walled City
Author: Ryan Graudin
Publication Date: November 6th 2014
Publisher: Orion
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

730. That's how many days I've been trapped.
18. That's how many days I have left to find a way out.

DAI, trying to escape a haunting past, traffics drugs for the most ruthless kingpin in the Walled City. But in order to find the key to his freedom, he needs help from someone with the power to be invisible....

JIN hides under the radar, afraid the wild street gangs will discover her biggest secret: Jin passes as a boy to stay safe. Still, every chance she gets, she searches for her lost sister....

MEI YEE has been trapped in a brothel for the past two years, dreaming of getting out while watching the girls who try fail one by one. She's about to give up, when one day she sees an unexpected face at her window.....

In this innovative and adrenaline-fueled novel, they all come together in a desperate attempt to escape a lawless labyrinth before the clock runs out.

The Walled City is not a bad story. It has an important story to tell. Keep that in mind throughout this, but I don't think that story was highlighted as much as it should have been and was dragged down by other perspectives and a lot of inner monologue we didn't really need. For the first half, from each perspective, we basically had the same things happening, the same thoughts going on a loop that didn't seem to end up going anywhere. Like I said, it isn't a bad story, it has the foundations there to be that important story, but instead it only touched upon it.

Review: The Fall

 
The Fall
Author: Bethany Griffin
Publication Date: October 2nd 2014        
Publisher: Orion Childrens
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

For Madeline, the House of Usher is a nightmare to live in - but impossible to leave - in this brand new Gothic novel from Bethany Griffin, author of the Masque of the Red Death sequence.
Madeline and her twin brother Roderick have the Usher name, the Usher house - and the Usher disease. Something is wrong with the family's blood - and it seems to have spread to the house itself. Sometimes Madeline even thinks that the house is alive... When Roderick is sent away to school, the house seems to want revenge on the one member of the Usher family left behind: Madeline herself.

A gorgeous, eerie, darkly Gothic tale, THE FALL is guaranteed to intrigue and enthrall its readers, winning legions of new fans for the talented Bethany Griffin. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor, Becca Fitzpatrick and Cassandra Clare

I don't know much about The Fall of the House of Usher, and I think, in the case of The Fall it was better for me that way, since whereas it might be familiar to others, I got to see this story with fresh new eyes and it was delightfully strange.