Slap Happy Fun Time

    Peacemaker #1 3 out of 5 stars                                                                                                I had been doing some comic reviews on another blog I used to use but it seemed to make more sense to move them here. This one is used for book reviews and stuff so why not do comic reviews? They're still books, right? Why not include comic reviews and other comic book related stuff. I read a lot of books and I also read a lot of comics so why can't I do both? You may have a few book snobs who will no doubt frown upon comics being listed among real books, but if you've seen the stuff I read you're probably thinking I'm insane anyway and besides, we could all use a day without our cellphones and just relax on a rainy day with a big ass stack of comics.        Let's get this big old ball rolling with my first comic review on this here blog. Why Peacemaker? Why the hell not? As a fan and collector of comics, I spend a lot of time

      The Haunting at Foxwood Village - Kasey Hill 3/5 stars                                                                                                                                                                     Ghost stories aren't new to fiction and it's hard to keep the genre moving  forward when your subject could be a simple mental condition disguised as something paranormal. I'm not saying that's the case here, but it does follow the usual tropes of paranormal fiction to attract readers while giving you something to think about as you read it. A great ghost story will have you questioning everything you're reading and feel a connection to the persons or persons dealing with the haunting. Kasey's book is interesting and downright creepy at times. It's a typical ghot story with a series hook that has a decent twist at the end. It's a twist you don't see coming, and when you finally get to the big reveal it's jarring becaus

Along Came A Spider - James Patterson 3-5 stars                                                                         It's interesting how you return to a book you've already read and your opinion changes after a long absence. For a long time I was an Alex Cross junkie and devoured the series any chance I could. When I began to read Along Came A Spider I was ready for greatness, ready for that James Patterson rush I used to get everytime I cracked open one of his books. Is it as good as I remember? Yes, and no. Patterson's first Cross novel is an intro of sorts. You get to meet Alex and even meet an sinister guy who's kidnapped a couple of famous kids. Patterson's style is easy to read and focuses more on action than storytelling. Cross is likeable enough but it's Soneji who steals the first half of the book. You can't help but either like or hate this guy but then as the novel wears on, there's a few more layers added to the novel. What seems

         When it comes to suspense thrillers  there are a lot of names that come up but no one had the appeal that James Patterson had. For a while he was a machine pumping out books that were compelling pieces of fiction. At the time, no one wrote like Patterson which allowed him to carve out his own place on the best seller lists. What I loved the most was just how easy the books were to read, and on top of that Patterson had a knack for keeping the plots simple and easy to follow. To make the experience even more interesting  there were two viewpoints that allowed you to see the story from a variety of angles.You had Cross' narrative and then throughout the story there were others that were far darker and got  you into the mind of the villain. For me, it was the style I gravitated toward. Sure, Patterson kept the chapter short and he didn't use overdrawn flowery language, but that was the point. The Cross novels  were designed to be read  by everyone, and they were. When I r

Vox - Christina Dalcher 2/5 stars                                                                      Sometimes you hear about a book and you instantly think, yeah I need to read that. When I heard about Vox there were a lot of comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, 1984, but the sad part is that Vox isn't in the same ballpark as any of those books. It wants to be, and it tries really hard, but all it has going for it is the theme of government gone amok and it could in a way happen anywhere. There is that small percentage of people who will tell you that the book is controversial, but when you read a book like this you kind of expect that. These are women are allowed to speak only one hundred words a day which sounds insane, and it is, but this is what happens when you want to change in politics and vote the wrong way. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? 1984 was a frightening book that changed the way we looked at our government, changed the way we viewed the world and the lan

When The Lights Go Out - Mary Kubica 5/5 stars                                                                       When Jessie's mother suddenly dies of cancer strange things begin to happen and then insomnia settles in and odd things begin to happen. A simple act sets off a chain reaction of events that force Jessie to question not only who she is, but everything she knows. Kubica has a knack for writing books that hurl a lot at you. While Jessie's story in itself is compelling you have her mother's journal adding other layers to the story and there comes a point where you really think you have it all figured out, but then you suddenly realize you were wrong. There are clues sprinkled throughout the story but they don't all fall into place until the end. It's a novel that keeps you guessing until the very last page. When The Lights Go Out seems like your normal, average suspense thriller, but Kubica is not the type of writer who seems content to be just a

The Luckiest Girl Alive - Jessica Knoll  2/5                                                                           Once you begin reading Jessica Knoll's novel the title begins to make sense. It's not an easy read and the things that Ani go through are horrible, and will no doubt make some readers uncomfortable. That's the intent, and Knoll is a decent writer, and the story itself is full of enough twists and turns to keep you reading, but it's the characters that keep this from being a must-read novel. Ani as an adult isn't all that interesting and is the kind of person you loathe on sight and while she's suffered more as a kid than anyone should, it's still not enough to make her likable. I kept reading this for the surprise twist at the end and well, the past and present cause you to feel bad for the fourteen-year-old Ani, but the perfection she strives for as an adult coupled with the shallow adult she is, drag the novel down. There's tha

The Woman In Our House - Andrew Hart 3/5 stars                                                                           I’ve often said that books like these are a bit like junk food and there’s nothing wrong with that. Junk food is what we all need from time to time and no matter what people say, we all love junk food. The more the better. A Woman In Our House is exactly what I love in a good thriller. It ticks off all the boxes that make a book like this a good, but predictable read and I swear the writers of these must have a checklist tacked up somewhere so they hit all the right spots. The important thing here is the characters. They are the glue that holds these books together, and the plot may be predictable, but it has to connect with the reader somehow. Without the connection, and the characters it’s not going to work. That connection makes or breaks the book and that is the key to a good thriller.                 Hart had written a book that follows the blueprin

The Cabin At The End Of The World - Paul Tremblay 5/5 stars                                                                          Paul Tremblay I would like to say that I hate you and I love you at the same time. We all love and hate authors. It's nothing new but this hate stems from the way he writes and makes it impossible to stop reading even after he begins to make you uncomfortable. His books slowly build tension while taking in directions you don't want to go yet have no choice. Cabin isn't a simple novel and all I can say is that it's about a home invasion and the apocalypse. The rest is up to you discover and figure out on your own. Tremblay takes two simple genres and creates something we haven't seen before which is the mark of a great author. Each turn of the page gets you closer and closer to the darkness. This is a guy who creates characters you become familiar with, you even like them. You can even almost believe Leonard when he says he does

Doctor Sleep - Stephen King 2/5 stars                                                                     Let's skip the obvious question here because it's already been answered a million times. If anything, The Shining is one of Stephen King's greatest novels so a sequel has to live up to that and sadly, Doctor Sleep does not. When King is good, he's damn good but when he's bad, you get a book like Doctor Sleep. I will go on record as saying that this is the worst book that King has ever written. You'd have more fun watching paint dry than reading this shitty sequel. What makes me so angry is that everyone kept telling me it was going to get better towards the end, but they lied to me. The plot twist? That really pissed me off and if you have ever read a King novel during his glory days you know just how awesome King can be. Here it's like he's not even trying. The book has a few moments where you think it's going to pick up and even gives y

The Shining - Stephen King 5/5 stars                                                                    It's hard to believe that The Shining was released forty-five years ago and surprisingly it's held up well. Not only is it one of the greatest horror novels ever written, but also one of the greatest novels ever written. Reading Stephen King's third book is at times exhausting given the amount of detail he provides. While some may say it's overkill, it's an essential part of the story. These are people we get to know so well it what happens to them even more frightening. King's writing style is what makes this so damn good. It elevates it from just a haunted hotel story to a story about the slow destruction of a family. The isolation of the Torrance's is told well and you feel as if you're experiencing it with them. This is a novel that isn't just a story about a scary hotel. That's what everyone remembers about the book, but it's mo