Tag: Horror

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1) by Kerri Maniscalco

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper #1) by Kerri Maniscalco

Having a library card is the best thing in the world. After seeing this book on a few Instagram pages, I was lured in by the cover and title.

I wasn’t really sure I wanted to buy it though so I put a hold on it at my local library. After waiting three weeks for it to be returned, I was finally able to pick it up!

This is one of those times that I am so thankful for library cards.

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world (summary from Goodreads).
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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

by The Lit Bitch9 Comments on Review: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King

Well it was bound to happen at some point in my literary review career…..the dreaded DNF (did not finish) tag. But little did I know that this would happen to one book that I was convinced I would love.

When I finished the A Song of Ice and Fire AKA Game of Thrones series, I was longing for something similar and just as epic. I can’t tell you how many times The Dark Tower series was recommended…..countless times.

I have it in paperback and on my iPad, that’s how much I wanted to read it. I even waited until the mood was perfect and I was ready to get into an epic. And with the first trailer for the film being released recently, I knew the time was right for me to start this one.

So on a rainy spring Saturday morning, I sat down to start this long awaited novel….and then it happened…..the question looming in my mind…..what the f*ck am I reading?

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman

by The Lit Bitch4 Comments on Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman

After reading Up To This Pointe earlier this month, I was dying to read something else set in the ‘north’ or in the ‘cold’.

The Golden Compass has been on my TBR shelf forever and now seemed like the perfect time to read it since it features the Northern Lights and the north pole as well as a host of other things!

Lyra Belacqua has been raised at Oxford’s, Jordan College, most of her young life. It is here that two very important people come to visit. the first is her uncle, Lord Asriel, who is an explorer and who has just returned from the north with some dangerous findings.

Lord Asriel suspects that there is an alternative universe on the Northern Lights which he believes he can access. Lord Asriel intends to venture back to the north to continue his research, immediately.

The other visitor is Mrs Coulter, who is put in charge of Lyra. Mrs Coulter is cultured, rich, and charismatic…..she too is an explorer and has a scientific operation in the north. Mrs Coulter intends to take Lyra to the north with her but not before she ‘grooms’ Lyra and gets her accustom to London society.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

I am not really into horror literature or super scary stories….I haven’t read any Stephen King or V.C. Andrews because I would like to be able to sleep at night.

However this Halloween season, I got inspired to pickup a ghost story. Maybe it’s because I went to watch Crimson Peak and was eager to read something similar…..but I decided to pick up The Woman in Black as I am a sucker for Gothic novels so this sounded right up my alley.

Arthur Kipps is a young London solicitor who has been dispatched to the small windswept town of Crythin Gifford with its salt marshes and fog that rolls in and leaves the town feeling rather ghostly. Kipps is there to attend a funeral and settle the affairs of his client, Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House.

Mrs. Drablow’s crumbling old house stands at the end of Nine Lives Causeway, a small strip of land that leaves the house cut off from the rest of the town at high tide. It’s a house cloaked in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows.

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Books, Random, Reading

Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween

by The Lit Bitch4 Comments on Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and this week on The Lit Bitch we are talking about the books that make you want to curl up and hide under the covers of your bed. You know those books that scare you so bad that every little noise in your house makes you jump and wonder….is there a monster under my bed???

The folks at Casper Mattresses have a great blog called Pillow Talk and they are doing a super fun ‘haunted’ feature on their blog for Halloween where they talk about spooky hotels (including the Heathman Hotel in Portland, a personal fav of mine being from Oregon and all). Casper is a great company full of fellow bibliophiles like myself and they asked me to share what books I have read that have kept me up at night to celebrate Halloween!

I haven’t read a lot of ‘horror stories’ but I have read a few classic novels that certainly belong in the ‘spine tingling’ literary canon and I also added a few other books that were so suspenseful that I found myself jumping at any little noise. I am sure there are a lot of other creepy-tastic books out there that I am forgetting…..Stephen King comes to mind and I’ll be honest….I want to read Stephen King but I’m a little too scared! If you have a favorite scary book that makes you want to hide under your covers please share it in the comments below!

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