Tag Archives: Supernatural

Slade House

Posted on by

Slade House by David Mitchell

Book of the Week: 6 October 2019

Illustrations by Neal Murren

October is a month when temperatures drop and the clocks go back and our thoughts might turn to reading something chilling whilst sat by a warm radiator. This month’s book is an adult book for older readers – the disturbingly creepy Slade House by David Mitchell.

It’s 1979 and thirteen year old Nathan Bishop and his mother are headed to Slade House to attend Lady Norah Grayer’s musical soirée. Whilst his mother plays music with the adults, Nathan meets Jonah, Lady Grayer’s son, and they play a chasing game around the outside of the house. Nathan sometimes notices a shimmering effect in the air around him and sees that the small, black door through which they entered the garden of the house, is looking faint and dim. Jonah invites him upstairs where they pass several portraits and an old, grandfather clock. He draws level with the final portrait and sees it is a painting of himself but with black holes where his eyes should be. What is going on in Slade House? We and Nathan very shortly discover to our horror.

The story then skips ahead to 1988 where a police officer is investigating the cold case of the disappearance of Nathan and Rita Bishop in 1979. This sets the pattern for a regular change of narrators, but without losing any of nail-biting tension or sympathy with the characters, even when some of them are less than likeable.

The book manages to be unsettling, cleverly-constructed and funny all at the same time. If you enjoy it, try The Bone Clocks by the same author.

Note that Slade House is a book with adult content, strong language and disturbing scenes.

If you enjoy the feeling of the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, there are two current displays you could choose from in the Library.

SHIVER! classics and modern literary fiction

HANUTED! Creepy stories in the fiction section

The Rest of Us Just Live Here

Posted on by

the_rest_of_us_just_live_here_patrick_ness_cover

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Book of the Week: 6 September 2015

If you are not the central character in a dystopian story who has special powers and masses of courage, then you are probably like the ‘rest of us’, plodding along in your everyday life. Mikey, the central character of this book, is one of ‘the rest of us’.  He lives in small-town America with his parents and two sisters and  just wants to date the girl of his dreams, get on with his friends and graduate from high school. Sadly, his town is also inhabited by ‘indie kids’ who attract the kind of supernatural goings-on that we read about in fiction. Sometimes these events leak out into the real world and result in death and destruction. Strangely enough, the cataclysmic happenings are sometimes the least of Mikey’s worries, as ordinary life has given him an alcoholic dad, a career politician of a mother, a sister who was anorexic, and some confusing feelings about Henna, who he has been in love with for years, and Jared his best friend. Also, he suffers with bouts of obsessive-compulsive behaviour.

Mikey’s experiences are realistic, touching, often quite funny and form the major part of the book. The supernatural part of the story is confined to chapter headings and and some scattered incidents. If you enjoy the writing of John Green or liked ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ by Stephen Chbosky then this is a must-read.

Patrick Ness has a brand new website here.

The Dark Inside

Posted on by

The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallis

Book of the Week: 31 May 2015

Dark Inside

James has been left with his violent stepfather after the death of his mother. He escapes from the misery of home by spending time in an abandoned house and it’s here that he meets Webster, an ex-soldier on the run from some travellers who want to do him harm. The travellers, a thug called Billy and his witch-like mother, believe that Webster is something more than a man. As Webster himself says, ‘Not everything in this world is what it seems. Not gold. Or men. Or even boys, come to that.’ James and Webster form a bond and together they try to avoid the clutches of the wily Billy and his creepy mother.

This is a tense thriller filled with menace, unsettling characters and supernatural elements. James’s life of constant threat is reminiscent of Zinny’s in Night Runner by Tim Bowler but reviewers have compared the book to Skellig by David Almond, due to the enigmatic character of Webster and his multi-layered relationship with James.

The author answers questions about his book here without giving too much away.

Bitter Sixteen

Posted on by

Bitter Sixteen by Stefan Mohamed

Book of the Week: 10 May 2015

Bitter Sixteen
Whilst most of us have sometimes wished we have superpowers, or were the sort of hero who could fight multiple bullies, fly and move things with our minds, we might not imagine this kind of hero lives in a small town in Mid-Wales. Stanly Bird is an unremarkable fifteen year-old who likes reading and who has just got a part in the school play, when on the first minute of his sixteenth birthday he finds himself floating above his bed. This gives him more of a shock than the fact that he has owned a talking dog for the last twelve months. Daryl is no ordinary talking dog, he is a big film fan and provider of sound advice to Stanly. His wise council is needed more than ever now that Stanly has to come to terms with his growing powers and his attraction to Kloe, his co-star in the school production of Romeo and Juliet.
Events start to get serious when a confrontation at school means than Stanly moves to London to find his cousin Eddie, someone his parents seem to disapprove of without telling him why. Things then take on a much more superhero-like feel as hints of supernatural monsters and sinister onlookers, who may or may not be out to manipulate Stanly and even do him harm, start to appear.
The plot has many elements that are familiar from the superhero genre but the style is sparky and funny with some wonderful turns of phrase and two excellent characters in Stanly and Daryl. The first half of the book is quite leisurely but builds to some exciting, gory and sometimes disturbing, action scenes.
Two more books are planned in the series: ‘Ace of Spiders’ and ‘Stanly’s Ghost’. Stefan Mohamed is an author to watch.
See a brief book trailer here

The Whispering Skull

Posted on by

9780857532657The Whispering Skull (Book 2: Lockwood & Co.)

by Jonathan Stroud

Book of the Week: 1 March 2015

The second book in the series that is a cross between Ghostbusters and Sherlock Holmes, features the intrepid ghost-hunters of 35 Portland Row being asked to guard the coffin of Edmund Bickerstaff, a doctor who was suspected of grave-robbing and witchcraft. This proves to be disastrous and results in the freeing of an evil spirit and an ancient and deadly artefact being stolen from the grave. Lockwood, George and Lucy must track down the artefact, win their bet with their rivals, the Fittes Agency, and avoid some ruthless enemies. Whether they will do any of this is in grave doubt and things are not helped by a talking skull imprisoned in a jar that exerts an increasingly sinister hold over Lucy.

As in the first book, the ghosts are murderous, a London infested with spirits that can only be vanquished by children is detailed and convincing, and the characters are well-drawn. Anthony Lockwood is arrogant, mysterious and brilliant; George is messy and geeky, and Lucy is trying to develop her supernatural gifts whilst being increasingly fascinated by the enigmatic Lockwood. The banter between the characters is sarcastic and frequently very funny and the plot has plenty of action and gory thrills.

The author’s website is here