My First DNF of 2023... Deep Black Sea by David M. Salkin

Title: Deep Black Sea

Series: Deep Black Sea #1

Author: David M. Salkin

Genre: Adult, horror

Publication date: June 2014

Published by: Permuted Press

Source: Borrowed ebook from library

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Synopsis: A crew of seven aboard a specially designed research submarine sit three miles down in the dark world beneath the sea. When they bring aboard the bacteria that enables certain animals to survive in the seven-hundred degree poisonous water of the black smoker, they have no idea that one of the researchers plans on using them as his test subjects.

My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Good god... this book ruined my mood for aquatic horror, and as a mood reader, I don't appreciate that. Lol.

Review: The Suffering (The Girl from the Well #2) by Rin Chupeco

Title: The Suffering

Series: The Girl from the Well #2

Previous book in this series: The Girl from the Well

Author: Rin Chupeco

Genre: YA, paranormal, horror

Publication date: September 8, 2015

Published by: Sourcebooks Fire

Source: For review from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis:

Over the last year I've gone against faceless women, disfigured spirits, and grotesque revenants. Some people keep dangerous hobbies; skydiving and driving at monster truck rallies and glacier surfing. Me? I cast my soul into the churning waters of potential damnation and wait for a bite.

It’s been two years since Tark Halloway’s nightmare ended. Free from the evil spirit that haunted him all his life, he now aids the ghostly Okiku and avenges the souls of innocent children by hunting down their murderers. But when Okiku becomes responsible for a death at his high school, Tark begins to wonder if they’re no better than the killers they seek out.

When an old friend disappears in Aokigahara, Japan’s infamous ‘suicide forest’, both must resolve their differences and return to that country of secrets to find her.

Because there is a strange village inside Aokigahara, a village people claim does not exist. A village where strange things lie waiting.

A village with old ghosts and an ancient evil – one that may be stronger than even Okiku...

My rating: ★★★★★
The Suffering... Weeeeeee! Not usually something you say about a horror book, but I loved it!

So this is a sequel/companion book to The Girl from the Well that is, this time around, told in the POV of Tark, yay! I loved him in the last book and loved him even more in this one! I also loved that it was a male POV, which I always find refreshing and feel there should be more of... Just saying.

Review: The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

Title: The Girl from the Well

Series: The Girl from the Well #1

Author: Rin Chupeco

Genre: YA, paranormal, horror

Publication date: August 2014

Published by: Sourcebooks Fire

Source: Borrowed from library

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Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis:

You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.

The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.

My rating: ★★★★☆
It's no surprise that I love horror. What is a surprise is that this book was completely off my radar until I saw the sequel. So I immediately fixed that and read Girl from the Well! I heard/saw somewhere that this was kind of like a cross between the movies The Ring and The Exorcist, and I agree! It very much was like them! It's one of the reasons why I was initially drawn to this series, and I'm so glad I read it 'cause it was awesome! One thing I didn't know was that Girl from the Well and The Ring are both based on the same myth/legend! So awesome! Even more great is that this book is told in the POV of the killer ghost! :D It was such a unique perspective that I quite loved and one I wish happened more often. And, okay, before you start freaking out, this ghost only goes after child killers, as she herself was murdered way back when. The concept was just fantastic, to say the least.

Review: Ten by Gretchen McNeil

Title: Ten

Author: Gretchen McNeil

Genre: YA, mystery thriller, horror

Publication date: September 2012

Published by: Balzer + Bray

Source: Own paperback

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Synopsis:

SHHHH!
Don't spread the word!
Three-day weekend. Party at White Rock House on Henry Island.
You do NOT want to miss it.

It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives—an exclusive house party on Henry Island. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their reasons for being there (which involve T.J., the school’s most eligible bachelor) and look forward to three glorious days of boys, booze and fun-filled luxury.

But what they expect is definitely not what they get, and what starts out as fun turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.

Suddenly people are dying, and with a storm raging, the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?

My rating: ★★★★☆
In this thrilling story, ten kids are invited to a weekend long party on Henry Island. The only way to get there is by boat or ferry, and it's pretty much deserted, with only one other house on the island. No parents and an island practically all to themselves--it's supposed to be fun, right? Wrong! The day after they all arrive, they start dying one by one. Could one of them be the killer? Or is someone else in the house with them, picking them off? *cue suspenseful music*

Review: Shinigami Eyes by Cheree & Adam Smith

Title: Shinigami Eyes

Series: Book #1

Author: Cheree & Adam Smith

Genre: YA, paranormal, horror

Publication date: October 2014

Published by: Dark Cherry Press

Source: E-book for review from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis:

Most children hope to grow out of their imaginary friends.

17-year-old Rin Waters’ only hope is that hers doesn’t kill someone, especially when said imaginary friend puts a boy in a coma. Finding herself shipped half-way around the world—to Japan, of all places—she is forced to live with grandparents she hasn’t seen for ten years and a cousin she can’t even remember.

Rin would rather just forget about the one night that ruined her life and pretend her imaginary friend doesn’t exist—if it was only that easy. When manga-obsessed otaku, Matt, won’t stop pestering her about a manga that sees the future and the tragic accident she’ll be involved in if she doesn’t listen to him, pretending becomes quite a challenge.

Suddenly mysterious accidents begin to happen to students in her school, and Rin has to wonder what length Matt is willing to go to prove his manga is real. Is it all a sham or is there really something that wants to see Rin and her new friends dead?

My rating: ★★★☆☆
After a freak accident surrounding one of her classmates (where everyone blames her, but it was really her "imaginary" friend), Rin's mother sends her to live in Japan with her grandparents and cousin. Her grandfather is super strict and her grandmother is distant. Rin doesn't feel welcome at all, but at least her cousin, Haruka, seems happy to have her there. Things go from miserable to plain weird when she meets Matt, one of her classmates at her new school who claims to have a manga that can tell the future. Said manga actually seems to be focusing around Rin's life, with freak accidents and deaths coming at them left and right. What is going on? Rin and Matt team up to figure out what the hell is going on before either one of them, or any of their friends, is next.

Blog Tour- Review + Giveaway: Horror Business by Ryan Craig Bradford

Title: Horror Business

Author: Ryan Craig Bradford

Genre: YA, horror

Publication date: February 2015

Published by: Month9Books, LLC.

Source: E-book for review from Chapter by Chapter Tours

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Synopsis:

Armed with a passion for classic B-grade horror movies, a script co-written by his twin brother, and a wicked crush on his death-obsessed neighbor; hardcore horror fan Jason Nightshade must finish his student film.

But his plans are derailed when the children of suburban Silver Creek start disappearing – his twin brother among them. Battling a possessed video camera, a crazy zombie dog, a monstrous bully, and a frighteningly broken down family life, Jason embarks on a mission to find his lost brother so the two can write an ending for his story.

As an any horror fan knows, saving the day won't be easy, as Jason finds himself forced to face the real world where death isn't just a splash of fake blood on a camera lens.

My rating: ★★★☆☆
This one sounded like a lot of fun when I first heard about it, especially since I love horror, but it actually wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I do, however, commend it in its uniqueness. I've never read anything like this, so I really liked that!

Review: The Haunting Season by Michelle Muto

Title: The Haunting Season

Author: Michelle Muto

Genre: YA, horror

Publication date: December 2012

Published by: Dreamscapes, Ink

Source: Won e-book in a giveaway

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Synopsis:

Be careful what you let in...

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate... when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

"We all know we've been brought here as part of a study on the paranormal. Jess communicates wit the dead. Allison has demons on speed dial. My buddy Bryan here sends stuff to the Twilight Zone without return postage. And I've got a knack for making my own zombie zoo theme park. Fun times." -Gage

Jess is super excited to be participating in this study at Siler House. The house is beautiful and she might finally be getting answers to her weird power. Except her excitement soon turns to terror when she starts to realize that something horrible might be going on in the house... something sinister. Jess and her new friends try to figure out what in the world is really going on in the house, only to discover that there may be something more to the study than they could imagine. They need to get out of the house, and fast, before whatever evil thing that is lurking there gets to them.

Review: The Crawling Darkness (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #3) by J.L. Bryan

Title: The Crawling Darkness

Series: Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #3

Previous books in this series: Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper (#1) | Cold Shadows (#2)

Author: J.L. Bryan

Genre: Adult, paranormal, horror

Publication date: February 5th, 2015

Published by: J.L. Bryan

Source: E-ARC from author

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Synopsis:

Ghost removal specialist Ellie Jordan must face a dangerous, shape-shifting entity that she and Calvin have encountered once before, with tragic results. The spirit has the power to reach into the minds of living and feed on their fears, taking the shape of their worst nightmares, and it has awoken in search of new victims.

Now Ellie must try to succeed where she and her mentor failed before, and try to defeat the twisted and powerful old ghost before it can claim another soul for its collection.

My rating: ★★★★★
WARNING: Creepy pictures ahead!

With each book that comes out, this series just keeps getting better and better! This book was one of the best, if not the best, horror book I have ever read!