strange and random happenstance

Before you even ask, yes, I will watch anything set in Wisconsin to sit in judgement on it. Because that's what a true Wisconsinite does. Which means, don't ever get me started on Picket Fences. And you know what, Revival was doing pretty good until episode eight wherein Wausau has magically acquired an Amtrak station. The lack of railways in Wisconsin, and the fact that the capital doesn't have a stop with the minimal Amtrak service there is is a very sore subject for the state's residents. As for the Milwaukee corridor rumors, bite me. And this plot point, which was kind of a major plot point, was just throwing salt in the wounds. But at least they avoided any mispronunciations, which is why I will forever hate Jack Trotter on The Gilded Age for his mangling of Peshtigo. I know I should feel so happy for him becoming rich and buying a house and everything, but I'm sorry, you can't pronounce the town where your mother died and you were presumably born!?! Plus, I'm additionally sorry that the Chicago fire took the focus away from Peshtigo, but, whatever, learn to pronounce it Jack. Because at least Revival redeemed itself for the Amtrak error by putting in a wicked Milwaukee Bucks burn in the finale that they had lost to the Indiana Pacers. Again. Seriously, if you're a Bucks fan, you feel this joke in your very soul. And has The Gilded Age done anything to make it up to me yet? No. It hasn't. Moving on, if I can, as a connoisseur of everything to do with my home state I had obviously heard about the graphic novel by Tim Seely and Mike Norton. Patrick Rothfuss put me on to it, and well, Patrick Rothfuss has really bad taste in reading material. Something I have painfully learned over time. I just didn't like it but at least I have since realized why Martha's nickname is Em. It's not Em it's "M." Get it? Anyway. So, this is a zombie story, so if you have zombie issues, maybe don't tune in. But even if you do have zombie issues, maybe try it anyway, because while this is a zombie story it's also about how we treat others and militias and religious zealotry and personal agency and MAGA and the CDC and all of that and it hits really close to the bone. Luckily though if you were one of the Revivers that came back from the dead that injury will heal right up. I'm a fan of zombie stories that try to tell a bigger tale, that about family and connection and identity and our place in the world, which is why I love iZombie and Shaun of the Dead so much. Because who says zombies have to be humorless? And while Revival does have it's more amusing moments this is a darker but far more fascinating tale. It's like a puzzle you're piecing together. There's a cold case but there's also this new miracle that's happened and how they connect is everything. And while we are given an ending and Martha's MAGA dipshit father is given a few glorious smackdowns, there is more to explore in this world. When reading that comic all those years ago I would never have thought I'd enjoy, let alone embrace, a show based on it, here I am. Just shows that many kinds of miracles were worked on this show. Plus the wrestler CM Punk is brutally murdered in an episode if that's your jam...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 7:23 PM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, CM Punk, Graphic Novel, iZombie, Jack Trotter, Mike Norton, Milwaukee Bucks, Patrick Rothfuss, Peshtigo, Picket Fences, Revivers, Shaun of the Dead, The Gilded Age, Tim Seely, Timely, Wausau, Wisconsin, Zombies

You've Got Red on You: How Shaun of the Dead Was Brought to Life by Clark Collis
Published by: 1984 Publishing
Publication Date: November 23rd, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 424 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Shaun of the Dead is one of those films like Twister that whenever you catch it on TV while flipping the channels you can't help but keep watching it. The humor, the pacing, the pathos, the music, everything is perfection. I dare you to listen to "Don't Stop Me Now" without wishing you had a pool cue in your hand. Of course it wasn't an easy film to make. At the time Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg were only known for their quirky cult comedy Spaced and here they were pitching a major motion picture that was very zombie niche. In fact, they would have been happy had this film only had an audience of one if that audience was George Romero. And if he liked it. They really wanted him to like it. This was an epic love letter to the man and the aesthetic he had created. But it took a lot of convincing to get everyone on board with their vision. At times the studio was pushing for "names." Which means, in an alternate universe Nick Frost isn't in this film but for some reason Gillian Anderson is. Which could have been a little awkward given how Tim Bisley felt about Dana Scully.... With new interviews from the cast and crew and complete access to Edgar Wright, You've Got Red on You shows a detailed behind the scenes picture of how this zomromcom came to life. The long hours shooting without air conditioning. The people whose entire job was just to maintain blood spatter continuity. What it's like being covered in blood spatter in that heat. The fact that David Bowie was really "funny" about the Labyrinth soundtrack and therefore a zombie was attacked with the Batman Soundtrack instead. I mean, Prince was their first choice, but it didn't hurt to have a backup. And then once the film was wrapped, would anyone watch it? Thankfully George Romero approved and anything else was a slice of fried gold. They didn't realize though that it would be so successful. But this was down to clever marketing. In order to break the US the trio of Pegg, Wright, and Frost toured the US. They did an old fashioned hard sell going town to town, and because of this they didn't just create a fanbase, they created true fans. Fans that would come out on their next two tours when they promoted Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Fans that would repeatedly buy all the different versions of the film that were released and would follow them to the ends of the Earth. Or at least to the pub on a Sunday afternoon.

I don't know how I first heard of Shaun of the Dead, I'm guessing a trailer before another movie in the summer of 2004, but I was an early convert. I was a member of the "Shaun Street Squad" which was a website designed to spread the word about the film and where you could earn sweet sweet swag by doing fan art and fanfic. And yes, I actively participated, cashing in my points for a pint glass and then some. And then opening day I was there in the theater having dragged my friend Matt along with me to see this film everyone was talking about. After that first viewing I became an acolyte of Simon Pegg's. Spaced, Hippies, Asylum, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and branching out, Black Books, and Little Britain, where Monty Python, Red Dwarf, and Blackadder were my formative years of British sitcom, Simon Pegg came in to inform my early post college years. So I had one question going into this book, could it give me any revelations? The answer is not really. Aside from David being written for David Walliams, which makes everything make sense to me. But it's such a well laid out and eminently readable history of the film that a lack of anything new didn't really bother me. It was also, for the most part, pretty unbiased, showing Edgar warts and all with an ongoing feud he had with the director of photography David Dunlap. And while Edgar admits to this feud Edgar himself might be the only real problem with this book in that it was Edgar's voice that was predominate. His view of how things happened. Yes, others were interviewed, but Edgar's voice and Clark Collis's reverence for him carried the narrative. And as for Collis.... It's his inferences in the end that make the book not achieve it's full potential. Because in the final analysis the author places too much cultural importance on Shaun of the Dead. Yes, it's was culturally important in bringing about the more romcom side of zombies, but was it THE REASON that zombies because popular again? No. That would be 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead comics, which were released in 2002 and 2003 respectively, whereas Shaun of the Dead was released in April 2004 in England, us in the states had to wait for a fall release. Also, I found it odd that Collis never once mentions iZombie which in comic and televisual form were both heavily influenced by Shaun of the Dead. And of course THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT was omitted from this book. Because of Shaun of the Dead we got Hot Fuzz, perhaps the most perfect movie ever.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 28 Days Later, Clark Collis, Edgar Wright, For the Love of Book Clubs, George Romero, Hot Fuzz, iZombie, Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg, Spaced, The Walking Dead, You've Got Red on You, Zombies

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Last Emperox is the thrilling conclusion to the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling Interdependency series, an epic space opera adventure from Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi.

The collapse of The Flow, the interstellar pathway between the planets of the Interdependency, has accelerated. Entire star systems - and billions of people - are becoming cut off from the rest of human civilization. This collapse was foretold through scientific prediction...and yet, even as the evidence is obvious and insurmountable, many still try to rationalize, delay and profit from, these final days of one of the greatest empires humanity has ever known.

Emperox Grayland II has finally wrested control of her empire from those who oppose her and who deny the reality of this collapse. But “control” is a slippery thing, and even as Grayland strives to save as many of her people form impoverished isolation, the forces opposing her rule will make a final, desperate push to topple her from her throne and power, by any means necessary. Grayland and her thinning list of allies must use every tool at their disposal to save themselves, and all of humanity. And yet it may not be enough.

Will Grayland become the savior of her civilization...or the last emperox to wear the crown?"

I have been IN LOVE with this series since my book club read the first volume two years ago. That's two years of desperately waiting for this book I might add!

Queen by Timothy Zahn
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Queen is the climactic conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Timothy Zahn's thrilling space adventure series, The Sybil's War.

“Tim Zahn is a master of tactics and puts his own edge on complex hard-SF thrillers.”  - Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author.

Nicole Hammond is a Sibyl, a special human that has the ability to communicate with a strange alien ship called the Fyrantha.

However, Nicole and all other sentient creatures are caught up in a war for control between two competing factions. Now, the street-kid turned rebel leader has a plan that would restore freedom to all who have been shanghaied by the strange ship.

She just has to unite the many alien races being forced to combat for their freedom, dodge slaving war profiteers determined to capture her, and convince an AI at war with itself to trust her above all else."

It's a week for final volumes in sci-fi trilogies from Tor this week! Also, everyone should be reading Timothy Zahn, he made me the reader I am today! 

The Mistress of Illusions by Mike Resnick
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The second installment of a fantasy trilogy from a Hugo award-winning author, this novel offers an adventure through space and time as Eddie Raven tries to outrun the dark forces pursuing him.

Her name is Lisa, and ever since Eddie Raven hooked up with her, strange things keep happening.

How strange? Lisa can take on any role at a moment's notice. She's Maid Marian. She's Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. In an instant, she can become the sexy, gum-chewing secretary to his hard-boiled detective. She can even become Doc Holliday's frontier lady, Big Nose Kate.

But who is she really? That's something Eddie's got to find out before this series of strange adventures, which began in The Master of Dreams, overtakes him. And if Lisa's not enough of a problem, there's also the powerful creature who claims to be the chief demon in hell, who seems convinced that he, Eddie, and Lisa are on the same side.

Is Eddie being told the truth? He'd better decide quickly, because the one thing that's clear is that he's running out of time."

I hope that Mike Resnick finished this series before he died.

Girls Save the World in This One by Ash Parsons
Published by: Philomel Books
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Shaun of the Dead meets Clueless in this hilarious YA horror comedy set at a local zombie convention - featuring a teenage girl gang that has to save the world from a horde of actual zombies. Perfect for fans of Geekerella, Undead Girl Gang, and Anna and the Apocalypse.

Mega-fan June Blue's whole life has been leading up to this moment: ZombieCon!The Ultimate in Undead Entertainment has finally come to her hometown. She and her two best friends - gorgeous, brilliant Imani and super-sweet, outrageously silly Siggy - plan on hitting all the panels and photo ops, and meeting the heartthrob lead of their favorite zombie apocalypse show, Human Wasteland. It's going to be the best time of their lives - and one of their last adventures before they all split up for college.

And when they arrive, everything seems perfect. June's definitely not going to let anything get in the way of the flawless con experience - even though she's endlessly anxious about the SATs and college admissions, and she can't seem to avoid her ex-best friend Blair, whose VIP badge lets her walk straight to the front of every single line. No matter what, June is determined to make the best of her dream day at ZombieCon!

But something's not quite right at the con - there are strange people in hazmat suits running around, enthusiastic cosplayers taking their shambling a little too far, and someone actually biting a cast member. Then, at a panel gone wrong, June and her friends discover the truth: the zombie apocalypse is here.

Now June, Imani, and Siggy must do whatever it takes to survive a horde of actual flesh-eating zombies - and save the world. A hilarious and heartfelt horror comedy, that is an ode to zombies, friendship, and girl power."

I don't know why but I ALWAYS love me a zombie comedy! 

Ghosted in L.A. Vol. 1 by Sina Grace, Siobhan Keenan, and Cathy Le
Published by: BOOM! Box
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 112 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Daphne Walters moves to Los Angeles and finds that the only ones who can help her find love and live life to the fullest are the ghosts of her new home!

In Los Angeles, finding an apartment is killer - unless you live with the dead. Daphne Walters moves to Los Angeles for her boyfriend Ronnie, ready to live her happily ever after. But when happily ever after turns into happily for a month, she’s stuck in a strange city with no friends, family, or prospects for fun. Desperate to escape the lingering ghost of Ronnie’s presence everywhere, Daphne sets out to explore the city - and ends up encountering ghosts of a more literal kind! Rycroft Manor is abandoned, beautiful, and haunted. Will the dead be able to help Daphne find the life she’s been missing in the big city? From GLAAD Award-nominated Sina Grace (Iceman) and illustrator Siobhan Keenan (Jem and the Holograms) comes a story about learning how to make friends, find love, and live life to the fullest with a little help from some friends whose lives didn't end at death. Collects Ghosted In L.A #1-4."

One of my favorite things about Angel was Cordelia's friendship with her ghost roommate Dennis. This reminds me of that a little and therefore makes me happy.

Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two by Ann B. Ross
Published by: Viking
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The delightful new installment of the beloved and New York Times bestselling Miss Julia series.

Miss Julia has decided to turn over a new leaf. It's time to stop meddling in other peoples' lives, she thinks - but her hands are full before long! Her neighbor Mildred is sent into a tizzy when a grandchild she's never met shows up on her doorstep. And Mildred's husband keeps forgetting who she is, so she's all on her own. Meanwhile, Etta Mae is worried about losing her job now that the Handy Home Helpers is up for sale. Luckily, Miss Julia has experience dealing with children dropped on doorsteps, and sweeps in to lend a hand. But there's something missing in that child's life, and Miss Julia knows exactly what it is."

My mom loved this series. Hard to have knew installments I know she won't be reading. 

Silenced For Good by Alex Coombs
Published by: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Kindle
To Buy

The official patter:
"Detective Hanlon is addicted to violence. She likes the rush, the danger, the losing control...

When Hanlon is suspended from the force for assaulting a suspect, she escapes to the remote Scottish island of Jura, home to the mysterious Corryvreckan whirlpool.

But wherever Hanlon goes, violence is sure to follow.

As soon as she checks into The Mackinnon Arms, Hanlon senses something isn't quite right about the staff at her home for the week.

Sure enough, within days of arriving, the body of a member of staff is found floating in the sea. While police believe she was claimed by the local whirlpool, Hanlon isn't so sure.

As she pieces together the evidence, dark secrets begin to unravel. Can Hanlon work out what is going on before another floating body is found...?

The start of a gripping new crime series, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Bryndza and Lisa Regan."

A remote Scottish island where death follows? YAS!

Death of an American Beauty by Mariah Fredericks
Published by: Minotaur Books,
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Death of an American Beauty is the third in Mariah Fredericks's compelling series, set in Gilded Age New York, featuring Jane Prescott.

Jane Prescott is taking a break from her duties as lady’s maid for a week, and plans to begin it with attending the hottest and most scandalous show in town: the opening of an art exhibition, showcasing the cubists, that is shocking New York City.

1913 is also the fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation speech, and the city's great and good are determined to celebrate in style. Dolly Rutherford, heiress to the glamorous Rutherford’s department store empire, has gathered her coterie of society ladies to put on a play - with Jane’s employer Louise Tyler in the starring role as Lincoln himself. Jane is torn between helping the ladies with their costumes and enjoying her holiday. But fate decides she will do neither, when a woman is found murdered outside Jane’s childhood home - a refuge for women run by her uncle.

Deeply troubled as her uncle falls under suspicion and haunted by memories of a woman she once knew, Jane - with the help of old friends and new acquaintances, reporter Michael Behan and music hall pianist Leo Hirschfeld - is determined to discover who is making death into their own twisted art form."

I LIVE for the Gilded Age of New York! 

The Unsuitable by Molly Pohlig
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication Date: April 14th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Molly Pohlig's The Unsuitable is a fierce blend of Gothic ghost story and Victorian novel of manners that’s also pitch perfect for our current cultural moment.

Iseult Wince is a Victorian woman perilously close to spinsterhood whose distinctly unpleasant father is trying to marry her off. She is awkward, plain, and most pertinently, believes that her mother, who died in childbirth, lives in the scar on her neck.

Iseult’s father parades a host of unsuitable candidates before her, the majority of whom Iseult wastes no time frightening away. When at last her father finds a suitor desperate enough to take Iseult off his hands - a man whose medical treatments have turned his skin silver - a true comedy of errors ensues.

As history’s least conventional courtship progresses into talk of marriage, Iseult’s mother becomes increasingly volatile and uncontrollable, and Iseult is forced to resort to extreme, often violent, measures to keep her in check.

As the day of the wedding nears, Iseult must decide whether (and how) to set the course of her life, with increasing interference from both her mother and father, tipping her ever closer to madness, and to an inevitable, devastating final act."

I'm here for ALL things Gothic! ALL OF THEM! ESPECIALLY THIS!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alex Coombs, Ann B. Ross, Ash Parsons, Ghosted in L.A., John Scalzi, Mariah Fredericks, Mike Resnick, Miss Julia, Molly Pohlig, The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, The Last Emperox, Timothy Zahn, Zombies

If someone were to ask what my favorite TV series is, iZombie would be a strong contender. Whereas if you were to ask me what one of my most hated graphic novel series I've ever read is I'd again probably say iZombie. Quite literally the only thing the two have in common is the name from which the genius of Rob Thomas, of Veronica Mars fame not Matchbox Twenty fame, made this quirky show that harkens back to Veronica in the crime solving structure and societal warfare but puts a whole new spin on how the crimes are solved. This crime solving ability is all down to the casting of the lead. Rose McIver as Olivia Moore (Liv Moore, get it? You'll need to like puns to like this show!) is the delicate shoulders whom this show rests on. Because the quirk to the crime solving? She eats the victims brains and sees flashes of their lives, which also tend to bleed into her own as she takes on their traits. She has become a country western singer, a stripper, a kleptomaniac, so far it's unending how these other people change her while also expanding her heart. Of course there's a big bad, with the ever sexy David Anders as Blaine DeBeers, but it's the heart of the show, the friendships, not the nemeses that make it the only zombie show you should be watching. Plus I CAN NOT wait for the upcoming season now that the existence of zombies is known. Because in a show that is able to constantly change and reinvent itself it's now changed their whole world and I say bring it!   

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: And the Emmy Goes To, Blaine DeBeers, Chameleonic, David Anders, Graphic Novel, iZombie, Liv Moore, Matchbox Twenty, Olivia Moore, Rob Thomas, Rose McIver, Veronica Mars, Zombies

The Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Things are slow, and October “Toby” Daye couldn’t be happier about that. The elf-shot cure has been approved, Arden Windermere is settling into her position as Queen in the Mists, and Toby doesn’t have anything demanding her attention except for wedding planning and spending time with her family.

Maybe she should have realized that it was too good to last.

When Toby’s mother, Amandine, appears on her doorstep with a demand for help, refusing her seems like the right thing to do…until Amandine starts taking hostages, and everything changes. Now Toby doesn’t have a choice about whether or not she does as her mother asks. Not with Jazz and Tybalt’s lives hanging in the balance. But who could possibly help her find a pureblood she’s never met, one who’s been missing for over a hundred years?

Enter Simon Torquill, elf-shot enemy turned awakened, uneasy ally. Together, the two of them must try to solve one of the greatest mysteries in the Mists: what happened to Amandine’s oldest daughter, August, who disappeared in 1906.

This is one missing person case Toby can’t afford to get wrong."

Eleven books in a October Daye is going hardcover! Not that there was any doubt that Seanan wasn't "making it."

White Trash Zombie Unchained by Diana Rowland
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Angel Crawford has finally pulled herself together (literally!) after her disastrous dismemberment on Mardi Gras. She’s putting the pieces of her life back in order and is ready to tackle whatever the future holds.

Too bad the future is a nasty bitch. There’s a new kind of zombie in town: mindless shamblers, infectious and ravenous.

With the threat of a full-blown shambler pandemic looming, and a loved one stricken, Angel and the “real” zombies scramble to find a cure. Yet when Angel uncovers the true reason the plague is spreading so quickly, she adds “no-holds-barred revenge” to her to-do list.

Angel is busting her ass dealing with shambling hordes, zombie gators, government jerks, and way too many mosquitos, but this white trash chick ain’t giving up.

Good thing, since the fate of the world is resting on her undead shoulders."

Yeah, I like me some zombies!

Glow by Megan Bryant
Published by: Albert Whitman and Company
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When thrift-store aficionado Julie discovers a series of antique paintings with hidden glowing images that are only visible in the dark, she wants to learn more about the artist. In her search, she uncovers a century-old romance and the haunting true story of the Radium Girls, young women who used radioactive paint to make the world's first glow-in-the-dark products—and ultimately became radioactive themselves. As Julie’s obsession with the paintings mounts, truths about the Radium Girls—and her own complicated relationships—are revealed. But will she uncover the truth about the luminous paintings before putting herself and everyone she loves at risk?"

Come on, art history and adventure!?! Yes!

The Princess in Black and the Mysterious Playdate by Shannon and Dean Hale
Published by: Candlewick
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 96 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Noseholes and elephants! A pet-eating monster interrupts a perfect playdate with Princess Sneezewort . . . but who is that new masked avenger?

Princess Magnolia and Princess Sneezewort have plans . . . mysterious plans, like a princess playdate! They dress-up slam! They karaoke jam! They playhouse romp and snack-time stomp! But then a shout from outside Princess Sneezewort's castle interrupts their fun. It’s a monster trying to eat someone’s kitty! This is a job for the Princess in Black. Yet when the Princess in Black gets there, she finds only a masked stranger and no monster in sight . . . or is there? Action and humor abound in this ode to friendship that proves that when shape-shifting monsters intrude on your plans, two heroes are better than one."

New book by Shannon Hale? It's time to party!

12 Days at Bleakly Manor by Michelle Griep
Published by: Shiloh Run Press
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mysterious invitation to spend Christmas at an English manor home may bring danger...and love?

England, 1851: When Clara Chapman receives an intriguing invitation to spend Christmas at an English manor home, she is hesitant yet feels compelled to attend—for if she remains the duration of the twelve-day celebration, she is promised a sum of five hundred pounds.

But is she walking into danger? It appears so, especially when she comes face to face with one of the other guests—her former fiancé, Benjamin Lane.

Imprisoned unjustly, Ben wants revenge on whoever stole his honor. When he’s given the chance to gain his freedom, he jumps at it—and is faced with the anger of the woman he stood up at the altar. Brought together under mysterious circumstances, Clara and Ben discover that what they’ve been striving for isn’t what ultimately matters.

What matters most is what Christmas is all about . . . love.

Pour a cup of tea and settle in for Book 1 of the Once Upon a Dickens Christmas series--a page-turning Victorian-era holiday tale--by Michelle Griep, a reader and critic favorite."

A manor house? Christmas? Charles Dickens? This is on my TBR pile come December.

The Essence of Malice by Ashley Weaver
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"“For pity’s sake, darling, let me finish my coffee before you begin concocting schemes.”

When Amory Ames’s husband Milo receives a troubling letter from his childhood nanny, Madame Nanette, the couple travel to Paris where they become embroiled in a mystery surrounding the death of a famous parfumier. Helios Belanger died suddenly, shortly before the release of his new, highly anticipated perfume, and Madame Nanette, who works for his family, is convinced that her employer’s death was not due to natural causes.

The more Amory and Milo look into the motives of industry rivals and the Belanger heirs who are vying for control of his perfume empire, the more they are convinced that Madame Nanette may be right. When secrets unfold and things take a dangerous turn, Amory and Milo must work quickly to uncover the essence of the matter and catch a killer before the scent goes cold."

And cozy fun of a different sort...

The Property of Lies by Marjorie Eccles
Published by: Severn House Publishers
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"DI Herbert Reardon is drawn into a world of secrets and lies when a body is discovered at a girls’ boarding school.

1930. When a body is discovered on the premises of the newly-established Maxstead Court School for Girls, Detective Inspector Herbert Reardon is called in to investigate. His wife Ellen having just accepted a job as French teacher, Reardon is alarmed to find the school a hotbed of scandalous secrets, suppressed passions, petty jealousies and wanton schoolgirl cruelty. As he pursues his enquiries, it becomes clear that the dead woman was not who – or what – she claimed to be. Who was she really – and why is Reardon convinced that more than one member of staff is not telling him the whole truth?

Then a pupil goes missing – and the case takes a disturbing new twist..."

Sounds like some Christie-esque fun!

The Last Weekend by Laura DiSilverio
Published by: Midnight Ink
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Paperback, 312 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A terrible accident. A killer among friends.

A woman risking everything for answers.

Every year for a decade, five college friends spent a weekend together at the atmospheric Chateau du Cygne Noir. Then, tragedy struck.

Ten years later, Laurel Muir returns to the castle for the first time since the accident, hoping to reconnect with her friends and lay the past to rest. When a murderer attacks, it rips open old wounds and forces the women to admit there’s a killer in their midst. The remaining friends make a pact to unearth the truth, but suspicion, doubt, and old secrets threaten to tear them apart. Unsure who to trust, Laurel puts herself in harm’s way, risking it all for friendship and long-delayed justice."

YAS! Old secrets, a new murder! I'm so easily sold on certain books. 

The Seagull by Ann Cleeves
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper – and Vera played a key part in his downfall.

Now, Brace promises Vera information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead, and that his body is buried close to St Mary’s Island in Whitley Bay. However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one skeleton, but two.

This cold case case takes Vera back in time, and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious stranger known only as ‘the Prof’, were close friends of Hector, her father. Together, they were the 'Gang of Four’, regulars at a glamorous nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had been one of the last people to see Marshall alive. As the past begins to collide dangerously with the present, Vera confronts her prejudices and unwanted memories to dig out the truth...

The Seagull is a searing new novel by Sunday Times bestselling author Ann Cleeves, about corruption deep in the heart of a community, and fragile, and fracturing, family relationships."

A Vera, I've missed ya!

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: September 5th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A modern American epic set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture—a hurtling, page-turning mystery that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities.

On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. The neighborhood is a bubble within a bubble, and the residents are immediately intrigued by the eccentric newcomer and his family. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya, a brilliant recluse with a tortured mind; Apu, the flamboyant artist, sexually and spiritually omnivorous, famous on twenty blocks; and D, at twenty-two the baby of the family, harboring an explosive secret even from himself. There is no mother, no wife; at least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king—a queen in want of an heir.

Our guide to the Goldens’ world is their neighbor René, an ambitious young filmmaker. Researching a movie about the Goldens, he ingratiates himself into their household. Seduced by their mystique, he is inevitably implicated in their quarrels, their infidelities, and, indeed, their crimes. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.

Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age."

If it's anything like the book it's compared to, well, new classic? 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ann Cleeves, Ashley Weaver, Charles Dickens, Diana Rowland, Glow, Laura DiSilverio, Marjorie Eccles, Megan Bryant, Michelle Griep, October Daye, Salman Rushdie, Seanan McGuire, Shannon Hale, Zombies

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: July 1st, 2008
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Queen Victoria should have died at the turn of 1901, but in November of that year Victoria lives still via machines, past her time on this earth, preserved as ruler. Sir Maurice Newbury works as an "investigator for the crown" for this indomitable woman who plans to outwit death, by any means necessary, technological or otherwise. While he works at the British Museum, his job there is little more then a cover. Or as Newbury and his clever assistant Victoria Hobbes would say, the museum is there to mark the time between their interesting adventures. Luckily this is a time when they aren't needed at the museum as Queen Victoria has several mysterious situations at present that need Newbury's expertise. There is a plague of revenants, zombie like corpses attacking people in the fog, a string of deaths in Whitechapel that are linked to a mysterious glowing policeman, but most importantly, a crashed airship that had a minor royal on board and among the lists of the dead, a list that is suspiciously missing a pilot. While Newbury longs to find a satisfying conclusion to the murders in Whitechapel and help Scotland Yard and his copper friend Sir Charles Bainbridge, Victoria has insisted that the crash of The Lady Armitage comes before everything else.

Going to the company that made The Lady Armitage, Chapman and Villiers, the duo discover that the company has been expanding beyond their regular line of airships to encompass Automatons. Villiers is a scientist who left France under a cloud because of his unorthodox experimentations, but Newbury can not help marvelling at the work shown to them. They have created simulated life. A simulated life that coincidentally may be responsible for the disastrous air crash, no matter Chapman and Villiers's denials. The closer Victoria and Newbury get to the answers, the more danger they are in. Sir Maurice needs help from "The Fixer" on more then one occasion to keep himself alive at all. Add the ubiquitous presence of the unnerving Automatons everywhere and then throw in a dash of an insane asylum and a laudanum addiction and you can see it's going to be a miracle if they can solve the cases and keep themselves alive.

It is rare that I ever bother to write a second review of a book, one and done is usually my motto. But then there's the other side of me, the control freak which knows that my reviewing style has changed over time. To have a George Mann theme month and just hit you with an old review, a review that feels like it was written out of time (and yes, I did "adapt" the recap), well, that's just not the done thing. Yet it's not just to appease my controlling nature that I re-review it. The Affinity Bridge is one of those elusive books that are worthy of further discussion. Upon re-reading there are so many more layers and plot points that mean something new and different. You see things you missed the first time around, and overall, while the book was just as good, if not better then the first time, it's for a whole new slew of reasons. Things that I loved previously annoyed me, while things I overlooked came forward to take the hole in my heart. George Mann to me is the apotheosis of Steampunk. He has defined this genre for me with a perfect balancing of Britishness, technology, romance, storytelling, and mystery.

To get at the heart of why this book is so seminal to me I really had to think about what continually draws me back to the Victorian era. The truth is it isn't the stuff of period dramas. It isn't the clothes, it isn't the bygone days of culture and manners. I know that might come as a shock, being the lover of miniseries and historical literature that I am. But what truly fascinates me about this time period is the danger, the menace lurking in the fog, and Jack the Ripper. Even as a teenager I had a love of the lurid, the Penny Dreadful, the danger coupled with the romance of another time. A world of manners coupled with skulduggery. The two sides of the coin, if you will, the refinement living alongside the heinous. If I had the ability to time travel I would totally use it just to solve the unsolvable and find out who really was Jack the Ripper. I'd probably use my power on other unsolved cases, but Jack the Ripper, the impact on society to this day is amazing. I can not count the number of interpretations that I have read, watched, and played over the years. Yes, I did play a Sherlock Holmes Jack the Ripper video game. I never won it, but I remember scraping Macassar oil off a door and analyzing it in the lab at 221B Baker Street.

Reading The Affinity Bridge while watching Whitechapel on the side made me have this eureka moment revealing myself to myself in all it's depravity. I finally got it. The murderers, the pickpockets, the thieves, all being routed out by the erstwhile detectives, I thrive on this. I search out that darker aspect in Victorian crime. I want stories worthy of the legend of Jack the Ripper, and that is what George delivers. The glowing policeman coming out of the darkness to revenge his death, seriously, chills. The revenants being a plague on the slums wherein any patch of fog could mean, not just your death, but a horrid and painful demise of being turned into an abomination, a great twist on zombies. This book is a Penny Dreadful for a modern sensibility. Not just relying on a Jack the Ripper type character, but expanding the horror to include the supernatural, the occult, and most terrifying of all, the rapid advancement of technology. These Automatons are literally the stuff of my nightmares, part Sonny from I Robot, part Cylon, and all the horror I never really felt for the Cybermen rolled into one.

But The Affinity Bridge couples this Victorian doom and gloom with a lighter almost campy air. During my re-reading of the book I almost felt as if Newbury was too British. Too much a parody of a man who will do anything for king and country. How does this lead to a positive you might be asking yourself right about now, well, I'm getting to it. The partnership of Newbury and Hobbes is very much reminiscent of that of John Steed and Emma Peel. This book is all the campy fun of a Victorian series of The Avengers, and no, not The Avengers with Loki. If you look at the complete run of The Avengers the four years between 1965-1968 were the shows glory years. Steed needed Emma. The show actually was on the air for many years before and after Mrs. Peel, but it is Mrs. Peel that balances Steed. This is how I view the relationship of Newbury and Hobbes. Newbury IS too campy, too British, because he isn't complete without Veronica. They balance each other to create a perfect partnership. I can only hope that they will keep walking arm and arm into the fog to fend off the next fiend and finish the day with a pot of Earl Grey.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cybermen, Cylons, Emma Peel, George Mann, Jack the Ripper, John Steed, Mann Month, Newbury and Hobbes, Queen Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, The Affinity Bridge, The Avengers, Veronica Hobbes, Whitechapel, Zombies

Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century Book 1) by Cherie Priest
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: September 29th, 2009
Format: Paperback,  416 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Briar Wilkes lives in the shadow of a great wall and all that happened before it was erected. Within that wall she was married to a great inventor, Leviticus Blue. There he created The Boneshaker, a device to aid in the mining of Alaska, which instead devastated Seattle and released a blight gas that would turn people into the walking undead. Behind the wall Briar's father was sheriff and what he did brought further ridicule to Briar's name. The wall was built to keep the gas and the rotters in. On the day the last brick was laid, Briar gave birth to Levi's son, Zeke. Sixteen years later, life just keeps getting harder.

Zeke has questions, yet his mother would just like to leave the past behind. Learning of an entire population of people in the quarantined area, Zeke decides to go beyond the wall. There's two ways in, under or over, he uses the cities drainage system for a quick excursion to relieve his curiosity about his father and the life his parents lived in a quaint Victorian house, before his father destroyed the city. Upon finding Zeke missing, Briar decides that she must go and rescue her boy from his own stupidity. An earthquake stops her from going under, so she must go over the wall. Zeke searches for answers while Briar aligns herself with a rag tag group of folks who hold her father sacred as she looks for her son.

Going into the unknown, their lives are both constantly in danger, from rotters, blight and from a mysterious underworld boss, Minnericht, who it is rumored, might in fact be Leviticus Blue. Briar needs to find her son and face the past that she has been trying to hide from. If her and Zeke can survive this, maybe Zeke can handle the truth.

Being, in it's most basic form, a Zombie story, it does have the Zombie tropes. Small group of people, striving to survive, some will die, but hopefully some will survive. But Boneshaker overcomes this with the infusion of plucky characters and alt history and a purpose other than survival, with the underlying Minnericht mystery. Also, the trope of endangered child is thankfully not harped on, seeing as Zeke is quite capable in his own way. You could, in essence, say that the story is very much the movie Labyrinth, one of Cherie's favorite Steampunk movies. This weird land beyond a wall has taken Briar's child and she is in constant danger, but due to the friends she makes along the way she is able to have her final showdown and escape the Labyrinth. Though the blight is far scarier than the bog of eternal stench.

A story with a very condensed plot and limited characters, like most survival stories, are at the mercy of those characters. If they are not unique, interesting and believable, the whole house of cards would come falling in on you. Taking just the living characters, Cherie has given us unique people with flaws and foibles that makes you root for them. Briar Wilkes is one of those rare instances where I don't waffle about who she is and what she looks like, I just saw her there instantly in my minds eye. The rough life she's led, after being the bell of the ball, the way the blighted rain has streaked her hair and her clothes, and the introspective life she has become accustomed to living in a world where the only person she can rely on is her son, and he might not even do that if she opened up. Kick ass Western heroine alert here!

Zeke is also an interesting character, in that he's a teenager who puts himself in danger who I didn't spend the entire book hoping he'd die. Yeah, I don't really like those too stupid to live, but at least his decisions once beyond the wall, thankfully take him out of the I want him to die camp. But really, my heart belongs to Lucy O'Gunning, the barkeep who has lost both her arms but thankfully has one robotic one left, who is always upbeat and cheerful, I kind of picture her as Clara from The Guild, where she would love all "the clocky windy stuff" down in the blighted city.

Now the alt history really drew me in as well. Being the time of the civil war, but with obvious mechanical advances that didn't exist, I was interested in how things had changed but stayed the same. I have a feeling Cherie will cover it more in later books, this being a series, but I like how she incorporated elements of really history and how those elements would react to this blight. For example, the Chinese immigrant population was very high in the Pacific Northwest during this time period. From railways to mining, these men where imported to the US, leaving their families behind, to do the jobs no American would do, thank you weird literature class I took in college! Obviously, these people would be so used to adapting to changing situations, that the blight arriving and the wall's erection would actually be, in some respects, good for them. They are able to use their skill sets in order to create an empire under the blighted Seattle that rivals that of Minnericht. Just fascinating, I can't wait to see how else history has been altered!

The mystery of Minnericht to me is actually the driving force of the plot. While, yes, Briar is trying to reunite with her son, that's all well and good, and obviously they have to survive as well, mysteries is what makes books tick for me. Minnericht is an enigma. A man who may or may not be whom everyone thinks he is, though he couldn't possibly comment. Briar is a threat to him. She could confirm or deny the fact. Either way, she is a threat to his way of life. Also, the fact that he has so obviously built up, not just a power base, but an opulent little world, he's like the Lex Luthor or Seattle, because real estate underground is where it's at... yeah, so I just watched Superman again recently... maybe I should just read the next book instead of watching that movie yet again, because once that theme song gets in your head, it's their forever.

Moste Importante Steampunkery:
The technology itself is so amazing in this book. The way the characters have to wear masks to keep the blight out gives the book a claustrophobic air. The Boneshaker itself might be considered the moste Steampunk item, because, it is created and then destroys all the city... but personally, I'm going with Minnericht's invention used by Jeremiah Swakhammer, The Doctor Minnericht Doozy Dazer, called Daisy for short. Capable of emitting an extremely powerful auditory blast that renders the rotters immobile for about three minutes. Sadly, it can take up to fifteen minutes to be ready. But anything that can give a short respite from the rotters is good in my book! Go Daisy go!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Boneshaker, Briar Wilkes, Cherie Priest, Civil War, Clockwork Century, Daisy, Doozy Dazer, Labyrinth, Lex Luthor, Minnericht, Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Superman, The Guild, Zombies

The Thing About Thugs by Tabush Khair
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: July 24th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A subversive, macabre novel of a young Indian man’s misadventures in Victorian London as the city is racked by a series of murders

In a small Bihari village, Captain William T. Meadows finds just the man to further his phrenological research back home: Amir Ali, confessed member of the infamous Thugee cult. With tales of a murderous youth redeemed, Ali gains passage to England, his villainously shaped skull there to be studied. Only Ali knows just how embroidered his story is, so when a killer begins depriving London’s underclass of their heads, suspicion naturally falls on the “thug.” With help from fellow immigrants led by a shrewd Punjabi woman, Ali journeys deep into a hostile city in an attempt to save himself and end the gruesome murders.

Ranging from skull-lined mansions to underground tunnels a ghostly people call home, The Thing about Thugs is a feat of imagination to rival Wilkie Collins or Michael Chabon. Short-listed for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, this sly Victorian role reversal marks the arrival of a compelling new Indian novelist to North America."

Comparisons to Wilkie Collins and that glorious cover have me sold on this new book! Plus, Victorian London, I can't miss that!

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
Published by: Doutton Adult
Publication Date: July 24th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers the novel her fans have been clamoring for: The epic finale of the Otherworld series.

It’s been more than ten years, a dozen installments, and hundreds of thousands of copies since Kelley Armstrong introduced readers to the all-too-real denizens of the Otherworld: witches, werewolves, necromancers, vampires, and half-demons, among others. And it’s all been leading to Thirteen, the final installment, the novel that brings all of these stories to a stunning conclusion.

A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a maniacal plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.

Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray.

Uniting Savannah with Adam, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope, and other lost-but-notforgotten characters in one epic battle, Thirteen is a grand, crowd-pleasing closer for Armstrong’s legions of fans."

Oh, let's hope this epic conclusion, as they're booking it, is truly epic!

Endlessly by Kiersten White
Published by: HarperTeen
Publication Date: July 24th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate.

The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands.

So much for normal. "

The newest installment of the Paranormalcy series that everyone I know raves about.

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard
Published by: HarperTeen
Publication Date: July 24th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"There's something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia. . . .

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about.

Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she's just read in the newspaper:

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor . . . from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she'll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including the maddeningly stubborn yet handsome Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance. "

A luxirous cover and zombies, who else is thinking perfect summer reading?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Endlessly, Kelley Armstrong, Kiersten White, Paranormalcy, Something Strange and Deadly, Susan Dennard, Tabush Khair, The Otherworld, The Thing About Thugs, Thirteen, Zombies

The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier
Published by: Virago
Publication Date: 1952
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
Challenge: Thriller and Suspense
Rating: ★★★ (The Birds only)
To Buy
On December the 3rd life changed forever for Nat Hocken and his family. The day before was like any other, he worked at the farm and ate his lunch on the cliffs overlooking the channel. But the birds seemed agitated. That night, the wind came in from the East and turned fall into winter in Cornwall. While he slept soundly next to his wife, he heard a tapping on the glass. Upon opening the window a bird attacked him and flew off. This happened once more, though his wife insisted in her groggy state that it was a dream. But once the children were attacked in the next room his wife became scared as well. Nat spent the night fight the birds off to find fifty little corpses on the floor by morning. After walking his daughter Jill to the school bus stop he decided to stop in at the farm to see if this was a unique occurrence to his family. They had heard nothing, but on his way back to his family, the home service announced that birds were massing all over the country. Nat went home and prepared his house for the coming attack which he could feel coming deep in his bones. They survived the first night, those at the farm weren't so lucky. But how long can they survive with their supplies ever dwindling and the birds become ever more fierce?

While, you can read a lot into this story, such as the east wind being the Communist threat that could arrive at any moment, this was written during the height of the Cold War after all, I found it very interesting in it's post apocalyptic setting. With the small family trying to withstand an unknown force on limited rations in a desolate landscape, this is just like all good horror films, in particular zombie films. Also the scope is what I find interesting. Knowing the story only because of the Alfred Hitchcock movie I assumed the book would be a small coastal town in Cornwall under siege. While this does deal with the horror on an intimate scale with the Hocken family, it is stated that this is obviously a country wide, and perhaps a world wide problem. While no explanation is given for anything, it's the fatalism that leads Nat to smoke his last cigarette that gives it such a bleak, if ambiguous ending. Also anytime something as mundane yet as omnipresent as birds changes to a treat, it speaks to the fears we all possess. Could we die because of something we took for granted as being peaceful turning against us? Could the known become unknown? You can see why this still appeals to readers today, fear of the unknown, and attack by the previously known will always be a real threat, be it zombies or birds.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cold War, Communist Threat, Cornwall, Daphne Du Maurier, Hitchcock, Nat Hocken, Reading Challenge, The Birds, Zombies