Family Book Corner

Ghosts & Thrillers

New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)
by Stephenie Meyer
Amazon Price: $6.04
Customer Review: Stephanie Meyer delivers in this, the second book in the epic thriller, the Twilight Saga. This book is packed with romance, action, free falls, vampires, blood and action. What a great book... I cannot wait to read the nextg in the series.

Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)
by Stephenie Meyer
Amazon Price: $12.64
Customer Review: If u have read "Twulight", "New Moon" and "Eclipse"...YOU MUST READ "BREAKING DAWN"...is so exciting u can't get ur eyes out of it....totally recommended!

Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)
by Stephenie Meyer
Amazon Price: $9.99
Customer Review: i received this book really fast and in good condition. I will order again soon.

The Twilight Saga Collection
by Stephenie Meyer
Amazon Price: $49.80
Customer Review: The books were excellent quality hardcover in a separate case. I really enjoyed the read as well, so did all the kids! The books arrived in Australia within 10 days of ordering.

Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)
by Stephenie Meyer
Amazon Price: $6.59
Customer Review: This book stinks. The fact that people are happy that this book is encouraging young people to read, while it promotes an abusive relationship as "true love", is reprehensible.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultra...
by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith
Amazon Price: $7.77
Customer Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

This book was a fantastic twist on a literary classic. Includes all of the base parts of the original classic Pride and Prejudice, but with the underlying zombie plague, it actually filled a few holes in the original story. It makes absolute sense! Made re-reading the classic much more enjoyable and unexpected.

The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
Amazon Price: $11.46
Customer Review: I guess I am one of the few who knew this was a children's book before I read it. So, I was not disappointed by that. I found the book to be very charming and interesting. I wanted a light read, but I always want to care about the characters if I'm going to invest my time in their stories. Though Bod was not overly deep or contemplative, like say Huck Finn, he was sweet and endearing, and I wanted him to succeed. I took pleasure in investing my time in his story even though it was not epic. I was also tickled with the tombstone's epitaphs being read as each ghost was introduced. It is good literature for the tweens. As a teacher of tweens, I like that there is some literature out there that is not painful and depressing.

Marked (House of Night, Book 1)
by P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast
Amazon Price: $7.16
Customer Review: I could not stand the main character of this book. She's terribly Mary Sue, and the entire book follows suit in the sense that it is cliche and melodramatic. I'm not sure if I would like this book had I been as young as 13 when I read it; it's that juvenile.

The dialogue is completely unrealistic of modern teenagers, something that surprised me because the book was written by an English teacher and her teenage daughter.

The plot is predictable, and it seems the author had to make too much of an effort to keep the characters from seeming plain by pouring on odd, cliche, and ridiculous "quirks."

Also, the author is from Oklahoma, as am I, and the view she portrays of the inhabitants of our state through the main character's roommate are degrading and unrealistic. It seems as though she tried to fit the word "y'all" in this particular character's dialogue as many times as possible, sometimes making the sentences very awkward. Her clothing, as well, is ridiculous. I'm sure there are a few teenager girls out there who would choose to wear Wranglers, girly plaid, and cowboy boots, however, I have yet to meet one. This character is portrayed as the average Oklahoman girl--and this unrealistic portrayal is an insult.

I wanted to like this book. The story has potential. However, fans of vampire literature have been let down once again, something that has been happening far too often lately.

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle
by L. J. Smith
Amazon Price: $9.99
Customer Review: Vampire Diaries has a lot of similarities with Twilight; I wouldn't be surprised if this was once in Meyer's collection. It wasn't very well written (short easy sentences) and the characters were undeveloped. The main female character isn't very likeable, she comes off as overly cocky and Stefan, her vampire love, comes off as weak and vulnerable. It felt like she was more intent on saving and caring for him than he was for her. The atmosphere and emotions were not very detailed, you didn't really feel that there was a great love between the two characters until the very end of the book when stuff hits the fan. It started off rather slow and ridiculous (with the whole queen of the school stuff and her being surprised that ONE guy in the school didn't find her attractive so she set out to make him hers). This is a LAST RESORT read, for when you've already read all the other great vampire, romance books.

The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters
Amazon Price: $17.79
Customer Review: Unlike Ms. Waters' earlier novels, this one was paced so slowly that at times it had the feel of Miss Havisham's stopped clocks itself. The changing class identities in England as the underlying theme was moderately interesting, and the paranormal happenings kept the book moving, albeit at a snail's pace, but there just was not enough substance to this book. I love Ms. Waters' style of writing; I think I could give at least three stars to a technical manual written by her. So - three stars it is.