Review | The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn

Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Doll in the Garden is a middle grade horror book by Mary Downing Hahn.

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, the haunting tale of a mysterious doll discovered in a young girl's garden, and its owner, a girl from seventy years in the past, who wants it back.

A suspenseful story of unexpected connections between present and past. Ashley and her mother need their new apartment to work out, but everything Ashley does seems to upset the irritable and unforgiving landlady. When Ashley makes friends with the girl next door, Kristi, they uncover a wooden box containing a well-loved turn-of-the-century doll. Ashley wants to keep the doll for herself, but Kristi has other ideas. So does the doll's original owner, a girl who died decades ago, but whom Ashley meets when she follows a mysterious white cat through a hedge. Can Ashley bring peace to the girl and resolve her own present-day challenges?

My journey through Mary Downing Hahn's books continues with The Doll in the Garden.

I adored The Doll in the Garden. It was emotional and wonderful and a ghost story I would have really loved as a kid. It's a ghost story I really loved as an adult.

One thing I am noticing about Mary Downing Hahn's books is the parents are present in her stories. I mentioned in my review of Wait Till Helen Comes that all of Hahn's characters are generally annoying – including the adults. But I loved the main character's mom in The Doll in the Garden. She was wonderful, and her relationship with the main character Ashley was wonderful.

Ashley's dad passed away from cancer, and she and her mom moved from Baltimore to Monkton Mills to rent the top floor of a grumpy old lady's house. After Ashley and her new friend Kristi discover a doll buried in the garden, a white cat takes Ashley on a journey to discover the original owner. I absolutely loved the magic that was used with the ghost elements. It was creepy and imaginative, and I can't get enough of that.

The Doll in the Garden packs a lot about death and grief and regret into this one little book. There are so many parallels between the ghost and Ashley's father. The Doll in the Garden really got me in the feels. It also has me excited to read more from Mary Downing Hahn.

I never see or hear anybody talking about The Doll in the Garden. If you or someone you know is a fan of Mary Downing Hahn, this is a great book to put on your radar. Honestly, the cover isn't that great, but the story is wonderful. Just be sure you prepare your heart for this one.

 

4/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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Book Review | Slade House by David Mitchell

Slade House is a horror novel by David Mitchell.

Keep your eyes peeled for a small black iron door.

Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents—an odd brother and sister—extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late. . . .

Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.

I'm a very skeptical reader. I will never be the kind of reader John Green wants me to be.

Going into Slade House, this line in the book description had me very apprehensive: "this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it." There is nothing greater than a haunted house story. What kind of new vision was I getting myself into?

I remained very unsure of the book through the first half of it, but then everything really fell into place for me.

The classic writing style was a perfect match for the scope of the story. Starting out in 1979 and ending up in present time, Slade House spans several decades. I normally don't care for big shifts in time, but it is brilliantly handled here.

In the end, I'm happy to say Slade House absolutely delivered on its promise of a "new vision of the haunted house story".

8/10: Great Read

Jennifer

Shelf Control | Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Bookshelf Fantasies has a new feature called Shelf Control where we share the books we have on our shelves that we've never read. This week I thought I would share the book I'm most shocked I still haven't read.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub

In life, not every sin goes unpunished.

For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past -- and get away with murder.

Peter Straub's classic bestseller is a work of "superb horror" (The Washington Post Book World) that, like any good ghost story, stands the test of time -- and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.

This is the one book of all books that I should have read by now. Nothing tops a good ghost story for me, and this obvious selection sits on my shelf unread. I can't imagine what I'm saving it for.

Not only is Ghost Story considered a must read ghost novel, it's a must read horror novel in general. Basically, this is me failing at books.

Have you ever read Ghost Story? Is there a book that is a perfect fit for you that you have no excuse for not having read yet?

If you ever want to buddy read a book I've mentioned on Shelf Control, please let me know!

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This post is being shared as part of Bookshelf Fantasies's Shelf Control?

Waiting on Wednesday | Joyland by Stephen King

This post is being shared as part of Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday.

I am waiting for Joyland by Stephen King so hard core. First of all, crime fiction + Stephen King = made of awesome. To top that off, we get ghosts and an amusement park. Can.not.wait.

Joyland by Stephen King
June 4th 2013

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favorites. I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book." – Stephen King

It doesn't come out until June, but I have mine pre-ordered already in hopes it will help with the waiting!

Discussion:
Are you a Stephen King fan? Will you be reading Joyland? Are you dying to read any books that aren't out yet? What books are you pining for this week? Let me know in the comments (or leave me a link!).

Book Review | Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Heart-Shaped Box is the debut novel of Joe Hill.

Book Description

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest purchase, an item he discovered on the Internet:

I will sell my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder . . .

For a thousand dollars, Jude has become the owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. Suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door . . . seated in Jude's restored Mustang . . . staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting—with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one hand . . .

Heart-Shaped Box has not only been sitting on my bookshelf for years, it has been sitting on my small "read this one next" shelf pretty much the entire time. It's funny how that happens. Thanks to some gentle prodding from my friends on Goodreads, I have finally taken Heart-Shaped Box off the shelf and given it a read. I'm very glad that I did.

I love how Joe Hill jumps right into the story. We learn right away about Jude's collection of grotesque and bizarre things, and he wastes no time getting straight to the ghost of Craddock McDermott. Jude buys Craddock McDermott's ghost in an online auction and gets much more than another unusual object for his collection.

Heart-Shaped Box is not your typical ghost story. Jude and those closest to him are most definitely haunted, but it goes much deeper than that. The characters are raw and the relationships complex. I did worry about the lack of mystery surrounding the ghost and its origins, but there turned out to be lots of surprises along the way.

Heart-Shaped Box also made me realize how much I miss having a good, strong dog in my stories. I haven't experienced that since I quit reading Dean Koontz.

If you're like me and you've had Heart-Shaped Box on your list for a while, let me prod you into finally giving it a read. You will be glad you did.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review | Temporary Monsters by Ian Rogers

Temporary Monsters is the first novella in the Felix Renn series of chapbooks by Ian Rogers. Take a quick look at the whole series:

I'm not an Urban Fantasy reader, but I am obsessed with black-eyed kids. Black-eyed kid stories are among my most favorite creepy stories ever.

I knew this series would be a must read for me.

Temporary Monsters by Ian Rogers

Book Description

Felix Renn is a private investigator in a supernatural world, an alternate reality where a dark dimension called The Black Lands co-exists alongside our own. Travelling to and from The Black Lands is dangerous - and illegal - but that doesn't stop some of the creatures that reside there from crossing over into our world from time to time. After a man goes berserk in a posh Toronto restaurant, Felix suddenly finds himself torn between both worlds as he is drawn into a deadly game of movies, murder, and monsters.

I'll admit I was a little nervous about reading Temporary Monsters. I'm like a coffee drinker who only takes her coffee black. I like my vampires one way. I needn't have worried, though. Temporary Monsters had something special to offer. I wasn't actually planning to read Temporary Monsters yet when I first started reading it. I was just planning to open the cover and check it out a little, but I couldn't stop once I started. I got hooked and wound up appreciating the origins of Ian Roger's monsters.

If you're an Urban Fantasy fan, I'm sure you will dig Temporary Monsters. It has some pretty unique happenings surrounding the vamps and weres and ...more. I can't wait to find out more about The Black Lands and the people who have access to it. If you've been wanting to try Urban Fantasy, I can tell you from experience this is a great place to start.

I'm trying not to crack the cover on The Ash Angels yet in case I can't put it down either.

7/10: Recommended Read

Are you a fan of Urban Fantasy? What would you recommend to beginner UF readers like me?

Book Review: Mystery Walk by Robert McCammon

Mystery Walk is another epic read from Robert McCammon.

Book Description

One talks to the dead. The other heals the living. Both must make the ...Mystery Walk

From deep within the empty house of a murdered family, Billy Creekmore hears his name whispered... and is drawn inside. At a revival meeting in Alabama, Wayne Falconer demonstrates his miraculous healing powers... while demons feast and grow in his soul. On separate journeys through the Deep South to Chicago, from a world of innocence to a world of evil, greed and lust, the two young men discover their manhood - and fuel a deadly rivalry. On a scorched slab of desert they will meet in fear and unite their extraordinary powers against a raging, unshackled spirit - the walking, hungry corpse of the Shape Changer. - Goodreads

I have a strong desire to read The Five again. I can't help but wonder if the shapeshifter from Mystery Walk is the same evil that is in The Five.

Mystery Walk has everything I love in a story: coming of age characters, good vs. evil, ghosts, suspense, scares... Like all of McCammon's works, Mystery Walk is a huge story I was able to lose myself in.

If you are a fan of McCammon and you haven't read Mystery Walk, you need to read it. If you aren't familiar with McCammon but enjoy books like Justin Cronin's The Passage, you would also enjoy Mystery Walk.

9/10: Highly Recommended

The Great McCammon Read

If you'd like to learn more about McCammon's books, you can find all the details of The Great McCammon Read here. This month I'll be reading and reviewing Usher's Passing if you'd like to join me!

Book Review: Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Danin and Nick Gevers

Ghosts by Gaslight is an anthology of steampunk and supernatural suspense edited by Jack Danin and Nick Gevers.

Book Description

Seventeen all-new stories illuminate the steampunk world of fog and fear!

Modern masters of the supernatural weave their magic to revitalize the chilling Victorian and Edwardian ghostly tale: here are haunted houses, arcane inventions, spirits reaching across the centuries, ghosts in the machine, fateful revelations, gaslit streets scarcely keeping the dark at bay, and other twisted variations on the immortal classics that frighten us still.

I've been reading stories from Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense all month, and it is such a gorgeous book. I'm a huge fan of anthologies, especially in October, and there is a certain literary beauty to the Victorian tales in Ghosts by Gaslight.

While every story in Ghosts by Gaslight is supernatural in nature, the steampunk element is subtlety interlaced throughout the anthology. This was perfect for me since I just started getting acquainted with the steampunk genre this past year.

If you love Victorian style ghost stories, Lovecraftian tales, and an eerie side to your steampunk, you are sure to appreciate Ghosts by Gaslight. It's an anthology that will go in my permanent collection.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Black Light by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Stephen Romano

Black Light is the first novel written by the guys who wrote the later (IV, V, VI, 3D) Saw movies - Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, and Stephen Romano.

Book Description

If you have a supernatural problem that won't go away, you need Buck Carlsbad: private eye, exorcist, and last resort.

Buck's got a way with spirits that no one else can match. He was normal, once. Until Something Horrible killed his parents and left him for dead.

Buck has spent years using his gift to trace his family. It's his only hope of finding out what happened to them-and what made him the way he is.

Now the voices say that something big is coming. Buck already knows what it is-a super high-tech bullet train running express across a stretch of unforgiving desert known for the most deadly paranormal events in history. A place where Buck almost died a few years ago, and where he swore he would never return.

But as the train prepares to rumble down the tracks, Buck knows it can only be the inevitable hand of fate pulling him back to the most harrowing unfinished case of his career at four hundred miles per hour.

Black Light is a ghost story unlike any other haunted tale I have read. Buck earns his living as a ghost whisperer of sorts. Instead of gently leading them into the light, however, Buck pretty much chews them up and spits them out.

When Buck gets an offer to eliminate spirits on a hyperspeed train, he knows somethings not right, but he can't pass up the chance to get more answers about his past from the Black Light.

Like the hyperspeed train itself, Black Light is an intense experience with non-stop action. I enjoyed reading this supernatural thriller and really appreciate its originality.

6/10: Good read

Additional Topics of Interest:
Other ghost books reviewed at Book Den

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: The Poisoned House by Michael Ford

I have a strange reading habit.  I'm drawn to any book that has the word "House" in the title.  Spread out a pile of books, and I'll always look at the one that says "House" first.  Why?  Just in case said "House" is haunted.

When I first came across The Poisoned House, I had to see what the book description had in store for me.

Life can be cruel for a servant girl in 1850s London. Fifteen-year-old Abi is a scullery maid in Greave Hall, an elegant but troubled household. The widowed master of the house is slowly slipping into madness, and the tyrannical housekeeper, Mrs.Cotton, punishes Abi without mercy. But there's something else going on in Greave Hall, too. An otherworldly presence is making itself known, and a deadly secret will reveal itself---a secret that will shatter everything Abi knows.

With a description touting "an otherworldly presence", how could I pass it by?  Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

The Poisoned House had a wonderfully ominous Victorian setting complete with an evil housekeeper, a captivating servant girl, and a ghost from beyond the grave.

The mystery and suspense had a great buildup while taking a subtle approach to the ghost of Greave Hall.

If you are a fan of historical fiction or mysteries, I recommend reading The Poisoned House.  The supernatural element lends a nice extra touch to this Victorian mystery.

7/10: Recommended Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review: Cinema of Shadows by Michael West

Cinema of Shadows is the first novel I have read by Michael West, but it won't be the last.

Book Description

Welcome to the Woodfield Movie Palace.

The night the Titanic sank, it opened for business...and its builder died in his chair. In the 1950s, there was a fire; a balcony full of people burned to death. And years later, when it became the scene of one of Harmony, Indiana's most notorious murders, it closed for good. Abandoned, sealed, locked up tight...until now.

Tonight, Professor Geoffrey Burke and his Parapsychology students have come to the Woodfield in search of evidence, hoping to find irrefutable proof of a haunting. Instead, they will discover that, in this theater, the terrors are not confined to the screen.

I'm a big fan of all things ghostly. I love watching reality ghost shows like Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State or fictional ghost shows like Supernatural and The Ghost Whisperer. I've read more non-fiction ghost books than fiction ghost books, but I would still go as far as saying ghosts are my favorite subject matter.

All of that to say Cinema of Shadows was right up my alley.

I was hooked into Cinema of Shadows from the start. Michael West used a lot of common horror elements as well as common urban legends when building up the story and background of Cinema of Shadows, but there are certain tropes when it comes to hauntings and horror stories to which I may never grow tired.

Once the action really got underway, Cinema of Shadows was an original and frightening story. I have some vivid images from inside Cinema of Shadow's Woodfield Movie Palace that will continue to haunt me (in a good way).

The only complaint I had at first was everything seemed to be so ideal. The paranormal investigations and the characters' relationships all seemed too good to be true. By the end, however, I couldn't help but like the characters and root for them to survive.

I'm a new fan of Michael West, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

Review copy provided by publisher

Review: The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke

The Turtle Boy is an excellent novella from Kealan Patrick Burke.

Book Description

School is out and summer has begun. For eleven year old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall, the dreary town of Delaware Ohio becomes a place of magic, hidden treasure and discovery.

But on the day they encounter a strange young boy sitting on the bank of Myers Pond a pond playground rumor says may hide turtles the size of Buicks everything changes.

For it soon becomes apparent that dark secrets abound in the little community, secrets which come cupped in the hands of the dead, and in a heartbeat, Timmy and Pete's summer of wonder becomes a season of terror, betrayal and murder.

I loved The Turtle Boy.  It's a fantastic mix of youth, magic, and horror.

The Turtle Boy is first novella in Kealan Patrick Burke's Timmy Quinn series.  I'm really looking forward to reading The Hides and the rest of the series.

If you haven't read The Turtle Boy yet, you can download it free from Smashwords.  Kealan says it's only for a "limited time" so don't be crazy and wait.  You will love this one.

Book Review: Unborn by Carson Wilder (Jude Hardin)

Last night was the end of a very long week.  All I wanted to do after putting the kids to bed was curl up and lose myself in a story, so I paid a visit to my favorite suspense junkie's blog The Man Eating Bookworm and "shopped" for a shot of adrenaline.  Unborn by Carson Wilder (Jude Hardin) sounded just right.

Book Description

The vengeful ghost of an aborted baby girl goes on a killing rampage. Highway drifter, day laborer, and world-renowned psychic medium John Rock tries to stop her.

Unborn is short, but it packs a big punch.  Do you remember that awesome scene at the end of Final Destination where the kid steps off the curb and BAM! gets hit by a bus?  Unborn is like that.

From the opening scene I was pulled in, and every page scared me.  I was scared of what was happening, and I was scared for what would happen next.  Now I can't wait for the sequel.

If you are easily disturbed, steer clear of Unborn.  If you love having a look of terror on your face as you read, please add Unborn to your list.  There is no better way to spend your hard earned $.99.