Susan Hated Literature

Author: Stephen King
ISBN: 0340829753 DDC: 813.54
Book 1 of The Dark Tower series.
Read for the RIP III Challenge
See also: LibraryThing ; Elsewhere

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed

This is the first book in King’s seven book series, The Dark Tower, which I’ve been meaning to get started on for a good while now. It is labelled as a fantasy series, but with King you always^[1] get some form of horror. And for that reason I decided to add this to my RIP challenge reading list.^[2] The Gunslinger introduces the reader to Roland of Gilead, the gunslinger of the title, and the world in which he lives. It echoes many things of our world, maybe at some point in the future, after the world has “moved on”

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Dir & Writ: James Watkins

• Kelly Reilly … Jenny
• Michael Fassbender … Steve
• Bronson Webb … Reece
• Jack O’Connell … Brett
• Thomas Turgoose … Cooper
• Finn Atkins … Paige
• James Gandhi … Adam
• Thomas Gill … Ricky

See also: IMDb ; Other reviews

Jenny and Steve have a quiet weekend in the country planned. A romantic weekend, and Steve is bringing an engagement ring. Awww. Steve wants to show Jenny an abandoned quarry^[1] that he used to visit, the area is under construction, the one-time public park is being turned into a gated community called Eden Lake^[2] Which of course means that getting to the quarry lake involves going slightly off track through the woods. So when things turn bad be prepared for plenty of running through the trees.

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Author: Richard Matheson
DDC: 813 - eBook
LibraryThing ; More reviews ; RIP III

On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back.

There is nothing like a vampire story to get in the right move for the RIP challenge. I suppose this got a lot of press recently because of the Will Smith film, but the book is a lot darker than the film, as is often the case in these sort of adaptions, and a lot better. Especially the ending.

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Author: Joe Hill
ISBN: 9780575081864 DDC: 813.6
See also: LibraryThing ; Other reviews ; Joe Hill Fiction.com

Jude had a private collection.
He had framed sketches of the seven dwarves on the wall of his studio, in between his platinum records.

Judas Coyne has just bought a ghost. Or at least, he has paid for a suit, on the understanding that with the suit will come a ghost. Just one more thing to add to his collection. The collection of a retired death-metal rock star. Only it turns out that it wasn’t just an accident that led to Jude visiting that e-bay wannabe website. Some one really wanted Jude to buy that suit. And once bought there are no returns and no refunds.

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Dir: Steve Barker
Writ: Rae Brunton

• Ray Stevenson … DC
• Julian Wadham … Hunt
• Richard Brake … Prior
• Paul Blair … Jordan
• Brett Fancy … Taktarov
• Enoch Frost … Cotter
• Julian Rivett … Voyteche

You can’t kill what’s already dead! Nazi-Zombies! An 18s rating! That should tell you everything you need to know about this horror flick. Oh, and it has Ray Stevenson (Rome) as an ex-marine mercenary type.

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Dir: David Slade
Writ: Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson. Based on the comic by Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith

• Josh Hartnett … Eben Oleson
• Melissa George … Stella Oleson
• Danny Huston … Marlow (Head Vamp)
• Ben Foster … The Stranger
• Mark Boone Junior … Beau Brower
• Mark Rendall … Jake Oleson

I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed that when IFCO’s rating came up this was only a 16. From the trailers I was hoping for a total blood and gore fest. Still, despite not making the 18s cut there was plenty of violence and a high body count. Not to mention plenty of blood. Blood every where. And then more blood.

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Author: Poppy Z. Brite
ISBN: 04402179890 DDC: 813.54
Read for the RIP Challenge
See Also:

“Can’tcha see the time is here for us to fine … Rivers, mountains, nothin’ can be far behind … Can’tcha see… You gotta find out this one for yourself… Can’tcha see…”
Throaty Carolina voice full of gravel and gold, growling deep, rising to a fluttering crescendo that skimmed over the terrible guitar playing.

I’ve said before that in most cases for me to really love a book I have to have well written/developed characters which is possibly why short stories don’t always grab me; they just don’t have the time or space to develop the characters. So is the case with these short stories by Brite. For the most part the writing is excellent. The stories themselves very atmospheric and, in the main, creepy and so perfect for the RIP Challenge, but I just didn’t care about the characters at all. In the first story maybe I could have gotten to like Ghost and Steve, I was pleased when they showed up in a later story, but most of the time I was quite disconnected from the writing.

That may sound too negative. It isn’t really meant to be, because there are stories that really work. Maybe I’m just not that into the stuff she writes, but two in particular I really liked; The Elder and The Sixth Sentinel. Others had parts that I liked, and she certainly has some style in her writing, but they just weren’t my cup of tea.

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