"The Last Vampire" By Christopher Pike

Title: The Last Vampire
Author: Christopher Pike
Published Year: 1994
Pages: 193

I love Christopher Pike books, and I can still remember the first of his I read Chain Letter. I was hooked on his works from there on. There is one problem though, I sort of feel let down with this book of his. Usually his books grip me from the beginning and leave me wanting for more. I know they are considered Young Adult fiction, but that doesn't mean they cannot be entertaining. Of course on goodreads, I did give it five stars for my rating just because I love his stuff and want to find more than what I have already read. I picked this one of his because of a recommendation on that website.

In this tale from Pike, we encounter a vampire who thinks she is the last of her kind. Much of the book is of her telling of some of her history and how she came to be as well as in reality what a vampire is like compared to common legend. I found it slow and burdensome due to the history and the tone of the character just did not seem right. I felt something was missing the whole time I was reading the book.

I will continue to read Pike's works and will continue the rest of the series based on this character. Since I have been able to muddle my way through this book, I should make it through the rest of the series, plus like any other series I want to know what is going to happen to the characters involved.

"The Darkest Evening of the Year" By Dean Koontz

Title: The Darkest Evening of the Year
Author: Dean Koontz
Published Year: 2007
Pages: 354

Haunting, dark and quite the thrill ride, Koontz does not disappoint with The Darkest Evening of the Year. Page after page greets the reader with continued surprises around each corner, all the while letting the characters develop themselves along the way.

A few different stories with different characters are the start of the book and it is hard to tell how each one adds to the overall story. As I was reading this book, it was like I was reading multiple separate stories that change from chapter to chapter. Knowing some of Koontz's previous works and how he has done this in previous books made me want to read it even faster because I knew what was coming, or at least I thought I did. I was just hoping to see how all the characters finally wove together and faced off in the end. Even with reading previous works of Koontz, I was still in for quite a shock as the actual story unravelled through the final pages.

A woman who is fleeing her own past, a seemingly normal everyday guy and a ruthless abusive mother of a down syndrome child all inhabit these pages. Greed, lust, fear and hope all abound throughout this book as well as the passions not only from humans but from animals as well.

This whirlwind of a story will keep you up late turning the pages just waiting to see what will happen next. How they all end up together is the best part of it all. There is hope in our world and it lies within these pages.

"Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" By Chelsea Handler

Title: Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
By Chelsea Handler
Published Year: 2010
Pages: 244

Can't handle "tell it like it is" stories? Then don't even think of picking this book of. Just like her previous books, Handler is not afraid to share the funny and shameless stories of her life. From drunken escapades, bad pranks and one night stands its all here.

And to take it one step further than her other books, she even adds some pictures this time! Knowing Handler, the pictures are an added bonus because they show that the wild events that make up Handler's life really do happen.

Her books are what makes me want to write down my crazy escapades in life, even though I wouldn't come even close to the hilarity of her life.

Good for tons of laughs and thoughts of "could this really be true?" I am left wondering how someone thinks the way she does and carries on life how she does, but I will add that I love every minute of it and it keeps life fun for me.

"77 Shadow Street" By Dean Koontz

Title: 77 Shadow Street
Author: Dean Koontz
Published Year: 2011
Pages: 451

Koontz still has the creep factor well alive in his books, and 77 Shadow Street is no exception to this. This is the most recent book from Koontz and I was not disappointed, he still mesmerizes me with yet another novel. Fans of Stephen King's "Rose Red" should love this book as there are similar ideas just different results. Haven't heard of either one? Well they are both about buildings that have had mysterious disappearances in the past and people of the present get tied up into these disappearances. In 77 Shadow Street the people that get tossed into the disappearance mysteries are the tenants of the actual building that shares its location with the title of the book.

Each character has their own story to tell, and each one tells what they see during the events happening at the building. Strange ghosts and horrible creatures abound in this book along with psychotic killers. With each page you don't know what is coming next, so you are bound to run into more than one surprise as you turn the pages.

I didn't want to put this book down and all I wanted to do was continue to read the book. The ending result did startle me as I was not expecting the ending I discovered. Someone more intuitive than myself may guess the ending before they actually get there. I had to get to the end to see the actual end result. Like some of his other novels, Koontz uses this one as a sort of warning to society. Wondering what that warning is? Then pick it up and read it.

"The Woman in Black" By Susan Hill

Title: The Woman in Black
Author: Susan Hill
Published Year: 1983
Pages: 164

Told like a classic ghost story, The Woman in Black is mesmerizing and spellbinding. As I read this novel I was taken back to other older works such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wuthering Heights just to name a few. This book may seem slow and drawn out for such a simple tale, but the way Hill writes creates an older time period realistically based on novels I have read that were actually written in the time period that this one is taking place.

The story follows the likes of an elderly gentleman who is celebrating the holidays with his family and his grandchildren make a game up of telling scary tales. They ask their grandfather to tell a story as well, and he replies that he has no tale that he can think of. The truth is that he encountered his own ghost story and lived through it when he was a young man and just starting out. As his grandchildren go to bed, he decides he must write the tale and not share it with anyone, but he must write it to come to terms with what happened those days in which is occurred, and this is the story that is the book of The Woman in Black.

It is not an overly scary book. I have read hundreds of ghost stories both fictional and non-fiction and this is a bare bones type of story. There is more mystery than horror and of course the mystery is solved as the pages fly through your hands.