Review: BROTHER by Ania Ahlborn

 

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pub. Date: September 29, 2015

Genre: Horror

Source: Print ARC

Rating: 4 Stars

GOODREADS

Blurb:
From the bestselling horror author of Within These Walls and The Bird Eater comes a brand-new novel of terror that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.

Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.

But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…

Review:
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What in the hell did I just read?! Brother is like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Saw; except instead of the victims pov, we get the villains view instead. Sounds cool, right? Well, it's disturbing as all get out, but lost of all it's incredibly sad. Sad to see a family be so jaded to abuse, murder, incest, cannibalism... Yet also terrifying to live in so much animosity and fear. Michael, the character the book is mainly centered around, dreams of getting out. Out of a family who work together to torture and kill young girls. It's sort of a game; a sport to them. There is nothing whatsoever redeeming about the novel I just devoured but that's what I love about it so much. Is something seriously wrong with me?

The Morrow family is...a fucked up, dysfunctional family who thrive on fear and the pain that causes that fear. One incredible thing about their predicament is that they live out in the wilderness where no one can hear the screaming and begging of life. The pleading and hollow look in their eyes when they realize that no one is going to save them. It gives me chills just thinking about it. There's so much I can't say without giving stuff away! The terrifying vibe the whole story pulled off is perfect for Halloween and horror fans alike. Surprisingly, I was still able to read the book alone in the dark. Because the story isn't scary in the terms that things jump out at you; more like the things that don't pop out at you until it's too late. And next thing you know, you're tied up about to be slaughtered like a pig.

Honestly, I would love to go back and read the book again. Sure, it makes me sound like a freak, but I loved the writing so much. To be in the author's head, I have to say that her mind is as fucked up as Stephen King. And I mean that in the highest compliments. Overall, I totally recommend this creepy book to 17 + readers. There are some pretty gruesome and disturbing things in Brother. For the adults...well if you don't have an open mind going into this, I suggest staying clear. Or don't... If you do, don't say I didn't warn you *maniacally laughs*
All jokes aside, this is a great read and I can't recommend enough that it's the perfect October read.

* Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Buy Links:

AMAZON

AMAZON UK

About the Author:
Born in Ciechanow Poland, Ania has always been drawn to the darker, mysterious, and sometimes morbid sides of life. Her earliest childhood memory is of crawling through a hole in the chain link fence that separated her family home from the large wooded cemetery next door. She’d spend hours among the headstones, breaking up bouquets of silk flowers so that everyone had their equal share.

Author of eight novels, Ania's books have been lauded by the likes of Publisher's Weekly, The New York Daily News, and The New York Times. Some titles have been optioned for film.

Hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ania currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
 
For more from Ania, visit her site, or connect via social media on Facebook and Twitter.

Web: http://www.aniaahlborn.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aniaahlborn
Twitter: @aniaahlborn

ARC Review: DON'T STAY UP LATE by R.L. Stine

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication: April 7, 2015

Genre: YA Horror

Source: Print ARC

Stars: 3

About the Book:

The second new book in the re-launch of R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, which sold 80 million copies around the world, making it one of the bestselling young adult series of all time.

R.L. Stine's hugely successful young adult horror series Fear Street is back after almost 2 decades. Fear Street is a worldwide phenomenon and helped to kick off the young adult craze which is still going strong today. In the second new book in this series, Don't Stay Up Late, Stine explores the unbridled terror of a damaged young lady sent on a doomed babysitting job.

Ever since a car accident killed her father and put Lisa and her mother into the hospital, Lisa can't think straight. She's plagued by nightmares and hallucinations that force her to relive the accident over and over again in vivid detail. When Lisa finds out that a neighbor is looking for a babysitter for her young son, she takes the job immediately, eager to keep busy and shake these disturbing images 
from her head.

But what promised to be an easy gig turns terrifying when Lisa begins to question exactly who — or what — she is babysitting.

R.L. Stine makes his triumphant return to Shadyside in the new Fear Street book Don't Stay Up Late.

ADD to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1CCtswP

Review:

This was a nice surprise. I grew up reading and watching R.L. Stine. Buts it's been years since I've read or watched anything he has put out into the world. The story was fast-paced read, I finished it in one sitting. True to his signature writing, I couldn't turn the page fast enough because I wanted to see if my predictions about the book were right. And they were! So I guess I could say that it was predictable. The main character got on my nerves at times...especially when she would scream or yell. She did that a lot. Maybe we could chalk it up to teenage angst but that girl needed a good hard spankin' on her behind. 

Lisa is suffering from nightmares and hallucinations after she was in a tragic accident with her family. Her father didn't make it while both her and her mother survived. Since her mother broke her arm, she's out of work due to be a beautician. So Lisa looks for a job and lands a babysitter job on Fear Street. It's there that she meets Henry, the eight year old little boy that Lisa's told can never stay up late. Ever. He needs his sleep because otherwise he'll be a cranky little boy. 

Murders start happening and while Lisa keeps seeing things, no one believes her. And why would they? It's just a girl who "sees" as a result from the crash she was in. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Of course I want to read more in the series because it's R.L. Stone! If you're looking for something fast-paced and fun to read, I would suggest picking this up. Even though it wasn't that scary, it still has a little bit of mystery to it. 

Buy Links:

Amazon US- http://amzn.to/1yla2Aa

Amazon UK- http://amzn.to/1CCsVuL

About the Author:

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...