Off Season by Jack Ketchum

 

Off Season by Jack Ketchum - 320 pages

September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River—off season—awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall...

And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface...and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.

Holy moly, what a ride...this one definitely made me cringe a bit, it got pretty gross.  And the ending...nice.  I read the note from the author that this was a re-write on the ending.  The publishers originally wanted one of the characters to live, but Jack didn't want it that way, so this edition is how he wanted it.  And might I say, bravo Mr. Ketchum, bravo.  This was the first book I've read by this author, but it probably won't be the last.  After this one I definitely needed a nice quiet palate cleansing book.  

Holly (Holly Gibney #3) by Stephen King

 Holly (Holly Gibney #3) by Stephen King-449 pages                                           
⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Holly Gibney gets a voice mail from the mother of a missing daughter and so begins a harrowing case. Bonnie Rae Dahl has been missing for a few weeks and her mother, Penny, doesn't believe that she ran away like the police say. Holly agrees to take on the case and slowly begins to realize that there have been other, possibly connected, disappearances on the same road as Bonnie. Will Holly solve the case and is Bonnie alive or dead? This one is Stephen King at his creepy best. There are some downright creepy scenes in this one. I can think of one in particular that creeped me out the most. I felt some Hannibal Lecter and Criminal Minds (the TV show) vibes while reading it. I enjoy reading horror/thriller books. I would rate this 4 out of 5 stars. I was able to comprehend everything going on without having read the previous books that included Holly Gibney as a character.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

 The Hunger by Alma Katsu, 386 pages

The Hunger reimagines the ill-fated voyage of the Donner Party, asking: what if those 87s souls hadn't been tormented by bad luck but actual evil in monster form?  A fresh horror settles on the infamous happenings at Truckee Lake, exploring the different types of hunger raveging the pioneers as they trudge westward. 

I enjoyed this book and it was a nice palate cleanser after reading Things Have Gotten Worse Since Last We Spoke. Katsu's language, especially in the beginning, is strong and raw, reflecting the burdens carried by the party. It was hard to put the book down until the last fourth. While the ending was clean, it lacked the earlier punch and promise of the novel. 

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire by Abigail Gibbs

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire by Abigail Gibbs, 534 pages
(book one of The Dark  Heroine series)

Romeo & Juliet meets Twilight sums up what this book is about. Seventeen year old Violet Lee's life is changed forever when she witnesses a mass murder before her eyes and is taken prisoner by the murderers. Everything she thought she knew about her world is false. There are monsters in the world and they aren't just evil men. They are vampires. Caught in a web of lies and betrayal, Violet Lee's life is threatened on a daily basis. Yet she finds herself drawn to her captor, Kaspar, at the same time as loathing him. As their attraction for each other grows, truths come out that will shatter everything they hold dear.
I was done with this book in one day. It's pretty easy to figure out the plot line, but it doesn't stop the book from being enjoyable.