Blood Sinister
by Celia Rees
Tulamarine, Vic.: Bolina Audio
2007
Performed by Shirley Barthelmie
5 sound discs (5 hours, 10 minutes)


Do you like a good vampire story? I do. And don't give me any sparkly vampires in love. I am more a Dracula traditionalist when it comes to vampire stories--darkness, casket in the cellar, menacing and driven to feed, and stake through the heart. Thankfully, Celia Rees has provided these elements in her tale, and I was not forced to turn off the recording in disgust.

Ellen is a terminally ill teen and nobody seems to know what is wrong with her, only that she seems to have a rare blood disorder. She is essentially wasting away and her mother and grandmother treat her like a piece of very delicate china. Of course, this makes her a little disgruntled, since all Ellen wants is to be normal and do normal teen things. Her mother sends her to stay with her grandmother who is nearer to the doctors being consulted on her problem. How convenient that Grandma lives right across the street from a very large, creepy cemetery!

Remember Highgate from the Graveyard Book?

While Ellen is lounging around trying not to overdo it, she discovers a trunk of old  papers, photos, and diaries in the attic. These are documents by her famous great-great-grandmother Ellen (I'll call her Ellen 1) who became a famous doctor in the late 1800s. Of course, teen Ellen can't resist reading the diaries of her famous ancestress; besides it's something to do.

Soon, Ellen becomes fascinated on the point of obsession with the diaries. Ellen 1 describes her life as the daughter of a doctor, and one of his patients is a count from central Europe is quite mysterious. Teen Ellen thinks, as she reads, that this man sounds very much like a vampire, with his strange habits, and she becomes quite worried about Ellen 1's relationship with this man. Her doctor father is forcing her to spend more and more time with him and his strange sister, who start to buy her gifts and then make plans for her to travel with them. How will she get out of it?

Teen Ellen is relieved from some reading anxieties by a friend's visit from her own past. She begins to tell Andy about the diaries and he also becomes fascinating, adding that he has heard of vampires lurking in the cemetery across the street.

As Ellen reads further into the story of Ellen 1, events surrounding her also become more mysterious, especially when she gets a new doctor to treat her strange condition. Who is this American doctor and why does he know so much about her and her great-great-grandmother? Luckily Ellen has Andy and other friends to help her in the end.

I liked the historical/horror fiction combination here. Some might find it confusing to go back and forth between Ellen 1 and Teen Ellen, but with the audio book I was able to keep their stories straight quite well. I could see the obvious connection to the old Bram Stoker story, and since this is my ideal for vampire stories, I enjoyed Blood Sinister quite alot. 

Amity

Amity
by Micol Ostow
New York: Egmont
2014
361 pages




Most people are familiar with the story The Amityville Horror, either in book or film form. The movie version with Margot Kidder and James Brolin was one of the first haunted house movies I was allowed to watch.

I remember when the story of the Lutz family was published in such magazines as Good Housekeeping. There are so many websites about them and their house, and people are still debating as to whether or not they were telling the truth. The movie has been updated and sequelized and prequelized and transformed so often that it is unrecognizable. This story has probably influenced all haunted house movies and books since it came out.

Of course, the house still stands and people live in it, quite happily by most accounts. But ghost hunters and gawkers still make pilgrimages to see the famous house.

Micol Ostow, a New Yorker, has taken up the challenge of writing a new fictional teen story about the Amityville house. Our story is split between a time about ten years ago, following Connor and his dysfunctional family's move into the house, and Gwen with her family in the present day. Both families have hopes for a new beginning in this house, but the house has other ideas. And yes, this house seems to be alive with a plan of its own for its occupants.

Slowly, in both timelines, our main characters respond to the house. Weird noises are heard, the boat house door bangs and taunts. Various family members see things or respond violently to the atmosphere of the house and have to leave. We end up uncertain as to whether our two main characters are victims or are tools of destruction.

This story does maintain some of the horror and tension needed for a scary story, although I was rather distracted by all of the back and forth, including a change in the fonts for Connor's story and Gwen's. I think I would have preferred having Connor's story as background, and maybe a merging of stories at the end. It is also told by the characters themselves, and possibly that in itself detracted from the horror. I think it is hard to convey the horror of the situation through one person's limited point of view. I don't get the impression that some characters, such as either mother, really seem to notice the atmosphere of the house or the strange behavior of their children.

I think Amity was worth reading, but it wasn't as frightening as it could have been. I'm somewhat disappointed since this story is so familiar. But if you are a collector of haunted house stories, as I am, you should give it a try.

It doesn't look like a haunted house, does it?

The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave

by Rick Yancey

Holland, OH: Dreamscape Media

2013
Performed by Phoebe Strole and Brandon Espinoza

10 sound discs (12 hours 42 minutes)

Recently, teens were allowed to vote for their favorite Top Ten Books in YALSA's (Young Adult Library Services Association) book challenge. The 5th Wave was on the list of  25 titles popular among teens right now, but it was not chosen. Personally, I am rather disappointed about this because I really like this book! It definitely is one of my Top Ten on that list!

In a sea of dystopian fiction for teenagers right now, this book stands out as being different.Instead of the world falling apart due to human actions through war, stupidity, or disease, this story revolves around the end of life as we know it due to an unusual alien invasion.

Let me explain the Waves:

1. The First Wave was a massive EMP strike (revisit electromagnet pulses in Ilsa Bick's trilogy) that shorted out all forms of technology and electrical devices. Think about when the power goes out at your house. What can you do? Not a lot, unless you have some things that run on batteries or gas. And if you are lucky, you can always go stay with a friend or at a hotel. But what if everyone's power was out all over the world? Not only would your lights not work in an EMP strike, but your cell phone, your car battery, etc. would not function.
2. The Second Wave was a tsunami wave, created by the Others when they dropped some form of metal rod from the upper atmosphere onto one of the earth's fault lines. Coastal cities on all seven continents were wiped out, including huge cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
3. The Third Wave was a formidable plague that wiped out ninety-seven percent of the remaining human population. Also called the "blood plague," the Others engineered a virus so quickly fatal that humans didn't have a chance to even find a cure. Not all people who contracted the plague died. Ben was the sole survivor in his family, but nobody knows why some people were spared.
4. The Fourth Wave was a group of silencers, people previously embedded with alien consciousnesses and awakened to their alien self, who travel the countryside, shooting any humans they discover.

Our story begins in the middle of the Fourth Wave, when humans are huddling together in small communities, waiting and wondering what is next for them. There is a giant spaceship in the sky which no one has managed to contact or, as is more likely, the aliens are purposely ignoring the contact. People had thought the aliens would be interested in meeting them, with visions of an E.T. visit, but it has turned out to be more like the War of the Worlds, without the happy-ish ending.

Scene from the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds

Cassie, her father and brother, Sam, are living in a camp of survivors. Things are okay, not great, but at least they are together. Cassie's mother and many of her friends and neighbors had died of the plague.

One day, they hear the sound of buses rumbling into the camp. It's the army to rescue! Or is it? The buses turn out to be older school buses and the army personnel who come with them start rounding up all of the children. They tell the adults that they are taking the smallest children to the closest military base for safety and then more buses will return for them. Most parents seem unhappy about this, but they want their children to be safe. When Cassie's and Sam's turn comes to board the bus, Cassie is not allowed on--only Sam is wanted. Cassie, being protective of her brother and adamant about the small family staying together, argues that either she goes or Sam stays. In the end, Sam goes without Cassie but gives her his teddy bear to keep her safe, with the hopes that she will return it soon.

After the buses leave, the rest are rounded up into the buildings. Cassie starts to get suspicious about what is happening, only to have her fears confirmed. She only manages to escape by hiding in the nearby ash pit, comprised of the ashes of the dead.

I don't to tell you how this story comes out because I want you to read it, but Cassie, in her quest to find and rescue her brother from murderers, discovers the true nature of the Fifth Wave. She learns that she isn't the only human on earth, which worried her for a while, and that not all of the "others" are cruel destroyers of all human life. She learns to trust again, although doing so leaves her very exposed physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I particularly like Cassie as a main female character. She reminds me somewhat of Alex in the Ilsa Bick trilogy in the way she, as an ordinary high school girl, finds the strength and smarts to survive in the wilderness. Neither girl really knows what is happening or why. I know plenty of young women who would probably feel lost and helpless without their cell phones and the internet to tell them what to do or what is going on. The drive and urgency to help another person or people to survive, too, also plays a part in both stories, and maybe that helps them carry on and not give up despite the odds.

There are also two very strong male characters: Ben (Zombie) and Evan Walker. Ben has the guts to stick up for younger kids in the military camp. He is the main reason that Cassie's little brother, Sam, is able to deal with what has happened to him. Evan Walker is a mystery and I can't wait to find out how his character develops and interacts with the other human characters.

I liked the audio version of this story. We have two readers, Brandon Espinoza and Phoebe Strole. It makes sense in this story since we switch back and forth between Cassie and Evan and Ben. Both readers are smooth and engaging. I look forward to hearing more from them in the second volume.

The movie version is being cast as we speak. It is due to come out in January 2016. I can't wait!