What to read for Halloween?

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If you are among those people who wait impatiently for Halloween 364 days per year, you are in the spirit of it already.

For the rest of us, the perfect book(s) that will give us a little "push" to feel it in our skin is the right trick.

Here is a list with some of our favourite stories for the season:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 

A truly gothic story around the headless horseman who is looking for his head and terrorises the quiet hamlet of Tarry Town, New York in 1790. The story was written while Irving was living in Birmingham and it was first published in 1820. 

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

A love story filled with suspense about a teenager and the vampire she falls in love with. As Bella puts it: “About three things I was absolutely sure,” she says. “First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Four people come together in a haunted house to investigate the supernatural phenomena that occur in it. An unsettling ghost story that will make you look suspiciously at every dark corner or jump at every strange sound you hear.

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

Are you afraid of vampires? No? Well, you may be after you read the story of the perfectly evil blood-sucker hero of Rice's series of The Vampire Chronicles. From our part, we've done our duty and warned you.

The woman in black by Susan Hill

Another gothic story, placed in the 19th century England. The papers of a deceased (and creepy) lady need to be examined and the lucky guy finds himself in a mansion haunted by the ghost of a woman dressed in black. The description of the moors that surround the place is so vivid that you'll be dragged inside the story either you want it or not.

Pet sematary by Stephen King

Could a Halloween list not include at least one work of Mr King? This is for all those who think that they can't go on living without their pets. For those who wish their pets could live forever. Well, think twice, folks...

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The original Count Dracula. Not for the devoted fans of Twilight, but if you want to be counted as a real vampire fan, you just should read this. We love its gothicness, the desperation of the victims and the elegance of the Lord of the Night.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman  

A boy living in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts. And gets involved in a lot of magical and terrifying adventures. 

The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

A classic book about the dark forces that hide within each one of us. Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde - two different personalities brought into one after a chemical mixture is developed in the lab. Apart from being a very good thriller, it offers a look into the Victorian morality and an insight into human psychology.

Dead until dark by Charlaine Harris

The beginning of the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a small town in Louisiana, US. Sookie has been "in trouble" since the day she was born as she has the ability to read other people's mind and learn their innermost secrets. Now her problems get more and bigger when a tall, dark and handsome vampire comes to town. The story is not the spooky kind of thing, but it is light and entertaining in its own way.

The exorcist by William Peter Blatty  

Who is Regan's friend in the basement? How can logic accept the paranormal? If you need a raw reading experience this Halloween then try what, perhaps, is the most terrifying novel written about evil and demonic possessions so far. Horror at its best.










Do you have a favourite book for Halloween? Please share it with us by leaving a comment.




[written by FK for Walkley Library]

Book review: Dark places

"I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs."

Libby Day was the only member of her family who survived when the rest were massacred and strangled in 1985. She was the only witness, too and based on her testimony, her brother Ben was the one accused of the murders. Decades later and after a difficult upbringing, Libby is a "broken", hardly normal adult; she still tries to forget this traumatic incident and to avoid going back to those "dark places" in her mind.

However, the money people had donated to her all these years are about to run out and she does not want to begin a conventional life to earn her living. The Kill Club approach her; its members have an obsession with famous crimes and a group of people are fascinated by the slaughter of Libby's mother and sisters. They, also, believe that Ben was not the one who killed his family. They agree to pay Libby to visit the people who played a role in the story in order to find out what really happened.

The story alternates between the present and 1985, and among three characters; Ben, Libby and their mother offer their perspective of the accounts that led to the crime. The end of the story and the answer to "who did it" could not be more surprising. Gillian Flynn offers an exquisite thriller with the ability to keep the reader till the final page and very well developed characters. All of them have issues, all do horrible, unforgivable things. The story touches issues like drugs, underage sex, Satanic worship, bullying; but it is full of suspense, well-paced, beautifully wrought.

It is a fantastic, freaking, gripping, Southern gothic, twisted, fascinatingly insane novel. Get yourself hooked.

+ well written, gripping, well developed/realistic characters

- violence, language, disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read the book? Give us your opinion in the comment section.

Book review: The girl on the train

Have you ever been commuting and wondering what the lives of the people were in the houses you looked at out the window? Making up stories about them? Rachel does exactly this. 

The train she takes every day to London stops at a red signal on the tracks, just opposite the house "Jason" & "Jess" live. She does not know these people, she has given them names herself and she imagines the perfect loving life they have together. Until something different happens one day and it completely changes her view. The next day the woman disappears and Rachel feels she is connected to this event, but she cannot remember how. You see, she is an alcoholic, still attached to her ex-husband, who lives with this new wife and baby girl in a couple of houses down "Jason's" and "Jess'" place. 

Rachel is desperate to find something to keep her out of the unhappiness, loneliness and misery she lives in. She pretends to know something about the disappearance and is pulled into the other characters' lives with unexpected results towards the final twist of the story.

The book is unputdownable. It keeps the reader's interest and curiosity until the last page, a psychological thriller that is well planned, well written and gripping. The three narrators of the story, who give their own perspective, are all unreliable and horrible in their own way; but the development of their characters is very strong and the readers find themselves engaged with what is happening. However, one should not expect to actually like these characters; all with their secrets and dark past in their life. Frustration, anger, pity, disgust....one may feel all these over a few pages. You will either love or hate it. Totally recommended.

+ good plot, well developed characters

- disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read this book? Would you like to share your thoughts about it? Leave us a comment.

Book review: The Son

Niccolo Machiavelli had said very wisely that 

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

Yet, this is not the case in this story. 

Sonny Lofthus' father, a police officer, committed suicide when his son was still young. He left a note in which he admitted to corruption, leaving his son and wife devastated. After his mother died of an overdose, Sonny becomes a heroin addict and agrees to go to prison as a scapegoat for a number of murders getting supplies of the drug in return. 

During the twelve years he spends in prison, Sonny is being treated as a saint by the other inmates, who believe his hands have healing power and they go to him and confess their crimes. One day one of them tells the boy that his father was actually killed, that he was not the mole the police force had been looking for all those years and that the corruption accusation was fake. Sonny decides to stop using drugs, escapes from prison and starts his plan to avenge his father and, at the same time, take revenge on all those who had committed the crimes for which he stayed in prison for over a decade. 

The chapters go back and forth between Sonny and Simon Kefas, the main detective character of the book and the one who causes the final catharsis. Junkies, gangsters, corrupted state employees, ordinary people - all act and interact in the warm Norwegian summer.

The book is an excellent example of the Scandinavian noir, as all Nesbo's books. The characters could have been more developed to engage the readers, but the story still remains captivating, the action is fast and, at last, the 600+ pages do not seem as intimidating as in the beginning. 

The fans of Nordic noir are going to be more than satisfied.

+ excellent translation into English, fast plot, suspense 

- violence, characters lacking of depth, too long

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read this book? What did you like/not like in it? Leave us a comment.

Book review: Child 44

I decided to have a look on "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith when I saw the advertisement for the film, which is based on this book, on the tram. The "best-selling" phrase caught my eye. And after I had an idea what it's about and read reviews on the Internet, I placed a reservation at the library.

The book covers the last years of Stalin's regime in Russia in the early '50s and a bit of the period after his succession by Khrushchev. Apart from the political, moral and social issues it raises due to the totalitarianism of that era, it is a thriller that keeps readers' interest till the last page.  

The setting could be compared to a paranoid, totalitarian dystopia: no one is safe. Stalin's enemies are the enemies of the State. The uneasiness of a dictator to solidify his regime leads millions to their devastation, humiliation, death or exile to the other side of the Soviet Union. The State does horrible things to people; they live in a nightmarish world of mistrust where it is a matter of luck not to be accused of treason. The political system has to survive at all costs and the individual is sacrificed for the common good. Moreover, crime is a notion and practice that simply does not exist. Crime is a product of the West and in Stalinist Russia it has no place among the people that are committed to work for, produce for and consume what the State has decided. All needs are met by the Nation.

So, when a series of hideous murders start to occur the authorities do not believe there is a serial killer who travels all over the country and goes after children. Leo Demidov, a secret MGB agent, is reluctant to do any investigations when the four-year-old child of one of his colleagues is found gutted next to the railway lines. However, the regime does not trust anyone; when Leo refuses to turn his own wife in when she is accused of being a spy, he becomes dispensable for the State, an enemy like those he used to arrest and torture. He and his family are deprived of all privileges and he is sent with Raisa in a remote province to work for the militia as a low rank officer. From there the story proceeds with a fast pace towards the solution of the mystery: who is the killer, why he kills children in such an appalling way, how Leo finds him and in what way his past is intertwined with the present. 

It is a fascinating story, grim and dark. It may be disturbing to those who have a sensitivity around crimes against children and animals. However, it is a book that will not let you down; a perfect companion for that (boring) hour of commuting. 

+ good plot, strong characters, thought-provoking 

- screenplay-like story, weak ending, violence against children



(written by FK for Walkley Library)