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Friday, October 19, 2018

Haunted October- Recommended Reads!



One week closer to the day! 
Can't get into the Halloween mood?
Here are this week's Recommended Reads!
Have a recommend? Leave it in the comments!

This tale of a young married couple who are harboring a dark secret is packed with dread and terror, as they and their daughter move into a brand new apartment building built next to a graveyard. As strange and terrifying occurrences begin to pile up, people in the building begin to move out one by one, until the young family is left alone with someone... or something... lurking in the basement. The psychological horror builds moment after moment, scene after scene, culminating with a conclusion that will make you think twice before ever going into a basement again


Can any soul survive?
Regarded as the Mount Everest of haunted houses, Belasco House has witnessed scenes of almost unimaginable horror and depravity. Two previous expeditions to investigate its secrets met with disaster, the participants destroyed by murder, suicide or insanity. Now a new investigation has been mounted - four strangers, each with his or her own reason for daring the unknown torments and temptations of the mansion.



In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly -

Slipping away from them -

And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.

"Miri I conjure you "

This is a spine-tingling tale that has Gothic roots but an utterly modern sensibility. Told by a quartet of crystalline voices, it is electrifying in its expression of myth and memory, loss and magic, fear and love.






Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Haunted October- The Ravenous by Amy Lukavics




From the outside, the Cane family looks like they have it all. A successful military father, a loving mother and five beautiful teenage daughters. But on the inside, life isn't quite so idyllic: the Cane sisters can barely stand each other, their father is always away, and their neglectful mother struggles with addiction and depression.

When their youngest and most beloved sister, Rose, dies in a tragic accident, Mona Cane and her sisters are devastated. And when she is brought back from the dead, they are relieved. But soon they discover that Rose must eat human flesh to survive, and when their mother abandons them, the sisters will find out just how far they'll go to keep their family together.


I have gobbled up all of Amy Lukavics novels. I wish she wrote more and faster, but then again, if she did, would I love them as much? I got this the day it came out and put off reading it for two days because I knew I would finish it in 24 hours.

This book stayed with me for days after I finished it. It was creepy , gross, funny, a family drama, a new spin on a zombie book and a YA all rolled in one. There was no romance which is always great. It was a little scary a lot distributing and dealt with addiction and abuse within a family unit.

The main character was hard to like and hard to sympathize with, which I really enjoyed. The descriptions of making their baby sister food with human meat in it also made me hungry and sick at the same time.

I do think that the synopsis didn't need to tell us that Rose becomes a zombie- that could have been a surprise. But it didn't matter. I still fully enjoyed the novel.

I gasped, laughed, cringed and sat with my mouth open for a few seconds. It was the perfect start to the Halloween reading season.

Haunted October- Top Ten Haunted Libraries/Bookstores I want to Visit



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by http://www.thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday/
Where every week we showcase a top ten (insert here)
This week is top ten bookstores or libraries you've always wanted to visit.
This week, with the theme of the month; I've chosen haunted libraries and bookstores.


Willard Library

"The Grey Lady ghost was first reported to have been seen in Willard Library in the late 1930s by a custodian. Since that time, those looking—and not looking—for the apparition have reported unexplained events and sights."

https://www.willard.lib.in.us/about_willard_library/ghost.php



 Julia Ideson Building



http://houstonlibrary.org/learn-explore/blog/haunting-julia-ideson-building


Parmly Billings Library


"Parmly Billings Library was founded in 1901, opening as "The Parmly Billings Memorial Library," in memory of town founder Frederick Billings' 25-year-old son, Parmly, who suddenly died while in Billings, Montana, looking after his father's businesses. The original library was located at 2822 Montana Ave., in the beautiful stone building that is now the home of The Western Heritage Center."

http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/mt/parmly_billings.htm



Monmouth University Library

"Designed by the same team behind the New York Public Library, this beaux-arts-style library lives on campus at Monmouth University. What used to be a summer home for Murry and his wife, Leonie, is now a studious haunt complete with a ghostly lady in white who waits until the clock strikes midnight to make her way down the staircase."
https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/276377/ghostly-tales-haunt-monmouth-university


Morelia Public Library, Michoacán, Mexico


"Library staff say that a “nun in blue” has haunted the 16th-century premises for many years. Director Rigoberto Cornejo said in Monterrey’s El Norte newspaper, “When I leave the building, I feel the sensation of someone following me. In fact, I can even hear the footsteps.”"
https://haunted-devon.co.uk/index.php/features/hauntings-by-uk-county/wiltshire2/longleat-house-wiltshire.html





Longleat House, Red Library, Wiltshire

"Longleat in Wiltshire is probably better known for its wildlife park than it is its ghosts - but the house does have some history. The house was built in 1567 by Sir John Thynne on the site of a former Augustinian Priory and named after the artificial stream "leat" that was built to feed a watermill. The house is still in the hands on the Thynne family - namely Alexander George Thynne - 7th Marquis of Bath."
https://haunted-devon.co.uk/index.php/features/hauntings-by-uk-county/wiltshire2/longleat-house-wiltshire.html


Haslam's Book Store

"At least as old as the 1920s, the building that houses the bookstore (est. 1933) is said to have literary poltergeists in residence. Books have flown off the shelves, mostly those in the metaphysical section or those by author Jack Kerouac, who often visited the store during his lifetime. Cold spots have been detected as well. Some maintain that one of the ghosts in residence is Kerouac himself, who died in 1969."
http://www.haslams.com/history.shtml

Moravian Book Shop


"Founded in 1745, the Moravian Book Shop is the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the country and home to the Moravian College student bookstore. For 273 years, book lovers near and far have looked to the Moravian Book Shop for its curated selection of books and iconic Moravian- and Bethlehem-themed gifts."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/25/oldest-bookstore-in-america-and-resident-ghost-moravian-book-shop-pennsylvania


Rivendell Books


"Rivendell Books’ website states that it is a “bibliophile’s paradise”. Perhaps this ghost got confused after death, thinking he’d already made it to heaven. There are worse places to spend an eternity than a bookstore."
https://biblioccult.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/a-haunting-read-at-rivendell-books/


Haunted Bookshop in Melbourne


This one isn't actually a "Haunted" bookstore. But it does ghost tours
"The creepy Haunted Bookshop in Melbourne is loaded with the occult and obscure. Books include such eclectic topics as Magic, Aleister Crowley, Witchcraft, Satanism, Anton LaVey, Divination, Tarot, Ghosts, Vampires & Aliens."
http://www.haunted.com.au/