This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps: Most Wanted” book series, and it works like a loose sequel to “Dr.A better reading experience
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps: Most Wanted” book series, and it works like a loose sequel to “Dr. Maniac vs Robby Schwartz”.
NOT SO HARD TO RATE THIS TIME
While the first book Dr Maniac vs Robby Schwartz wasn’t that good, this loose sequel (since there isn’t any of the main characters of the previous but the villains) resulted a better reading experience since it was more interesting and ambitious, even it has an unexpected twist kinda dark, or at least quite awful to the protagonist of this second book.
DR. MANIAC RETURNS!
In this loose sequel, you have now Richard Dreezer, a different kid, but as you may expected, he is a big fan of comic books (but only that, he isn’t self-published author like Robby Schwartz), he has little brother named Ernie, a female classmate Bree Birnbaun (that she doesn’t like him but she needs to work with him for an assignment) (Richard has a kinda crush for Bree), there is another classmate Marcus Maloney (a kinda antagonist but he isn’t that important).
Richard has some allergies (or at least his mom is convinced about it) and he needs to go a doctor’s office of a physician named Dr. Root, his office is just in front of the Comic Book Museum, where the curator is a character known as Big Kahuna, and soon enough, Richard will pay a visit to the Comic Book Museum (that he knows every inch of it) but he will meet the new inhabitant of the museum…
…DR. MANIAC!!!
Along with the infamous Dr. Maniac, there is old acquaintances from the previous book, The Purple Rage and the Scarlet Starlet, but also new superpowered characters like Captain Croaker and Terry Tadpole, and…
…even Dr. Maniac will have a new mysterious ally!
There are funny details in the story like a “Ditko Avenue” (like in Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man) and the school is named “Hugh Jackman Middle School”.
As I commented before, while my experience with the previous book with the villlain Dr. Maniac wasn’t the best (not terrible but definitely the book could be better), I found this loose sequel quite imaginative and with a really funny but also kinda dark final twist....more
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
COMIC BOOK WORLD AND REAL LIFE COLLIDING!
SincSurprisingly good story!
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
COMIC BOOK WORLD AND REAL LIFE COLLIDING!
Since I am a comic book collector myself, I found this Goosebumps story quite appealing and even I was surprised that I liked it even more than I’d expected at first.
Bradley “Skipper” Matthews is a comic book collector and even he keeps several of his comic books totally sealed without reading them to avoid losing value (I keep them in protective bas alright but definitely I read them at least once), however the comic book of “The Masked Mutant” is a title that Skipper just can’t not reading it, therefore, each time that the comic book goes out, he read it entirely.
But “The Masked Mutant” is a different comic book since while he is the protagonist of the story, The Masked Mutant (which can manipulate his own molecular structure) isn’t a superhero but actually a supervillain, facing a entire team of superheroes known as “The League of Good Guys” (I have to admit that R.L. Stine could think a little further to come out with cooler names for them) where its leader is The Galloping Gazelle (a Flash-like wannabe).
Skipper has a little sister, Mitzi (that as usual in many R.L. Stine’s stories, she is always pesting his big brother), a friend, Wilson Clark (whom has the unusual hobbie of collecting rubber stamps) and soon enough he meets Libby Zacks (who collects comic books but a different kind of the ones that Skipper usually likes).
Everything is normal in the small town of Riverview Falls, until…
…Skipper finds the secret headquarters of The Masked Mutant, right in the middle of town!
Comic books elements are starting to become part of reality, and while it could a dream come true for any comic book collector, Skipper will discover soon enough that it will become a real nightmare!
I liked a lot the book, having several surprises and twists, where even when you think that the story already ended, that crafty R.L. Stine shocks you one more final time. Maybe my only complain is that there isn't any reason explaining why it's happening this merging between comic books and real life but definitely one of the best Goosebumps books that I’ve read so far (not the best, but definitely between the top list of those that I’ve been able to read so far).
This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Nightmare Room” book series
ANOTHER BOOK LINE
I already read quitA fair entertained book
This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Nightmare Room” book series
ANOTHER BOOK LINE
I already read quite a bit of books written by R.L. Stine, but usually they had been from Goosebumps or Fear Street, but this is my first book from Nightmare Room, where it seems that it’s a line oriented for kids but even it looks more family friendly (with zero body count) than your regular Goosebumps novel, and something curious is that when you finish the book, you find a section telling in a general way about the supernatural phenomena that it was developed in the story, and you got a feeling that this Nightmare Room is like an attempt of doing a Twilight Zone for kids.
I BET YOU DON’T HAVE A DIARY LIKE THIS ONE!
Alex Smith is young boy with a terrible vice of betting, therefore he tries to do bets against his schoolmates about anything around them with the goal of winning some money and his current objective is buying a guitar to use with his music band formed by his close friends, Chip and Shawn.
Alex has a noisy classmate named Tessa Wayne, that while they are usually antagonist with each other, it’s clear that both have some mutual romantic interest.
Miss Gold, one of his teachers, gave them to Alex (along with the rest of the class but only Tessa shown real interest about it) of making a personal diary to get some extra points in their grades.
Fate gives the “perfect diary” to Alex coming inside of an old desk that his mom gave him, but this diary is not your regular one, since each night after dinner, written with even his own handwriting, Alex finds a page telling him details about what will happen the next day.
First, he thought that it was perfect to place bets and make money, but…
…with each diary entry, more and more dangerous things are predicted and Alex can’t avoid to happen even knowing ahead about it.
While there isn’t any body count in the story, and there is quite mild the tone of horror developed here, the book is quite entertained to read, maybe my major issue with it could be the quite abrupt and odd way to end the story at its climax (nope, I won’t spoil it) but certainly it wasn’t up to the expectations and therefore I couldn’t give it a better rating.
But, certainly I don’t complain about reading the book, since it was entertained and engaging to read.
Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read quite a bunch of his novels, specially the firFun and entertained
BENNY, HARPER & SPIKE
Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read quite a bunch of his novels, specially the first ones, but lately I haven’t engaged much, for no reason in special, I just didn’t, I read the premise of this novel and I felt compelled to read it, since the idea of some monster taking care of the character avoiding that he suffered any harm was cool.
Certainly I received that, but since it’s Dean Koontz, I was expecting a horror story, and I didn’t feel that it was the case (I clicked the tag “horror” for this book because I think it was marketed in that way, but honestly I didn’t feel to be reading a horror story).
Benny Catspaw is really, really, REALLLY, nice guy, but one bad day started to suffer very bad things, losing his job, losing his girlfriend, etc…
Benny received a really, really, REALLY odd heritance in the form a giant humanoid (not quite human but enough for passing as one in the street), named Spike the Craggle (craggle is the name of his species) and they are inmortal beings dedicated to guard a particular person for the entire lifetime of that person and later, he is passed to guard another person (usually a family member chosen by the late person that had the craggle).
Spike is the “bad weather friend” since he explains that anybody can be friend when you have good weather but a real friend is there for you when there is bad weather.
Maybe something key that avoided to feel this as a horror story, it’s that Spike doesn’t kill (he can intimidate, even break several bones, but no killing) and nothing that Spike met was any difficult to deal, so there aren’t real threats to worry about, since you realize that nobody can beat Spike, and Spike is reallly loyal to Benny (since I thought that at some point Spike would get out of control and Benny would need to escape from him, BUT it wasn’t the case either).
Therefore, the novel is about Benny, Spike (that he doesn’t appear until the novel is almost reaching the half of it) and Harper (a smart & gorgeous waitress (romantic interest for Benny), all three in a trip to get payback from all people that harmed Benny in some way.
I enjoyed A LOT MORE the novel, also by Koontz, Life Expectancy (actually it’s my second favorite novel by Koontz, right below of Phantoms) which it’s quite similar in the style of humor, but quite more compelling in the area of horror, since there is a homicidal psycho clown (you can’t compete with killer clowns) right behind the main couple in that book.
So, this novel at hand, it’s fun and entertained, but hardly what you’d consider a typical horror novel.
This is a prose novel, from the “Ghosts of Fear Street” book series
CHRISTMAS AT SHADYSIDE
The first cool thiChristmas Carol…R.L. Stine’s style!
This is a prose novel, from the “Ghosts of Fear Street” book series
CHRISTMAS AT SHADYSIDE
The first cool thing here is that many of the story is located at “Dalby’s Department Store” that it possess a strong connection with xmas since it was introduced in the Silent Night book trilogy from “Fear Street Super Chillers” (also it appears in the novel Gimme a KILL but kinda an alternate version).
One thing that I didn’t expect is that the main character would be a pre-teen boy in middle school, specifically Shadyside Middle School, since usually Fear Street novels use teenagers and Goosebumps employ kids, therefore, it seems that Ghosts of Fear Street covers in the middle of those.
Kenny Frobisher is a naughty boy and not only at xmas but basically the whole year and the worst of all is that he isn’t realized how mean he is and how he can hurt other people with his untasty pranks. His younger sister Kristy and his classmate Timmy Smathers are too frequent targets of his cruel pranks and lies.
Therefore, by the power of Dickens, the three ghosts of Christmas, they will make their act showing the past, present and future of Kenny.
I like it a lot the reimagining of the Ghost of Christmas Past (I won’t ge tinto details to avoid spoilers) and I guess that you don’t mess much with the expectations of the Ghost of Christmas Future, but I think that while it wasn’t that bad, I wasn’t much impressed with the redesign of the Ghost of Christmas Present, it was adequate but hardly as cool as the Past Ghost.
In any case, this is a novel quick to read with a cool reimagination of the classic tale of A Christmas Carol with the unique touch of R.L. Stine, even with a totally unexpected twist at the end of the book.
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
IT WAS ABOUT TIME…
Since I’ve been Slappy’s story begins here (kinda)!
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
IT WAS ABOUT TIME…
Since I’ve been reading several Goosebumps and Fear Street books by R.L. Stine, it was about time to engage to read the novels focused on Slappy, easily the most famous character created by R.L. Stine, where not even the Witch Sarah Fear comes any close to the notority of Slappy.
Slappy has been present in at least one book (if not more) in all Goosebumps book spin-off series since his debut on the original one and he even has a spin-off series named after him, Slappyworld where he is the main character in several books there.
I won’t read them one after the other, but it’s my plan to read all the books focused on Slappy between other novels in my TBR list, between the few days remaining this year (2023) and the next one (2024).
NOT THE MAIN VILLAIN STILL
In this first book of the Slappy saga, he still isn’t the villain, just having one line of dialogue at the end of the book, since the evil living dummy here is Mr. Wood.
The twins Kris and Lindy Powell are a couple of teenager sisters and once Lindy found a ventriloquist dummy in the garbage, Mr. Wood, Kris wanted her own dummy too and after a while his dad bought her Slappy, that it’s really important to mention that Kris Powell is the one naming Slappy as such (at least in this first origin story (it seems that in the latest book (so far) Slappy, Beware!, his origin is changed) not to mention his new origin in the Disney+ TV series).
Lindy found a paper with some strange words and after saying them aloud, Mr. Wood got animated but it’s only Kris who knows about this (not to mention some initial Lindy’s pranks).
The book is entertained, but Mr. Wood didn’t do anything really evil and well, he’s not Slappy, therefore, this is a book relevant to read but hardly it’s the real beginning of Slappy’s evil run.
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
ONE OF THE BEST IN THE SERIES
I hadn’t plan to read thiTimely awesome!
This a prose novel which is part of the original “Goosebumps” book series
ONE OF THE BEST IN THE SERIES
I hadn’t plan to read this book anytime soon since it didn’t figure in any top list that I researched about top R.L. Stine’s book, BUT…
…since it was one of the chosen ones to be adapted in the new Disney+ Goosebumps TV series, well, I thought that it was good idea to give it a chance…
…and I am totally glad that I decided to read it, since it’s one of the best Goosebumps novels that I ever read so far.
The story has a great premise with a compelling development and a shocking ending.
TIME TO READ THIS!
Michael Webster is a 12-year old kid with a younger sister, Tara, and I can tell you that Tara is one of most annoying characters that I ever read (so far) in a R.L. Stine book.
Michael’s dad got a Cuckoo clock that he always admired in an Antique shop but he wasn’t able to get it since it was quite expensive, but finaly his time comes and he got in a incredible price. Michael’s mom isn’t too thrilled about the clock but it remains in the house.
Since it’s a priceable antique, Michael’s dad told Michael and Tara not to touch the clock.
In the meantime, Tara made Michael’s life miserable messing with his stuff, making him mean pranks, and even ruining his birthday party,…
…and the worst of it, Michael’s parents aren’t aware of Tara’s behaviour and they think that Tara is the perfect sweet good girl.
Therefore, Michael decides to make something to the clock with the goal of Tara could take the blame…
…but Michael doesn’t know that this cuckoo clock isn’t normal and his actions will put him in a desperate situation turning worse and worse with each passing day…
…and running to a shocking ending! One of the darkest ending that I ever read in a Goosebump book!
The ride of your deaths (well, not so, but still good)!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps 2000” book series. Do not confuse with The ride of your deaths (well, not so, but still good)!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps 2000” book series. Do not confuse with the original “Goosebumps”, that while part of the same franchise, it’s a different follow-up book series.
CHRISTINE MEETS KARR
Obviously, when you read a book about a possessed car, you’ll think about Christine, and I bet that R.L. Stine inspire don it for his own book and due that, he did some changes to avoid too much comparisons, where The Haunted Car in the book is a blue1986 Sports Corvette instead of a red 1958 Plymouth Fury in the case of “Christine” (while it’s odd that it’s a black Lincoln Continental Mark III in the Goosebumps movie, looking more similar to “The Car” from the 1977 film of the same title, which is another movie about a haunted car almost a decade before of the writing of Christine).
Another cool difference of the Haunted Car is that it’s able to talk, making it in that skill more similar to KARR (the evil prototype from The Knight Rider TV show), and I think that being able of talking was a good idea, making it scarier and able to develop more personality.
A CHEAP CAR ALWAYS COMES WITH A CATCH
The Moinian family needs a new car and Mitchell (the older brother of two) is a car fan and he can’t believe his luck when his dad finds a cheap Corvette, but you never find a cheap car without a catch and this one comes with a ghost!
Todd (the younger brother of two) is easily the smartest character since he knows that that car is haunted and he isn’t fooled about it, even Mitchell when he already knows that the Haunted Car is possessed, it’s Todd who solves most of the mystery, but there are still a couple of surprises, one twist after another twist right in the climax to make quite worthy the reading of the book.
The downside point of the book is that you don’t have any deaths during the present time of the story, but even there is like just one scary scene of the car moving around before the one of the climax, therefore there isn’t much action in the story.
Still, it’s quite entertained narrative, quick to read and the double twist at the climax makes it a worthy choice to read.
This book is part of the collection of real life biographies of paranormal events investigated by Ed and LoFair reading but not so good as others.
This book is part of the collection of real life biographies of paranormal events investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren.
MANY WEIRD THINGS, NOT MUCH WARRENS
The paranormal case exposed here, you can find the movie A Haunting in Connecticut that it’s film adaptation of what happened there, but you won’t find mention of Ed and Lorraine Warren in the movie, and maybe I already know why is that.
It’s not like nothing happened in the book, since there is a lot of weird phenomena accounted in the book, besides the controversy about if the paranormal really happened or not, maybe my biggest complain and what avoid to enjoy the book as much as I’d think that I would, it was that Ed and Lorraine Warren almost not appear in the story, they came almost at the end of the book, and just to do a basic investigation without much depth in the stuff.
Obviously other book about them like Ghost Hunters and The Demonologist (both with reviews by me) were quite awesome since they were compilations of several different cases, but here the problem wasn’t either that the book was just one long case, since I already read Satan’s Harvest (also with review by me) and it was just one long case, BUT Ed and Lorraine Warren soon enough in the narrative are deeply involved in the case, and it was a very heavy investigation about it, so I enjoyed a lot that book, but here I didn’t find the same kind of involvement about the Warrens that it’s my main reason to read the book.
If you want to read the book because you want to read in more detail beyond what it’s exposed in the movie, go ahead, since the book it’s well written and certainly got deeper in the case, BUT if you want to read it because it was a case investigated by the Warrens, well then, it’s better to read any other of the books that I mentioned, since you will enjoy them better than this one.
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps: Horrorland” book series, and a second sequel to “Say CheesThe best picture in the photoshoot!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps: Horrorland” book series, and a second sequel to “Say Cheese and Die” from the original “Goosebumps” book series.
SAY CHEESE…BUT NOT DIE? FOR THIRD TIME…BUT…
In this second sequel of the saga Say Cheese and Die not matter that there isn’t any death much less dying while screaming, therefore it keeps the misleading tendency, I don’t complain much about it, since this book is easily the best one of the saga.
I'm totally glad of not losing hope with the saga and keeping reading the sequels, that while the second book was quite bad, this third book was worthy enough to keep at it, and I really enjoy it.
There is a different cast where the lead character has better reasons to be using a photo camera, you get finally an origin to the cursed camera, and the curses while there isn’t any deadly one, there are serious effects and definitely a great pacing of the story…
…even a cool scary twist at the end!
MEET JULIE
In this story, Greg Banks and all the other characters of the two previous books aren’t present and there isn’t any reference to them. I wouldn’t mind to know what happened to them but I don’t complain much about it either.
Now, it’s Julie, our fearless heroine, and she is one of the school photographers and she wants to participate of the school yearbook, and she likes old style photo cameras, therefore it’s totally logical that she wants to use the cursed camera (obviosuly she doesn’t know at first that it’s evil). Julie gets the cursed camera in a garage sale and soon enough she’ll find out why she get it for free!
Once, she realized that there was something quite wrong with the camera, she will try to dispose of it without success but in the process, she’ll discover the origin of the camera!
The cursed camera was made as a prop for an old horror movie titled…
…yes, you guess right…
…”Say Cheese and Die Screaming” (where I hoped there was a fair amount of deaths) I felt too abrupt the ending, cool but abrupt, but still I think that this third book in the saga is the better of the three…
…and the best part is that if you want to read it, you really don’t need to read the previous two, since there isn’t reference to them here.
HORRORLAND CROSSOVER
The only thing kinda odd, is that the book is part of a marketing strategy where, after you read the main story, you’ll find a second story where the main characters of each previous book in the Horrorland series are appearing together, trapped in the Horrorland theme park, and while the text tells you what happened so far, this second story doesn’t use any element of the main story in the book…
…I mean, you have Julie but she doesn’t use or mention the cursed camera, so in the second story, she is basically just a generic character named Julie in the middle of a multi-part story that you don’t fully grasp if you hadn’t read the other previous books in the Horrorland series…
…so, if you want to stop reading once completed the main story about the cursed photo camera, you won’t miss much about this other complementary story.
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series, and a sequel to “Say Cheese and Die”, both novelsI got a bad shot with this one!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series, and a sequel to “Say Cheese and Die”, both novels from the same book series.
SAY CHEESE…BUT NOT DIE? AGAIN??!!
As I objected in the first novel that while in the title there was the word “die” there wasn’t any single death, once again, they include “die” in the title of this sequel and once again mislead the readers since there wasn’t any death at all in this book, in fact, the horror factor in this seque lis even milder than the first one, where the “curse” effects of the pictures made by the cursed photo camera are not dangerous or fearful.
SERIOUSLY, GREG?
Greg Banks returns, along with his bunch of friends, Bird, Michael and Shari, however in this sequel it’s Shari that he interacts more, since Bird and Michael hardly have a couple of appearances without being cursed again or even participate of the little action here.
Greg acts quite dumb since he makes a summer report for his Literature class narrating his misadventures with the cursed photo camera, where OBVIOUSLY his teacher doesn’t believe it and gives him an “F”…
…seriously, Greg? What do you think will gonna happen?!
Greg’s teacher is quite an awful person, but it’s logical that he won’t believe a story about a cursed camera. Since Greg needs a good grade to be able to go in a vacations trip, his teacher tells him to bring the camera and gives him some proof that it’s cursed.
So far, it was kinda illogical but acceptable premise.
The bad thing in this book is that the new curses are quite mild, only happen to Greg and Shari (at least from the main cast) and there is only one other curse to a secondary character, a little bit bloodier but not deadly.
Moreover, there was a little bit of promising where it seemed that Greg will gonna force a curse on his awful teacher, but then the things took a different twist but even worse, the book ends without having a real climax.
Actually, the book begins kinda odd since in th first book, the cursed camera was supposed to be taken by a couple of bullies, but now that never happens, and we have a “George Lucas” moment where the writer forgets what happens before and making a contradiction of events, that I found quite odd, since I have read several book series by R.L. Stine and always there is a careful respect to the events in previous books in a series.
Anyway, while I enjoyed quite a bit the first book, there weren’t deaths but it was quite entertaining…
…I found quite disappointing this pointless sequel.
Since the third book is of another book series, still Goosebumps but from the Horrorland line and if I am not mistaken, it’s with a different cast of characters, I hope to find a little more enjoyable that one and I’ll take my chances to read it (Crossing fingers!).
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series
SAY CHEESE…BUT NOT DIE?
I know that this booI got a nice picture with this one!
This a prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series
SAY CHEESE…BUT NOT DIE?
I know that this book is part of Goosebumps and not Fear Street, therefore, you won’t get much blood in this kind of horror books oriented to kids than the other series having teenagers as main target…
…BUT…
…due the title Say Cheese and Die, well, call me naive, but I expected some deaths in the story, not an overwhelming body count but a couple of deaths could be helpful to improve the impact of the story, and while it’s quite entertaining and I liked it quite enough, it was kinda odd that nobody, not even a support character died during the narrative.
Curious thing is that the basic premise of this story published in 1992, reminded me an episode from The X-Files titled Unruhe produced in 1996, about psychic photography, it’s not the same but still make to connect them somehow.
TAKE ME A PICTURE, GREG!
Greg Banks, along with his bunch of friends, Bird, Michael and Shari, a group of high school kids, decided for fun to go into a supposed haunted house in the neighborhood, and since this a Goosebumps story, you can bet that it’s indeed a haunted house, at least they find inside a polaroid photographic camera which is…
…EVIL!!!
Every time that Greg takes picture with this camera, he gets a spooky shot from the future, indicating some disaster that it will happen to the person captured by the photo.
And that’s not all since a strange character know as Mr. Spidey is following Greg trying to get back the evil camera.
Greg and his friends won’t be safe since each photo will cause different kind of wicked situations to the bunch of friends along with other people close to them.
There are a couple of sequels, one in the same original Goosebumps series and another in the Goosebumps Horrorland series and that I will read, just not right away, but soon, in this very year.
This is the fourth book of four, part of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer – The Lost Slayer” book event, This is a prose novel that itThe final chapter!
This is the fourth book of four, part of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer – The Lost Slayer” book event, This is a prose novel that it was published in four separate parts to sell them in a lower price each. Later it was re-published in an omnibus edition.
The story is set at the beginning of Buffy’s freshman year at UC Sunnydale. (Season 4)
THE BOOK EVENT COMES TO AN END
Buffy Summers has been 5 years in the future dealing a dark scenario where Giles is king of the vampires controling all Sunnydale and several of her friends and allies are no more, even the supposed main villain Camaztoz, the Mayan god of the bats has fallen against this Vampire King Giles.
Vampire King Giles is by far, one of the best villains ever conceived in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, therefore, maybe my only complain in this final part of the story is that the heroes will be dealing with him like in the second act of three, where the climax would be getting back with Camazotz again in the present, obviously is something logical, but nevertheless this “god of the bats” not matter how powerful is and not matter how enhanced are his minions, a new kind of vampires, faster and more vicious, you can’t avoid to feel that once the arc of Vampire King Giles is resolved (I won’t say how), the hype of reading falls a lot since the “cool” threat was Vampire King and Camazotz is like a second banana compared to a Giles turned evil.
Refering to the whole story, the four parts, definitely is very cool novel, totally recommended to any Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fan where you have a dark future tale (someting always cool in any series) where familiar character like Willow and Xander are portraited having to deal with roles that aren’t typical of them but required to the story and where is really awesome to read about them.
Also, the story shows how important is the friendship of Buffy and Willow, where they are stronger together and where they argue for small things is where a mistake can be made causing fearsome repercusions.
Even, you’ll have a new Slayer around that I won’t say much but always a new girl answering the call of the Slayer is something cool to have in any Buffy story.
This is the third book of four, part of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer – The Lost Slayer” book event, This is a prose novel that itThe darkest future!
This is the third book of four, part of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer – The Lost Slayer” book event, This is a prose novel that it was published in four separate parts to sell them in a lower price each. Later it was re-published in an ómnibus edition.
The story is set at the beginning of Buffy’s freshman year at UC Sunnydale.
THE MOST FEARSOME ENEMY
Buffy Summers never faced such terrible villain, so far she had faced enemies such as The Master, Spike & Dru, Angelus and the Mayor…
…BUT…
…she never thought to have to face her own mentor!
In the previous two parts, Buffy and gang met a new kind a vampires, stronger and more vicious, led by Camazotz, known by the Mayans as “the god of the bats”. While they posed certainly a new level of threat, Buffy trusted to find a way to deal with these new vampires, however she is ambushed and Giles is captured. Buffy guessed that he was used as bait or hostage but Camazotz had other plans for the watcher, turning him into a vampire!…
…BUT…
…it was a terrible miscalculation by Camazotz since Giles resulted in the most cunning vampire ever, and soon Giles took control of Camazotz’s clan, meanwhile Buffy met an entity known as The Prophet that took her consciousness into her ownself five years in the future, finding out that she has been prisoner in a cell during all those five years, in a future where Giles is king of the vampires, reuniting a vast army of regular vampires along with the new kind of vampires, having total control of Sunnydale and beginning now to make moves to do the same on Los Angeles city.
Willow had to take lead of the gang along with new allies during those five years where close friends and allies fell or got missing.
Now, Buffy needs to find a way to stop this dark future if possible, along to get back her mind to her present.
This is the fifth and final novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
EVERYTHING COMES TO AN END
Lucy Carlyle iThe epic solution to The Problem!
This is the fifth and final novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
EVERYTHING COMES TO AN END
Lucy Carlyle is once again working with Lockwood & Co., along with A.J. Lockwood and George Cubbins, keeping on payroll to Holly Munro and even adding now Quill Kipps.
In the last book, the story leaves a cliffhanger where they need to check out the grave of Marissa Fittes, a legendary heroines of the early days about The Problem, but as the book’s title hints, the Marissa Fittes’ coffin is empty.
However, our heroes now have to deal with Penelope Fittes but she and Marissa’s fate is tighter than they ever suspect.
Therefore, the humble Lockwood & Co. will have to fight against the Fittes Agency and all its resources and influence in London, so they soon will have to look for the possible allies even the unpredictable Whispering Skull.
Easily the darkest novel in the series (that after all, the series is quite dark already) and our heroes will have to be alert because the perils are the highest here!
Everything you wanted to know about how The Problem originated, and the foggy family past of A.J. Lockwood will be revealed here, so definitely, if you were reading the previous entries in the series, you need to read the epic conclusion!
This is the fourth novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
THE COUNTRY, FULL OF FRESH AIR AND… GHOSTS!!!
Lucy Carlyle is no Ghosts everywhere!
This is the fourth novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
THE COUNTRY, FULL OF FRESH AIR AND… GHOSTS!!!
Lucy Carlyle is no more with Lockwood & Co. and she’s trying to pay the rent as a freelancer, even with big companies like Rothwell Agency, but it’s clear that maybe that’s a big company but that doesn’t mean better personnel and she has to emply all her cards to keep herself alive in the job.
Lucy deals with the illegal traffic of Sources that they were supposed to be destroyed but they end in the black market, and in the middle of that, she lost her most valuable paranormal possession, the Whispering Skull!
Lucy is missing her days at Lockwood & Co. but she won’t need to do that anymore since A.J. Lockwood himself presents at her door asking for her freelance services, and while she doesn’t know what to feel to work again with her friends, she accepts the offer.
Lucy then joins A.J. Lockwood, George Cubbins, Holly Munro, along with Quill Kipps, to go to a small town with big ghost troubles, where it’s clear that Rothwell Agency is doing some kind of mischief.
The biggest ghost there is The Creeping Shadow giving title to the novel.
Along with paranormal issues, they will face a nasty corporate war, where some of the leading ones aren’t who they supposed to be.
I won’t get deeper in the story since it would spoil the ending but I can tell you that the fourth book is as good as the previous ones in the series and definitely I recommend it!
This is the third novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
NETFLIX DECIDED FOR ME
I wasn’t sure to engage the third book,The stakes got bigger!
This is the third novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
NETFLIX DECIDED FOR ME
I wasn’t sure to engage the third book, not because I wasn’t enjoying the book series, but because it was possible that if I read the book, I wouldn’t get any surprise when I’d watch the second season of the Netflix TV adaptation, however…
…Netflix decided to cancel the series!
I don’t know why they take such decisions, since terrible TV series get more seasons but a cool and engaging TV series like Lockwood & Co. is canceled. At least, unlike other interesting TV series like Archive 81 that got canceled too, in this case I can find out what happens next thanks to the original book series.
Still, books or not, I am still sad of not being able to watch the next seasons of what could be a wonderful TV series.
SOMETHING BIG IS COOKING AT CHELSEA
A.J. Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle and George Cubbins are quite busy with cases all around in London but curiously enough while there is a major ghost outbreak at Chelsea, they hadn’t been asked to participate yet by DEPRAC there, however since they are barely been able to handle all their cases, their residence is suffering of poor attendance and Lockwood decides to hire a new assistant, not matter that Lucy is against the idea.
ENTER: Holly Munro
She is the first book canon dark skinned character while in the first (and seems only one) season of the TV adaptation there were several afro-american portraits of characters.
She was supposed to take care of the operations at the house but soon enough Lookwood asked her to help them at the field.
Lucy is quite jealous of her, since she seems to be all that Lucy would want to be. It doesn’t that the Skull in the jar enjoys to tease Lucy about Holly.
George is noticing that the quantity but also the intensity of the ghost cases that they are handling is quite unusual and it’s clear that all are connected to whatever is happening at Chelsea…
…and you can guess that he isn’t wrong since something really BIG is cooking at Chelsea, in a building that it was the center of several massive deadly incidents but there is something else boosting the intensity of the ghost activity, something familiar to Lookwood & Co. but is a larger scale.
In a side-story, Lockwood finally showed to Lucy and George what was behind a locked door in their house (AJ Lookwood’s family house) and it’s connected to a very personal Lockwood’s family tragedy linked to a ghost attack. (I’m not get into more details to avoid real spoilers)
The third book is as good as the two previous ones and definitely I recommend it!
This is the second novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN
This second book was adapted into the first seHere we go again!
This is the second novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN
This second book was adapted into the first season of Netflix TV series, most specifically in the episodes 4 to 8 (therefore episodes 1 to 3 were the adaptation of the first book).
While the first book was quite accurate adapted into the TV series, the second book got some differences in its adaptation but nothing deviating too much from the general impact, even including some new elements giving a little more of richness to the action.
Some differences (and without making any spoiler, don’t worry) are that like the character Albert Joplin in the book is treated as a female character in the TV series with the name of Pamela Joplin, but essentially the same character; Flo Bones has a more excentric personality in the book than in the TV series (at least that’s my personal perception), there is a new character exclusive from the TV series (at least he doesn’t appear in the first two books, maybe later I don’t know yet) known only as The Golden Blade; Lockwood & Co. engages into a wager against Kipps’ team but in the book is less impacting where if some team loses they have to publish an add giving acknowledge of the superiority of the other team while in the TV series they put in risk keeping on business (if I am remembering well), that after all, the wager isn’t of any consequence in the narrative anyway.
SKULLS & BONES
The book begins where the short story The Dagger in the Desk left off but you get enough info the second entry about the initial situatio, therefore isn’t necessary to read the short story to understand the beginning of the second novel of the book series.
Lockwood & Co. ends his job at the private school but needing the assistance of Quill Kipps and his team from Fittes Agency (most prestigious Ghost Hunting agency in England).
After that Lockwood & Co. got a job at a cemetery (that I can tell you isn’t any fun to do Ghost Hunting in a British cemetary during “The Problem” since almost any tomb can unleash a dangerous ghost if his/her death was violent), where they have to deal with a corpse that there isn’t record of why he was buried there and most important the ghost is a very dangerous type and in possession of a dark mirror (becoming a high profile target for relic hunters from all London). The mirror is lost from custody and the quest for it becomes a large part of the narrative, where Lockwood contacts a friend of his named Flo Bones, a ghost-related rlice hunter, but also they clash against the Winkmans, a extremely vicious and dangerous relic hunter marriage.
Lucy is able to hear a skull in jar (hence the title of this second book) that George got from his previous job at Fittes (not that they are aware of that) and the skulls is a high level ghost with astonishing intelligence and ability of communicating (but only Lucy due her “listener” gift is able to hear him) and the skull becomes a crutial help to the investigation but keeping at their toes since Lockwood & Co. knows that they just can’t trust in him.
This second book is also as good as the first one and I totally recommended it.
This is a short story of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series, set between Book 1 and 2.
SPOOKY SCHOOL
This is a short story betweeCool short story!
This is a short story of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series, set between Book 1 and 2.
SPOOKY SCHOOL
This is a short story between the first and the second book of the Lockwood & Co. series and while it’s after the events of the first book, I think that if somebody isn’t sure to engage into reading the series, they can try this short story since it’s a typical case and everything you need to understand what’s happening there, it’s explained well enough.
Also, there is a glossary of ghost clasifications and even a sneak preview of the first chapter of the second book.
This tale isn’t covered in the Netflix first season adaptation, it still to be seen if they’d show it in a following season.
In the same way than the first book (and I guess it will be the format of the whole series), the narrative is told from the point of view of Lucy Carlyle.
Anthony Lockwood, Lucy and George are hired to deal with some ghost in a private school that even on the day (that that it’s really rare) there are paranormal incidents like appearing flying daggers (hence the story’s title).
I won’t spoil the case, but as I told you, it’s a typical (but quite entertained) case in the universe of Lockwood & Co. that if you are already fan, you’ll enjoy it quite a lot, and as I told already too, if you don’t know anything about the series, it’s a cool option to read something short and decide if you want to engage into the whole series.
This is the first novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
STREAMING STAIRCASE
I already knew about this book seriWho you gonna call…in London?
This is the first novel of the “Lockwood & Co.” book series
STREAMING STAIRCASE
I already knew about this book series before of the streaming TV adaptation by Netflix, but I didn’t start to read the book series until now.
I liked a lot the first season that it’s an adaptation of books 1 and 2. I think that maybe they aren’t sure to reach five seasons, so they merged two books into the first season, and I guess to reach three seasons at least for the entire series, also taking in account that the following books are thicker and therefore harder to adapt two novels in just one TV season.
So, since the book series is already finished and it isn’t so extensive, I think that it was a good idea to engage into the book series while the second season would come out, hopefully soon and hopefully that Netflix would adapt the entire saga and don’t get cancelled before.
From what I read in the first book, it was quite well adapted in the streaming TV series, so both formats are recommendable to engage.
THE PROBLEM
In London, there is a problem that they call… “The Problem” (they didn’t scratch their heads too much, mmh?) that since 50 years ago, ghost began to appear at night and if you are touched by them you die! Soon enough it was discovered that many children had talents to hear, watch and feel ghosts, but when they reached maturity, they lost those talents. Agencies are formed all around England to deal with The Problem, using kids as field agents and adults (usually former kids with talent) as supervisors.
It’s developed a vast arsenal of tools and weapons to deal with the ghosts, like iron chains, iron filings, iron swords, silver nets, salt bombs and magnesium incendiary explosives, where the key tactic to eliminate the ghosts is to find “The Source” some artifact left behind when they were alive and that they remained attached.
The private commercial agencies are supervised by a government agency called DEPRAC (Department of Psychical Research and Control).
GHOSTS ARE JOB FOR KIDS
“Lockwood & Co.” is an unique agency since it’s operated by teenagers without any adult supervision. The first book is told from the perspective of Lucy Carlyle, a teenage girl with the talent of hearing ghosts, but soon enough is discovered that she also can “feel” things while touching objects serving as Sources.
Lucy after having some troubles in her home town, she moved to London and got being hired by Anthony Lockwood (a little older than Lucy) and owner of “Lockwood & Co.” with the talent of seeing ghosts, where the third member of the agency is George Cubbins (also a little older than Lucy but a little younger than Lockwood) where he is expert in researching the necessary info about ghosts before engaging them.
In the first book, you’ll read about an early mission of Lucy and Lockwood where they caused a severe damage to a house and they are in the need to get soon a lot of money to pay the damages or the agency can be shut down by DEPRAC.
Therefore, Lockwood will accept a dangerous job in Combe Carey Hall (the most haunted house in England, that it possess that motto even before of the rising of The Problem!) where there is hidden a “Screaming Staircase” which it gives title to this first novel.
The setting of the saga is awesome, quite well established the rules of how this world works, the characters are well developed and you care for them, and certainly it’s totally recommended. Certainly I will read the rest of the saga, maybe not, one after another, but reading some other stuff in between, but I won't delay them too much.
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