In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures--if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.
All Mallory knows of The City is that her father--and every other witch there--fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it's only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.
From Melissa Marr, bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series and "Graveminder," comes a brand-new tale of lush secrets, dark love, and the struggle to forge one's own destiny.
Wow ~ "vlogging" is hard... LOL.. Probably because I'm not the most articulate person in the world, but I just had to give it a shot... I always have too many thoughts in my head at one time, which is why writing comes easier to me than speaking... my words get jumbled in my thought process.. but, see, I've got this sa-weet new computer, and I've gotta play with all the new gadgets ;) you know how it is...
This is a review of Melissa Marr's incredible Carnival of Souls.
Summary (for those of you with less patience): FIVE STARS!!! Loved the characters, world building, and storyline. Breathtaking action, heartbreaking betrayals, dark secrets, and fights to the death.... This book will get your heart pounding in more ways than one..
She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she’s being paranoid - after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps... Hollow Pike - where witchcraft never sleeps.
Hollow Pike is one of those books I probably would have never read had I not been an active member of the book blogging world. Just gives me another reason to love this community so much :).
Lis moves to Hollow Pike after the bullying at her old school becomes too much for any one person to handle. She wants a fresh start, new friends, new Lis. Little does she know that high school is pretty much the same drag everywhere. Well, mostly.
Lis wants to fit in so badly it's almost pathetic at first. She'll say whatever it takes or keep silent if she needs to, and it gets to the point where every move she makes, she's constantly worried about what others will think of her. It's at this time that I want to smack her around a bit and tell her that high school is small, insignificant, and she should grow a backbone and be herself instead of hanging out with the "popular" girls who, in reality, everyone loathes. To my relief, she finally makes a decent choice and decides that real friends are more important that her social status. Enter Kitty, Delilah, and Jack.
I fell in love with these characters. Kitty is one tough shit, laughing in the face of the "in-girls" and saying whatever is on her mind. I admired her certainty and confidence as she demands respect everywhere she goes. Delilah is the bookworm of the group, knowing anything and everything, especially when it comes to the witchy legends of Hollow Pike. And Jack, well, his role is pretty small, but he offers another distinct personality to the mix, creating a dynamic combination of characters.
As I said before, Lis got kinda annoying with her constant worrying about others. She is a good, old-fashioned weenie, to be honest. She wants to dig, dig, dig for information about who's terrorizing Hollow Pike ~ witches, maybe? ~ but when the going gets a little too tough or dangerous, Lis reverts back to her old friend ~ running. Get some guts girl! Your friends need you! It's not that I didn't like her ~ I really did ~ but she was just so damn self-conscious. On the other hand, I get that she's supposed to be this way, and while the story is about getting to the bottom of who is terrorizing Hollow Pike, it's also about her growth and her discovery that she can stand on her own two feet without giving someone easy access to knocking her down.
The writing style was fluid and easy to follow. Dawson paints an easily envisioned picture of a small town with a dark history, enveloping us in the world he's created. Being from the U.S., the lingo was a little strange to me sometimes (UK), but that made it all the more interesting. Dawson's world building and character development hit the mark, and he leave readers with nothing to be desired.
The spooky factor in this book is ~ AWESOME. I'd find myself so enveloped, heart beating fast, palms sweating, eyes jutting out of my sockets...then my dog would nudge my hand and I'd jump three feet in the air. Or reading on my back porch ~ which is surrounded by a forest of trees ~ I'd find myself scanning the tree line for dark shadows. Hollow Pike got me jumpy, and as a lover of the spooky, I couldn't have been happier.
The murder/mystery factor weaves a pretty complex and dangerous tale full of history and possible magic. The witches of Hollow Pike were said to have been extinguished (you know, the old "burning at the stake" routine) years ago, but there's more to the murder that's taken place. Sacrificial magic seems to be involved, and with the birds following Lis around and a shadow stalking her outside her bedroom windows, she can't help but think the witches are either back or have never left. Why did this have to start when she came to town? Bet you'd like to know...
I'll just say that the ending was pretty unexpected. It's difficult to tell who's who in this novel ~ good or evil? I loved how it kept me guessing, totally enthralled me, and scared the living daylights out of me. Great novel. OH, and it's a stand-alone for those of you who are tired of the constant trilogies and series.
Four out of five stars from this reader. I'd highly recommend!
Tuesday Tickle is a new meme inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. What's different about it? Well, Tuesday Tickle goes a bit deeper than a couple of lines plucked from a random page. Meet characters, immerse yourself in a different world, check out book trailers or author blurbs.. you name it ~ anything goes! It's a brighter spotlight on a particular book you are currently reading, meant to *tickle* every reader's curiosity and need to get their hands on this book, STAT.
This Tuesday, I will be diggin' into James Dawson's Hollow Pike. I just started it yesterday, and am about halfway through ~ already :). This book is the first in a while that gets me totally spooked as I read ~ heart pounding, holding my breathe, eyes buggin' outta my head...then my dog nudges my hand and makes me jump three feet in the air. It sucks you right in :). Being based in the U.K., the language is a little strange to me sometimes, but that makes it all the more interesting. And did I mention witches? **mwahahahahaha** Totally awesome :).
...the birds see everything...
Something wicked this way comes...
She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she’s being paranoid - after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark - and a twig snaps... Hollow Pike - where witchcraft never sleeps.
::you know i have to have a book trailer::
::here's how it opens::
Lis knew she was dreaming, although this brought little
comfort as the blood ran over her face. It rushed up her nostrils and caught in the back of her throat. The metallic taste choked her, panic creeping in.
This was not the first time she’d knelt in the red stream. She had encountered this nightmare many times in recent weeks and each time the vision became more realistic, more visceral. Sometimes, the focus of the dream was her long, wet hair matted to her face. Sometimes it was the freezing rain and howling wind. Sometimes it was the frenzied screams far away in the distance. On this particular visit, Lis was very aware of the pebbles, so cold and round and perfect under her hands. They scraped her skin but somehow she knew that the blood rushing over her body was not hers.
::with a few extras thrown in::
"The three robed figures stood over Lis's body, watching Laura vanish into the indigo darkness. Within seconds, they could no longer hear her footsteps stomping through the leaves."
"They'd come.
Lis's hand hovered at the door handle, trembling and uncertain. Who was she about to let into her room - friends or killers?"
"The more they watched the video, the more the spider really did look like a pale hand resting on the tree. And that meant only one thing...
There had been someone else in the woods that night."
Tickle your curiosity yet? I thought so...
SO instead of meeting a character like I've done the past two weeks, I thought it would be nice to post a video by the author. He's completely excited (and why shouldn't he be?) and goofy ~ you can't help but love him! In this video he talks "about what Hollow Pike is..um..about," giving a little rundown of the plot.
