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Mary SanGiovanni

Teoksen The Hollower tekijä

27+ teosta 409 jäsentä 37 arvostelua 1 Favorited

Tietoja tekijästä

Image credit: 2015

Sarjat

Tekijän teokset

The Hollower (2007) 84 kappaletta
Chills (2016) 67 kappaletta
Found You (2008) 59 kappaletta
Behind the Door (2018) 35 kappaletta
Thrall (2011) 24 kappaletta
Alien: Enemy of My Enemy (2023) 15 kappaletta
Inside the Asylum (2019) 15 kappaletta
For Emmy (2011) 15 kappaletta
The Fading Place (2014) 13 kappaletta
Savage Woods (2017) 13 kappaletta
Midnight Symphony (10 Novellas of Horror & Suspense) (2013) — Avustaja — 12 kappaletta
The Triumvirate (2012) 8 kappaletta
Under Cover of Night (2002) 8 kappaletta
Beyond the Gate (2019) 6 kappaletta
Chaos (2014) 5 kappaletta
A Darkling Plain (2013) 4 kappaletta
No Songs for the Stars (2014) 4 kappaletta
Okiku (2014) 3 kappaletta
Baby Teeth 3 kappaletta
A Weirdish Wild Space (2017) 3 kappaletta
Night Moves (2017) 3 kappaletta
The Shapes of Night (2023) 3 kappaletta
The Anathema Cell 2 kappaletta

Associated Works

Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery (2019) — Avustaja — 164 kappaletta
The Library of the Dead (2015) — Avustaja — 31 kappaletta
Clickers Forever (2018) — Avustaja — 14 kappaletta
A Mythos Grimmly (2015) — Avustaja — 12 kappaletta
Postscripts Magazine, Issue 9 (2006) — Avustaja — 10 kappaletta
In Darkness, Delight: Creatures of the Night (2019) — Avustaja — 8 kappaletta
Jack Haringa Must Die! (2008) — Avustaja, eräät painokset8 kappaletta
Things Left Behind (2022)eräät painokset5 kappaletta
Freaks, Geeks, and Sideshow Floozies (2002) — Avustaja — 4 kappaletta
Is There A Demon In You? — Avustaja — 4 kappaletta
Operation Ice Bat (2014) — Avustaja — 3 kappaletta
Midnight Rituals — Avustaja — 2 kappaletta
Swords in the Shadows (2023) — Avustaja — 2 kappaletta
Midnight Hauntings — Avustaja, eräät painokset1 kappale

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

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Kirja-arvosteluja

I liked that 'Chills' opened with a cult having already carried out a ritual sacrifice to open a door between worlds and invite in the creatures who will clear the way for the arrival of the Elder Gods by killing everyone in the small town of Colby. This was a more interesting take than all those stories about someone trying to stop the cult before the door is opened and risking being seen as insane. The mutilated dead bodies splatter across the unseasonal snow provide convincing evidence that something strange is happening.

I also liked the creatures that had been sent to 'cleanse the town of light'. They were original, well-imagined and very scary. I was impressed that there was more than one kind and by their relationship to the snow that is burying the town in the middle of May.

The midsection of the book had a lot of traditional horror scenes where one or more civilians find themselves in the path of the killer monsters while we were kept in suspense about if and how they might survive. There was a huge body count and a lot of slicing, dicing, bleeding, screaming and dying. Mary SanGiovanni did a good job in making the snow and the things that emerged from it menacing.

The main character, Kathy Ryan, the person the police call when a case involves cults or other weird things, has a well-thought-through traumatic background that I hadn't seen used before.

So why did I finish this book disappointed and with no interest in reading the next Kathy Ryan book?

Firstly, Kathy Ryan doesn't really come across as the main character. We see very little of the story from her point of view and even when we do, we don't really get inside her head except as a convenient device for disclosing her traumatic backstory. It's really hard to engage with a character when you are given almost no insight into how they feel about what is happening to them and to the people around them.

Secondly, it often felt as if Detective Glazier was the main character, which was a pity because he was so bland that I'm already starting to forget him. Did this story need to spend so much time on a divorced middle-aged detective who represses his emotions, is dogged and determined but not particularly talented and who never really figures out what's going on? I kept waiting for us to move on to another character when we were following him around. And the way he reacted to his ex-wife being in danger did not endear him to me. On the other hand, he was so bland that there wasn't enough there for me to build up a solid dislike of the man.

Then there was the dialogue. The purely functional, disclose-information or move-the-plot-along stuff went well enough but the interpersonal stuff needed work because the characters seemed to me to take turns giving speeches about how they felt rather than talking to each other. It didn't help that the narrator's delivery was flat and, apart from giving Tegan an unconvincing Irish accent, didn't give the characters identifiable voices.

It was the ending that finally snuffed out my interest. I was sitting there thinking 'We had all that build-up and all that death and all those truly scary monsters and THIS is how the situation resolves?'

Maybe I could have lived with the ending if the book had stopped when the action did but the last chapter or so was a return to normality that was stretched my suspension of disbelief much more than the idea of Elder Gods coming through a portal to a small town in the US did.

I read 'Chills' for the Ice Cold Fear square on my Halloween Bingo card.
… (lisätietoja)
½
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
MikeFinnFiction | 11 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 31, 2022 |
This is a series I will most definitely want to stick with. I had previously read "Chills" by the same author which is where I first met the character Kathy Ryan. I loved her then and I love her now. In fact I think she was my favorite part of Chills.
The people in the small town of Zarepath have more than their share of secrets. The deepest and darkest secret of them all is one they have shared amongst the townspeople for generations. Hidden in the woods is a door that can rid you of your misery or it can rain misery upon you if you don't follow the rules. Your request must be in writing and you are in for a world of suffering if it isn't worded exactly the way you intend.
The characters are perfectly imperfect and managed to evoke my sympathy for them even as I raged against the pain that some of them had caused and things they had done. The fright factor is deliciously high and the writing style is imaginative and flows beautifully.


I received an advance copy for review
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
IreneCole | 6 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 27, 2022 |
A storm is coming, and there is an unimaginable evil in it. This is no ordinary storm, and starting with the discovery of a ritualistic murder victim we are given just a taste of what's ahead. Jack Glazier had worked homicide for 9 years, but he had never seen anything like this. Kathy Ryan is brought in on the investigation, Kathy is an expert on ritual and occult type murders and bears the scar of her first brush with the Hand of the Black Stars cult.....and then the snow starts.. and people are unprepared for what it brings.
This book started off so strong, and I loved Kathy Ryan and her back story. Other than Kathy I just didn't have a lot of interest in the other main characters, though I did like quite a few of the expendable characters brought in for the sake of doing away with them in truly chilling ways. After a very strong start it seemed to just lag a bit in the middle, though the action did pick up again towards the end. All in all well worth a read.
I received an advance copy for review
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
IreneCole | 11 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 27, 2022 |
I really liked this book as it was gripping and suspenseful with a touch of mystery, horror, and mythical creatures added in for flavor!

Just looking at the cover of the book is ominous which made me want to reach out and pull open the door to see what was behind it for curiosity sake, but then being too curious can get you killed.

With that being said, the story pulls you into the town of Zarepath near the town of New Jersey where there is The Door that is built in the woods. It has been there for centuries as it helps the people of the town with their problems and families of the town have been going there to have the The Door solve their problems for them.

All they have to do is write a letter, with their problem they want solved, seal the letter with their blood and stick it under the door. In three days the request is either granted or denied. No sweat, right? Well everything would have been just fine if one of the town residents (Kari) hadn't decided that the letter she stuck under the door was not what she really wanted to do, so what would be the problem with opening The Door and retrieving the letter. Well for one thing no has ever attempted to actually "Open the Door" as that is just the law of the town.

"Do Not Open The Door". Very simple.

Kari opens the door and tries to grab the letter, but she ends up releasing "the bowels of hell" as every mortal sin and ghostly spirit is released into the town.

The town hires an occult specialist, Kathy Ryan to come in and deal with all the supernatural beings that are plaguing the town. She is also assigned the task of sealing the door which proves to be a bigger task than she thought. Will she get the door closed in time before the entities destroy the town? No spoilers here. You will just have to read the book!

Also this was my first book by this author and I have now added her to my growing list of horror authors. Four stars for this one.

… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
BookNookRetreat7 | 6 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 25, 2022 |

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Teokset
27
Also by
17
Jäseniä
409
Suosituimmuussija
#59,484
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.6
Kirja-arvosteluja
37
ISBN:t
34
Kielet
1
Kuinka monen suosikki
1

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