Welcome!

Hi, International Mastermind here.
If you are a Kiki Strike fan that would like to join, just give me your email adress, and I will invite you. (For more info check out the first post!) Wahoo!

Creepy

I know Theatre already posted about Ted Dekker, but I'm reading Skin right now, and I must comment on it: it's so cool. Creepy, too. Creepy crawly, up your spine sort of creepiness. Yes. This is actually the first book I've read by Dekker, and it's pretty good - except that I must admit: it sort of drags on and on in the middle. Overall, though: enjoyable.

Comment on the cover: if you stare at it long enough (stare at the face in the sand), then it sorta creeps you out. Creepy crawly, blah blah. Or maybe it just seems more fake. I dunno. This was totally random : )

Other books by Dekker (which I haven't read - and can't wait to read):

"Circle Trilogy"

Black

Red

White

~~~

Chosen

Obsessed

Saint

Thr3e

House

Showdown

~~~

"Martyr's Song Series"

The Martyr's Song

When Heaven Weeps

Heaven's Wager

Thunder of Heaven

~~~

Note: the order of the series and trilogy may be incorrect

The Book of Lies

I have got to say, there are good and bad aspects of this book. James Moloney's book has a great, twisty, gotta have a sequel plot. But in my opinion, he was being a too, um, detailed writer. He was using a lot of complex words and complex phrases-just bein too good of an author.

Writers (and readers!) know that a book can either have an amazing plot, or very good writing technique. Both, as I have just experienced, is suffocating.

On to the reviewing. This book is about a boy who is dropped off at Ms. Timmins Home for Orphans and Foundlings in a very, strange fashion. He wakes up the next morning, knowing nothing about the past 12 years of his life. A small girl who hides in the shadows tells him one thing: "your name is Marcel."

Once I was two thirds into the book, I realized that I had no idea who Marcel could trust, or what his past was. Because when you forget that, your left pretty helpless and gullible. Actually, I'm still not so sure about who he should trust. But I will wait for the sequel

READ THIS. enough said.

Platinum by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

So this book isn't necessarily "freaky", but since the main character has the supernatural power of the Sight and is worried that if anyone finds out she'll be branded a freak...


Lilah Covington. She's more than Golden: she's Platinum, the uncontested ruler of Emory High. But at the moment, Lilah's world is falling about. Her second-in-command might just be plotting to steal Lilah's place and her boyfriend. If that's not enough, Lilah's worried she's a freak: she's having these weird visions of the past as well as being followed by a mysterious ghost that only she can see (and she might actually be in love with said ghost). Something supernatural and freaky is going on, and it's Lilah's job to find out what exactly it is.


I loved Platinum. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is one of my favorite authors simply because her narrators are always so wonderfully realistic, and Lilah's my favorite. Lilah is the girl you'd hate in real life, but knowing her--her thoughts and feelings and everything that makes Lilah Lilah--makes you like her because you see exactly where she's coming from. This book is lots of fun, a quick read, with good characters and decently written. I'd recommend reading Golden first, but Platinum stands well enough on its own.

A Goody-Two-Shoes Freak

Hey, so glad I could join : ) Anyway, this blog is for freakish types of books (mostly)... and for "plain good" books too! I think I lean more on the "good books" category, but of course: if I ever do come across a freakishy good/good freakish book, I will be sure to post ASAP...

I guess this is more of a post about me: a bookworm, a maniac bookworm, a fanatical bookish type bookworm, a freakish bookworm, if you know what I mean : ) Visit my other to blogs (if you want): Personal Prattle and A Day's Worth - found in my profile.

I guess I should share a really good book, since I'm posting anyway:

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

(*Of course, this includes spoilers -both subtle and very irritating - so I apologize for this*)

Characters: Enna, Finn, Razo, Isi, Geric, Sileph, Talone (the most major characters)

Settings: The countries ~ Bayern, Tira, (mention of Kildenree); a Tiran campsite, out in the wilderness (major settings)

"Romantic Couple(s)": Enna and Finn, Isi and Geric, Enna and Sileph (doesn't turn out well)

I really love this book, obviously, since I love basically almost every book ever made! It's about a girl who finds a new talent, and tries to control it, but has to tackle challenging obstacles. But Enna also has to find out what her life holds for her, what she's meant to do. She has to follow her heart, listening to her conscience ~ the best conscience of all: good, trustworthy friends.

She's loyal to her country, but a smooth talking Tiran soldier tries to convince her to betray her home. Of course, her good friend Isi helps Enna in subtle ways, help saving yet again another war from doing any more damage.

Once you get into this book, you can't get out. I rate this: 8.5 out of ten. Pretty good, eh?

*If any information I have provided is inaccurate, please comment about it, thanks : )

Other books you should read by Shannon Hale:

"Bayern Books"

~ The Goose Girl

~ River Secrets

More Fantasy

~ Princess Academy

~ Book of A Thousand Days (I have yet to read this! ~but I have a feeling it's gonna be great : )

Other - But Pretty Awesome!

~ Austenland

Must Visit Links: Squeetus ~Enna Burning

Ehem???

Does no one want to join me in my Save the Greyhounds mission???
Go to my post farther down!!! One spy cannot accomplish this alone! Please help!

Imogen Heap, Headlock

so this isn't anything having to do with books but I think the song/video are sweet and freaky in general

recomendations for Octuber reading (or reading that I plan on finishing):

Hallowe'en Party, Agatha Christie
Comes a Horseman, Robert Liparulo
Evil: an investigation, Lance Morrow

Blog classification and a query

Well this is an utterly inefficient way of sending a message to my fellow blog-peoples but here goes:

• I am planning on publishing the semi-weekly book reviews I do for school. Why the semi-weekly book reviews? Because I go to school in a mexican public school and they teach *very* basic English, which is utterly useless to me, but I struck a deal with the teacher.
• However, my first one was on Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, and it seems like something rather idiotic to publish on a blog where the author / main character depending on your mindset posts.
• But people might not've read it...
• Also, I'm debating whether the books I read normally are freaky enough. I suppose at least most of them are... And the Uglies trillogy is, to someone not used to it, plain weird. After all, the image-oriented culture that much...
  

If public opinion is against publishing the Kiki Stirke review (I should probably rewrite it anyway, it's my first book review, ever, so it's pretty bad, but the teacher doesn't speak English that well) my first review will be of Peeps... perhaps if the whole world reads it (eventually, says probability, everyone who reads english, has a computer and is bored, will end up reading this, I think... this may take a trillion billion [insert prefix]llion years though...) people will get the nuclear peanut butter joke. (page 136 of the paperback with the canon-inaccurately eyes). I can hope.

Okay, I stop babbling now.

Save the Greyhounds!!!

Yes, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with books, but I know this is a more viewed blog. Today at a county fair I observed the largest pumpkin in the world, a freakishly warped bunny, an elephant, and many organization stands. One of which was a save the greyhounds petition. Greyhounds are used to race in tracks all over the world. They provide great entertainment, but have you any idea what a horrible life they live?

They are kept in cages just big enough for one of them, but to small to stand up or turn around in, for more than 20 hours a day. The other few hours are devoted to racing while thousands of humans gawk at you.

Many of these dogs are injured, (skull injuries, paralysis, broken bones,) during racing. When they are, they are usually killed, or sent to a pound, where they are killed if no one wants them. (Would you want a paralized, or injured dog, when there are cute little beagle puppies in the next cage?)

This is a completely unfair and tragic life. At the fair, I saw some ladies asking people to sign a petition to stop greyhound racing. I wanted to, but couldn't, because I am not a registered US voter. My newest international mastermind mission is to mysteriously inform registered voters of the greyhound petition. You are all invited to join me in this mission. I will deliver info via mailboxes, bulletin board notices, and mouth.

Info to include on forms: website: www.petitiononline.com/bgr/petition.html , the terrible conditions of the dogs (mentioned above,) and the fact that you have to be a registered voter.

Free the Greyhounds!!!

Are we aloud to add urban myths??

I am anyway, since this ones freaky enough to spook my English teacher, who smiled the entire time she told us about "The Hook"--I already knew that one but her smiling was just weird--and then she told us about the dude who got hung in the woods above his girlfriends car when they where hooking-up and he went to look for help, but he doesn't come back, and all the chick knows is theres this scrapping on the hood of the car; which in the morning the police find is the boyfriend's toes scraping against the metal--I'd heard a similar story different version though. Anyway, I don't know what this ones called only that I heard it and forgot where, and that it creeped out my English teacher (who wheres a skull ring and silver bangles pretty much religiously) so here we go:

One dark and cold night a couple decided they wanted to go out to diner and called the babysitter to come over and watch the kids. When she arrives she finds the kids already tucked into bed and a note on the refrigerator saying "we'll be back before midnight, call if you need anything" so finding herself alone with sleeping children she goes and checks to make sure everythings were it should be upstairs with the children. As she climbs the stairs she can hear the blowing wind and rain crashing and see it illuminated by eerie lightning. The children are safe, and warm asleep in bed, but our baby sitter is feeling uneasy and scared so she goes to the parents bedroom and calls the parents asking them if they could come home early. They answered by telling her of course and just to wait in their room. The baby sitter feeling relieved, but still oddly uneasy asks if she can put a blanket over their clown statue in the corner. They don't reply for a minute..."We don't have a clown statue..."

In the morning the police find the baby sitter dead clutching the phone and the parents in the garage.

Take The Ending How You Will

Look at that cover.
Just look at it.
An eye. A passage from an ancient book about Royal Sacrifices. A sprig of hemlock. Two vases which jointly from the words "Nowhere".
A cello.

Oh goodness gracious! Not a cello!

Doesn't it scream, I mean scah-reeeam the very essence of freakishness for which this glorious blog,and and all it's freaky-as-hell contributors stand for?
And we are freaky,let me tell you that. I do not claim to know any of my fellow bloggers personally,but one of them thinks she's a cat....

Anyway. Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones.
I adore Diana Wynne Jones so watch out for more!

Most of this story is in flashback mode. 19-year old Polly,who is packing to leave for Uni, is suddenly struck by memories she never knew existed. For some reason she is reminded of a fellow named Tom.
Tom,who was her best childhood friend,memories of the games they played and the stories they made up,and memories that these games and tales had a most uncanny,sometimes terrifying habit,of coming true at some point. But nobody seems to remember Tom. It's almost as if he's been erased from existence entirely,and Polly has a nasty feeling that she might have had something to do with it...
It's a modern retelling of the ballad of Tam Lin,or Thomas the Rhymer,made chilling and freaky and utterly original.
I won't give away too much of the plot. Most of the joy and frustration of reading a Diana W. Jones book is the way the plot builds,thickens, layers itself,twists,turns,U-turns,goes inside out,loop-de-loops,ties itself in ribbons,meshes itself and finally presents itself in a glorious and sometimes not entirely satisfactory mess.
The thing about Jones is that she rarely,if ever, ties up all the loose ends and presents all the answers in a nice package with a bow-on-top. It's up to the poor reader to figure out everything on their own really. Ms.Jones certainly expects her readers to be most intelligent folk.
The ending of this one is particularly confusing and very open to interpretation. After 6 re-reads I am still unable to fathom what the shallow graves and shimmering music is supposed to mean.
I hope it doesn't mean I'm stupid.

Ted Decker

Okay so these are just a taste of his writing (my male hero Ted Deckker--second to Jesus, and Cary Grant) and it is just so beast I can't begin to tell about the heart stoppage and page-turning-ness. Small towns in the middle of nowhere under attack from the next best thing to Hell, a trained and deadly killer, a mind bending reality flip, and many other details flourish in pages of honor and splendor, all presented for you between two neat little covers, just waiting to be rifled through in the dead of night with your flash light under the covers...

The Saviours Of English Magick

For my very first post on By Freaks For Freaks (yay! Thank yooo International Mastermind!) is quite possibly the freakiest book ever written.
Set in historical times, when a certain Napoleon dude was trying to make as much trouble as he possibly could,two unlikely heroes turn up to resurrect the past glory and fabulousness-ness of English Magick.
It's quite impossible to give away the entire plot, due to the very size and scope of this novel(it's over a thousand pages long). Let's just say it is full of insane kings, mirrors that lead to other lands,houses that never look the same way twice, lovely ladies being resurrected from the dead,a certain woman's pinky finger, eternal ballroom dancers, creepy bells,Scottish boglands, Belgium turning up in Boston,lots and lots of books, the essence of madness,and old woman and her cats, even some traces of werewolf-ery, and the Duke of Wellington. Add such romantic and hoplessly chilling names like End-Of-All-Hope House and the Tower Of The Plucked Eye and you get 1000 pages of the most stunningly freaky piece of literature you're ever likely to read.
The prose style is rather 19th century and might not appeal to most,but persevere and thou shall be rewarded-eth.

You can buy a copy of the book and read other reviews here
http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/0765356155/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-2940480-2576144?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191228501&sr=1-2

Oh. And loads and loads of ravens.
Many many many many ravens.