Horror Books > H Horror Books > J

Advantages: Nicely priced, well-selected stories, wide variety of genres
Disadvantages: James's prose can be painfully dense

...Henry James's writings, it is the novella, 'The Turn of the Screw' that is possibly the most widely-known, albeit his other, less psychologically troublesome works, such as 'The Portrait of a Lady' remain, perhaps, more widely *read*. The simple 'plot' of The Turn of the Screw is often described in straightforward terms which, really, are utterly spurious in the face of such deliberate ambiguity - James himself, in his foreword, indicates that the ...
...reader} think the evil...make him think it for himself'. To attempt, then, to indicate the most important parts of James's plot would be an exercise doomed to fail, given that James himself seemed not to know. The story might be taken as a psychological exploration in the style of much post-Freudian Gothic fiction, with its fixation upon the sublime and the irrational, and the effect of repressed sexuality upon the human mind. On the other hand, ... Read review

Advantages: An excellent & imaginative story
Disadvantages: Waiting for the next book

As a children's story this is some seriously dark writing and may not be suitable of younger readers, but for adults it's an exceptionally good read. The heroine of the story, Candy, finds herself pulled into a parallel world by a strange sea, a world that consists of 25 islands. 24 islands represent a particular hour of the day with the 25th a dark place of murder and madness. This initial volume sees Candy's travels around a selection of these ...
...trying to stay out of arms reach of the dark servants of the Lord of the 25th hour. This is a place where friend and foe are never what they seem and many are out for the capture of Candy. The illustrations included in this book give it an extra and enjoyably warped depth. Clive Barkers visual take on his fantasy world is one where even the good-guys can be seen as ugly monstrosities. You'll definitely want to read the next instalment. ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to read, hard to put down, gripping, thrilling
Disadvantages: None

...he must face the demon Lord Loss. I am probably being vague here, but I do not want to give much more away as that will spoil it for readers. At 200 or so pages this is just right. I feel there is far too much padding in adult books at the moment. And reading Lord Loss has made me feel surprised just at how good kids' fiction is. I have read the Harry Potter books, like most adults, but it did not cross my mind to read other works written for children. ...
...is quite graphic. There are no holds barred here and the author gets away with a lot of stuff. Death, blood, gore… But it is written with tongue in cheek - and with plenty of sick humour that did surprise me. The style is straight to the point. And very well written at that! Darren Shan is English born, real surname O'Shaughnessy. His first book, 'Ayuamarca,' was published in 1999, but did not sell well. This was an adult work, and it is his subsequent ... Read review

Advantages: Good cliffhanger ending for the next and last book. Very thrilling!
Disadvantages: A little too short, wanted more action!

...written by Anthony Horowitz, is the fourth installment of the "Power of Five", 5 book series about 5 children who have the power to save the world from evil creatures called "The Old Ones". The book starts before "Nightrise" ends, but from the point of view of Scarlett Adams, the protaganist and the fifth gatekeeper. There is a brief review of all 4 previous books incase the reader cannot remember or has missed a book out in the series, which I ...
...It starts off straight into the action as a 13 year old Scarlett almost gets hit by a van whilst not looking when crossing a road. She is saved by a mysterious chinese man who disappears before she can thank him for his actions. The book then moves 2 years into the future and Scarlett is on a school trip when she passes through a door and travels to a monastary in the Ukraine, where she is imprisoned. Scarlett then meets Father Gregory, a terrifyingly ... Read review

Advantages: one of the scariest R.L. Stine books ever
Disadvantages: not for the people who gets scaried easily

I presume everyone who ever reads this review has at least read 1 book from the massive-selling books under the series called Goosebumps, however I bet you haven't read any from the series produced for the Millennium "2000". This book "Cry of the Cat" is the first book in the series of "Goosebumps Series 2000". R.L. Stine especially made these books because of the millennium. Now as you may already know, I happen to be reading the "Goosebumps" series ...
...to why they have had numbers on the side in the past. If you didn't already know this then you do now. I have had "Goosebumps 2000" in my collection for some time, but a friend pointed out to me that it's a different series altogether, so I decided to start reading the series, while I'm trying to get the books I do not currently have in the normal "Goosebumps". Now for anyone who has never read any Goosebumps, that are a series of books created ... Read review