Carrie by Stephen King - Reshelved Books

Hello Dewey Readers!

It's the end of October. (Okay, it ended yesterday.  I forgot to post).  The end of the month of witches, goblins, and ghouls, scary movies, and horror novels.  This October, I decided to give the horror genre a try with Stephen King's Carrie.  

Carrie is about a girl with telekinetic powers triggered by stress and a crazy religious mother who is quite psychotic.  In the novel, Carrie gets her period at 17.  Her mother never told her anything about menstruation (apparently the school didn't either), which lead to a very embarrassing event during gym class.  Carrie even grew up thinking that tampons were lipstick blotters. Anyway, throw in a prom, a contest for prom queen and king, a bucket a pigs blood, and a fire that destroys the town all on prom night, and you get Carrie.    

I was disappointed that this particular example of "horror" was not as scary as I thought it would be.  It wasn't terrifying, it was just dark.  However, I was immersed in the story and read it pretty fast.  I liked how King told the story from different POV's, and included segments of research papers and thesis about Carrie and here telekinetic energy within the novel to tell the story of the town as a whole.  

I'd give it 4 out of 5 Coffee Beans, and because it wasn't scary I'll be giving it to my grandma to read as well.

Until the next book!
~Jessica 

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins - Reshelved Books

Hello everyone.  

The past two weeks have been difficult, and as a result I've been suffering from a gigantic reading slump.  For someone who loves books, this has really sucked.  But I have been trying to power through and get back to it! 

So dear Dewey Readers, today I'm going to give you my take on Stephanie Perkins' new novel, There's Someone Inside Your House.  I loved Anna and the French Kiss.  It was a cute romance set in Paris, who wouldn't like it? Right?  Well, this novel is a totally different direction for Perkins because it's a horror story. While parts of the novel border on gore, I wouldn't say it's scary or grosteque.  Rather, it is Perkins' take on the movie Scream.  To say I was excited to read this novel would be an understatement.   

I was EXTREMELY excited for this novel since I first found out that it was going to be published back at this year's BookCon.  When I placed the purchase order for the book at the library, I sat there with great anticipation waiting for the UPS man to arrive with a package.  Is it my YA order?  No? Maybe next week... 

I actually never watched the movie Scream, although I have seen bits and pieces of it while flicking through television channels once upon a time.  That being said, I basically know the way that the story plays out and was able to clearly say that, yes, this novel is Scream.  

But while reading it I became a little disappointed.  In the back of the novel, Perkins writes that she had wanted to read this book, so her friend suggested that she write it instead.  Isn't that what author's do?  Write the book you want to read. (I remember someone saying something alone those lines back during my undergrad creative writing courses.)  But anyway, I wasn't blown away with this novel, and I just expected something little bit more. 

So Dewey Readers, I leave you with a short review and short coffee bean rating of 2.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  

I also promoted this novel at my library in our YA Monday Book Talks before reading it.  If any of you have read it, comment below with what you thought! 

Until the next read.

~Jessica  

P.S.  Here is my YA Monday video. (I look tired. I'm putting on a face mask right now!)  More to come & suggestions are welcome!