The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender: A great Fall read!

Snuggle in and prepare for a long, dark night of reading, because once you meet Delia, the ghostly heroine in Katie Alender's latest horror novel, you won't want to let her go.

16-year-old Delia has inherited a house from her aunt and namesake, Cordelia, and the family is moving there for the summer to fix it up and get it ready to sell. When they arrive they find that the house wasn’t always a house. Founded in 1866, the Piven Institute for the Care and Correction of Troubled Females (called Hysteria Hall by the locals) was in operation up until the 1940’s, when it was closed by the state medical board following a rash of mysterious deaths.

Delia becomes the next victim, only to find that even death does not free the souls of the “troubled” women, teens, and children who died within the walls of the house. To protect her family, Delia must discover the source of the house’s evil and destroy it, no matter what it takes.

It’s not often I read a book where the main character dies only seven chapters into the story, but it’s only once she’s dead that Delia becomes a heroine. Piecing the story together from bits and snippets told to her by the other ghosts, Delia realizes that there is something wrong with the house. But it’s not until four years later, when her baby sister returns, that Delia feels compelled to act against the evil that has taken root. The story is at turns sad and spooky, with an intriguing, suspenseful plot and likable narrator. I highly recommend this one.

Alender, Katie. The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall. New York: Scholastic, 2015. 4 stars.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in the review are mine alone. 

Darynda Jones' Eighth Grave After Dark gives readers exactly what they want...until it doesn't

If you haven’t read the Charley Davidson series before, don’t read this review. Instead, go pick up the first book (or audiobook) and get ready to plow through a series at breakneck speed - because you won’t want to stop. But this review has spoilers…so stop now. If you are already a fan, and you’ve read up to book seven, go ahead and read this review (even though you've probably already read book eight).

Whoever wrote the blurb for Eighth Grave After Dark did a much better job of summarizing the plot than I could, so I'll let them tell you what's going on in book eight:

Charley Davidson has enough going on without having to worry about twelve hellhounds hot on her trail. She is, after all, incredibly pregnant and feeling like she could pop at any moment. But, just her luck, twelve deadly beasts from hell have chosen this time to escape onto our plane, and they've made Charley their target. And so she takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. Of course, if hellhounds aren't enough, Charley also has a new case to hold her attention: the decades-old murder of a newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows of the convent.

Add to that the still unsolved murder of her father, the strange behavior of her husband, and Charley's tendency to attract the, shall we say, undead, and she has her hands full…but also tied. While the angry hellhounds can't traverse the consecrated soil, they can lurk just beyond its borders like evil sentries, so Charley has been forbidden from leaving the sacred grounds. Luckily, she has her loyal team with her, and they're a scrappy bunch who won't let a few thirsty hellhounds deter them.

While the team scours the prophesies, searching for clues on the Twelve, for a way to kill them or at least send them back to hell, Charley just wants answers and is powerless to get them. But the mass of friends they've accrued helps. They convince her even more that everyone in her recent life has somehow been drawn to her, as though they were a part of a bigger picture all along. Their presence is comforting. But the good feelings don't last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life….

Some characters exhibit growth over the course of a few books, getting wiser, making better decisions, even having realizations about themselves and their co-characters. Charley…not so much. She’s still making REALLY bad, even stupid, decisions and not paying much attention to those around her or asking the right questions. On the plus side, she’s still wise-cracking, sarcastic, and willing to risk her life to help people she’s never even met. As I listened I thought this was just kind of a wrap up to the series, tying up some loose ends and giving readers what they wanted…until I got to the ending, which has a very surprising twist and makes me want to read book nine (which, unfortunately, won’t be published until January 2016). Cheers to Darynda Jones. You always keep me coming back for more. 

Note: Darynda Jones will be the keynote speaker at the 2015 Southern Magic Reader's Luncheon on November 7th in Birmingham, Alabama. Tickets are on sale now. This is always an excellent event, and I highly recommend the experience!

Jones, Darynda. Eighth Grave After Dark (Charley Davidson Book 8). New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015. 4 Stars. 

Kady Cross' Sisters of Blood and Spirit

Twins Lark and Wren Noble couldn’t be more different. While their features are exactly the same, Wren has straight hair naturally colored a vivid red, which matches her vibrant personality and energy. Lark has a more muted personality and stark white blond hair. Oh, and Wren is dead. She was born dead. But she’s always been by her sister’s side. Wren’s the one who went for help when Lark tried to commit suicide. She protected Lark in the psych ward, making sure human orderlies and other ghosts didn’t hurt her sister when the anti-psychotic drugs made her vulnerable. Now Lark is back in school, trying to ignore the stares and whispers from fellow students, and pretending that Wren was a hallucination that she’s been cured of seeing. Some people know differently, though. Kevin, the medium Wren ran to for help when her sister cut her wrists; Mace, the guy Kevin called to go check on Lark; and the twins’ grandmother, who they now live with since their mom couldn’t handle Lark’s level of crazy.

When Roxi approaches Lark AND acknowledges Wren, Lark begins to have some hope that she could make a friend post-asylum. However, Roxi is just trying to lure Lark to a meeting with Mace - who she's been avoiding - and some of their other friends from school. It seems that the group has done something stupid. Cutting across the grounds of an old asylum one night they managed to piss off a malevolent spirit. They were marked, and now the ghost can reach them wherever they go, leaching energy out of them, haunting them, possessing them, even killing them. Of course, they don’t know that. One look and Lark can see it, though. Mace is asking Lark - and Wren - for help. He can feel that something is wrong even if his friends don’t, he believes in Wren, and he knows that the twins are their only hope for fighting the ghost off. Lark feels obligated to help Mace, but she and Wren have no idea what they’re going up against.

I picked up this book because it was by Kady Cross. I LOVE her Steampunk Chronicles and the Immortal Empire trilogy (adult books written under the name Kate Locke). Those novels were extremely entertaining, well written, and revealed a fantastic imagination. I had high hopes for this new novel, even though it was a departure from her steampunk worlds.

I wasn’t disappointed. Sisters of Blood and Spirit is all of the things you want in a novel. Told in first person point of view by both Lark and Wren (in alternate chapters) the narrative pulls the reader in on the very first page. The primary and secondary characters are really well thought out and have depth and purpose within the novel - providing a great framework for the twins. The story moves quickly, each scene advancing the plot and pulling the reader in even more. And did I mention that it has just the right amount of creepy without really falling into outright horror? Which is good, because I like to sleep at night. 

Cross, Kady. Sisters of Blood and Spirit. New York: HarlequinTeen, 2015. 5 Stars.