Douglas Clegg

I am diffidently a fan of Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Bentley Little and Robert R. McCammon...so this story was written for me. It was written also for you if you love the work of any of these authors. The account is told from the point of view of 10-year-old Beau Jackson. It's what occurred on his last vacation on Gull Island off the coast of Georgia. This is not anything like the Hawaiian Islands. No lovely oasis in sight...never has been and never will be. It's an unhospitable, unwelcoming, sparsely populated, humid, hot and swampy mess, but his "granny" lives there in her large, creepy old house. Beau is not alone. His cousin, Sumter, (I never want to meet this kid), shares his summer on the island. To say Sumter is strange and a little "off", is an understatement. At times he's just downright disgusting. I actually had chills and shutters to some of his antics...and nothing usually bother me unless an animal is being mistreated. Beau always seems to suffer from Sumter's actions, from following behind him through prickly bushes to the larger escapades that Sumter draws him into. The two boys may seem like opposites, but they share a gift...a startling, vivid imagination. The adults in this story are a classic example of why some people should never be allowed to reproduce under any circumstances...so the boys are basically on their own, and they take full advantage of it. I love creepy, scary movies but they don't scare me...this book, Neverland,DID! What existed in that shack the boys played in had waited eons for just the right souls to come along...and the two boys were perfect for IT...an innocent one and a tainted one. Neverland is one of the most compellingly creepy, horrific, stories I've ever read, and I have read hundreds by some really good writers but this one is...I can't find a word that truly fits it.… (altro)

Well I tried to make it through this story, but I am going to have to put it down as one of my dreaded dnf reads.

A small backstory though just for the heck of it:

Estaban Gravesend has inherited a mansion from his uncle which supposedly is haunted. As Estaban settles into the mansion he tries to learn the secrets and mystery of why the house is haunted.

That is about all I am going to say on the backstory.

Thoughts:

Okay so the reasoning for the dnf is because too much world building all the way up to near half of the story and there is no haunting that Estaban has to experience until near the 50% mark which there was just a dribble - nothing to spook you out of your skin. The dialogue is off as well and to me the storyline didn't flow along. There is also a change up between first person and third person with the character Estaban as sometimes the author will have him in first person and then it switches over to the third person. My opinion is: stay in either one or the other as it is just too confusing with jumping around.

I was not feeling anything with any of the characters in the book and I fell asleep a few times just trying to get through the storyline. To be reading a haunted house story and to fall asleep is not good as it shows there is something lacking in the entertainment of the book. I can see now why some reviewers struggled with this book as I felt the struggle too. Since this book is a dnf there will be no star rating. If I did give a star rating it would be for the cover only as the book cover is way creepier than what lays within the pages of this book.… (altro)

Aleric, el Halconero, es un joven campesino de la Bretaña francesa medieval que crece conociendo bien la miseria extrema y la brutalidad del mundo mortal. En los bosques aprende a comunicarse con las aves predadoras que los habitan y logra entrar al servicio del barón como halconero. Tras enamorarse de la hija de éste y ser desterrado por ello a luchar en las cruzadas, el Halconero cae en los brazos de la vampira Pythia que lo utiliza para alimentarse y para sus juegos eróticos. Convertido finalmente en vampiro, el Halconero descubre su verdadero destino: convertirse en el largamente esperado mesías de la raza vampírica que partirá en busca del Sacerdote de Sangre.… (altro)