Happy Holidays from all of us at
MonsterLibrarian.com! This Holiday season we wanted to bring to you
reviews of holiday themed horror and bizarro titles to keep you reading.
The book's premise is simple, Christmas carols rewritten as
zombie Christmas carols. The book includes such favorites as “Zombie the
Snowman”, “I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus”, “We Three Spleens” and “Good King
Wenceslas Tastes Great”. There are familiar songs that tweens will find
hilarious, and more obscure ones that adults will love as well. This is an
excellent gift book, and could be fun for sing-alongs at horror-themed library
holiday parties for older kids or adults as well. The illustrations are
somewhat gory (rotting bodies, zombies decorating Christmas trees with entrails
and bare brains). Being black and white blunts them, but kids under ten or so
might be bothered. Still, it's a great community or group interaction type book
that will make people laugh and get new holiday songs stuck in their heads.
Recommended for gifts, collections for zombie lovers and older kids/adults.
Contains: Mildly disturbing art, humorous/cartoonish descriptions of violence
Santa Claus spends every Christmas Eve delivering presents to
boys and girls and spreading Christmas joy, but have you ever wondered what
else goes on at the North Pole with good ol' Santa? Robert Devereaux tells
us just that with his tales of wonderment in Santa Steps Out. We
learn about the trials and tribulations that Mr. and Mrs. Claus suffer
within their marriage and how Santa turns to the seductive Tooth Fairy, yes,
I did say the Tooth Fairy, in order to get his jollies off. And lurking not
far from all the sexual adventures, is the voyeuristic Easter Bunny. What?
You didn't know that about the Easter Bunny? Well... now you do! That poor
bunny though... he's a bit jealous, and when he runs off and tattles on dear
old Santa, you should see what happens when the missus finds out...
Robert Devereaux has created the ultimate fairy tale for
adults with Santa Steps Out. I never would have thought ever such a book
could have existed before this landed in my hands. Every chapter I was
amazed at what naughty things he had my old "fairy tale friends" doing.
Deveraux stretches the limits as far as possible with this book and I
commend him for that, as some authors wouldn't go to such extremes. This
novel is one-of-a-kind and couldn't have been written by anyone else half as
good as Devereaux. Some people re-read A Christmas Carol every
holiday season, me... I think I'll be reading Santa Steps Out!
Highly Recommended!
Book two of the Santa Claus Chronicles by Robert
Devereaux starts off where Santa Steps Out leaves off. Santa's
new stepdaughter, Wendy, has a mission every Christmas Eve alongside of
Santa where she visits one hundred children. Upon each visitation she
shows the children a glimpse into their future. One particular visit,
to a boy named Jamie Stratton, leaves her disturbed when she glimpses
suicide in his future due to torment he has dealt with because he is
gay. She discusses this with Santa and asks for his help in order to
save Jamie's life. Together, Santa and Wendy go on a special journey to
"fix" all the people that affect Jamie's life and make them less prone
to homophobia. Of course, the Tooth Fairy isn't going to make this task
easy for them and intervenes where she can. But when all is said and
done... if they can expunge the homophobia of just a few people... will
that be enough to appease Santa and Wendy or will they want to do even
bigger and better things?
Santa Claus strikes again in this second round of adventures
from Robert Devereaux. This novel is a lot different from the first
release, as it's lacking all of the sex that was included in the first.
Instead, it focuses heavily on bigotry and religion. I had hoped to
read more about the Tooth Fairy in this book, but after the way Santa
Steps Out ended I knew that was not something to expect. I did
enjoy the addition of some of the new characters though (in particular,
the imps), and also the fact that the elves got a bit more time in this
book than the previous release. I am curious to see what Devereaux will
have up his sleeve for a third release down the road! Highly
Recommended!
Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Minor Sex, Violence
Sausagey Santa is the
story of what happens to the Fry family one Christmas season. The Fry
family includes Matthew Fry, with "the sly guy" hairstyle, his wife
Decapitron, who thinks she is a Transformer, and their four children.
Matthew would love to not be married to Decapitron, but he knows that
anything he does against her wishes will cause her to annihilate him, so
he is stuck where he is. On Christmas Eve Decapitron sits around telling
the kids Santa stories. One in particular is about Sausagey Santa, and
Matthew doesn't approve of his children hearing the story. The tale
describes Santa as being made out of meat goo and linked together in
order to form the shape of a man. However, this particular Christmas,
Santa makes quite a ruckus showing up at the Fry household and when
Matthew and Decapitron go downstairs to investigate, Matthew is shocked
to find that it is Sausagey Santa rather than Santa Claus that is in
their house and instead of drinking milk he prefers beer. Santa enjoys a
short visit with the Frys and is about to head off when he hears a lot
of noise stirring up outside. He informs the Fry family that they are
all in danger. They later discover that it is an anti-Christmas spirit
that is after Santa and trying to ruin Christmas. Now, with the help of
the Fry family and his elves, Sausagey Santa is attempting to salvage
Christmas this year!
Readers like to get in the spirit of the season by reading a
holiday novel or two, but some don't like those feel good, mushy,
happy-go-lucky romance books and such that are easy to find on the
shelves during the holiday season. Sausagey Santa is the answer
for that are looking for those hard to find books! Also, if not familiar
with Carlton Mellick III and/or the greatness of the horror sub-genre,
bizarro, this is a great introduction to both! I can only imagine what
possibly inspired the ideas for some of the scenes that are depicted in
this novel. In particular, I would one day like discuss with Carlton
Mellick III exactly where he came up with the idea for "Television
Cake", and that's something you read about in just the first chapter of
this treasure of a book. There is much more hidden within the pages of
Sausagey Santa, and every chapter contains something to make your jaw
drop and ask "What the f---?!?!" So buy up a copy, make some hot cocoa,
and snuggle up in the blankets and read this book! And afterward, I
guarantee you'll be hoping that it's the "Original Santa Claus" coming
to visit you Christmas Eve rather than Sausagey Santa... unless,
of course, you are REALLY twisted!
Contains: Adult Language, Adult Situations, Violence, Sex
R.L. Stine's omnibus
collection, Silent Night, contains all three of his Silent Night
stories about Reva Dalby. The trilogy is part of his successful teen
series, Fear Street, though the majority of the books take place
in surrounding areas of Fear Street.
Silent Night, the first story of the trilogy, starts
the omnibus off and introduces us to Reva Dalby, whose daddy happens to
own Dalby Department Store. It's Christmas season, and he needs extra
help in the store, so he has asked Reva to recruit some of her friends
to help out in the store. She, being a bit self-centered, decides that
this is the perfect opportunity to gain the attention of one of the guys
at school she has a crush on and also to play pranks on a few other
people that she doesn't like. Once everyone is hired in, however, the
pranks seem to start on Reva! It seems like someone is stalking her and
it might be a bit more harmful than the pranks she had planned for her
daddy's new employees. Whoever is stalking her seems to be out for...
blood!
Silent Night 2 takes place the winter after the first
book, and, obviously, Reva has survived the adventures of the first
book. She's even promised to be a nicer person due to everything that
happened to her, but everyone knows that it's hard for a person to
change themselves that drastically, right? In this second installment of
the Silent Night series, Stine has set-up a new challenge for Reva to
face, kidnappers! Why, you ask, would anyone want to kidnap a bratty
teenager like Reva? Don't forget... she is the rich daughter of the
owner of the Dalby Department Store!
In the final installment of the Silent Night trilogy,
Reva is home from college, and has brought her roommate to stay with her
for the holidays. Her daddy has asked her to work in the store again for
the season, but after the last two miserable Christmases she's hesitant,
yet gives in. Reva's cousin, Pam, has a special request for Reva as well
now that she's home. She and her friend have been making special scarves
and would like to sell them at the department store and figure if Reva
likes them, then she can convince her daddy to do it. Reva not only
LOVES the scarves, she convinces her daddy to sell them at the store by
telling them that she was the one that designed them! This infuriates
Pam, but she doesn't speak up, as she figures it's the only way she will
get to sell them at the store. Reva is excited because she also has
conviced her daddy to let her have a fashion show at the store and
whatever she wants, she gets. Only, at Dalby's Department Store... she
tends to get a little more than she bargains for every time and this
time it seems to be murder after murder, but who is doing it and why?
As a teenager I read the Fear Street series
consistently. It was how I got my start reading horror. I love Stine's
writing style and find his books suspenseful. Even reading the Silent
Night series today, I still feel that his writing style is superior
to many of the teen horror authors out there. I had guesses throughout
the books as to what was going to happen at the end, but I was never
quite sure. These books, along with the rest of the Fear Street
books are great books for all pre-teen and younger teenagers to read if
they are wanting to start into the horror genre. They have just enough
"scare factor" in them that the kids will enjoy, without all the gore
and adult themes that parents would not want them reading yet. (Of
course, us "young at heart" also enjoy these quite a lot still as well)
This trilogy in particular is a great one to read around the holidays
since it's based around Christmastime and also has a lot of Christmas
elements going on within the story. Highly Recommended.
Note: The books reviewed in this collection are also available as
individual books titled Silent Night, Silent Night 2, and Silent Night 3
It's
Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies by Michael P. Spradlin 
Santa
Steps Out by Robert Devereaux
