Review of A Dark Matter and Interview with Peter Straub

A brief update:
In the adult Supernatural section:
Jennifer Lawrence reviews A Dark Matter and interviews the author Peter Straub.

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The Monster Librarian

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Our first update of the new year with new reviews and an interview

For our first update of 2010 we have:

For adult Horror Anthologies and Collected Works section:
Erik Smith reviews The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness edited by Cheryl Mullenax, David Agranoff reviews Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars by Cody Goodfellow, and The Monster Librarian reviews Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror edited by Cheryl Mullenax.

For the adult Zombies section:
KDP reviews Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection by Don Roff.

For the adult Killer Animal section:
The Monster Librarian reviews Fragment: A Novel by Warren Fahy.

For the adult Supernatural Horror section:
Colleen Wanglund reviews The Revelation by Bentley Little, Bob Freeman reviews Little Graveyard on the Prairie by Steven E Wedel, KDP reviews Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett, and Kirsten Kowalewski reviews Drowned Sorrows by Vanessa Morgan.

For the adult Horror Non-Fiction section:
Bob Freeman reviews Shadows Over Florida by Scott Goudsward and David Goudsward

For the adult Werewolf section:
Michele Lee does a take two review of Lorne Dixon's Snarl

For the adult Graphic Novel section:
Bob Freeman reviews The Saga of the Swamp Thing #2 by Alan Moore and North 40 issues 4-6 by Aaron Williams. The Monster Librarian reviews The Chill by Jason Starr.

For the young adult Vampire section:
Michele Lee reviews Marked, Chosen, Betrayed, and Untamed of the House of Night Series by P.C. and Kristen Cast.

For the young adult Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy section:
Kakari does a take two review of Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Take.

Finally, for our Scary Books for Kids section:
KDP reviews Silver Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham.

Michele Lee interviews David Dunwoody author of zombie novel Empire.

Keep reading!

The Monster Librarian

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Hazy Days of Horror and Werewolf Month

MonsterLibrarian.com is excited to announce that we have two different reading projects launching in July.

For those looking for something scary to read this summer, five sites dedicated to horror fiction reviews are collaborating on a special summer reading project titled Hazy Days of Horror. The participating sites include Hellnotes, Dark Scribe Magazine, Horror Fiction Review, Horrorworld, and MonsterLibrarian.com. By visiting any one of the participating sites’ Hazy Days of Horror page you will find not only that site’s reviews but a link to the other sites’ review pages, creating a virtual guide to reading horror this summer. This project is intended to both help librarians with their horror reader’s advisory and collection development this summer but also to help readers find another good book to read. Go to our Hazy Days of Horror page. Participating sites will be launching their pages and posting their reviews in the first week of July.

Reviews we have as part of this project:
Moonbane by Al Sarrantonio

Necropolis by John Urbancik

The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff

Restore from Backup by J.F. Gonzalez and Mike Oliveri

Cthulhu Unbound, Volume One edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri

Black Jack Derringer: Book One: Ace of Spades by Karen Koehler

In addition to Hazy Days of Summer, MonsterLibrarian.com is proud to announce that July is Werewolf Month! This is our second annual appreciation for all things lycanthropic and whether it is horror, urban fantasy, or paranormal romance, we will be bringing you a list of new werewolf titles coming out, reviews, and this year we will be featuring the werewolf artwork of Jerrod Brown. Come visit our Werewolf page to see more.

We have reviews of:
Moonbane by Al Sarrantonio

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews

Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn


Symptoms of a Broken Heart by Cory Cramer

Keep reading!

The MonsterLibrarian

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3/16/09 Reviews of books with monsters for adults, teens, and kids!

In this update:

Jennifer Lawrence reviews After Twilight: Walking with the Dead by Travis Adkins in the adult Zombie section.

K.D. Payne reviews The Pines by Robert Dunbar in the adult Supernatural section.

Rhonda Wilson reviews Bestial by Ray Garton in the adult Werewolves section.

Bret Jordan reviews Bitternest by Alan Draven in the adult Vampires section

The Monster Librarian reviews Generation Dead: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters in the young adult Zombies section.

Kirsten Kowalewski reviews a trio of monster books in the Scary Stories for Kids section:
I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, ill by Howard McWilliam
Monsters on Machines by Deb Lund, ill. Robert Neubecker
Monster Musical Chairs by Stuart J. Murphy, ill. by Scott Nash

We are gearing up for our 2nd annual Spring into Terror review project with an art contest.

Spring into Terror Art Contest

MonsterLibrarian.com and a number of other horror fiction review sites are conducting our second annual Spring into Terror horror fiction review project. As part of Spring into Terror we are holding an art contest to celebrate reading horror this spring.
Theme: Reading horror (books or graphic novels)

Deadline for submissions: 4/15/09

Prize: A Spring into Terror grab bag of horror and thriller books including at least one limited edition title.

The criteria for entries are:
File format: JPG
File Size: 2 Megs or Less
Medium: Digital, painting, or illustration
Dimensions: Any, but the larger the picture the larger the file
Send submissions to: monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com

By submitting art work as part of the contest you are giving MonsterLibrarian.com permission to use the submitted work

Keep reading!
Monster Librarian
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12/16/08 New reviews and an interview with Melissa de la Cruz

Happy Holidays from all of us at MonsterLibrarian.com!

In this update, Michele Lee reviews Suzy McKee Charnas's The Vampire Tapestry in the adult Vampire section and Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by James and Deborah Howe in the Scary Books for Kids section. The Monster Librarian reviews David Wellington's Vampire Zero: A Gruesome Vampire Tale in the adult Vampire section, Hard Way Studios' Morbid Myths in the young adult Graphic Novel section, Kim Paffenroth's Dying to Live: Life Sentence in the adult Zombie section. Bret Jordan reviews Horror Library Volume III edited by R.J. Cavender. K.D. Payne reviews Ben Larken's Pit-Stop in the adult Supernatural section. Kirsten Kowalewski reviews Tonya Hurley's ghostgirl in the young adult Supernatural section.

In addition, we have an interview with Melissa de la Cruz, author of the young adult vampires series Blue Bloods!

In January, please visit us for our first winter horror review project titled Winter Chills, where we will be reviewing books that will be having you shiver with fear with other horror review sites!

Keep reading!
Monster Librarian
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11/18/08 new reviews of books for kids, teens, and adults

In this update Bret Jordan reviews Dean Lorey's Nightmare Academy: Monster Madness and Kirsten Kowalewski reviews Margery Cuyler's Skeleton Hiccups in the Scary Books for Kids section. Bret also reviews The Stowaway by RA and Geno Salvatore in the young adult Fantasy section and the Monster Librarian reviews Melissa de la Cruz's newest Blue Bloods book Revelations in the young adult Vampires section.Michele Lee reviews A.P. Fuchs' Blood of the Dead in the adult Zombie section and the Monster Librarian reviews Richard Laymon's The Woods Are Dark in the adult Supernatural section. In conjunction with the release of the newest Blue Bloods book there is a Blue Bloods sweepstakes going on check our Contests page for more information.
Keep reading!
The Monster Librarian
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Werewolf Month continues!

Michele Lee reviews Jim Butcher's Fool Moon and Laurell K. Hamilton's The Lunatic Café and
Blue Moon all in the adult Werewolf section. We are running a new contest: we are giving away a copy of Ray Garton's Ravenous. Our Links page has been update with more sites!
Keep Reading!
The Monster Librarian
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More reviews for Werewolf Month

We have added four more reviews for Werewolf Month. Bob Freeman reviews William D. Carl Bestial: Werewolf Apocalypse. The Monster Librarian reviews Ray Garton's Ravenous. Michele Lee reviews Rachel Vincent's Stray and Rogue. All in the adult Werewolf section.
Keep reading!
The Monster Librarian
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7/1/08 July is Werewolf Month! Interviews, reviews, and a story!

We have all sorts of wonderful furry treats for you this month.

First, Bob Freeman interviews Steven E. Wedel author of the The Werewolf Saga. His latest werewolf title Ulrik has hit the stores now and we have a review for it.

We also have a first for Monster Librarian, a werewolf short story titled Seeing Red: A Twisted Fairy Tale by our own Bob Freeman

We are expanding our section of werewolf reviews and will have more posted throughout the month. We will be including other lycanthrope related books as well as titles that are werewolf related but not strictly horror.

Bob Freeman reviews Steven Wedel's Ulrik
Bret Jordan reviews J. F. Gonzalez's Shapeshifter
Michele Lee reviews Toby Barlow's Sharp Teeth, Bob Freeman's Keepers of the Dead, and
Denise Vitola's Quantum Moon, Opalite Moon , and Manjinn Moon.


A special thanks to Bob Freeman, Michele Lee, and Bret Jordan for their help with art, reviews, and for the story this month.

Keep reading!
The Monster Librarian
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2/15/08 Young Adult Horror Reviews

It is the great young adult update! Teen vampire book Uninvited by Amanda Marrone is reviewed in the young adult Vampire section. Weregirls: Birth of the Pack by Petru Popescu is reviewed in the young adult Supernatural Section. Raptor by Paul Zindel is reviewed by Robert Kent in our new young adult Killer Animal section. Finally, in our Scary Book for Kids section has a review of Everything I Know about Monsters by Tom Lichtenheld.
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The Monster Librarian
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1/15/08 New reviews of titles for adults, teens, and kids

In this update Bob Freeman reviews Richard Dansky's Firefly Rain in the adult Supernatural section. Michele Lee reviews John Paul Allen's Monkey Love in the adult Supernatural section. David Agranoff reviews Die Earthman Die by MF Korn, DF Lewis, Mike Philbin and David Matthew in the adult Bizarro section. There is a review of Mike Dubisch's graphic novel Weirdling in the adult graphic novel section. Francesca the Librarian reviews Stories for Young People: Edgar Allan Poe edited by Andrew Delbanco and Michael Morpurgo's Beowulf in the young adult Supernatural section. Francesca also reviews Dav Pilkey's Dogzilla in the Scary Stories for Kids section. Willow May Goes to the Midnight Carnival by Icats Nitram in the Scary Stories for Kids section.
Keep reading!
The Monster Librarian
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New Year, New Reviews

Happy New Year from all of us at MonsterLibrarian.com! To kick off the New Year, Bret Jordan reviews Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott in the Something Different Section for adults. There is a review of City Slab magazine in the Horror Periodicals section. Dennis Latham's Michael In Hell is reviewed in the adult Human Horror section. Finally, for the fans of young adult vampire titles there is a review of Marked: House of Night by P.C. and Kristen Cast in the young adult vampire section. The Coming Horror Fiction Releases has been started for 2008 and will be updated as new releases are announced. We are pleased to offer an introduction to Splatterpunk by John Skipp in the Splatterpunk 101 page found in the Book Ends section. We have selected MonsterLibrarian.com's Top Picks for 2007 for adult, young adults, and children's titles.
Keep reading!
The Monster Librarian
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10/15/07 New reviews and Teen Read Week

This week is American Library Association's Teen Read Week sponsored by Mirrorstone Books. The Teen Read Week logo on both the Main Page and on the young adult page will take you to the Teen Read Week page.

This week Bret Jordan reviews Yasuyuki Kasai's WWII killer animal book Dragon of the Mangroves. Bob Freeman reviews Anne Frasier's vampire novel Pale Immortal and the sequel Garden of Darkness and the Monster Librarian reviews Philip Henry's Vampire Twilight in the adult vampire section. David Agranoff reviews M. F. Korn's Confessions of a Ghoul and other stories, Bradley Sands's It Came from Below the Belt, and John Edward Lawson's The Troublesome Amputee: Collected Poetry in the adult Bizzaro section. There is a review of upcoming children's fantasy novel Red Dragon Codex by R.D. Henham in the Scary Books for Kids section. We are extending our Contests deadline until October 31st, so stop on by and check out the latest contests.
Keep reading,
The Monster Librarian
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New reviews for zombie fiction, horror anthologies, and one for a Cthulhu collection

Bret Jordan reviews David Moody's Autumn: Purification in the adult Zombie section. David Agranoff reviews Tattered Souls edited by Frank J. Hutton and The Monster Librarian reviews A Dark and Deadly Valley edited by Mike Heffernan in the adult Horror Anthologies section. We would like to welcome a new reviewer to MonsterLibrarian.com Bob Freeman, who reviews Horrors Beyond (Tales of Terrifying Realities) edited by William Jones in the adult Cthulhu Mythos section. There is another specialty horror fiction list now posted the Western Horror Fiction List lists horror titles set in the Old West. To go with the list David Agranoff reviews Richard Matheson's horror western novel, Shadow on the Sun in the adult Something Different Section. There are new links added to the Links page including a new section for young adult fiction links starting with the great YA book site YA Fresh. Finally, this month Monster Librarian's Spotlight shines on Permuted Press, publisher of zombie and apocalyptic titles.
Keep reading,
The Monster Librarian
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5/16/07 New reviews for adults, teens, and children

This week guest reviewer David Agranoff reviews John Shirley's Living Shadows in the something different section for adults. A review of Dead Sea by Tim Curran is in the supernatural section for adults. For young adults, Kate-Lynn Williams reviews the third book in Cate Tiernan's Sweeps series Blood Witch in the young adults supernatural section. In the Scary Books for Kids section there is a review of Mercer Mayer's There Are Monsters Everywhere.

Congratulations to the winner of the Vampire Dawn contest:
Jack P. from Philadelphia, PA

Keep reading!
Monster Librarian
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5/10/07 New reviews for adults and young adults and links

Kate-Lynn Williams reviews Cate Tiernan's Book of Shadows and Coven the first two books in the Sweeps series in the young adult supernatural section. Patricia reviews Zoe Stead's The Amulet of Vichalace in the adult vampire section. For those who enjoy killer animal books there is a review of Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez's Clickers 2: The Next Wave. There is also a review of the chapbook Screams from a Dying World by David Arganoff in the adult something different section. There was an addition to the list of World War I and II horror related books and link to book reviews have been added. New links to small presses have been added to the Links page. There have been new sightings of MonsterLibrarian.com on the web which has been added to the Monstrous Sightings page. MonsterLibrarian.com even appeared in American Libraries Direct, a newsletter for librarians. A reminder that there are five days left in our Vampire Dawn contest found on the Contests page. For those you visit MySpace there is a MonsterLibrarian Myspace Page stop by for a visit.

Keep reading!

Monster Librarian

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4/24/07 Reviews for horror for adults, children and kids

Bret Jordan reviews The Blackest Heart by Vince Churchill in the adult something different section. Francesca the Librarian reviews Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret in the newly minted Something Different section for young adults. For the zombie lovers there is a review of Joe McKinney's Dead City in the adult zombie section. There is also a review of S.D. Hintz's The Offering in the adult supernatural section. For the 12 and under crowd there is a review of The Scarecrow's New Clothes by Lisa Thiesing. For those interested in a little musical levity we have added a link in our Monstrous Music section to Librarian by Haunted Love. Finally, we have added a profile to our latest staff member Havoc in the About This Site section.

Remember we are running the Vampire Dawn contest until May 15th go to the Contests page to enter!

Keep reading!

ML
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New reviews for adults, young adults, and kids

Bret Jordan reviews The Prison by Patrick Gates in the adult supernatural section. In addition, the horror/humor chapbook Right House on the Left by Steve Vernon, Mark McLaughlin, and L.L. Soares is reviewed in the something different section for adults. Christopher Pike's Slumber Party is reviewed for young adults human horror section. Finally, My Monster Mama Loves Me So by Laura Leuck is reviewed for kids.

Celebrate School Library Media Month !!!!

April is School Library Media Month which is sharing the same there as National Library Week.
Here are resources from The American Association of School Librarians(AASL):

This year's theme is Change your world @ your library(r)Get National Library Week resources athttp://www.ala.org/ala/pio/natlibraryweek/nlw.htm

Learn more about School Library Media Month at http://www.ala.org/aasl/slmmonth.html

Access all of AASL's advocacy resources fromhttp://www.ala.org/aaslTemplate.cfm?Section=aasladvocacy

Read about School Library Media Campaign @ your library athttp://www.ala.org/ala/pio/campaign/schoollibrary/schoollibrary.htm

Keep reading!
ML


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1/25/07 Another zombie review, a first look at Y/A vampire novel Tantalize, and Philip Henry's Mind's Eye

A little bit of cosmetic upgrade on the site today, so minor you might not even notice it. This week Bret Jordan reviews J.L Bourne's Day by Day Armageddon for zombie book readers. In addition, for those interested in the shuffling dead, I provided a link to a great zombie article written by author Shannon Riley on the zombie page. I provide a review of Candlewick's much anticipate vampire release by Cynthia Leitich Smith titled Tantalize. Finally, a review of Philip Henry's Mind's Eye in the supernatural section for adults. In the Book Ends section I added an Ask the Monster Librarian page for all those with horror fiction questions (including collection development and readers advisory). Finally, also in Book Ends there is the World War I and II Horror Fiction List which has horror titles with ties to either World War I or World War II. Keep reading! ML
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1/12/07 Reviews: Down the Road with Zombies, The Flock, and a guide to world monsters for kids.

This week reviewer Bret Jordan takes a look at Bowie Ibarra's zombie novel Down the Road. A review for killer animal book The Flock by James Robert Smith. Finally for the Scary Books for Kids section a review of The Gruesome Guide To World Monsters by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Henrik Drescher. For those who have been trying to subscribe to MonsterLibrarian.com update via e-mail and have been getting the following message when you verify your subscription "FeedBurner could not find the subscription", just copy the link and paste it in your address bar of your browser. I have let Feedburner know about the problem. Keep reading! ML
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12/7/06 Reviews, Links, and a Horror Survival Guide

This week there are three new reviews and a few other additions. The first is for John Skipp's The Long Last Call published by Cemetery Dance Publications in the adult Supernatural section. The second is Alabaster by Caitlin Kiernan in the Horror Adventure section for adults. Young Adults have a review for The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick in the young adult teen section. There ahve been additional links for librarian resources added to the Links page. Finally, the Shockline's Horror Survival Guide has been added to the Odds and Ends page, it was created sometime back from various authors it is a fun little read for fans of the horror genre. Sections of the site are undergoing a slight facelift which we hope to have compelted within the next week.

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New Chapter for MonsterLibrarian.com

Updates for MonsterLibrarian.com will now appear in blog format. This will allow an RSS feed so that you can subscribe and see what is new at MonsterLibrarian.com. The old update page can still be found here. I would like to thank Jessamyn West from Librarian.net for the suggestion for using the blog. Bill Barnes from the Unshelved comic gave the ok to link to his Book Club strips. So, there is now a link of a Book Club strip to the review of Scott Westerfield's Peeps an excellent young adult vampire book. More reviews will be posted in the next few days. Please send and constructive comments or suggestions about the new update format to monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com

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