Happy New Year! And I hope the first Monday of 2016 is treating you well.
Though I d
idn’t get as many books read as I would have liked over the festive period (reading was replaced with eating, running and spending time with family), I did pick up the following YA novels with my Christmas money: A Song for Ella Grey (2015) by David Almond; The Wolf Wilder (2015) by Katherine Rundell; and, Wolf by Wolf (2015) by Ryan Graudin. Both the Almond and Rundell texts featured on the blog post I wrote about the best YA fiction in 2015 and Sam was particularly interested in the Rundell text as it is about a wolfish girl.
I have finished the Graudin novel – which is excellent although sadly not Gothic enough to warrant a review on this site. However, I am looking forward to getting over the January blues by curling up with the other two and will endeavour to get a review of these up once I have read them. What books have you been reading over the festive period? Did Gothic and/ or YA texts feature heavily? Let us know below.
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I picked up ‘The Brothers Cabal’ by Joanathan L Howard – one brother is a vampire and the other is a necromancer. I’ve not had a chance to read it, but I’ve heard good things about it. The only reading I managed to squeeze in was a graphic novel, ‘The Evil of Oz’ which is a horror sequel to ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Lots of blood and swinging axes.
I finished Brian Lumley’s Necroscope which was, erm, very 80s … So I am little off anything with the word ‘necro-‘ in it. But you’ll have to let us know if it is any good!
I do really want to read the Wolf Wilder Kaja and am going to order it. I got ‘White Cat’ by Holly Black and Deborah Harkness ‘A Discovery of Witches’ for gothic Christmas. I also received Seahorses by Louise Cooper which is not at all Gothicky but fulfills my odd obsession with seahorses. I have always been fascinated by them. They pair for life and are controlled by the movements of the moon (plus the male becomes pregnant – what is not to like). Currently rereading Coraline for YA class and wanting to read the new Dan Waters on ghosts. So much unread material by my bed now though!
I liked ‘White Cat’ but I don’t think it is necessarily as good as her faery novels. ‘A Discovery of Witches’ was enjoyable – mainly due to the idea of vampires doing yoga! I did not know all that about seahorses. Perhaps I should research them more. I actually reading a dystopian novel set in a bee hive at the moment which is very addictive.