R.I.P. V Challenge - COMPLETE

It's that time again.  Time for the R.I.P. Challenge V from Stainless Steel Droppings.  This was a great one that I did for the first time last year.  I'm joining at Peril the Second: read two books in any of these catergories:
Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

Challenge runs from September 1st through October 31st.

1. Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin
2. White Cat by Holly Black

COMPLETED 10.14.10

Beautiful Creatures + Giveaway!

Ethan lives in the sleepy southern town of Gatlin where nothing ever changes, until Lena shows up at school.  The niece of the town shut-in she is immediately shunned for being different, but Ethan is drawn to her anyway.  What mysteries lie at her uncle's house and what is the connection between Lena and Ethan?  As the weather rages in Gatlin, the two of them must figure out how to save Lena from her fate.

It had been a long dull day at Jackson without Hurricane Lena, and I was starting to wonder how I ever got through eight periods without all the trouble she caused me.  Without all the trouble she made me want to cause myself. p.132 ARC

After suffering from some slow starters, Beautiful Creatures sucked me right in and all I wanted to do was read it.  It was a real page turner.  It was interesting that it was told from the boy's point of view so there is a lot he is not privy too since he is not the one dealing with the magic.  Ethan is such a 16 year old boy and the emotion you get from him isn't how you expect a boy to feel.  But it was funny because he would have these intense emotions and on the outside just act chill, like it was no big deal.  If I was reading from Lena's POV I doubt I would have loved Ethan as much as I do.  Of course, I might have liked Lena more if it was her POV.  But she grew on me and, at the last, I understood more about her.  Oddly enough, it was her cousin that I found the most interesting even though she is just a bit part.  But I wish there had been more explanation about Ethan's abilities.

In ways, this book was the perfect book for me.  Magic, romance, crazy relatives, a dog like creature wolf thing, the creepy South; all of this spells Andrea.  But there was so much book involved that I kept losing details and wondering are they important and, yes they are, no they aren't, WTF, what just happened.  WHY won't anyone answer a damn question?  WHY!!?  Everyone is so cryptic and they are all just running around not answering questions and then it is the big OMG moment at the end and I'm going well, if you had just answered one freaking question then we'd all be in a better place.

Despite that, it was well worth my time and a good read.  It really moves at a great pace and makes you want to find out what happens next. And the emotion is so real.  I got a little teary at the end.  The visuals I got from the prose were great and I could see the entire thing.  I could even hear the soundtrack. It was nice to read a good book that wasn't a series for a change.  I miss standalones and this was definitely a good one.

ETA: I'm using this for the R.I.P. Challenge


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So I'm giving away my (gently read) ARC* copy of Beautiful Creatures.  If you are interested, please leave a comment below with your e-mail or Twitter name if you have one and don't want to give out your e-mail.  Contest open to US and Canada and ends on October 31, 2009.  Winner will be chosen at random.

*an ARC I received from The Tome Traveller's Weblog

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I can't even write a synopsis for this and do it justice.  Here's the official description:
Subtitle: The Classic Regency Romance-Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—& the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennett is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty & arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—& even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism & thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

Okay so this was a silly book and I don't mean that in the negative sense.  It was a very clever book as well.  The original text of Pride and Prejudice with some zombie additions and it sounds totally natural.  It was just so odd to read P&P and then there is a casual mention of a zombie herd or Elizabeth has to behead something on her way to Meryton.  It was so ... odd and quirky, very quirky.  I did lol a couple of times and I loved the Darcy proposal scene complete with roundhouse kicks.  I love that Lady Catherine is a master of the deadly arts and that she looks down on Elizabeth for training in China and not Japan.  In fact this was my favorite exchange in the book:
Lady Catherine: "Have your ninjas left you?"
Elizabeth: "We never had any ninjas."
"No ninjas! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas! I never heard of such a thing.  Your mother must have been quite a slave to your safety."
Elizabeth coul hardly help smiling as she assured her that had not been the case.

These changes to the text are very clever and surprising to say the least.  And the fates of some of the characters are so different, but completely understandable given the nature of the book.  I have to say I wasn't too sure at first, but the more I read the more I got into it, zombies and all.

*completes my Everything Austen Challenge and goes towards the R.I.P. Challenge

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge IV - COMPLETE

It seems that I can't resist a challenge or at least this one. I'll go ahead and give it a try. This one comes from Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. The R.I.P. IV challenges has several options but I'm going for:
Peril the Second:
Read Two books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose


Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural
R.I.P. IV officially runs from September 1st through October 31st.
So this is what I think I'm going to read:

1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
2. Beautiful Creatures