These are some of the first works I read in horror and mystery, and ones that still stand out for me.

The movie adaptation of this short novel is synonymous with classic horror (and, somehow, I’ve yet to see it); the novel itself is worth a look, too. A quick and breezy ride into the occult and the destruction of a wealthy, famous family, there is a reason this story has been well-regarded for four decades and counting.

 

This is ‘70s Horror through and through. Expect not any major gore or jump scares. This narrative gnaws at the reader’s mind and begs the question: “What would YOU do if you suspected your son was the anti-Christ?” There are a few strange occurrences and a couple minor gross-out moments, but on the whole this story plays in a minor key. I could have done with a bit more character development, but what is here is fine. I found myself getting a little bored at times, but on the whole I would consider this a successful horror novel. Now to see the movie.

 

Read for ‘Chilling Children’ in Halloween Bingo.

 

 

Reading for ‘Chilling Children.’ Wanted something small since my copy of Sleeping Beauties will arrive tomorrow. 

 

A boy Born of a Jackel?...   I get that! But how does Satan impregnate it? How did they get his sperm? Did he rise up and say hi, I'm Lucifer, son of lies, I'm here to do some sick stuff and make a son?

 

I honestly thought this when reading the book!? I know I'm strange but in the book it has no explanation at all to how they got the devil's Sperm to make Damian, they just said he was born of a jackel?

 

Apart from that I loved this classic horror book, The idea of the Antichrist being born made for a very chilling and spooky tale.

 

David seltzer does an amazing written work on this. The story grips you and sucks you in and I have to say is, I didn't put the book down. The plot involving the thorn's as well as the other character's is, fascinating although a bit Spooky and gruesome. I'm so glad I actually brought the whole collection as I could easily read them all.

I read this for November's Horror Aficionados read.

Please note that I gave this book 3.5 stars and rounded it up to 4 stars on Goodreads.

This was a good horror book, but my mind tended to wander the entire story-line. I think the problem is that the writing style was just okay, and a few times there would be a sentence or two that just read wrong in my head and I would get distracted.

This book is kind of a weird thing in itself. This was released two weeks prior to the movie being released. There were some minor changes between the book/movie, but ultimately this whole book read like a very jazzed up screenplay. I don't want to make comparisons between Dan Brown or David Seltzer, but a few times I would read something and could see the scene in my head from the movie. So Seltzer definitely wins when it comes to tying the book/movie together.

The Omen follows Robert Thorn and his wife Katherine after the birth of their son. Readers are quickly hip to the fact that Katherine and Robert's child is murdered by mysterious persons and is switched with another baby. Robert is led to believe that his baby was stillborn and is talked into switching out his baby with another baby whose mother died. The set-up to why Robert would do such a thing is that the book goes more into Katherine's mental state prior to this birth and how fragile she was due to the miscarriages she had prior to giving birth.

So this whole book is really just Katherine and Robert realizing that their son Damien does not seem to be like other boys and Robert realizing that something dark seems to be stalking his family.

The writing as I said was good but certain parts were a bit much here and there. This book included pictures from the 2006 film staring Julia Stiles and Liev Schrieber. It was actually odd that the book threw some photos in there randomly in the book. It broke up the flow of my reading. I wish that they had inserted the pictures at the end of the book, or if you are going to insert the pictures in the book, insert them in where the picture references what is going on in the story at that time. Since the book itself that I have is pretty old looking, it was weird to see the glossy colored pictures as well.

There are other books in this series, but I am going to pass on them. All in all some of the imagery in the book was gruesome here and there so that's fair warning to those out there looking for something like this to read.