The Quick by Lauren Owen

Charlotte and James Norbury grow up in a huge old mansion out in the country, playing on the overgrown pathways and in the dusty library. From reading other gothic horror novels, you would think that it would be in the mansion that the siblings would meet some eldritch abomination, but in The Quick by Lauren Owen, it is London where brother and sister are plagued by an evil they are afraid to name. When James disappears into the bowels of Victorian London, Charlotte must find him before it's too late.

You won't find it on the book jacket, but (SPOILERS, I guess) the twist is that there are vampires in London, vampires who are not glamorous and romantic but repulsive and alien. They are both disgusted and attracted to humans, which they call the Quick, and their natures cannot be controlled like in certain other vampire narratives. I thought this was an interesting take on vampires being  truly repulsive instead of perversely attractive. However, the main characters, James and Charlotte, don't have much to do and are swept along for the ride rather than directing the action. Side characters do most of the action and planning while the two Norburys follow along in their wake. However, fans of gothic horror and Anne Rice will gobble this dark, dreamlike novel right up.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Best Beach Reads of 2014

This summer is already shaping up to be a great one for book lovers - six of your favorite bestselling authors are back with new books that are sure to be smash hits. Curl up with one these in a beach chair and you'll be on your way to an awesome summer!

Bestselling author James Patterson is back with his newest novel Invisible, in which FBI researcher Emmy Dockery must convince her colleagues that a flood of unsolved crimes are all being committed by the same person.


In Elin Hilderbrand's newest summer read, The Matchmaker, Dabney has an unbroken record of 42 matches made. But when an old flame returns, Dabney must reveal her own dark secrets.

It's another Stephanie Plum novel - need I say more? Fans of Janet Evanovich's wisecracking bounty hunter can expect her newest entry in the series on June 17 - Top Secret Twenty-One.

Stephen King makes his first foray into hard-boiled detective stories with Mr. Mercedes, about a serial killer who runs over innocents with a stolen Mercedes and a retired cop who is determined to take him down before he kills again.

Everyone's favorite professional wizard is back in Skin Game by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden's services have been traded to a group of supernatural villains, so he must help them break into a vault. Their target? The Holy Grail.

Fresh from her smash success last year with The Cuckoo's Calling, J. K. Rowling's newest effort is The Silkworm (again writing under pseudonym Robert Galbraith), in which private detective Cormoran Strike returns to catch another killer.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Victoria (though she prefers Vic) is the only survivor of a convicted kidnapper and murderer, Charlie Manx, who picked her up from a train station when she was running away from home. Only she wasn't exactly running away from home. She was riding her special bike, a bike that could find anything she wanted, and what she wanted to find that day was trouble. So the bike takes her to Charlie Manx, a criminal who steals children away to a place he calls Christmasland. After Vic escapes, she turns him in and Manx dies in prison. Victoria thinks he is gone for good, but no such luck: in NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King), Manx is back and looking to take revenge on the woman who put him in prison.

Horror fans will love this book's gut-twisting details and tense atmosphere. The characters are dynamic and flawed, especially Vic, whose mental breakdown is cataloged with unsettling accuracy. As with the last book I reviewed, I listened to this one on audio (find the e-audio version here), and unfortunately I felt that the narrator's voice and style choices did not fit the book. Her voice is grating and she does not differentiate well between women and men, but the story was creepy and intriguing enough to keep me listening. Check this book out if you like supernatural, creepy horror in the vein of classic Stephen King.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Marisha Pessl's Newest Blockbuster Thriller

If you love thrillers, horror, or mysteries, you have to read Night Film by Marisha Pessl. Scott McGrath, disgraced journalist, receives a tip about the death of the daughter of the man who ruined his career. This man is cult horror film auteur Stanislas Cordova, who has not left his backwoods estate in thirty years and holds a mythical status among his followers. Of course McGrath believes that the death was not just a suicide and investigates, digging deeper and deeper into Cordova's past. Piece by piece the web of myths, dark deeds, and shrouded history is unraveled, but who knows if he will ever find the truth.

Pessl uses fantastic, lyrical descriptions and weaves together a tapestry of websites, newspaper articles, pictures to make Cordova and his films real. The mythos behind Cordova and his night films is so tightly crafted that I began to think I could find them somewhere on the internet. Pessl skillfully builds the creepy atmosphere of her novel one piece at a time to ratchet up the tension, until something has to snap - and snap it did. I had to put down the book at one point because I was so freaked out. But aside from the horror aspect, it is an excellent mystery with pieces doled one at a time to reveal a larger picture which may never be fully explained. This hybrid of many genres is an excellent read that will keep you on the edge of your seat and haunt you for days after you finish it.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian