Jeff DeGordickRezensionen

I enjoyed this book much more than the first. I appreciated the different approach taken with the sequel and found it much more interesting to read. Oddly enough, although this book focuses alot on the younger children in town, it didn't feel as juvenile as the first book.

I was excited to read this as part of fall reading list this year. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as good as I expected it to be. It was ok, I did enjoy the feel and the overall plot. However, it felt like a youth reader at times, it may very well be a youth or YA book, but it wasn't listed as so on Amazon. Without giving any spoilers away, I will just say that the ending scene in the hospital with Stacy, was ridiculously cheese and unbelievable.

Well what to say about this book.....*sigh*....

A small backstory:

Simon is back as his secretary Vickie tells him that he is needed back in Harrows Hamlet as a man named Elliott needs help with getting the spirit of his dead wife to move on. Simon thinks that it will just be an easy fix on sending the man's wife into the light, but when Simon arrives and meets Elliott he finds out there is more to the haunting than expected. As Elliott harbors a secret that will keep Simon encased within the walls of Elliott's home with no escape as it seems Elliott has a way of changing the perception of what lies within the house through no fault of his own.

Thoughts:

This book should have been at least a four star read, but things became quirky within the storyline to the point I was becoming confused here and there with how the story was moving along. I really wanted to love the book as I have been loving this series so far, but this story was just plain strange as it almost felt like I was reading a story from the twilight zone.

It actually reminded me of the the tv show "The Twilight Zone" as the story would jump from one thing to another as the character Elliott was able to change things within the house and by that I mean if the character Simon stepped through a doorway then he was no longer in the house as he was projected somewhere else. The haunting part of the book was great but everything else was just too confusing to keep my mind encased in the storyline. Giving this book three stars.

This was a creepy story!



A small backstory:

Jess is still trying to get over things that happened to her at the Dover house when she was young which also involved her uncle dying, so Jess along with her boyfriend, Tyler and a couple more friends decide to go back to the abandoned house when they learn a blood moon will be appearing so that Jess can face her fears.

As soon as they arrive and get settled things start happening within the house. Jess finds an occult room and learns that her uncle was trying to summon the dead as the history of the house that included the Dover family had murders in the past. Tyler is a big skeptic and doesn't believe in ghosts, but when the friends experience a cold draft in the hallway is when things start heating up and Tyler becomes a believer quickly. The friends start hearing moans, chains rattling, footsteps, and creaking floorboards which makes them wonder what really happened in this house, but that is the least of their worries as when the house wakes up it decides that it doesn't want them to leave!

Thoughts:

This book started out a little slow with the world building, but then when the character Jess and her friends arrive at the house is when the book goes into full blown creep mode. I was into about 25% with not much happening, but then it escalated when the characters started experiencing activity in the house. Also there was a twist near the end of the book that I didn't see coming which really drove the story into overdrive mode!

This is about my fourth or fifth book by this author and I am always drawn to the writing style as everything is smooth and easy to read. The haunting atmosphere of his stories always seem to capture my attention and ends up taking me deep into the haunting of his mind. Giving this book four "spook" stars!

This was a cool ghost story that gave me some spooky chills!

A little backstory for you readers:

A few friends get together at a museum as they have heard rumors that there is treasure to be found out in the bay as the museum sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There is a legend that pirates ransacked the area then their ship sunk out in the ocean with gold and jewels.

The friends do not realize that that the museum is haunted until they start hanging out there and as time moves on when they try to go in search of the treasure out in the bay they don't realize that they have awoken long dead pirates. The pirates are not going to relinquish their treasure willingly and even in death the treasure still belongs to them!

Thoughts:

I have read this author before and really liked his writing style so I grabbed a few of his books last year to read some more of his work.

The book starts out slowly with a little bit of world building and as the story moves along there is lots of spooky atmosphere as the haunting escalates in the museum. I would have given this five stars as the creepy trepidation of the haunting was superb but the characters just were not attachable to me and the story itself drew out far too long on the haunting of the pirates as it took awhile for the ghost pirates to even make an appearance.

All in all though the book has tons of atmosphere with the museum being haunted and I would still recommend it to readers that love haunted horror along with a mixture of pirates and lost gold!

Giving this one four Creepy Chiller stars.

The second installment was just as fast paced as the first book and grabbed me from the first chapter!

Simon Donatti is back to continue the good fight against evil entities only this time he will have to go it alone. Howard isn't able to accompanying him on this newest adventure. The end of the last book takes the reader straight on the heels into this book as though it seemed to be all over in the last book it really wasn't as Simon and Howard released demons from the house and now they have invaded the town of Harrow's Hamlet.

The town becomes a cesspool of evil activity and Simon becomes so involved in trying to fix things that he realizes that he cannot conquer the evil by himself. He reaches out to a catholic priest that has been his friend for a long time to come to his aid. His friend arrives to help Simon and the two of them must battle not only the townspeople but the demons themselves if they want to make it out of Harrows Hamlet alive.

Satanic rituals along with a demonic theme is saturated throughout this whole book and it moves along quickly as the characters come alive within its pages!

From one chapter to the next I was wondering what was going to happen and it kept me glued to my kindle to see the outcome. I had the rating at four stars, but I am changing it to 4.5 and rounding it up to five as it was still a very amazing ride into terror!

Wow! What an absolute terrific start to this series! From the first page the author just drew me into his spooky world! This is the second book I have read by this author and again I was not disappointed!

Simon Donatti runs a ghost hunting business and he thinks he has seen everything there is to be seen with haunted houses until in walks a man by the name of "Howard" who has decided to hire Simon to investigate a house that is believed to be haunted and to locate three boys that have gone missing in the house.

When Howard lays down some mega money for Simon to travel to a town called Harrow's Hamlet, Simon decides that he cannot refuse such an offer and makes trails for the town. When Howard goes into detail about the history of the house and what horrific things had happened there in the past with the previous owner "Prescott", Simon cannot leave the town until he finds the answers of what has happened to the boys.

With Howard by his side through some of the investigation along with all the ghost hunting equipment, Simon and Howard find that an evil presence of "Prescott" still lingers in the house and not only does it have the boys somewhere in the house, but it also wants the souls of Simon and Howard as well. It will do anything to keep them from finding the answers they seek of the fate of the boys.

What happened to the missing boys? Who is Prescott and what crimes did he commit in the house? Does Simon and Howard find the boys? What do they have to endure to get the boys back? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book!

Very fast paced book along with lots of atmospheric detail of the haunting as well as great character connection. Every emotion the characters felt I could feel it right alongside them and when things started getting spooky with slamming doors, hot breaths, voices whispering, footsteps, evil laughter, etc. I could feel it as well as if I had been transported into the book!

I could literally not put this book down and had to continue reading to see what would happen next! Keeping me glued to my kindle for hours on end makes me give this book five "haunting" stars!

The book ends on a cliff hanger which takes the series into the next book "Ghoststalker" which I already have on my kindle, so I will continue on with the series to see what happens next.

This was a new author to me and I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up really liking the story.

A small town has been under the influence of a supposed curse from a woman that the town believed to be a witch. A boy had gone missing and the town went on a rampage taking it to the next level as they burned her house down with her inside. Three years later another child goes missing and the town goes into a panic as they think the curse has kicked in which makes it seem the witch is reaching beyond the grave to exact her revenge.

Robert the Chief of Police wonders if history is repeating itself when the child goes missing, so he warns his son Tommy and daughter Carmen that they might not be able to go trick or treating for Halloween till the child is found. Carmen is in her first year of college and Tommy is nine years old. Since their mother had passed away, Carmen has kind of taken it on herself to mother Tommy and look out for him.

But when more children end up missing the town goes from panic mode to non-caring mode as all of the townspeople settle into a fugue state of mind. Carmen and Tommy cannot figure out why it seems no one cares about trying to find the missing children and they think it has something to do with the curse coming back to haunt the town.

Their own father even becomes distant during the course of the children disappearing and his demeanor changes drastically from minute to minute. Carmen and Tommy decide to investigate on their own as they think there might be something to the curse after all, so they try to find out what they can about the woman that lived in the burned ruins of the house, but what they find and what they go through to find out about the woman that people claimed to be a witch makes for a horrifying discovery!

Was the woman a witch? Did she put a curse upon the town? What do Carmen and Tommy learn from the investigation? Why are the townspeople acting strange? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book!

There was quite a bit of atmosphere in this book and it kept up a high pace throughout most of the book. Lots of twists and turns along with some action near the end of the book.

Though I really liked the book there was also some unanswered questions that were never explained as well which brings this book down from a five star read to a four star read. I would not be able to go into detail about what those questions are as it would cause spoilers, so I will refrain from going into those details. But I did enjoy the Halloween theme to the book and all the spooky atmosphere surrounding the curse of the town. Four stars for this one.

Update: There is a second book to this one which probably wraps up the unanswered questions that were left open in this one. I need to read it at some point. :)

Survival is Key!

Backstory:

Sarah and her son, David are wanting to leave behind the townhome they have been living in since the world fell apart as they had heard from some people traveling through that there is a safe haven called Noah's Ark located in Durham, North Carolina.

Sarah doesn't really want to leave the townhome but when David keeps begging to go she finally gives in. Sarah starts to thinking that maybe they will be able to make it after all as North Carolina is only about 100 miles from their home in Virginia, so they set out to locate this place called Noah's Ark.

Once they are road bound though they end up realizing that things are a lot rougher out in the world than they thought but it seems David has some kind of special telepathy gift to keep the zombies away and Sarah is kind of amazed as she doesn't understand how David has that power.

Sarah and David will have to overcome all obstacles to reach the Ark including not only zombies, but bandits that control the border and some of the main roads.

Does Sarah and David make it to Durham? What awaits them at Noah's Ark? No spoilers here as you will need to read the book!

Thoughts:

I have read this author before as he normally writes horror stories, but this time he stepped over into the apocalyptical world and just as in his horror stories the pace was fast and the writing style flows along.

I really became attached to the characters Sarah and David as they made their way through the story. Sarah is stubborn and has a fierce streak to her to the point where she wants to get things done her way. David is a young teenager but he does everything his mom tells him to do though he has that stubborn streak running through him too as he sometimes does stuff on his own and then she gets upset with him, but he is usually always trying to do things for the good of his mom.

There were lots of crazy things that happened to them on their travels and there was even one section of the book that I really didn't want to read because I knew something bad was going to happen - like I had a dread feeling that something was about to hit the fan and there was nothing I could do to stop that feeling! Yes - the author can give you those feelings of tension and dread with the nail biting suspense as I have read his other stories that throw out that same trepidation! If someone is chasing the characters you are going to hear the running footsteps and if zombies are moaning and groaning you are going to hear those sounds.

This book had an action right in the beginning of the book and it basically did not let up all the way through the story. I read the last 60% within 24 hours as the action just kicked up and there was so much happening with the characters that I couldn't put the book down! I own the rest of the books in this series and plan on stepping into book two soon! Giving this book five "Dreaded Zombie" stars!

Ghoststalker book 2 by Jeff DeGordick continues the story of the haunted house case that ended up being more deadly than expected. The released demons are wreaking havoc on the town and effecting many people in unexpected ways. Exciting and interesting!

Three years ago, a regular town was rocked by the disappearance of a child a few days before Halloween. The town needed someone to blame and chose and elderly woman who lived in a decrepit house in the woods. Many people called her a witch. On Halloween a mob formed and the woman and her house burned, before she passed the woman placed a curse upon them all. Now, the disappearances are happening again. The clues left behind are the same as before, a gingerbread cookie and a shoe left behind. Except, now there is no witch to blame. Carmen and her little brother Tommy see the effects of the disappearances first hand since their father is the police chief. They also notice that the adults in town seem to be under a spell. When children keep going missing, Carmen and Tommy know that they must do more than stand by and watch.
The Witch of Halloween House is a fast-paced paranormal mystery that is perfect for Halloween reading. This has a vibe similar to Hocus Pocus, however it is definitely not a copy. The intro sets up a perfect mystery with a confounding conclusion which leads into the possibility of the paranormal playing a part. Once the town seems to have fallen under a spell, the children and teens are left to solve the case of the disappearing children. I liked all the Hardy Boys references and the clues that were left for Carmen and Tommy to follow. I do wish that they found out a little more about the witch, her family and why she needed children. The pacing was steady throughout the entire book and kept the suspense high to the very end.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.½