Winter Kill : A Mediocre Tale of Earth Witches.

Winter Kill By Laurell K Hamilton Smoothie review

The last three novels haven’t been too amazing for me. What I’ve read have range from descent to absolute stinkers lately. So I must say I was very hesitant about starting another novel right away. Instead played it safe and went with a short story. This one is Winter Kill by Laurell K Hamilton.

So what is it about? It is a story set in a medieval sort of world. It focuses on the on the Earth witch Jessa. She is a witch hunter. But when she was a child a witch murdered her family and when she grew up to be a assassin, she killed him in return. But there was a catch. His mother is a very powerful witch and is slaughtering those in villages to find the witch that killed her son. To set things right, Jessa heads out to kill her and stop the madness with the aid of her friend Gregoor.

So the good and bad? I guess I’ll start with the good. Detail is great, and the snowy icy hell tundra is easy to picture. Also even though the character of Jessa is cold, there’s a little humanity in there. Especially in the parts that had to do with her mother who never wanted her to be evil or use magic to help others. Its interesting how she accepts and regrets the fact that she continue stood is a point her own family as she avenged her.

The bad? Not much. It was sad that Gregoor played such a small roll that he became the cliché side kick. Also, there was not much originality here. Everything in this story you have read before in something else.

Overall, its simple and fun. Its not a must read by any means. If you happen to stumble upon it, give it a read. Just don’t pay anything for it.

2 smoothies out of four.

Overall Rating : A Mediocre Tale of Earth Witches.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Mirror Mirror : A Terrible Retelling Of A Classic

Mirror Mirror Smoothie Review

For the longest time by best friend has been trying to get me to read Wicked. The darker the Wizard of Oz centered on the wicked witch. But considering I had so much to read already, I never got a chance to. But years later I got a free copy of the book Mirror Mirror, which happened to be darker more realistic tale of Snow White, written by the same author who wrote Wicked, Gregory Maguire. I know its not the famous “Wicked” but I thought that whatever charm this author had may translate into his version of Snow White.

So what is it about? Well it is the tale of Snow White. The setting is slightly different set in the back drop of a fractured and at war Italy of the 1500s. The tale itself focused on Bianca de Nevada who is a helplessly isolated girl who lives on a bit of farmland called Montefore. There she lives with her father, a elderly caretaker, and a priest. Things changed when a couple siblings, a daughter and son of the pope come to ask a impossible task of her father. They force him to take a quest to find the apple of Eden as Lucrezia (the pope’s daughter) is to stay behind to watch over the estate and Bianca de Nevada. Lucrezia fills in as the wicked step mother and surely it can be assumed from there where the story is going.

So now the good and bad? Sadly, I have to start with the bad because there is so much of it. The first big complaint about the book is that it is not the so called “darker” version this supposed to be. I feel that the author needs to look up the word “dark.” because for this book I feel he went for shock value trying to make things supposedly dark. Let list the things that he added to the tale of Snow White to make it darker, heavy doses of incest, child rape, a old woman who loves to have sex with a squid, a very disgustingly detailed scene about Bianca’s first period and the list goes on. All of this portrays all of it in a fashion of “Oh my god!” shock value. All of which has nothing to do with the story and many of the scenes concerning those points comes up as a “Yuck I didn’t need to read that” rather than “This story is so dark.” The tone was just very awkward more than anything else as this would come up randomly without any reason. The detail is poor. So poor that there are pages when it is hard to know what is going on or where they are. There are chapters that randomly jump to first person but failed to address who’s point of view it is coming from and from the detail in the chapter I failed to even have a good guess of who it is coming from. The characters are shallow. The one that is the most detailed is the villain and she still has very little to offer. The character who fills in as the prince is barely there and acts so oddly, that I got a sense that he was handicapped. Bianca is helpless to a fault making her step backward from strong female leads. Her role in this, is beauty and stupidity. Her story is both embarrassing and depressing. And don’t get me started on plot holes. That’s a topic for another whole essay.

The good? I give the rather credit for putting up a effort, but it is done so badly. Nothing here is good. People are better reading the old fairy tale because he has nothing new to offer at all. The only creepy element was a single scene. Soldiers who came back from war had the ‘rot.” The rot, was a infection that made the men decay while alive in a since. Very creepy stuff that’s only mentioned once.

Overall this book is a disaster. It should be avoided. And after reading this, I have no intention of reading anything else by this author. Not even Wicked.

½ smoothies out of four.

Overall rating: A Terrible Retelling Of Snow White.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Here Be Dragons : Dreamscapes and Murderers Make Up a Unusual But Astonishing Scifi Tale.

Here Be Dragons By Laurell K Hamilton

Once again, I’m in between books so I resort to shorts so I went to my current favorite short story collection call Strange Candy where all tales are written by Laurell K Hamilton. This time around the book is call “Here Be Dragons.”

Given the title, “Here Be Dragons,” the reader would automatically assume the it is a fantasy, but that not is the case. It is a science fiction actually and is as Hamilton says in the intro, her only science fiction piece. The story focuses on a phenomena that is happening. Children are being born with powers. Telekentetic. Telephatic. Dream control. That sort of deal. When they develop these powers they go to the “school” where children are evaluated and trained to operate in society and if they are considered too dangerous they are killed. The story focuses on Jasmine Cooper, a successful empath (Dream controller), who has the job of torturing sociopath murderers in prison as punishment. She gets a call from the “School” she went to as a child for a case about a girl killing other students by controlling their dreams. Jasmine arrived to meet the girl and having the ability to see pure evil in anyone, she sees it in this ten year old girl. Yet refusing to believe that the little girl is so shallow and sinister in nature, she tries to “fix” her. She tries to prove she is a person, not a sociopath to not have her killed by the school.

The good? This story has so much depth that no one would expect in a short. It has theme of what is evil? Can a sociopath be anything but evil or is that just their fate? The murderers are considered evil from the beginning but given that Jasmine has a shallow personality and tortures people for living she holds what seems to be sociopath tendencies as well. She even seems to struggle with it, but finds a lighter side of herself when she helps this girl. This girl was like Jasmine once, hurt others for fun, despite how innocent she seems. The idea and concept is very compelling it makes the reader think. It is also very dark. Though it is not graphic, there are things that happen in this story is not suited for anyone other than adults. And even then its not for everyone.

The bad? I would have to say is detail. There is very little detail about what the school looks like and less about the dream realm. The dream stages were dying for detail and tended to move too quickly.

So “Here Be Dragons” has no fantasy or dragons. But it has a strong psychological factors that makes the reader think. And that is exactly what science fiction should do. Leave the reader thinking what if? Its not a bunch of space opera or explosions. Its real world with deep problems explored in a scifi setting. I really wish Hamilton would explore the scifi field a bit more, since good scifi authors are lacking at the moment. I recommend this to the adult crowd out there who are not afraid to read something dark, yet intriguing.

Overall rating: Dreamscapes and Murderers Make Up a Unusual But Astonishing Scifi Tale.

4 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Small Favors : A Surprising Fun Paranormal Thriller

Small favors By Jim Butcher Smoothie Review

Here is yet another book I pulled from the mount of the “To read,” books I own. This time it’s a Dresden Files novel. And with that said I never read a Dresden Files novel. I have been recommended the series for a very long time but never tried it. I think the reasoning behind that the only previous exposure I had it was a very boring TV show. But sooner or later I had to give it a try so it is either now or never. The book is Small Favors by Jim Butcher.

So what is the Dresden Files? It is a about a paranormal detective who happens to be a wizard. Or to simplify things further he is practically the male counter part version of the Anita Blake series in a sense. The book Small Favors is the tenth book in the series (Yes. I entered a bit late in the series) In this one, Harry Dresden is pulled into a deal with the winter court’s Ice Queen of the fairy realm Mab, because he owes her a favor. He must investigate the disappearance of a crime lord. While this is happening, summer court of the fairy realm believes Mab hired him as a knight and sent these crazy goat men after him to stop him. During the investigation he seeks the aid of his friends who is made up of a very colorful cast of characters and find that he desperately needs them as the case quickly turns into a war against fallen angels.

So the good? This is a fun, light hearted and never takes itself seriously. Imagination is fantastic. Harry Dresden is just such a likable character. The story fell deeper on a emotion level than I would have first thought by the end. I was so worried about who would die, and I cared about their relationships. Another thing that is most impressive of it all, is that this is the tenth book in the series and this book had enough detail about what was going on, that I had a clue of what was going on. The writer did not assume that I knew the back history of everything and laid things out perfectly. Though the red court and white courts were just names to me, but the book made their importance very clear. So the author was doing a good job on that.

The bad? Well to be honest there isn’t much. The biggest problem I had was the attempts of the witty comments, that Dresden would throw in throughout the book. Some are funny and witty but half of them are lame and down right corny. I rolled my eyes who Dresden said, “Talk to the hand” after a punch. But the rest of the book does make up for that.

Overall, reading this book is like tuning into a random episode of a TV show that you never heard of. You don’t know the back story, but what’s there is a hell of a lot of fun. And since Anita Blake has taken the route of paranormal erotica rather than paranormal investigating lately, I’ll give Harry Dresden a shot. So you should know by now from the review if this is your thing. If you like this paranormal mystery adventures this book is a good one. I can’t say how it compares to the rest, but this book was fun.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Carrie : A Tale of a Lonely High school Student In a Bland World

Carrie By Stephen King Smoothie review

Okay. Where did the book came from? I’m not sure. I just kind of found it. It had yellow pages and a battered paper back cover that made me wonder about it’s origins, but the mystery does not spark any interest enough to pursue why and how it ended up in my house. I just read the darn thing. The book is a very old copy of Carrie with a photo of Sissy Spacek on the cover covered with blood. The title had big drippy front and another bold message saying “Soon to be a motion picture.”

So in case you know absolutely nothing about the literacy world, Carrie is suppose to be a literacy horror “classic” by Stephen King. The film is also considered to be a sort of a cult classic too. I never saw it. So the book held all the surprises for me. The story of the book focuses on a teenager named Carrie. A girl who has been tormented and picked on by those around her, class mates usually and is obedient to her abusive psychotic overly religious mother. Carrie takes torment from everyone, that is until one day she discovers that she had telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile after treating Carrie badly, a girl named Sue, wants to make it up to her. But it was not like Carrie will take a apology. She had be abused and pranked too long. So she lines her boyfriend up to take Carrie to prom. She wanted to at least give the girl one night where she is not the butt of some joke but someone special.

Also during this Christine, a girl who hates Carrie because she lost her prom tickets for torturing the girl, wants to get revenge. She and her boyfriend intend to ruin her night unaware of the new power Carrie can now fight back with.

So the good? It is a interesting promise. The general story contain concepts and imagination that is wonderful. The potential is great. Also the layout of the story it self is that of third person and news reporters, scientific essays, and interviews with survivors after the fact. This is something I found a bit intriguing.

The bad? Well there wasn’t anything real bad. It was just overall bland. Given that Carrie is a neglected, abused teenager and the world hates, I was so surprised at how shallow of character she was. Most authors would try to make the reader understand the character. Show the humanity of her so you can feel pity. But it was so hard to feel sorry for a girl when the only emotion king decides to reveal for Carrie is rage. I wanted to know more about Carrie. I wanted to see a human being not a cardboard cut out, King created. The other characters were just as shallow with the exception for Carrie’s mother. Which brings another issue. Why is it that King’s novels there is always a psychotic evil Christian at work? I’m not religious, so I’m taking offence, but it is cliché that is very old. Also I felt the climax is a bit over the top. At the midway point of the book Carrie can barely levitate a hair brush, but just a couple days later at the Prom, she has powers that are godlike. Though this is ridiculous story not based on facts, it still stands the author put a little effort into logical reasoning behind this evolution so the reader will not be pulled out of the tale. The power is described as a muscle, but you can’t work a muscle up to do that much in two or three days. I felt it was too much to be taken seriously. Also interviews and news reports scattered through out the story foreshadowed things to come. They sometimes foreshadowed way too much. Such as who will live and who will die. It took away the shock value of any deaths. Also in her rampage, Carrie is evil, which was out place as she was portrayed as victim until that point.

Overall, the story wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was just meh. Maybe with stronger and more developed characters I might have enjoyed it more. It’s something to pass up and skip reading. I only suggest this your one of those Stephen King fans.

Overall Ratting: A Tale of a Lonely High School Student In a Bland World.

2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

The Curse Maker : Makes Something Old Seem Fresh Again

The Curse Maker By Laurell K Hamilton Smoothie Review

Back to the short stories. Between long novels it’s good to read one or two. So I decided to continue with a tale from Laurell K Hamilton’s Strange Candy collection called the Curse Maker.

So what is it? It is a story set in a medieval sort of fantasy world. It focuses on a warrior Sidra, her mentor and sorcerer Gannon to help a dear friend who is dying from the death curse. It follows them as they put together clues to find the curse marker who can lift the curse.

So the good? Despite the fact it is set in a dangerous and dragons set of world, it doesn’t feel like it. It’s not convoluted with dozens of new terms to remember. Also it is a crime story. Nothing epic. The simplicity in fact is what makes it so enjoyable and accessible to other readers who are not die hard fans of the genre. The characters are fun, and the imagination is brilliant. Instead of pulling out the old fashioned trolls, dragons, or elves she went with a evil sword that likes to drink blood. It is portrayal in a very creepy fashion.

The bad? It is not action based. The climax feels like its leading to another part of the story when there isn’t one. So it does leave the reader at a cliff hanger wondering what will happen next rather than a true conclusion. And also I wanted to know so much more about this world. The detail is so minimal in this piece.

Overall it interesting. If you have the collection it’s worth reading this one. If you got it for a dollar in ebook format, I don’t think that is disappointing either. Beyond that, you might want to question whether it is worth sinking money into this individual story. It is in no way a must read. Just a very mediocre fun story.

Overall Rating: Makes something Old Seem Fresh Again

2 smoothie out of four

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: The Real Story Is Somewhat Shallow Compared To Other Adaptations

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Smoothie Review

Okay if you have been reading the smoothie reviews up until now, then you clearly know I love the classics. Jules Verne. HG Wells. Robert Lewis Stevenson. I love them all. But despite my love, there are still a few that I have not read yet. In this case I decided to read “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Robert Louis Stevenson.

So what is it about? Well given the world we grew up in, we should all have a clue. We’ve seen this tale from many versions of media, ranging from plays to horror movies to Bugs Bunny to bad hallmark adaptations and most importantly the very silly one off of the Van Helsing film. We all know it is about a man who creates a potion that triggers his dark half and transforms his figure. And I’m not spoiling anything here. But I now realize that the story is not centered on that only. Unlike all the adaptations I’ve seen, the original follows Mr. Utterson his kind hearted lawyer (Yes. You read that right) who investigates into the mystery of Mr Hyde when Dr. Jekyll leaves his inheritance to him. He is a evil man finds Mr. Hyde and as he digs deeper he feels that Dr. Jekyll may be in danger. Evidence suggests at first that Hyde may possibly be threatening Dr. Jekyll, so Mr. Utterson continues investigating until he reveals the bizarre truth.

The good? Well it’s a classic. Its paced well. It doesn’t hang up on small things and stays focused. And I have to say keeping it in the format of a mystery did help it a lot.

The bad? The story is very short. Detail of environment is minimal. But I won’t complain to much about it because the story is 150 years old. I was a bit disappointed by the ending. It ended with Utterson reading the doctors journals discovering how the doctor ruined himself by dwelling the form of a monster. Yet after the letter I felt there should be more. The family of Dr. Jekyll or even Utterson’s reaction were flat in emotion about the whole situation. I felt there should be no reaction and there was none.

Overall, it is still a classic. Is it as good as The Worlds of The Worlds, or Treasure Island? Not really. But it does fair providing that it is a very intriguing short read.

Overall Rating : The Real Story Is Somewhat Shallow Compared to Adaptations

Three smoothies out of 4

P.S. Like books, then check out my book and ebook website, Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Under The Dome : A Look Into The Breakdown Of Society In The Land Of Assholes

Stephen Kings Under The Dome Smoothie Review

As always when I grab a book, it is often a compulsive buy rather than smart one. And it usually comes from the most random of places. This time the book was found at a yard sale at the end of my block. An old lady was moving and was selling most of her stuff. And as I browsed, I came across this hard back, and the cover had this image of this entire town trapped underneath this bubble. The title says, “Under The Dome.” And the image alone allowed my over active imagination soar, because I have a love for inventive science fiction I had to find out more. Not a single synopsis was in the book. But did find some words on the inside cover. They said, “Written By Stephen King.” And those words hurt, as I am far from being a Stephen King lover. But on that moment of heart break, I must have had a psychotic snap. I made the crazy choice to buy and read the 1172 page book. And for me, reading a King novel that long is like climbing Mount Everest.

So now you ask, what is the book about? It’s about a town called Chester Mills. A small Maine town like always in King’s books. And randomly one day, a wall come out of nowhere cutting the town off from the rest of the world. A dome covers the whole town. A lot of casualties happen in these first few pages. Following this first town selectman and the second in charge of the town is greatly under the influence of the third who is Big Jim Rennie, the villain of this story. And Big Jim takes control of the town and town police department. He’s a con man who likes power, who has been even in controlling meth labs, black market drugs, laundering money and selling used cars. I’m not sure which is the worst crime. He practically brainwashed the people of the town by causing chaos indirectly and appearing set things right after the fact playing the hero. To avoid argument from the police department, he fires all those with a IQ and hire the dumbest jocks, and hicks to be on the police department. It was done in a way that people couldn’t possibly see what he was trying to do. This police department also includes his homicidal son Junior.

Then there are rebels in this plan. There’s a army man named Barbie (its his nickname.) And as the man was leaving Chester Mills because of bad blood between Rennie and himself, the dome appeared. So not only is he trapped in the dome with a powerful man who wants to hurt him, a old friend from Washington DC sends him a message to control the town, which goes against Rennie’s wishes. Along with him is Julia a reporter, a trio of smart kids side with Barbie. And first selectman’s wife, who want to expose the truth about Rennie and gain control of the town back before things get worse. Later on, they are joined by the new town doctor. And overtime with Rennie’s dictatorship and his basic abusive police squad within the dome, there is break down of society boiling down to fact that everything is being ran by self serving assholes who often times in the book even murder to get things Rennie’s way.

So what is the good? Well I have to say, if King wanted us to hate the bad guys, he done it well. There is no measure to how much I hated Rennie and all those on the police department. There is rape scene involving Junior and his cop buddies attacking a woman for no apparent reason, in here that just made me want to reach into pages and strangle them. There is lot of bad things that happen in this book by Rennie and his police with not logic or reason behind it. It’s just that evil. I also believed that the breakdown of society was done very well. I was impressed with King on that level.

Now what is the bad? One thing that always did bug me with horror writers in general, is that the random person pops out of no where to just to die. Drives me crazy. There’s one or two of those in here. Another is for the first three hundred pages, a segment of each chapter was introducing someone. It seemed scattered brained and was difficult to keep rack of them all, until page 290, it is finally revealed the Barbie and Julia are ones we should be caring bout. And did I mention a lot of those characters in the beginning don’t have any importance or show up again? Time to time it gets off track. One example is Rennie going down memory lane of how always goes to girls basket ball games, which has nothing to do with the story. But those bits are minor.

Then there’s the bit between the good and bad. It’s the ending. The book starts with the idea this might have a religious reason behind the dome. Then it leans toward science fiction reasoning. There is a constant conflict between the two. And in the end it’s open ended. Julia and Barbie have a very sci-fi like theory. But with what happens to Big Jim Rennie at the end leaves room to differ. It is never said who or what these things are that is doing this to him. Alien? Ghosts? Interdemensional Monsters? Demons? Or maybe it’s god? The end feels rushed or at least to me slapped together at the end. Like King wrote himself between a rock and hard place and he didn’t know what to. So he left it open ended. And in some ways, I like that he did that but in other ways (as with the length of the book) I thought there should have been a pay off.

Overall, it’s a scifi book about the collapse of society in the land of assholes. And to be completely honest there is so much evil assholism that me just go “Grrrrrrr!” It made me so mad. What these guys got in the end did not justify for all that they did. Also the pacing was very slow as well that makes reading it painstaking. So if you love King, this might be for you. If you hate jerks, don’t read this, it’ll just make you mad. If you love science fiction like me, then avoid this. Nothing is really explained. That’s my recommendations for others out there. I personally didn’t like it so the rating is very low.

1 smoothie out of four

Overall Rating : A Journey Into The Land Of Assholes.

P.S. If you like books, please check out my ebook and book website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Pig Blood Blues :Join a Ex Cop Into The World With The Weirdest Climax In History.

Pig Blood Blues by Clive Barker Smoothie review

Right now I’m in the process of a very long Stephen King book. Over a thousand pages, I might add, but decided to get through the thing I would take breaks to read a short story every once and a while. (Its very hard to commit to a long novel sometimes) And I decided to read the next short story in the Book of Blood collection by Clive Barker. And this one is called the Pig Blood Blues.

I started reading having no idea what this was about. The title itself brings to mind two things; Johnny Cash and a slaughter house. Thankfully it is about neither of those. It is about ex cop named Redman who takes a job at a rehabilitation center for young boys who have a criminal nature. The ones who are wildly borderline psychotic. The type who would find joy in setting the neighbor’s cat on fire and trying to run over it with a ATV as it runs away. The compound is reinforced with bars and locks. Redman quickly finds it to be a prison. And within the first couple pages you would guess it would be about evil children, but this story is smarter than that. There is a boy named Lacey. A boy who seems to be abused by both the children and caretaker. Redman feels sorry for the boy and tried to help him. And the boy confesses to Redman that his best friend who he was told had “escaped” is dead and is after him as a ghost. Suspicious of the center and the goings on of what appears to be a conspiracy, he tries to protect Lacey, but when the boy vanishes, he discovers a twisted truth that he couldn’t see coming.

So the good? Well the fact that it breaks the mold and is not afraid to do something new is great. Even if it might not work, you have to give this man a cookie for having a imagination. Unlike the other Clive Barker works so far, this feel much more real emotion wise. Barker nails down the element of crazy and Redman has emotion in him. And though it might not be apparent at first, you learn more about the character as you read. Also it is a mystery. Clues here and there lead up to a climax. The pacing is great. Lastly, it asks you to put these clues together. You see all this through Redman’s eyes, therefore not all questions are answered giving more to the horror of it all.

The Bad? This is a general complaint for all horror tales. And of you read these often, then you know I’m not spoiling anything. But why do the main characters have to die in every one of the stories? The author takes out time to make us care and the kills him off. What’s up with that? My only complaint.

And there is a borderline good/bad issue with this story. It’s a the twist. When you find out what is really going on in this story, you may either buy into it or think it’s stupid. I, for one am teeter tottering on whether if it was really that scary or not. Because on one level, I read it and go “That’s really messed up.” And then I will remember how pigs are just so cute and it just makes it seem silly. It really does depend on what sort angle you look at it when you read the story. And this is the first story that I felt so split about. But regardless, the twist is otherworldly insane weird, so it is something you won’t see coming.

Overall, a very entertaining read. It is unusual and original. But whether it is scary, or not is up to you, because its just so damn weird it just be hard to buy into.

Overall Rating : Join a Ex Cop Into The World With The Weirdest Climax In History.

3 ½ smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books, check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

The Vault : A Forgettable Tale About A Drunk Undertaker

The Vault By H.P. Lovecraft

Not much of a intro here. It’s just another short. This one is a horror called The Vault (or In The Vault according to what short story collection you find this in) by H.P. Lovecraft. And it is a short story that I read out of a collection called “The Best of H.P. Lovecraft.” But I’m sure its in other collections too.
So this one is about a undertaker named Birch who is delivering a casket to a tomb, but accidentally locks himself inside. Trapped in complete darkness he fumbles around to get out. There is a vent on the top of the crypt, and as he escapes, he finds himself stacking coffins to climb out. But as he nears the top, his foot falls through a rotten casket. The inhabitants of the coffin is made angry by this, and it attacks him. Birch struggles to get out. He finally makes it but his ankles are torn to shreds. He then goes to see doctor who tells him the truth about what happened.
So the good? It’s quickly paced. And it didn’t drag.
The bad? It’s just not that exciting. It is a very boring story. And honestly there is not much to it. It’s not creepy, fun, suspenseful or entertaining in the least.
Overall, not much to it. The Vault can be skipped by anyone. And if you do read it, it will completely forgettable.

Overall Rating: A Forgettable Tale About A Drunk Under Taker

1 smoothie out of four.

P.S. Check out my book and ebook website, Lelues Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/