The Tainted Poet's YA Book Review:

A YA book review blog for anything out of the ordinary-- Paranormal, Supernatural, Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Complete with Reviews, Interviews and Contests-- So stay and have a look!
Showing posts with label Ghosts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghosts. Show all posts

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Some Ghostly Treats

Hello! How is everyone doing this week? Well, you have now heard a few ghostly tales from some fellow bloggers and I hope you have enjoyed them. I know I did. I just wanted to take a moment to wrap up the weekend with an overview of everything I have posted thus far! :)

For Vampire Week, we had...
-The welcome post
-Review on Night Runner
-Guest Post on Vampires by Taschima, The Bloody Bookaholic
-Guest Post on Vampires by Ali, The Romantic Scholar
-An extra's view on Vampire Diaries

Werewolf Week (uggh, Still sorry about this)
-Werewolf week welcome post
-My Thoughts on Werewolves

And then of course... Ghost Week! I won't list the URLs for Ghost Week only because since they are recent, they are easy to find. But here are some ghostly links you might enjoy. :)

-My review of Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe
-My Interview with Megan Crewe

Some great ghostly book recommendations are...

-Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

-Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe

-The Everafter by Amy Huntley
**I have not read this one yet, so I'm unsure if it is a ghost title, but it sure sounds like one! :)

Feel free to add some recommendations of your own!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Guest Post: Tina, Fantastic Book Review

I would like to welcome Tina, from FANTASTIC BOOK REVIEW! She is here guest posting about some very ghostly experiences. Thank you Tina for being with us today! :)

-Eli
----------------------------------------

Hello everyone! I’m excited to be guest blogging for Eli today. When she sent me her themes, it was so hard to choose because I love everything paranormal. So I finally decided to go with Ghosts. Why? Well, if you’ve been following my blog, I tend to throw in snippets about how ghost/possession books freak me out and I have my reasons. Well, today you get to find out why.

So I want to ask everyone - Do you believe in ghosts?

Well, it’s ok if you don’t and it’s definitely ok if you do. What I want to share with everyone are some of my “ghost” experiences.

*Warning* KIDS DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Ghost Story 1: 1995

My sister and I were visiting our grandmother ‘s over the summer and we were bored out of our minds, so we came up with this brilliant idea to see if we can summon Bloody Mary. Now don’t laugh! So, we had to shake our jitters off before going into the bathroom. Keep in mind that we had a plan on how if we summoned her, what our escape/evacuation plan would be (We have overactive imaginations guys). So it was decided that I would stand by the light switch and if anything happened, I would turn it on. So we go into the bathroom, turn off the light and get into our positions. On the count of 3, we said her name 3 times while spinning in circle “Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary…Blood Mary” and then we waited: – It may have only been 10, 20 or 30 seconds but it seemed like forever to me but there was a flash in the mirror of a face /apparition and I jumped back and slammed my back into the wall while screaming at the top of my lungs. Let’s just say our escape plan didn’t quite work out the way we planned. My sister jumped into the tub (like this was supposed to shield her) screaming at the top of her lungs “Open the door!” Now, we all watch those scary movies where the clumsy girl falls down when she’s being chased or when she’s trying to get the darn keys into the car ignition or the front door then she drops them or she’s shaking so bad she can’t get them in. I swear I have not made fun or talked crazy about these folks again because I could not find the light switch or get the door open (We locked it so no one would interrupt us) because I was shaking so bad. My sister and I tore out that house and did not come back in the house for at least 2 hours until we were calmed down by our grandmother. She told us “God don’t like ugly!” LOL! You Think?! Well, what can you say to that? We were so scared and we’ve never attempted to do it again. No Joke Guys! Until this day we have no idea what it was that flashed in front of the mirror but we both saw the exact same thing, I guess that serves us right for pulling a stunt like that huh?

Ghost Story 2: Year 1997

My family and I were sitting around my old house lounging in my living room just chatting and reminiscing about old times. All of a sudden, this draft just comes in and let me tell ya, every last one of us looked in the same directions and we were all like “Did you feel that?” First, The AC was not on plus the room we were in was an addition to the house and we only had a window air conditioner not central air and there were no doors open in the house. Talk about crazy and you know how if one person runs, you don’t care what they are running from you take off and run too! We all rushed to the back door and we were so shaken up we couldn’t get the door open. I almost got trampled and every time we get together at family functions, someone always bring that up.

Ghost Story 3: Year 1999

So my husband (at the time my boyfriend) and I were visiting his mom on one of our college breaks and we always play these trivia games to see who can score the most points. So I was facing the wall where his shelves were on and he was facing me and the TV. Out the corner of my eye I saw something move and when I looked over at his shelf, his overnight travel case was moving (I know I’m not a telekinetic) and I just started screaming and pointing to his case and telling him it was moving. And guess what? When he turned around it stopped. He was like “your eyes are playing tricks on you.” I think he said that for his own benefit because he didn’t want to scare himself half to death and ended up saying it was probably his grandmother watching us play our trivia game. LOL! Seriously that really freaked me out!

**My family is big on telling ghost stories, so it’s normal to hear them told when I visit relatives (They have all had experiences at my grandmother’s house), let’s just say I’ve been desensitized a little bit or you could say in order for me to cope with weird things that I see like this, I’ve adopted the “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Approach. So If I see or hear something I ignore it unless my house alarm goes off. LOL! Sometimes I think I have a sixth sense and anytime something weird happens, it feels like a ticking in the back of my ear. I’ve heard my name called, I’ve heard weird noises in the house, the lights have flicked on and off and I’ve seen weird things. I don’t do double takes b/c I’m afraid of what I might find.

Well that’s all folks! I enjoyed sharing my stories and I want to thank Eli for inviting me.

If you love great ghost stories how about trying Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender. You can check out my review here.


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Guest Post: Sandy, The Pirate Penguin!


I would like to welcome, Sandy from The Pirate Penguin's Reads here at The Tainted Poet! Welcome and thank you so much for guest blogging for Ghost Week here, Sandy!


-Eli
-----------------------------------------

Hi everyone! My name’s Sandy and I write book reviews over at Pirate Penguin’s Reads :) Anyways, Eli invited me to do a guest post and I’m more than happy to do so because I love her site! So now that you’ve gotten your share of vampires and a little bit of werewolves, let’s move on to something a little bit more spiritual…

Ghosts show up in all parts of the world; they’re universal and have been scaring the crap out of people for a very long time. What fascinates me about ghosts is that there are countless myths and legends pertaining to them; I could literally go to any part of the world and someone will have a ghost story to tell. So today I’ll be telling you about a particular ghost story-my own. Whether you choose to believe me or not is up to you. So… a few years back I woke up one night for no reason; you know, when you just jolt awake and can’t even blame it on a bad dream? Anyways, I saw that light was spilling out of my mother’s room into the hallway. My room is adjacent to hers so I had a pretty good view of her door; I was listening to her move around her room when I noticed a large silhouette filling up the space of the door. The shadow was tall, almost reaching the top of the door and when I looked closely, I noticed that it resembled a man and had a rather sharp profile. But because I was groggy I assumed that the lamp next to the door was throwing its shadow against the door. Instead of investigating, I let it go and fell back asleep. The next morning (after remembering the strange image I had seen), I went into my mom’s room to test out my lamp theory. I clicked the light on but the shadow that the lamp cast against the wall didn’t resemble last night’s mysterious figure. I then grabbed a pad of paper and drew a rough sketch of what I had seen to show it to my mom. She was very surprised by my drawing; apparently I had drawn an almost identical image of my grandfather. But I had never seen my grandfather’s picture or had even heard about him! Then she surprised me by saying that this wasn’t the first time I had seen my grandpa; when we were living in my childhood home, I went to her and told her that I saw a thin man sitting on the edge of her bed. When my mom told me that, you could’ve tipped me over with a feather. I was so stunned.

It’s been years since that night but I still recall very vividly the shadow on the door; I have no doubt that it was my grandfather checking in on my mom… after all, my mother was the only one of his seven children that left their country to start a new life somewhere else… I think it’s logical that a father would be worried for his daughter. :) This bizarre encounter I had cemented my belief that there lies another world beyond human life… and that a parent’s love for their child transcends into the afterlife.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Welcome to Ghost Week!


Jeez, these keep getting longer and longer! Anyone interested in seeing the Bloopers for this vlog? I only restarted it like a zillion times but there are a few particular ones my roommates think I should share with you all. xD Let me know if you're interested! I'll post them (might just post them anyways).

Rules for the contest (incase someone missed them):

-The only way to enter is by commenting on any posts from my themed month-- past, present, or future!

-It ends November 7th.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Give Up The Ghost by Megan Crewe


Rating: 4.5/5.0

Re-Read? This was such a quick read, I look forward to re-reading it.
Recommend? Yes! To any other paranormal lover out there. Someone who is looking for a break from love stories.
Release date: September 15th, 2009
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 256

Synopsis:

Cass McKenna much prefers ghosts over “breathers.” Ghosts are uncomplicated and dependable, and they know the dirt on everybody…and Cass loves dirt. She’s on a mission to expose the dirty secrets of the poseurs in her school.

But when the vice president of the student council discovers her secret, Cass’s whole scheme hangs in the balance. Tim wants her to help him contact his recently deceased mother, and Cass reluctantly agrees.

As Cass becomes increasingly entwined in Tim’s life, she’s surprised to realize he’s not so bad—and he needs help more desperately than anyone else suspects. Maybe it’s time to give the living another chance….

My Thoughts:

When I first picked up Give Up The Ghost, I knew I was in for a surprise. I had never really read many stories about ghosts and so I was instantly interested. And boy, did this one surprise me.

The characters and the relationships between them were important throughout the novel. You really had to pay attention to back story to really understand everyone's stance on everyone else. Even Cass's ghostly friends and her relationship with them needs to be noted. My favorite relationship was between Cass and her older sister Paige. It really came together the more you read, which was interesting. Funny how death can bring you together.

Something that took me by surprise was the lack of a love story. After reading the synopsis, I guess I just assumed there was going to be something going on between Tim and Cass, and in the future there might, but definitely not in this novel. Maybe it is just the way I interpreted it, but I actually really liked this about Give Up The Ghost. With YA nowadays, you have certain expectations on what should be included and what shouldn't and usually a love story is a give in. This book is unique in the way that it took its own approach to a relationship between a boy and a girl-- and I really enjoyed it.

Megan Crewe cleverly crafted the plot so that it was well developed and never really confused me. The pace was set at a good rate that kept me on my feet, but still able to put it down to get some lunch. I can not wait to read more from her in the future, for Give Up The Ghost was an excellent addition to the YA market.

Details:

Cover: 5.0
Plot: 4.5
Characters: 4.5
Writing: 4.0

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