Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark – Book Review

Published Date: September 21,2021

Publishing Co.: Hatchett Books

Pages: 304

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

How could one NOT have a good time with the Hostess with the Mostess?

I’m not going to go terribly in depth with this review. Where’s the fun in me telling someone else’s story?

Cassandra Peterson seems like a good time gal. The girl that you would like to party with, and a lot of people did. I enjoyed that she was candid about her experiences with other celebrities. Other autobiographies seem like they’re always trying to hide behind the details or gloss over it completely. This was the perfect combination of being honest about deep things and being shallow the other half of the time. Sometimes people focus on one aspect too much, but not Ms. Peterson. She knows how to tell a tale and tell it well.

I find it funny that some reviewers are upset to find out that she did not create the character Elvira by herself and then it ruins their idea of her. She never hid this and since when is it bad to accept help from your friends? She had an opportunity, and her friends helped her produce something fantastic and memorable. The greatest gift they gave her was helping her be successful for 40 years and she sounds like the kind of friend who returned the favor. When you produce that kind of icon, then you can be mad and judge her. She’s not going to care, but you can do it.

My one complaint would be her talking about how gross Divine’s body was. It is just out of place in this day and age. I can understand if that is what you thought at the time, but you know better now and it does not really have a place in the book.

Overall, this is one of my favorite autobiographies.

Welcome, October!

Oh, sure. I know it’s already 11 days in but ya ghoul’s life has been chaotic lately. That does not mean that I don’t make time for all things October!

I finally read and finished a book for the first time in 2 months. I will review that soon.

Mr. C&M and I recently watched Rob Zombie’s Munsters:

Let me state that, I will forever choose the Addams Family over the Munsters. For whatever reason, I just never sat down and played with the Munsters. That being said, this movie was fine. It was quirky and the set designs were really cool. Now, Mr. C&M is a huge Munsters fan, and he didn’t really like it. He thought grandpa and Lily were well played and the set designs were cool, but he fell asleep 3/4 of the way through it and sees no reason to go back and view what he missed.

Ridley woke me up much too early this morning, so I put Halloween Wars on for entertainment. It’s a fun little show to drink your coffee too while getting in the spooky spirit.

My life should calm down this week so here’s to hoping that I will be more present online and get fully immersed in my favorite season. 🙂

My Best Friend’s Exorcism – Book Review

Published Date: May 17, 2016

Publishing Co.: Quirk Books

Pages: 330

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Well, this book certainly did not make me miss high school. Teenagers are just too much drama and make so many dumb decisions. I know, once upon a time, I was one. I don’t miss those days unlike a lot of people. This is part of the reason why I don’t read YA all too often, I get all grouchy about the young idiots.

Gretchen and Abby are accidental BFFs. Gretchen was forced to come to Abby’s birthday party by her parents and when no one else showed up, a very rude Abby managed to make a best friend while being very rude. I for one, would have said peace out to this beast and went home. But Gretchen is a better person than I am and saw someone in pain and tried to help them.

Fast forward several years to high school, they’re still inseparable. However, a strange night at the lake ends with Gretchen missing in the woods and when she is finally found, she’s not the normal Gretchen. As months go by, her hygiene declines, she starts fights with everyone and she is scribbling creepy things in her notebook.

My one major issue with this book is, we never find out just HOW Gretchen gets possessed by a demon. There isn’t a demonic backstory. This demon was just hanging out in the water/woods, waiting to possess someone?

The ending is DEPRESSING. Mostly, because I cannot imagine having the kind of friendship they end up having, with my BFF. I know it’s realistic which makes it all the more sad.

The moral of the story here is; don’t let your BFF jump off the end of a dock without you. If someone is getting possessed, you might as well bring chaos down on those around you TOGETHER. Twice the possession, twice the fun.

Thank you Melanie at Grab the Lapels for the book. ❤

Sugar and Scream Blog Launch

Oh that’s right kiddos. The terrible twosome have united once again to rain horror, science fiction and fantasy down on your heads! (That’s myself and Ignited Moth if you hadn’t figured that out already.)

“If you’re looking for a monstrously good time, rest assured, you’ve come to the right place. We’re two best friends with a sisterhood forged in the Unholy Trinity that is Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction. When we’re not busy devouring books, we’re cooking up sinisterly scrumptious baked goods and other delights (and sometimes horrors) in our kitchens. Expect the unexpected, because we like to shake things up. Our blog is its own Frankenstein’s Monster of our own hobbies and passions all stitched together into one glorious abomination that encompasses everything from what we’re reading and watching, to the hobbies we’re working on, our adventures in baking, and plenty more!”

FOLLOW THE DELICIOUS CHAOS HERE.

#SpooktasticReads: Locke & Key Vol. 6: Alpha & Omega – Comic Review

Published Date: January 2014

Publishing Co.: IDW Publishing

Pages: 192

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Soooooo, I just realized I skipped volume 5 altogether. Which helps make more sense, since in the beginning I was a wee bit confused about what was going on. However, now that I’ve read the ending and know what happens, I’m not going back to read the last volume.

Instead, I’ll just say that the ending was fantastic. It jerked all the right heart strings and was entertaining from beginning to end with epic artwork.

This is a series that I will recommend to everyone.

#SpooktasticReads : Nightwise (Nightwise #1) – Book Review

Published Date: August 18, 2015

Publishing Co.: Tor Books

Pages: 320

Goodreads synopsis.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

“The banker was crucified on the wall of his Wall Street office, fountain pens rammed through both wrists, an Armani Jesus.”

Well hello there. You have my attention.

When that’s your opening sentence to the story, you just know you’re embarking on a dark and gritty ride.

Laytham Ballard was born a Wisdom, as his grandma called him. It ran in the family. She tried her best to instill the whole, “With great power comes great responsibility,” thing in him, but sometimes, life throws more at a little boy than he can handle. With lots of power swirling within him and a broken heart, Laytham lashed out on a level no normal parent has to deal with. He raised the dead and caused a slaughter.

That was only the beginning of his moral down slide. He spent his life hunting other people in the Life and building a legend of himself as the biggest bad ass in town. It doesn’t matter how dirty he has to fight to build that image, he’s sold half his soul already.

Even villains have their own strange loyalties, so when one of his only friends is dying, he makes a promise to avenge his wife’s brutal death. The one thing his friend was never able to do while living. But the target hasn’t been seen in nearly 11 years, and has some very big friends that Laytham will have to get past first. He’ll have to use every trick in his book to find him and then, will he even have the power to take him down?

It really hurts your pride when you doubt just how bad ass you are.

This is a dark urban fantasy with an anti-hero that you can’t trust but you also, can’t wait to see what he does next.

October Week 2: Apple Cider Slushies

The second full week of October was a bit of a doozy. Work has been absolutely swamped with hordes of people coming in for their flu shots. We’ve been doing anywhere from 20 to 50 per day. As you can imagine, this interrupts the natural flow of work when it’s busy in it’s own right. Plenty of people getting sick already and a few confirmed cases of the flu. I don’t expect it to slow down anytime soon so it’s even more important to enjoy the season whenever I get a chance.

Watching

I was pretty skeptical the first few episodes of this season. Yes, it’s honoring slasher films but in the beginning, it was pretty basic. Then, we had some twists and turns that brought my interest back. The last episode was so weird, I don’t know how to feel. We might be coming to ‘absolutely ridiculous’ grounds but I’ll hang in there and find out. I can say that I am LOVING Billie Lourd this season. I can’t stand Emma Roberts, if she’d hurry up and die, I would enjoy it a lot more.

This one was weird but in a good way. It was original and how often do we get to say that about movies anymore? I would recommend giving it a try. It’s not amazing but I enjoyed my time watching it. 3/5 stars

Reading

I finished In a Dark, Dark Wood and you can read the review here. I’ve picked up one of my absolute favorite authors, R.S. Belcher’s Nightwise. It had my attention at the very first sentence. I binged about 45 pages before I was interrupted but I can’t wait to get back at it.

Treats

Oh, the treats were glorious! We went to the local orchard during the town’s fall festival strictly to get apple cider slushies because, what about that does not sound amazing?! It was cold, but we wanted one anyway. Worth it. We also picked up a pumpkin cream coffee cake that we have yet to break into and chocolate covered cherries and bananas. Both of which, we HAVE broken into and they’re damn tasty. We also bought a jar of apple butter and I forgot to make myself an amazing sandwich with it today.

I also baked up another goodie that I will post later in the week. Sipping an apple cider slushie while baking is the only way I want to bake every autumn now.

Apple versus Pumpkin, GO!

September Sun

Wooooo! It’s my second favorite month of the year guys. 😀

Michigan has jumped early into it’s autumn-like weather (aside from a day here or there) and I am DIGGING IT. I am ready for apples and pumpkins and to BASIC BITCH ALL OVER THE PLACE.

I may even begin decorating for Halloween here very, very soon.

What can you expect in the next two months of this blog? Well, after I finish my current book, I’m hopping into the horror/paranormal genres. Nothing sets the mood like spooky books. If we’re lucky, I’ll get some sweet baking in and come October, horror movie marathons.

Mr. C&M and I have a lot going down on the weekends until November, but those things are awesome. Like, visiting the Michigan Renaissance Festival, concerts and a Harry Potter themed Halloween party. It also means our 13 year dating anniversary and our 5 year wedding anniversary.

Anyone else as pumped as I am for Autumn?!

The Brotherhood of the Wheel (#1) – Book Review

Published Date: May 1, 2016

Publishing Co.: Tor

Pages: 384

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

She looked over the menu at her daughter. “How about this Ed Gein Bar-B-Que? That sounds good!”

“That name’s familiar,” Paul said. “I think he was a governor or something.”

A diner called Zodiac Lodge with entrees named after serial killers, may be a business venture that R.S. Belcher should look into. There are larger take-aways from this book but this may, perhaps, be my favorite.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Belcher is the master of genre mash-ups. The Brotherhood of the Wheel comes off as a mix of horror, grimdark and urban fantasy. It’s a blend that worked together and in my humble opinion, an ample dosing of horror that should throw him the leagues of King and Koontz.

The United States transportation systems are the perfect hunting ground for all manners of killers. They provide access to victims, hiding places to commit their crimes and dumping grounds galore. Both evil humans and paranormal predators stalk these interstate super highways, leaving death and destruction in their wake.

Where there are horrors, there must also be heroes who lead the fight against evil. That is the purpose of the Brotherhood, a secret organization tasked with protecting the innocent. They are police, taxi drivers, truckers, bikers, etc. They come together from all walks of life to take down serial killers, rapists, and human traffickers.

Something ancient and hungry is working it’s way free into the world, turning children into mindless monsters and using human sacrifices to increase it’s power. It hides away in a hidden town, not on any map. The residents there are captive, they cannot leave to find help and the monster’s minions lurk about, prepared to make their lives a living hell for trying.

A renegade cop, biker, trucker, and a book worm are the only ones on this thing’s tail after looking into multiple missing teenager cases and it may just save all of humanity if they can take him down.

The Tell-Tale Heart – Short Story Review

Published Date: 1843

Pages: 4

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Ah yes, the most popular short story by Poe. With good reason, it stands up to the test of time.

I find it interesting the almost spot on depiction of how most serial killers get cocky after their murders (or even leading up to) from a time before anyone had studied serial killers.

Maybe Poe was even darker than we ever imagined. *wink wink*