Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 Books With REAL Magic

I really enjoy discovering impressive or intriguing magic systems in fantasy. So for this weeks Top 5 Tuesday by Bionic Book Worm, picking five books with magic would be too easy. Instead I'm going to list five books that are purported to have real magic within - because I love a research project! Here are the Top 5 most …

Countdown to Halloween: Macabre Bookish Character Costume Ideas

It's almost Halloween! I've already seen a lot of videos giving suggestions of book characters people can dress up like for Halloween. But I prefer a little macabre in my Halloween fancy dress - isn't that the point? Maybe you do too. So I've sought inspiration from books, comics and poetry to bring you some slightly Macabre Bookish …

Top 5 Tuesdays: Top 5 Books That Didn’t Live Up To The Hype

I can see I'm going to get some flack for my opinions in this post. Shanah over at Bionic Book Worm really picks some great themes each week for Top 5 Tuesdays and this one may cause some interesting discussions to say the least! The way I chose these is they have to have (a) …

Countdown to Halloween: What I’m Reading This Month

It really doesn't have to be near Halloween for me to read something spooky, gothic, scary, weird, etc. etc. That's just plain bookish goodness right there! However, I just so happen to have some great books I plan on getting to soon and it happens to be nearly Halloween. Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural …

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 Tropes I’ve Had Enough Of – and How They Can Be Done Better

I could wax lyrical about all the tropes I'm completely done with, that I never again want to see the light of day, or light of the moon for that matter. But that would just be a list - and this isn't a Listicle. The tropes I mention below are ones I've had enough of in their lazy …

Buried Alive By Books Out In October 2018

Orphans in India get pulled into a strange “rescue” mission aimed at stripping their mysterious powers, a portrait painter unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances, themes of empowered women to environmental nightmares to utopian dreams are illuminated and a house walks about on chicken feet. These are the books released in October 2018 that I'm excited …

Countdown to Halloween: Horror To Keep You Up At Night

It's almost Halloween! Ok, it's a few weeks from Halloween, but who's counting. Me! I recently read an article on Tor.com that linked to NPR Books who had asked readers to nominate their favourite horror tales. A panel of judges then selected the 100 most terrifying. Of course the list is subjective - but who doesn't enjoy looking through 'Top …

Top 5 Tuesday: Top 5 Tropes I Want More Of. Or, How to Trope Like Gaiman

I found it hard to pin down my Top 5 - there are so many I enjoy - so I started to look at it from the point of view of 'if I was writing that novel I really want to read, what tropes would I include?' As I was writing that list I found that a single …