Top Ten Tuesday?

Oh uh hello there? Yes i realize i have not posted in forever and so that is why i am here now. I have given up on NaNoWriMo and school is slowing down a bit so i decided to come back to this old thing here. I have not read much lately because of NaNoWriMo but in the past two days i have read three books so reviews by me should hopefully be coming soon. I know Casey has some kind of schedule going on but to be honest i forget what it is. :P I decided today instead of writing a review for you all i would do a weekly meme called "Top Ten Tuesday" which was created by The Broke and the Bookish . This weeks list is:

Top Ten Books on my To be Read list this Winter:

1. Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle: I have been meaning to read this book for forever. I have just been waiting for snow so i can curl up and read it like it was meant to be read.

2. Goliath by Scott Westerfeld: The last book in the Leviathan trilogy has been on my mind since i finished Behemoth but i just have no had time to start it. I love this series though so i am super excited to see how Westerfeld ties everything up.

3. Gone by Micheal Grant: This is series i have been meaning to read since i first saw it in the bookstores. I have heard many amazing things about the books yet for some reason i still have not picked it up and started reading it.

4. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin: I have been hearing about this book since BEA last year and every since then i have wanted to read it. The plot entrances me yet i still have not picked it up off my bookshelf for some reason.

5. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: I think the only reason why i have no picked up this book to read yet is because the size of it intimadates me and the words are so tiny. The plot sounds so intriguing yet it just looks so long and scary :P

6. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick: I remember the first time Casey picked this up in the bookstore because she thought the cover was pretty. She keeps telling me that i need to read it i just have WAY too many books to read so hopefully i will get to this one this month

7. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare: This is a book i am so excited to get this winter. Cassandra Clare is just an amazing story teller and her books always tend to surprise me.

8. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: Every other english class last year got to read this book except mine. My teacher did not like the book so we did not get to read it. I have always wanted to read this book though i just have no had the courage to dive into it yet.

9. Elixir by Hilary Duff: This book i picked up just because it was written by Hilary Duff and she was pretty much my hero when i was younger and i am just really curious if she is actually a good writer.

and lastly,

10. The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler: This plot just sounds brilliant and i need this book and my hands right now. I have heard only amazing things about this book and i can not wait to read it.

Okay so there you happy? You got a long post from me finally after like months and months of me being pretty much dead to the world. I promise i will try and post more here and hopefully i will be going book shopping soon to get more books to read and review for you! :)

-- Haley <3

Anna Dressed in Blood

Book: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendra Blake
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Romance (YA)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 316 (Hardcover)
Favorite Character: Anna.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.


Review:
I really liked this book. I thought it was just going to be normal ghost-hunter thing, but it was really so much more then that. The characters had depth and there was an amazing plot. And the writing in this book just took my breathe away at times, it was amazing how this story was written, I think. I loved the way things were explained and how the people were written.

I really enjoyed Kendare Blake's writing style, nothing particularly stuck out to me, but it also didn't get in the way of the story. I just enjoyed the way that some thing were described or said. Really, I just loved this book.

I'd suggest checking this one out if it sounds like something you might you like. (And that cover is gorgeous, on the hardcover copy, the letters are raised in the title and it's like they have a halo of blood. It's amazing)

Book Review: Coraline

Book: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Horror, Adventure, SciFi/Fantasy (Middle-Grade)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 162 (Paperback)
Favorite character: the cat. I have no idea why, I just loved that stupid cat.

Plot: (from Goodreads)

Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best.


Review:
I loved this book, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was amazing. I had only seen like clip of the movie and I was glad, I feel like that would of made the book's impact less, I'm not sure why. I really loved Coraline, the main character, and her parents. Her normal parents, that is. And the neighbors, really, I just really liked all of the characters.

This was my first Neil Gaiman book and I really loved his writing style and the way he described the way things were happening and the surrounding was just so very good. There are also some creepy drawing in this book that I really loved, they also added to the book a lot more then I thought.

Overall, I'd defiantly recommend it to anyone who likes a good creepy book.