Nine Supernatural Stories edited by April Timbol Yap and Lara Saguisag

Breaking Supernatural ( A Book Review of Nine Supernatural Stories edited by April Timbol Yap and Lara Saguisag ) Pushing the cobwebs aside and giving an old-timer a modern spin, Nine Supernatural Stories, published by The University of the Philippines …

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Interconnected Tales, Interconnected Lives: A Literary Orchestra of Eternal Recurrence ( A Book Review of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas ) Transcending genre, narrators, setting, language, and time, Cloud Atlas is David Mitchell’s symphony of storytelling dynamism seamlessly interlaced in an …

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

My First Affair with Hercule Poirot (A Book Review of Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affairs at Styles) Written as an outcome of a bet in which “the reader would not be able to spot the criminal”, Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious …

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Millennium Sleuths (A Book Review of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) To call Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo an explosive read is an understatement in my case as I finished the book amid the noise of …

Then I Come to the End

And so four months and three days have come to pass when I have concluded my reading of the singular adventures of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend and chronicler Dr John H. Watson in the world of crime. It …

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

There Were None To Equal It (A Book Review of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None) For want of something different other from the traditional fare of Christmas season’s readings during the previous year did I venture forth with …

Dracula by Bram Stoker

More Than Bats, Castles, and Fangs (A Book Review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula) Conceivably, no other single work in horror fiction has had a greater impact than Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Published in 1897, Stoker’s vision of the vampire, based from …

Tales of H. P. Lovecraft Selected and Edited by Joyce Carol Oates

Weirder Than You Think (A Book Review of Tales of H. P. Lovecraft edited by Joyce Carol Oates) Without a doubt Howard Philips Lovecraft, or more commonly known as H. P. Lovecraft, is one of the greatest writers the turbulent …

Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto

Of Chickens, Journeys, and Forever (A Book Review of Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto)  With its share of joys and aches, Shelley Sullivan’s love story, on its surface, is something we have known and heard before — that is …

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Historical Fiction at its Finest! (A Book review of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth) First introduced to me as a 2007 book selection by the Oprah Book Club, The Pillars of the Earth remains of one Ken Follett’s …

Looking for Alaska by John Green

  Grand Possibilities: Things we Seek, Sometimes Lose and Always Gain (A Book Review of John Green’s Looking for Alaska) In Looking for Alaska, John Green explores the themes of friendship, suffering, loss, grief and coping. The novel follows a …

Ang mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan ni Bob Ong

Nakaka… (Suring-aklat ng Ang mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan ni Bob Ong) (Author’s Note:  Pardon my self-indulgence Gentle Readers, but  it seems appropriate to write and articulate my opinion on this book in Filipino, my native language, in which this …

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

In the Grip of Evil (A Book Review of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist) Inspired by a reported case of exorcism of a child in 1949, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, published in 1971, is a novel about demonic …

Blockade Billy, The New Kid on the Block

Let me introduce you to  the new kid on my bookshelf… Finding this one (yet again on the bargain bin of National Bookstore for the measly price of only 99php!) made me jump up with glee — well, as far …

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

Inspired Madness (A Book Review of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and other Tales) There’s no denying that much of modern horror fiction — as we know it anyway — grew out of the gloomy, …

Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco

Blurring Realities (A Book Review of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado) Ilustrado is the ambitious and exceptionally complicated debut novel by Miguel Syjuco that won the Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel Category in 2008 and the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize …

Night Shift by Stephen King

Short Tale Excursions to Horror and Dread (A Book Review of Stephen King’s Night Shift) The short story is a literary form I rarely read, appreciate and enjoy. A handful of writers, O. Henry, Ernest Hemingway and — in light …