Book Review: Demon Slayer, Vol 14 by Koyoharu Gotouge

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Demon Slayer, Vol 14   

Author: Koyoharu Gotouge

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: June 2, 2020

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Fantasy Manga/192 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 

Tanjiro is finding it difficult to cut the thick neck of the demon he is battling, and the effects of Nezuko’s blood seem to have worn off. A sixth demon appears, one who insists on referring to the demon slayers as villains! Genya believes the newcomer to have been summoned by the demon they are fighting, and this one is the demon of joy and of pleasure. The new demon berates Tanjiro and Genya for picking on the small demon. He seems to grow stronger the harder they fight him.

The demon Gyokko is searching the village for the chief and comes across Haganezuka, who is engrossed in sharpening a blade. Gyokko becomes enraged when he cannot gain the swordsmith’s attention, too focused on what he is doing. Meanwhile, Tokito is sure his life is about to come to an end and reflects on his childhood while Kotetsu racks his brain for some way of helping the Hashira. When Haganezuka gives Tokito the blade he was sharpening, his strength and purpose are renewed, and so the battle with Gyokko continues!

Tanjiro’s battle with the upper rank demon is not going as well as he’d like when a sudden appearance by Kanroji, the love Hashira, saves the day. She is deeply offended when the demon refers to her as a tramp! But does she have what it takes to defeat him?

This volume of Demon Slayer contains a lot of back story for Hashira and demons alike. I find that interesting, as it gives more depth to the characters. Even the demons have redeeming qualities (well, most of them).  I’m hoping if they defeat this level 4 demon, they’ll be able to get some of his blood to use to find the cure for Nezuko!

Another great volume, looking forward to the next one!

Book Review: Bleach, Vol 54 by Tite Kubo

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Bleach, Vol 54     

Author: Tite Kubo

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: January 1, 2013

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Manga/Supernatural/192 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 

The battle with the Fullbrings continues. Ginjo baits Ichigo, to get him to react, but Uryu warns him to be cautious, that Ginjo probably knows all the same attacks that Ichigo does.  As they battle, each of the Fullbrings remembers how they came into their own powers, and how much they owe Ginjo. Byakuya has a similar problem to Ichigo’s in his fight with Tsukishima, in that he knows all of Kuchiki’s moves. So how to handle that?

As the various members of the Soul Society end their battles, they gather together. But one battle is still ongoing, and Yukio claims he cannot close that particular arena, due to a promise made to Ginjo, and that it cannot be broken. So now they wait to see who will emerge the victor. Meanwhile, within this particular box, Ginjo is trying to sow the seeds of doubt within Ichigo, in relation to his being a deputy Soul Reaper and what it actually means. Will Ichigo rise to the bait and believe him?

Finally, we bring the Fullbring arc to a close. I’ve been wanting this for some time. Is it surprising that the right side won? It would be surprising if they didn’t. Although seeing the backstories of the Fullbring was interesting, I won’t miss them. I’m more curious to find out what Ichigo has to say to the Soul Society, now that he has his powers back. Will it be anything they want to hear? What will his role be now?

Looking forward to the next volume!

Wednesday Briefs: April 13, 2022

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Ancalagon: Chapter Eighty-six by Cia Nordwell
 

I placed my hands over his, wanting to touch. I laced our fingers together and leaned my hand into our connected palms. “We need to find some allies who can prevent that from happening, because I don’t think I’d like jail.”  

He huffed. “As if I’d let Seedrah put you in a cell.”  

“Instead of sneaking us back on the planet, we need the rebels to help us make as big an entrance as possible. Do you think they can do that?”  

“Maybe.”  

“And Seedrah… is he loyal to you or to the Kardoval?”  

Garjah hesitated. “He would not do

 
 

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Saturday is Horror Day #56 – Zombieland

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 

Zombieland


Something has gone horribly wrong, and the United States of America has become Zombieland. Life will never be the same again. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is just trying to get back to his family in Ohio, traveling the dangerous highways, trying to avoid being eaten. He has certain rules that he lives by to ensure his continued existence. In his experience, you ignore these rules at your own peril. Such as Always Check the Back Seat. And Wear Seat belts.  He meets up with another human unexpectedly, Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who is on his way to Florida. The two decide to travel together, at least for now.

Tallahassee is a little odd, to say the least, especially when it comes to his obsessive search for Hostess


Twinkies, which thus far has been pretty pointless. While Columbus is a stickler for his rules, he is also a compassionate guy. When the two run across two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), he can’t help but feel sorry for them. Little Rock was attacked and is about to turn into a zombie. Rather than suffer such a fate, she implores Wichita to end it all, but she finds she can’t and asks Tallahassee and Columbus for help. That does not turn out well for the guys, and the girls manage to scame them out of their vehicle and most of their possessions.

The two groups cross paths again and travel together for a while. The girls reveal they are headed toward an amusement park, where they spent some very happy times before. Columbus finds himself more and more attracted to Wichita, but finds himself foiled every time he makes a move. And just when he thinks things are going well, the girls ditch them again.

 

Can Columbus accept this ending, or will he pursue the girl of his dreams through a dangerous zombie-filled country?

This movie is a mix of humor and horror, with a decided emphasis on comedy. The zombies are pretty blood-curdling, and I sure wouldn’t want to be trapped with these things as they are not the slow lumbering figures of early films. They move along far too quickly for my taste, even though they are not articulate. One of the funniest scenes involves Bill Murray playing himself. 

All in all, this was a fun watch. I would recommend it. I’ll give it 4 Stars.

Wednesday Briefs: April 6, 2022

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Rose and Thorne 6 #18 (4.4) by Julie Lynn Hayes

All good things must come to an end—or at least I’ve found that to be the case in my experience with life so far—and so it was with our evening with Benny. Luckily we didn’t have to get up too early the next day, as our flight to Atlanta didn’t leave until sometime late morning. But when Benny began to yawn, despite his best efforts to hide it, we realized we should probably call it a night. Okay, maybe I yawned a bit myself, although I wasn’t about to admit to being tired. I didn’t have to, though. Ethan knew me too well to even listen to my protestations that I was wide awake and fine. He also vetoed my suggestion of more coffee with a chuckle and a shake of his pretty head. I knew better than to argue with that.

After a quick check of Benny’s room, for safety’s sake, we bid him good night.

“Good night guys,” he said with a pronounced wink. “Oh, and just so you know,

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Saturday is Horror Day #55 – Grave Encounters 2, Hell House LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 Grave Encounters 2

Aspiring student filmmaker, Alex Wright (Richard Harmond) is directing his first horror film, with the help of his friends and fellow students. As horror movie aficionados, they hold differing opinions on the film Grave Encounters. Alex disdains it, giving it only 1 star out of 4. But something happens to not only change his mind, but now he is obsessed with the film and he’s convinced that it was more than just a movie – it really happened.

Alex claims that the original cast of the film can’t be found – because they all died. When he receives what appears to be a casting call for a music video by the same director who directed Grave Encounters, Alex flies to Los Angeles to talk to him and ends up being thrown off the set. Undeterred, he believes he has located the film’s star, Sean Rogerson, who played Lance Preston, and goes to his home where he and his friends are entertained by Rogerson’s strange mother. She tells them Sean will be home soon and they can wait in his bedroom for him, but the bedroom appears not to have been lived in for a long time.

 

Convinced he is on the right track, Alex locates what he believes to be the site of the original film, an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Canada, and off they go. Pulling up in front of the house, they are shooed off the premises by a security guard who tells them the premises aren’t safe because of asbestos contamination, but they don’t buy that story. What else can they do but return in the dead of night and break in.

 

Grave Encounters 2 begins with the premise that the first film was just that, a film, and the film students are reality. This is also a found footage film, taken by the students themselves.  The sequel starts a little slowly as we meet Alex and his friends and explore his aspirations of being a major film maker. But once they get into the hospital, the pace picks up and the creepiness begins.  I think it’s mandatory to watch the first film before this one (although common sense would suggest the same thing) if for no other reason than because you’ll pick up on things more easily, and you’ll recognize the various locations inside the hospital.  There are some definite twists here, and some decent scares, as well as a high creepiness quotient. I did like this film and I’ll give it 4 Stars.

Hell House LLC 2: The Abaddon Hotel

 

Eight years have passed since the horror that took place at the Abaddon Hotel one fateful Halloween night, and there are still no answers as to what actually happened. The hotel is still abandoned, and the town of Abaddon would be happy if people would just leave the mystery and the hotel alone. But people are curious, and solving this mystery would obviously be a journalist’s dream come true.

 

 

Jessica Fox (Jillian Geurts) is just such a journalist. She’s received an anonymous tip that convinces her 

the answers to what happened lie within the hotel and she has to be the person to find them. She assembles a team, including lone original survivor Mitchell Cavanaugh (Vasile Flutur) and self-proclaimed supernatural expert Brock Davies (Kyle Ingleman) to break into the hotel and investigate.

Other people have attempted to find answers at the hotel prior to this adventure, and some of these people have simply disappeared, leaving behind strange footage of what they saw. Undeterred, the group break into the hotel through the back, split up, and begin to search.

 

The sequel to Hell House LLC is a combination of found footage as well as an interview from a local news program involving some of the interested parties. It starts a little bit slow as they establish some of what has been going on in the last couple of year prior to this. One of the interviewees is a representative of the town of Abaddon who insists the whole thing is a hoax and these people are just money hungry. The footage from other failed attempts is chilling, and once the group gets into the hotel, the action picks up. Watch carefully or you’ll miss things. The creepy mannequins are still there, and just as creepy as ever, and beware of jump scares. 

 

I did like this sequel and feel it was worth watching. I’ll give it 3.5-4 Stars. There is another one, will watch that later.

Wednesday Briefs: March 30, 2022

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Rose and Thorne 6 #17 (4.3) by Julie Lynn Hayes

Benny’s suite contained two bedrooms, which was pretty standard for the Hamilton Arms, as we’d learned during our previous sojourn at the hotel. I was just glad we weren’t staying in the same suites as before—me with Troy and Ethan with she-who-shall-not-be-named. In fact, I was grateful we weren’t even on the same floor as that would have brought up rather unwelcome memories as well.

We ordered dinner from room service. I had to admit the steaks there were pretty good. Plus food seemed to just taste better on the government dime. Maybe that’s

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Saturday is Horror Day #54 – Hell House LLC, Grave Encounters

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 Hell House LLC

The grand opening of a Halloween haunted house in the Abaddon Hotel in 2009 leads to inexplicable tragedy. Fifteen people died, including both those on the tour and the staff. Five years later a documentary crew travels to the small town of Abaddon, seeking answers. However, these are not readily forthcoming.

 

 

A video taken by one of the guests on the tour ended up on You Tube. Plus the owners of the attraction have everything documented from the time they first arrived. The documentary crew locates a surviving member of the staff, Sara Havel (Ryan Jennifer) who reluctantly talks to them and tells what she knows of that night, and the time leading up to it.

 

From the moment of their arrival, the hotel is found to be in less than good shape and very creepy, but

that can only serve to heighten the atmosphere they want to create on Halloween night. The friends have definite ideas on how to achieve the effects they want in order to scare the wits out of their guests, including very eerie mannequins, a haunted bar and piano, and a basement that will provide the biggest scares and serve as the finale to the tour. Sara will be chained to the wall, her job being to scream her head off.

Even before opening night, things begin to get creepy in the haunted hotel. Mannequins are inexplicably moved, mysterious sounds can be heard. At one point, Paul (Gore Abrams) mysteriously disappears,, and when he reappears he has no explanation for what happened, or much of anything else. Tensions begin to run high. And then opening night arrives, and all hell breaks loose….

 

This found footage pseudo documentary was pretty well done, in my estimation. Between the film taken by the event staff and that of one of the guests, there is a pretty complete picture of that night, even if it’s not always clear what happened or why. There is a definite creep factor which only grows as the events unfold. Have you ever wanted to scream at the screen to tell the people to get out of there. By the end of this movie, that is how I felt.

I think this was a pretty scary film and it was well done. I look forward to seeing more of the series. I’ll give this one a strong 4 Stars.

Grave Encounters

Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) leads a team of paranormal investigators in the reality TV show Grave Encounters. Every week they visit a different haunted site and lock themselves in to encounter and record the supernatural. The sixth episode of the series is being filmed in an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Lance and his cast have themselves locked in by the hospital caretaker Kenny (Bob Rathie) who promises to return to unlock them the following morning at 6 am. Lance and the others aren’t particularly worried because they realize something the TV audiences don’t – they are fakes, and they are not above paying someone to say he saw something he didn’t. So what’s a night locked up in an abandoned building?

They set up cameras on various floors in order capture whatever happens. Kenny the caretaker gave them a tour of the building before he made his departure, mentioning various points of interest. Such as the window which is sometimes found to be unlocked… from the inside. Or the bloody tub where a young girl killed herself.  The abandoned building is very dilapidated and neglected, but what’s one night among friends?

 

Strange things begin to happen.  The high-strung Matt (Juan Riedinger) disappears. A feeling of foreboding pervades the air, and things are starting to get real. More real than they’ve ever been in the history of this fake TV show.

Grave Encounters consists of the found footage of the filming of the TV show, some 70 hours.  Filmed 

on a shoestring budget and at night, using flashlights, there is a distinctly creepy and unsettling atmosphere about this hospital. If I’d ever considered a paranormal type lock-in before, this film cured me of the idea.

A lot of the horror is subtle yet creepy, but don’t worry. There are jump scares as well. At first the film crew goes into this hospital with the attitude of this being just another job, but that changes as they begin to realize that just maybe they’ve run across an actual haunted building. I thought the cinematographer did a good job giving Grave Encounters the appearance of found footage, and the actors are very believable in their descent into terror

 

I thought this film succeeded in being creepy and scary and was well worth watching. I give it a solid 4 Stars.

Wednesday Briefs: March 23, 2022

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Here is a list of all the authors flashing this week, along with a brief snippet from their latest free work. Click the link after the snippet to be taken to the complete story on the author’s home page.

Ancalagon: Chapter Eighty-three by Cia Nordwell
 

I was sure of Ases though. As soon as we’d gotten away from the planet and his family’s suffocation, he’d returned to the man I’d known. He’d sent so many questions via the comm.  Everything about him screamed someone who was ready to seize the joy of his new life with both hands.  

And by the way Bouncer just rubbed along his side, he approved too. Traitorous little shit. Eses hadn’t even fed him. Was it the animal thing? Like calling to like?  

I cocked my head. “Come on. I’ll take you for a short walk and a meal.” Pointing

 
 

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Book Review: Skip Beat, Vol 8 by Yoshiki Nakamura

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Skip Beat! Vol 8     

Author: Yoshiki Nakamura

Publisher: Viz Media

American release date: September 4, 2007

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/Shojo Manga//216 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

 

After winning a part in Sho’s new music promo, Kyoko is finally recognized by Sho, to his surprise and horror. Sho’s agent and the other co-star, Mimori, whom he has been flirting with, are shocked when they realize Kyoko and Sho have past history, especially Mimori. Kyoko assures Mimori there is nothing between her and Sho, and Sho assures his agent that he always thought of Kyoko as a housemaid (which is true). But he also goes on to say he still thinks of her as his. Seriously?

In the promo, Kyoko and Mimori play angels, one good and one bad, while Sho is the devil who falls in love with the good angel (Mimori). Kyoko’s bad angel is infuriated that he has done this to her friend and kills him. But whenever they shoot the scene where the bad angel chokes the devil before he falls to his death, Kyoko gets into the role a little bit too much and almost kills Sho for real. She wants to do her best, not for revenge, but for her acting career, which she has begun to take very seriously, but she’s afraid her hatred for Sho is overcoming her acting abilities.

Who can she turn to for advice? She calls Moko, but the call goes to voicemail. She considers Ren, but she doesn’t even have his number. She manages to obtain that and calls, leaving a panicked garbled message. Moko calls back, and gives Kyoko some advice that really makes sense and helps her decide how to play the scene. Meanwhile, Ren is on set with his agent, Mr. Yashiro, between takes. Yashiro is surprised to see Ren look at his messages and actually listen to one, something he never does. And then he is shocked to see Ren return someone’s call! He knows the call can’t be work-related, as they would have gone through him first. So who can this special person be?

After the scene, Kyoko and Sho get into an argument, and while they are fighting, Kyoko’s phone rings. Sho grabs it and answers, not speaking. He is shocked to hear a voice he recognizes as Ren Tsuruga’s! Why is he calling Kyoko? What’s going on between them? Sho turns immediately jealous and barks something into the phone before clicking off. Unfortunately, Ren recognizes the other voice as well and jumps to all the wrong conclusions. When Kyoko runs into Ren and Maria back at the agency, she is horrified to find him angry with her, although he disguises it well. But she can tell by his gentlemanly smile that he is mad. And now she’s also in the middle of a mystery with Moko that her friend refuses to explain, so Kyoko and Maria follow her to learn what is going on with her.

Kyoko is growing as an actress and as a person, as she realizes that her need for revenge on the deceitful Sho is being overshadowed by her love of acting and her desire to be the best actress she can be. Sho is such a brat, and he has the nerve to think he owns Kyoko! He’s only interested because he’s seeing her as a person for the first time, and has never truly appreciated her. He’s still just a shallow vain punk, and I hope and pray Kyoko never falls for his tricks and insincerity ever again. On the other hand, I was tickled to see how jealous Ren is and how he is becoming more and more transparent to his agent, who is already beginning to guess at Ren’s feelings for Kyoko. Just imagine if he knew the whole truth! Sometimes I forget that Ren is just four years older than Kyoko, at the age of 20, because he acts far more mature and worldly. I wonder how much he will reveal to Mr. Yashiro, and what exactly did Moko do that has threatened her career?

Great volume, looking forward to the next one!