Tag: supernatural

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Book Recommendations and an Interview

I don’t post updates to my blog much anymore and I hope to correct that in the coming year. I wanted to share some cool stuff I have going on, but the first thing I want to say is, the first draft of my novel is finished. I have already begun the editing process and I hope to have it ready and published no later than early March. More details will come your way as I move closer to publishing. I will have a page here on my site dedicated to the new book once all the things are ready to go. And now for the exciting stuff.

I recently learned about a new website called Shepherd. It is another site about books and things. They’ve only been around for a couple years, and they are still very small, but have a big heart. You should check them out just because, but also, you should check them out because I recently posted a book recommendation list to their site. What kind of books would I recommend? Well ones that are similar to my own writing of course. These are my recommendations for The Best Novels Where Real-Life Horror Meets the Supernatural.

This was a lot of fun to do and all I had to do was recommend books I’ve read. Too easy. The books I recommended are the ones on display in the top image of this post. If you want to know more about them, check out the list on Shepherd. They also have lots of other lists (they call them bookshelves) on their sits such as The Best Supernatural Books. Or you can find any other type of list (bookshelf) that suits your reading preferences. Keep an eye on Shepherd because I think they will get pretty big in the next few years.

To keep things more local, since I live in Tucson, AZ, I had the opportunity to get interviewed by Shoutout Arizona back in October. Want to know a little more about me? Check out the interview “Meet James Pack, Writer and Artist.” You can find out what inspires me and what some of my favorite local places are. It was awesome to be interviewed and I look forward to having many more experiences like these. I hope you enjoy and keep a look out for my next book that’s coming soon. Stay spooky and Merry Kramp-mas!

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Coffee and Contemplation: Horns by Joe Hill

This is the second novel of Joe Hill’s I’ve read. I enjoyed this one so much more than his first novel “Hear-Shaped Box.” You can read my opinion of that at This Post from back in March. The writing and the story in “Horns” was superior to Hill’s first novel and compared to most novels I’ve read. It is one of my all-time favorites. The was a movie adaptation starring Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple. The first time I saw the movie, I enjoyed it. When I saw it years later after reading the novel, I felt the movie was terrible. Don’t watch the movie.

I wouldn’t call this novel scary though it does deal with a lot of adult content. The horror aspects are more supernatural than gory. The monsters in the story are only humans. The story may give the reader a different view of the devil and its purpose. This novel was a lot of fun to read. It has a strong suspense, thriller vibe in some parts. If there were no supernatural themes to the story, it could have easily been film noir mystery. I am definitely looking forward to reading more by Joe Hill. 

I recommend this book to everyone. It may not be for younger teens or children.

Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 7 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Overall rating: 5 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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Coffee and Contemplation: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

After a brief hiatus, we are returning to discussing supernatural fiction. Tremblay’s novel “A Head Full of Ghosts” was not what I expected. It was much better than it first sounded. It’s a kind of story where the reader isn’t sure what’s real or not. It’s open for interpretation but that was Tremblay’s purpose for the story. There are a couple of references to “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. That story is also open to a lot of interpretation. The reader will have to decide what kind of story they’re reading, and they have to decide if they want to believe the narrator. 

One of my favorite things about discussing stories is deciding on the validity of the narrator. Is the narrator lying? Are they projecting their own biases on the story? Are they telling their story or someone else’s? What gives them the authority to tell this story? Consider these questions after reading Tremblay’s novel. This is the only novel I’ve read by Tremblay so I can’t speak much on his style, but he makes everything feel rooted in the real world. Even the supernatural events have a way of being explained but the reader isn’t sure which parts of the story are truth and which are fiction. One of many reasons I enjoyed this book so much.

I recommend this book to everyone.

Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 6 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Overall rating: 4 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐