Shadow Hunter

 

By BR Kingsolver

When Erin was a preteen, she began to come into her magical powers and was adopted by the Illuminati and trained to be a Hunter, an assassin who uses both magic and martial arts to eliminate evildoers who are upsetting the balance. Or so she was told.

Turned out all that was a lie. She was actually eliminating road blocks to the Illuminati's plans for world domination. She found this out when she was sent to murder William Strickland. According to her master, Strickland was a sorcerer and practitioner of the Dark Arts and that he had created a superweapon that the Illuminati wanted. 

As Strickland lay dying from her attack, he told her the nature of the weapon, a small crystal ball: "It shows truth. Look through it when a man speaks, and it shows his lies. Look at a spell or a book or a work of art to see how true it is. Watch an Illuminati ritual and see the blood and the Darkness hidden beneath the surface."

He also warns Erin that of the crystal's other power: "Take that to your masters, and they will destroy it. But in the process, it will destroy them."

Erin takes the crystal and views Strickland through it. It shows her that he was dying. But she also saw: "...he was a wizard of the Light, and felt, though I couldn't tell how, that everything he had told me was the truth."

Leaving the dying man, Erin is confronted by his daughter:

'"He said you would come, and you would kill him."

"He may yet live," I said, "but he is dying."

"And you have the crystal?"

"Yes."

"Then you need this as well," she said holding out a book.

. . . The book was black leather trimmed in gold. The title, in the secret language of the Illuminati, said, "The History of the Illuminati."

"Read it," she said. "He said—my father said—that you must read it." She gave me a grin that was so malevolent I took a step back. "They will kill you when you take it to them, whether you read it or not. I hope you're stupid enough to believe their lies."'

Erin does read the book and discovers Strickland hadn't lied about the true nature of the Illuminati and what she had been doing for them: "Rather than being a force for the Light, I had advanced the reach of the Dark."

She takes the crystal to her master and leaves it in his hands, without the warning that Strickland gave her. True to what he said, crystal detonates and leaves the hidden city of the Illuminati vaporized with no trace left to show it had ever existed. The location where it had stood was now pristine wilderness.

Even though that was the end of the Illuminati stronghold, Erin knows the members are scattered all through the world in the places of influence and power and wealth. Her split from the group has put her life in danger and she goes into hiding, ending up in Westport, a city on the western coast of the USA. She quickly finds a job as a bartender and just as quickly discovers that Westport is a hive of magical activity and conflict between supernaturals like werewolves and vampires. Even the bar where she works is part of it, a haven for magically gifted people like herself, mages, wizards, shapeshifters, even vampires occasionally.

But that's not all she discovers. An Illuminati assassin, a Hunter, is in town and is behind a number of mysterious deaths among the supernatural communities. It appears the Illuminati are up to their usual tricks, fomenting disorder in order to gain some kind of advantage in Westport and increase their influence. Erin finds herself entangled in this conflict and trying to help her newfound friends and community survive the Illuminati machinations and still keep her presence hidden from the Hunter and his Illuminati cohorts.

This was an OK read. It goes from Erin learning how to pretend to be an ordinary person to battles with supernaturals that show she certainly is not a ordinary person. Which quickly becomes apparent to those around her and raises many questions about her past that she, for her own safety, will not share.

There are so many supernatural battle scenes, which are just like all battle scenes, just with magic thrown in. To me, no more interesting than all fictional battle scenes, boring. So, bartend for a bit, meet some folks for a bit, battle. Repeat over and over again. 

Normally, I would classify this as a book that would appeal mostly to female readers. But the battle after battle scenes reads more like a book for male readers, who are more inclined to enjoy that than most female readers. Yes, I know there are exceptions, whatever.

John Dies at the End

 

By Jason Pargin aka David Wong

David Wong was just an ordinary man with a rather nutty friend, John. But ordinary soon goes away when John and David are exposed to a magician who calls himself Robert Marley. Robert has a drug called soy sauce due to a similarity in its appearance to actual soy sauce. It gives users, including David and John, the ability to perceive the supernatural beings intruding on our world. 

Soon after this revelation, David and John have their world turned upside down. Joined by a dog, Molly, who is also on the soy sauce and Jennifer Lopez, David's high school unrequited crush (not the famous Jennifer Lopez) and later Amy Sullivan, the sister of the man who was Molly's owner, they mainly fight to stay alive while dealing with the agents of the enemy, an lunatic being from another dimension or universe with a penchant for mindless cruelty who goes by various forms of the name Korrok.

This novel is described as horror/comedy. I found it to be mainly just horror and only mildly amusing occasionally. It is very chaotic, with people being dead and alive at the same time and way too much strange and peculiar events going on all the time. I was glad when I finished it. It was just too gross and gruesome for me.

Kirkus has a review of the book.

It was made into a movie, John Dies at the End that came out in 2012 and stars Chase Williamson (who?) as David and Rob Mayes (?) as John and Paul Giamatti as a secondary character, the only actor in the movie whose name sounded familiar to me.

Man and Dog

 

By Brad Steiger

From the book jacket:

"Brad Steiger explores the bond between human and canine by relating true stories of the remarkable social-spiritual contract that has existed between humankind and its loyal companions for thousands of years. He shares fascinating true stories about the creatures that have more than earned the title of 'man's best friend,' such as:

• A man, paralyzed and alone, who was kept alive by his dog for nine days
• The dog that brought a girl back from a five-week coma
• A dog named 'Blaze' that saved a family from fire

Brad Steiger also reveals the findings of current medical research into the positive effects pets have on our lives, from lowering blood pressure and alleviating stress to easing the pain of bereavement.

In this charming, thought-provoking, often astounding book, Brad Steiger fully substantiates the 'ancient contract between dogs and human.'"

The book jacket also includes a review by Publishers Weekly: "Remarkable tales of canine heroism...Steiger gives advice on how to communicate with dogs, discusses the value of pet therapy and offers several instances of ghost dogs appearing to their owners. Also covered are findings of current medical research into the positive effects of pets on humans, such as lowered blood pressure...enjoyable."

The book is chock full of mystical claims and other such other worldly stuff. I enjoyed the ghost stories and the stories about the bond between people and their dogs and the stories of dogs helping people. But the mystical content did not interest me and I skipped most of it. 

True Experiences with Ghosts

Edited by Martin Ebon

The editor gathered several ghost stories that he believed were true, unexplainable events.
One of the stories concerns Ocean Born Mary. According to the story and to information I found online, Ocean Born Mary was a real person. Her parents were traveling to America by boat when the boat was intercepted by a pirate. He planned to pillage the boat and kill all aboard, when he heard a newborn baby crying. Going to investigate, he found the captain's wife and her tiny baby, who was born on board the boat. He was charmed and promised to spare everyone is the new mother would name her baby Mary, after the pirate's wife. She agreed and the pirate left the boat. He later returned with a bolt of expensive green  silk cloth which he gave to baby Mary to made into a wedding gown when she grew up and married.
All this part of the story of Ocean Born Mary are true to that point. But then the author of the story, Louis Roy, starts making stuff up. He bought a house in the town where Mary spent her old age which he then claimed was haunted by her and by the pirate who befriended her. He claimed the house was built by the pirate and that Mary moved into it to be his companion and housekeeper. He claimed the pirate died and was buried there along with his pirate treasure. He further claimed many people had seen or experienced many uncanny and eerie things on the property and in the house, which he also claimed was filled with Mary's original furniture.
But there is a site online, by the local historical society, that totally debunks all of Roy's claims. The house was built by one of Mary's sons, not by a pirate. Mary never lived in the house, she lived in a nearby house with one of her other sons and, at the time, she was quite elderly, in her seventies. Her furniture was never in the house, since she never lived there. The pirate also never lived there and was never part of Mary's life beyond that first encounter. Roy made all the haunting nonsense up and charged people admission to the house and property. The details can be found at Henniker Historical Society website: http://www.hennikerhistory.org/obmary.htm.
Since this story was so thoroughly and easily debunked. it casts doubt on the veracity of the other stories in the book. I am inclined to believe it is all a bunch of made up nonsense. The one proven false story taints all the other stories, I am sorry to say.
But besides all that, it just wasn't a very interesting book. It cloaks itself in scientific & scholarly terms but, although the editor might have intended it to add weight to the book, it merely makes it dull.

Prominent American Ghosts

By Susy Smith

A visit around the country to old buildings and houses rumored to be haunted by the author. She recounts the stories connected to these hauntings along with much background information about the history and people involved. Although she never actually gets to see any of the ghosts, still her reporting makes for lively and interesting reading and it is also quite a stroll through early American history. Some of the stories are very amazing, especially the ones dealing with poltergeists like the Bell Witch, a poltergeist that tormented a young girl and her family for many years, eventually resulting in the death of the girl's father. The author also details her own experience with a poltergeist that afflicted a warehouse in Florida, believed to be activated by a teenage boy who worked there, since poltergeists are said to be attracted to teenage children. It makes for pretty fascinating and somewhat chilling reading.

I Believe in Ghosts

By Danton Walker

A collection of supposedly true tales of ghostly encounters and quite a few psychic encounters also. Seems like such encounters are not as uncommon as one might think. The stories in the book are interesting and puzzling and give the reader pause. Quite an enjoyable excursion into the unknown.