Reading – Page 29 – Lyndsey Hall

Review: Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

Review Hunting Prince Dracula Kerri Maniscalco

Love historical fiction? Fan of dark fantasy? You’ve come to the right place! Today we’re talking about Kerri Maniscalco’s Stalking Jack the Ripper series, and more specifically book two, Hunting Prince Dracula.

(I just looked for my review of Stalking Jack the Ripper to see how many stars I gave it, and realised I never wrote one! Sorry about that, I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, so it’s definitely worth a read before you dive into this one – although the way book two is written there are no spoilers for book one beyond who survives, so it’s up to you!)

Remember last week when we discussed ‘speculative fiction‘? This is a prime example of ‘alternate history’, taking well-known legends and giving them a completely new and fresh spin. Book three tackles the story of Harry Houdini, and I cannot wait to read it – I feel like I know the Jack the Ripper and Vlad the Impaler/Dracula stories reasonably well, and have read a few fictional takes on them, but I’m basically a newbie to Houdini. All I’ve heard is he was pretty good at disappearing.

Speaking of which, don’t you love how Maniscalco has twisted the book titles to show how the eponymous character operated in the original story, and how that’s been flipped on its head in her versions? STALKING Jack the Ripper, HUNTING Prince Dracula and ESCAPING from Houdini. I love that little hint of what’s to come from the author.

(According to Google, Houdini was born Erich Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, before moving with his family to Wisconsin, USA, so fingers crossed we see a bit of both countries in book three. I’ve always wanted to visit Budapest!)

Book two picks up a couple of weeks after book one ended, and Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Cresswell are on their way to Romania, where a school of pathology and forensic science has taken up position in the old castle where Vlad Dracula once lived.

Audrey Rose is running away from her problems, she’s having nightmares and hallucinations caused by the Ripper case, and hopes she can escape them by leaving London. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works, and her problems follow her to Romania. Not only that, but a whole crop of new problems arise on the way there, when a man is murdered on their train. His wounds look like the work of a vampire, but surely they’re the stuff of myth?

On arrival at the castle, we discover the deaths tie into the local myth of the ‘strigoi’, angry spirits of the dead that rise from the grave and drain their victims’ blood. As more victims are found, Audrey Rose and Thomas begin to question whether there’s a copycat killer on the loose, or if something more supernatural is afoot.

With the help of Thomas’s sister, the head teacher’s niece, and a castle maid, the pair hunt for clues and try to solve the puzzle before anyone else can be killed.

I gave Hunting Prince Dracula 4.5 stars, I enjoyed it even more than book one, there’s something about the boarding school environment that speaks to me (I went to a boarding school but I didn’t board as we lived 5 minutes away, and I’ve always loved YA in that setting, i.e. Harry Potter). The romance between the two main characters starts to heat up somewhat in this instalment, so I’m excited to see where that leads, and as always Maniscalco’s writing is beautiful and descriptive, with just the right amount of Victorian vocab mixed in.

If you’re into period dramas, alternate histories, dark thrillers with just a hint of the supernatural, then you’ll definitely love this series. My pre-order of Escaping from Houdini will be available to download in 5 days time, I’ll let you know how I find it!

Lyndsey

Six sequels I’m dying to read!

Hi folks, I thought I’d give you all a little look-see at which book series I’m loving right now and which sequels I can’t wait to read. I’m going to cheat a little bit today, some of these books are yet to be released, some are recent releases, and some are years old, I just haven’t managed to squeeze them into my busy schedule yet.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought!

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

Stalking Jack the Ripper Kerri Maniscalco

How beautiful do those covers look together? I’m not usually a huge fan of people on covers, but these are just gorgeous. I especially like the cityscapes that are blended in, as a big part of these stories is the location they’re set in (London, Romania and a luxury cruise liner to America!). I just finished the audio book of Hunting Prince Dracula a couple of weeks ago and loved it even more than Stalking Jack the Ripper, so I’m really excited for Escaping from Houdini’s release this month! I’ve preordered it using my September Audible credit so I can download it as soon as it goes live.

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

Probably my favourite series of all time (after Harry Potter, of course) and soon to be a TV series! I’m just about to finish reading the paperback of Tower of Dawn, which has been a new experience after listening to the audio books of the previous five books – I normally get through these in a week or two, but it’s taken months thanks to a new baby stealing all my reading time! Thank the gods I’m back to work and can listen to the audio book on my commute when Kingdom of Ash is released next month.

Now I Rise & Bright We Burn by Kiersten White

I still can’t believe I haven’t read Now I Rise! At least now Bright We Burn is out I can read both in quick succession instead of dying from the long wait. I listened to the audio book of And I Darken (and loved it!), and for some reason book two never appeared on Audible. I waited and waited, but I guess I’m going to have to get my hands on the paperbacks of these two. I’ll have to hit up the mobile library next time it comes around!

(Do you have mobile libraries in other countries? It’s basically a minibus full of books that drives around rural villages. You can order books like a normal library. They’re pretty great when you live out in the sticks, but might only come once a month depending where you live.)

Half Lost by Sally Green

Half Bad was such an unexpected joy of a book, I’d never heard of it until a friend who works for Waterstones gave it to me just after it was released, but I was hooked immediately. Green’s got such a captivating way of writing, she throws you straight into Nathan’s head and you barely get a chance to catch your breath until you’ve finished the whole book. I read Half Wild a couple of years ago, and I’ve just never gotten round to Half Lost (clearly putting off ending the series and saying goodbye to Nathan and Gabriel!).

Fire & Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Graceling was the best YA fantasy I’d read in about a year, and has cemented its position as one of my all time favourites. The story is just so well crafted, with beautifully detailed world-building and fully-formed characters. The whole concept of Graces is fascinating, like natural talents and affinities taken to the nth degree, and I can’t wait to find out more about them in the two companion books, Fire and Bitterblue. They follow different characters in the same fictional world, with some of the cast of Graceling popping up as cameos, and Bitterblue obviously focusing on one of the secondary characters from book one. If you haven’t read Graceling yet, I’d definitely recommend it, I jumped on the bandwagon late, but now I’m practically driving it!

Lord of Shadows & Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

I’ve been obsessed with all things Shadowhunter since I first read City of Bones about 8 years ago, quickly ordering and devouring all the available sequels, and then The Infernal Devices, and stalking the filming of the Mortal Instruments movie with Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower. I actually enjoyed the film and was really disappointed when it didn’t do that well, so I was thrilled when they decided to turn it into a TV series. Now Shadowhunters is coming to an end and I’m left with the book series again. Not that I’m complaining, I’ve got Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Lord of Shadows sitting on my shelf just waiting to be read, and Queen of Air and Darkness will soon be out in the world. Then there’s the fourth series Clare is planning, The Last Hours, and I cannot wait to hear about Will and Tessa’s descendants! So it’s not like I’m struggling for content over here.

And that is a very non-exhaustive list of the sequels I’m desperate to read and plan to jump headlong into as soon as I get a spare moment (babies, amirite?). Which series are you loving right now and can’t wait to get your hands on the next book?

Lyndsey

Speculation, speculation, speculation

Good morning (or evening depending on which hemisphere you’re in), and welcome back to my blog. Today I thought I’d delve into my favourite genre of fiction, and one many people don’t fully understand or perhaps haven’t even heard of – speculative fiction.

Broadly speaking, speculative fiction deals with what might be, or what could have been, and encompasses a wide range of genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural and dystopian, as well as alternate histories.

Speculative fiction has been around for centuries, but it’s still often dismissed as ‘genre fiction’. Genre fiction is also known as ‘popular fiction’, and tends to refer to plot-driven books written to fit a particular genre and attract readers who are already familiar with and fans of that specific genre. It’s most common in crime, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, horror and westerns.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with genre fiction, it serves to provide readers with content they want to read, entertainment and escapism, and that’s no bad thing. It’s more or less the opposite of literary fiction, which tends to be less easy to pigeonhole as one genre or another, and provides a means to better understand the real world via direct references, rather than using metaphors and allegories. Some high-brow literary fiction fans turn their nose up at genre fiction, but it boasts just as many brilliant authors (think Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin) and just as many, if not more sales.

But, not all speculative fiction falls into the category of genre fiction.

Let’s have a look at a few examples of speculative fiction novels and how they fit into the genre:

Science Fiction

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for decades, you’ve definitely heard of Jurassic Park, whether that’s due to the blockbuster movies or Michael Crichton’s original novel. The basic premise is “what if dinosaurs could be scientifically engineered today?” and the results are, well, catastrophic to say the least. But the science is credible, Crichton has really put some thought into his story, and that makes the books even scarier and more gripping.

Fantasy

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone JK Rowling Lyndsey's Book Blog

Another one you’ve undoubtedly come across, again possibly because of the movies, but the source material is much deeper and more detailed than the on-screen version. Rowling started with the question “what if magic was real?” and really ran with it, imagining every possible creature, spell and magical object and combining them in an elegant allegory about good and evil.

Horror

MARY: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan

We’ve all heard some version of the Blood Mary story, you might even have played the game as a teenager, saying her name into the mirror, scaring yourselves silly for a good laugh. Monahan’s dark YA novel asks “what if the legend of Bloody Mary was real?”. Who was Mary, and why is she out for revenge against teenage girls?

Dystopian

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Dystopian novels often look at a potential, but far-fetched future, focusing on the current day issues we face and asking, ‘what’s the absolute worst case scenario if we continue down this road?’. Atwood’s popular novel has recently been adapted into a brilliantly close-to-the-bone TV series, updated to reflect today’s reality (the original novel was published almost thirty years ago in 1985). The question Atwood focused on is “what if religious fundamentalists took control of the country?”, and her conclusion is equally credible and horrifying.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Written in 1948, Orwell’s novel speculated about a communist future for Britain, setting the story in 1984 (he literally just swapped the digits round to get his time period) and getting so many things scarily right. Whilst he might be partly to blame for Big Brother, his vision of a future dominated by television and surveillance/visibility is shockingly prescient.

Alternate History

And I Darken by Kiersten White

White’s YA historical fantasy novel asks the question, “what if Vlad the Impaler had been female?”, and how would the gender swap impact on the legend we all know? The story highlights the inequalities between men and women in the Ottoman Empire, and imagines what would have happened if a bold, empowered woman like Lada had been the daughter of the Wallachian king.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Probably one of the most interesting ‘what ifs’ possible: “what if the Nazis had won World War Two?”. Graudin’s novel has Hitler surviving and the combined powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan winning the war. With some fantastical elements thrown in, this is a fascinating glimpse of what might have been if the Allies had lost and Nazism survived.

Supernatural

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

If you haven’t read the books or seen the 2013 movie with Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, you might have seen the TV series Shadowhunters with Katherine McNamara and Dominic Sherwood. With the sheer number of supernatural creatures involved, and the vastness of Clare’s fictional world, spanning both space and time over the three series so far (with a fourth in the pipeline I believe), the question The Mortal Instruments centres around is, “what if all the myths and legends were true?”. Mixing urban fantasy with classic supernatural elements, Clare looks at the possibilities in a world where demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, and everything in between, exist.

Speculative fiction isn’t reserved for these genres, if your story looks at what could be, what might have been, or what would happen if, then it might just be a piece of speculative fiction.

Lyndsey