Christopher Fulbright

Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com

Years ago Carrie was kidnapped from her coven by a wolf cult and initiated, her body becoming the home to the Mother of the Wolves. Despite her coven's attempts to save her time has moved on, the spirit grew slowly inside her and the people of the her coven found life paths away from each other. Now as their children edge into adulthood the remaining members of the white coven find themselves under attack by Carrie, now fully under the control of the Wolf show more Mother and determined to take out the coven that held her bound for so long.
The decision on including Of Wolf and Man in public collections is a split one. The first half, if not more of the book is spent in slow set up, so much that a chunk of readers will not make it past page 100 where most of the action actually starts. Once the plot pushes toward a climax so does the speed of the book and the attention to detail and story, avalanching toward a dramatic end. Before, it seems scattered and restless, nothing but detail with no action to make the handful of point of view characters and their back stories relevant. Slow to advance the story does bloom into a more familiar traditional horror tale, complete with complex character and plot and payoff for patient (and blood thirsty) readers. Of Wolf and Man shouldn't be included because of its subject matter, but rather because of its style. Collections where Stephen King and his stylistically similar peers are popular will find this book and interesting new slant on werewolves. But with so much werewolf fiction available in paranormal romance and urban fantasy these days readers coming from that angle will find this book too slow to start and lacking the drive and focus they're used to. With so much cross over between the two types of readers librarians should consider their patrons before adding this one to their collections.
Contains: sex, violence show less

Elderwood Manor gets off to a rather slow start, but develops into a breathtaking story of a house with a long memory and an appetite for vengeance.

Bruce Davenport and his four-year-old son, Cody, are on their way to the mansion where he grew up. It started with a call from his estranged and aging mother.

The house, larger than a football field, is suitable creepy. "The hinges squealed slightly as the door swung open to reveal his mother's bedroom. It smelled of mothballs and light perfume. show more More alarming was the scent of old age, mortality taking it's withering measure, death creeping into brittle bones."

What Bruce finds in the old house has him and Cody doing whatever they can, just to survive the night.

Elderwood Manor had moments of brilliance with a strong creep factor and a great back-story, but the actual events that take place in the house, while horrible, take an enormous suspension of disbelief.

Elderwood Manor is scheduled for release on July, 15, 2014 from Darkfuse and will be available for the Kindle on Amazon.com. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime you can read this novella for FREE through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. show less

2.5 Can't say I really liked it but I liked his descriptions of the woods (when I could understand them). I liked the boys and how they spent their time. It reminds me of my youth. I didn't like how Tommy was killed with no explanation or how there was no reason given as to why burning the tree had worked.

2.5 rating. I will never discuss plot out of respect to the author. If you want that, read the blurb. The book cost 2.99 which is cheap for any book . I bought this looking for a short read that I could finish in two day's time. I was recommended this book a while back, so that's how I was lead to it. The book was a roller coaster as it went from good to uninteresting a few times. I didn't care for the filler information in the middle, which I found odd because it came out of nowhere. I show more think if it had a place, it should have came earlier in the book as not to disturb flow, but that's just my opinion. So the constant crying of the characters through me off some (annoying), as well as the filler information which made me put the book down for nearly two weeks (shouldn't happen with a short read). But I picked it up today and really enjoyed the ending. It was so well written and full of heart that it made me wonder why the rest of the book didn't display this talent. As I wrote before in other reviews, I will never say don't buy a book. Instead, I think you should read the sample and see if you like it more than I did. My opinion is not the end all, people! show less