Dust by Joan Frances Turner (REVIEW)

CAUTION: There maybe a few spoilers in this review, but I will warn you NOT to read further if you don't like spoilers.  

                                              

One day while I was at the college library, I decided I wanted to read a book about the popular supernatural/sci-fi creature known as The Zombie. But, I didn't want just any kind of Zombie story. I wanted one from the Zombie's point of view. Odd request, I know. I have read the book Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, but it was a bit too simplistic for me. So my librarian recommended this book called Dust by Joan Frances Turner. From the moment I read the first line of the book, I was hooked.

The story is about a young girl named Jessie, who died in a car accident (this is stated on the first page) and rises up from her grave as one of the undead. She ends up joining a gang of other Undeads (Called The Fly By Nights) that find her in the forest of "hick-vill" Indiana. So far, un-death is wonderful. She has a new family and even another undead, whom she falls in love with, named Joe. They hunt, they dance, they fight, and they stick together.

 

All is well until Jessie one day she sees her alive sister, Lisa, at the grave yard and things go as expected. Lisa runs away from her, and Jessie is left feeling dumb for even attempting
to communicate with her. Eventually, things begin to change when Jessie and the rest of her gang, notice that there has been a change not only amongst themselves, but among the others around the area. They all appear to be more...Alive. Skin is beginning to re-grow, they stop eating, and they smell like they have been dipped in Ether. Time goes on, and things end up getting worse. Eventually, the whole gang is falling apart, and the only two left are Jessie, a fellow undead named Linc, Renee, and eventually, Jessie's sister, who also turned into one of the more "new" undeads.

OVERALL REVIEW: 
This isn't an incredibly well-written review, but I find it the only way I can really describe the book. It is a wonderful, fresh plot of a Zombie apocalypse narrated from a Zombie's point of view. Throughout the book, you are constantly questioning things and getting attached to characters, like Joe and Jessie. (The greatest Zombie couple ever).

The book itself, is well-written and the only downside, is that Jessie has a lot of odd dreams that kind of make you want to skip them, and get to the good parts. The book is very addictive, and has some interesting twists and turns.

Apparently, I found out the book is also a series, which the second two are Frail and Grave. I read a little bit of Frail, and all it was, was about a girl in a zombie apocalypse named Amy who gets left behind by her mother, and that's as far as I got. I have read reviews on this, and it is not as good and Fresh as the first one. I have yet to see the third, and will write a review on that as well.

My Rating: 
I give is 4 skulls out of 5. Reason being that, while this is a wonderful book with a fresh plot etc. There are a still a few things that I feel could have been avoided. The transitions being one of them. They were a bit sudden, and didn't seem to be a smooth as others I have read.

New Fan Art + Thoughts on Warcraft Movie & Expansion

Of course as of lately, I had gotten some new markers, so I just had to make a few more fan art pieces. The following are: Zangramarsh (Outlands), Koltira Deathweaver & Thassarian, and Mists of
Pandaria fan art.

Mists of Pandaria 

Koltira Deathweaver & Thassarian 

Zangramarsh (Outlands) 

Thoughts on Warcraft (movie) & Legion Expansion 
I just decided to add this one on the last of my list, and given that I have done a number of fan art pieces on it, I figured I might as well give my opinion on this movie. For those out there who play World of Warcraft, you probably have heard a lot about the upcoming movie Warcraft. I am not a huge lore correct role-player type fan, given that I just really enjoy exploring the game, playing my characters, stalking Arthas (while repeated trying to get invincible), and just fooling around like a noob, so my take on the movie might not be 100% accurate.

In saying so, here is my opinion: I believe that the movie may be mediocre but good somewhat. Usually video game type movies are that (think of Resident Evil) way and I just cant help but feel that way. Aside from that, for some reason I can't take the armor and cluttered backgrounds as seriously, because it doesn't really look real. (I realize this is a fantasy movie) Now of course I have not seen the movie yet, I could be completely wrong, but I feel it may not be as good as I would hope. Possibly because it has way too many effects, the backgrounds are too cluttered (I have seen the still shots) and it is hard for me to take it seriously just by looking at armor that is bulky and made to look "real". But that is just my opinion. Now granted I must care a bit about it because I am making a post about it, obviously I am a bit excited but I don't want to be disappointed.

Now of course, I have seen the trailer for the Legion expansion that is coming out soon, and I feel that it will be an awesome game since they are indeed adding a bit of Wrath & a lot of Burning Crusade into the mix, even to the point of bringing Illidan back from the dead, which is interesting. Although I may not be the only one who thinks this, but for some reason the trailer looked like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. Not sure why. But I could be mistaken.

Halloween and Coming Soon

While Halloween has been only a few days ago, and due to the fact that if you are a Halloween fan, everyday is Halloween in your heart, I will post a few Halloween facts and some random artwork from the October season.

The worlds first Jack'O Lantern 
Each and every year during Halloween, practically everyone who celebrates the holiday, will set out a carved pumpkin with a candle inside as a decoration. Now some may question (or not), "I wonder who started this trend"? Well, that can be explained in this paragraph:

As stated in the Book of Bizarre Things (Close enough to the title), the first Jack' O Lantern came about in the tale of a man named Jack, chased the devil up a tree, and carved out a cross right below him so that the devil would not come down. Feeling pleased with this, he returned to his sinful life of sloth and gluttony. When the time came for Jack to go to the great beyond, the lord would not let him go to heaven due to his life of sins. And the devil, who managed to get off the tree would not let him go to Hell ether, for chasing him up an apple tree. Having no-where to go, the devil feeling a form of pity for the man, gave Jack some coal to light his way. One day while eating a turnip, Jack got disgusted with it, and decided to put the coal into the turnip, making the world's first Jack' O Lantern.

This of course, was a tale that was invented in Europe when people used to carve their turnips and use them to make a Jack'O Lantern.

Danger Dolan Halloween Candy
One of the reasons I posted this one is because Danger Dolan has always been a favorite of mine, and I felt the need to post this list of his Halloween Candy List. The link will be posted at the bottom for the website. Enjoy!

As quoted from Danger Dolan.TV: Click Here to visit the website

From delicious hair of the werewolf to blood bags filled with sugary goo, we count 15 of the funnest, most awesome pieces of Halloween candy ever prepared by crazy companies and websites

15 – Insect Candy

• So you might look at these and think, hey, a bunch of plastic insect toys embedded in a lollipop
• Well, hotlix.com process real insects and dip them in candy – yes, they’re real, live insects frozen in time, ready to be eaten with a crunchy, delicious taste
• You can get ants, crickets, worms and scorpions in your lollipop, although the scorpions are more expensive since they’re usually reluctant to become food

14 – Brain-Flavoured Zombie Mints

• These are made specifically for zombies, but regular people can eat them too
• The official website mcphee.com suggests eating these to make your breath autopsy-fresh in case you need to disguise yourself in a zombie-packed street
• They also come in Cthulu flavour, although those will just drive you insane

13 – Blue Cheese Lollipop

• This one started out as a joke, blue cheese on a stick, and then somehow it took off and became an actual thing
• The company that designed it, Lollyphile, they’re been experimenting with lollipop flavours like breast milk and absinthe, and this was their latest attempt at candy that makes no sense

12 – Gumball Eyes

• A ton of bloodied up suckable eyeballs perfect for strewing around any Halloween candy table, and they’re filled with fat-free liquid cherry candy
• Course, they taste just like any other gumball so don’t expect the familiar delicious taste of real eyeball juice inside – for that you’ll need a dark alleyway and some sharp cleavers

11 – Death Mints

• Amazing simply for the case alone, it is, according to the website, the preferred mint of choice for vampires, corpses and zombies – and it comes with 100 mints similar to the brain-flavoured one
• According to reviews it takes about 5 of them to get you fresh breath, but since the case is so cool you can store proper mints in there AND NOBODY WILL KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

To view the rest of this page, go to the link posted above. 

Night Elf Warlock

Note: You may want to look up World of Warcraft or read some of my other posts to know what it is. Because I do a lot of fan art of this game. (in case you don't know what it is) 

For those people who see this by some chance, and go "Oh my, she put a class with a race that doesn't even have warlocks, THAT is not correct lore, where do I even begin on how wrong this is". First off, this is just a "I wish Blizzard would do this"... kind of painting. Just because Night Elves have Death Knights, why not Warlocks? in a way it would be interesting to see that. I would love to play a Night Elf warlock. 

Lore wise, well it wouldn't make sense given the whole demon hunter stories etc. But, still, the idea sounds awesome. 

Of course I did a couple of other paintings of this in the process, but I plan to do something that is a bit more detailed and less sloppy. Which I should have planned it out more, but decided to show it on here anyway. 

As you can see here, I have the purple and green look for the warlock type look (demonology colors) and two minions in the background. Succubus (left) and Void Walker (right). now of course, I plan on perfecting this with marker since I am running close on Water Color paper. 

As for her style in the middle, it's not much of anything that is good in terms of armor, but it shows enough to say that it is a warlock and not just a night elf wearing skull armor. 

I plan on adding a bit more to this eventually in Photoshop CC and hopefully make it a bit more obvious that it is a warlock fan art type and not something that is just a slap of paint on a canvas/paper. 

I also included yellow eyes that I plan to work with later and green lips. 

Again, this is on Water Color paper with tube water color paints. 

The Girl Who Loves Horror & Horrible Reviews

Since it is the month of October, and it's getting around that time when all Halloween fans (myself included) look for a decent scary movie to watch or a nice horror/thriller book to read. Well, on one of my days at school while waiting for the teacher to enter the room, I discovered a blog site called "The Girl Who Loves Horror". Of course, most of it isn't just Horror movies but also books as well. Which I find to be very interesting, given that I enjoy looking at both. Anyway, this blogger reviews horror movies and books and gives a basic summery (similar to Fangoria Magazine) about random picks from different times. Currently, she has a post for a review on the movie "Creepy Crawlies" made in the year 2000.  A movie about a man who goes on a vacation due to his alcoholism caused by a recent divorce that caused him to have problems at work. Soon his vacation turns into a nightmare when he finds out that the island is infested with a rare cockroach that kills people. It's kind of funny, since if anyone is like myself, I can't stand cockroaches, despite the fact they really don't do anything to you, except look gross.

Click here to view the movie review.


Horrible Reviews
This was something that I have always known about for at least a year, and will say that it is a good page to look at if you are going to watch any interesting horror movie on Halloween and you want something that is going to be good.

Despite it's name, Horrible Reviews is a YouTube channel created by a guy from the Netherlands who is pretty awesome. He gives reviews on Horror movies that are everything from mild to I-wish-I-didn't-just-watch-that-clip-because-I-will-never-be-able-to-sleep-or-eat-again kind of movies. He also gives a list of his personal favorites which includes the funny movie Napoleon Dynamite and a few westerns with Clint Eastwood in it.

I'm still not quite sure why it's called "Horrible" Reviews, since they are very good, granted some of the films shown are horrible and just, shocking really, but it is a good place to find a good horror movie to watch on Halloween when trick-or-treaters are not at your door.

Click here to view the YouTube Channel