Shannon's Review - Gustav Gloom And The People Taker by Adam-Troy Castro

Title: Gustav Gloom And The People Taker
Series: Gustav Gloom #1
Author: Adam-Troy Castro
Illustrator/Book Cover Design: Kristen Margiotta
Genre: Fiction, Juvenile, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Received: Bought
Release Date: August 2012
Pages: 232
Rating:




Author Adam-Troy Castro’s Official Websites:


(borrowed from Goodreads.com)

Website:
https://www.adamtroycastro.com/

Blog:
https://www.adamtroycastro.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/adamtroycastro

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/adamtroycastro

Instagram:
None found



Shannon’s Thoughts:

Gustav Gloom is a strange and unusual boy. He lives at the darkest and creepiest house on the block. No one knows much about him or his house until the What family moves in across the street. Fernie What follows her cat onto the grounds of Gustav Gloom’s house and gets trapped in the house by the dark creatures and weird rooms that inhabit the Gloom household.

The cover and inside art is very eye-catching and are what intrigued me.

There are so many usual and imaginative characters and the rules that they seem to follow. I found an issue with those rules because Gustav would first tell the rules of a creature or room and then those rules always seem to get broken. It just did not make sense as to why there were rules in the first place.

My inner child was attracted to this series because of the art and theme. The actual story missed the mark for me. I don’t know if I will continue with the series.

Shannon's Review - Etty Steele Vampire Hunter by Grayson Grave

Title: Etty Steel Vampire Hunter
Series: #1 Etty Steel Series
Author: Grayson Grave
Genre: Fiction, Juvenile, Fantasy, Paranormal, Vampires, Witches,
Publisher: Independently Published
Received: For Free For Review
Release Date: July 2018
Pages: 180
Rating:


Author Grayson Grave’s Official Websites:



Website:
https://graysongrave.com/

Blog:
https://graysongrave.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/graysongrave/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/graysongrave/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/graysongrave/

Shannon’s Thoughts:
Preteen Etty Steel is being trained by her mother to be a vampire hunter. Even though her hunter skills have not shown themselves yet, her mother wants to be prepared and trains her hard. She is not allowed to tell anyone she is a hunter, even her best friend. Although things change when she finds out witches exist and her friend is one. A new kid starts school with them and Etty is sure he is a vampire. Etty soon discovers that the training and history lessons she has learned about vampires are not as black and white as her mother claims them to be.

I enjoyed this very much. Etty’s story is likable especially for those into Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Even though Etty is much younger as she learns to train than Buffy. The story is fun, exciting, and has a sort of comfort I find in watching or reading BTVS. I also feel like there is so much more to learn in this world. We learned a little back story to vampires but I am also interested in the back story to magic and witches.

There is nothing I can think of constructively to make the story better but I do think there is something that would because it was really good but not awesomely great. I just can not think of what.

The second book in this series is out and I am eager to read it. Etty Steel is my new favorite vampire hunter.