Review: Letter "Plot Was A Genius Work, Constantly Twisting Back On Itself In Surprising Ways"

Book review: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

Bibliofile: 遺書と地下聖堂

We were going through the archives this weekend and we came across our Japanese file, which turned out to only be a few notes about the Japanese editions of the books published a few years ago.

Review: Doom "A Good Job Of...Bellairs’s Style"

Book review: The Doom of the Haunted Opera

Review: Specter "Re-Visiting [Characters] In This Spine-Tingling Adventure"

Book review: The Specter from the Magician's Museum

Review: Treasure "Very Pleased With the Credit John Bellairs Gives His Characters"

Book review: The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn

Review: Letter "A Nice change Of Pace From The Ones Usually Faced By Bellairs's Heroes"

Book review: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

Review: House "Surprisingly Creepy...An Excellent, Scary Story"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

Review: Mummy "[Characters] Continue[s] To...Charm..."

Book review: The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt

Review: Curse "Wonderfully Quirky Personalities...Every Character Vibrates With Life"

Book review: The Curse of the Blue Figurine

Review: Lamp "A Feeling Of Actual Menace And Scenes That Are Beautifully Uncanny"

Book review: The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb

Review: Spell "[a] Master At Creating A Creepy Atmosphere"

Book review: The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull

Jacket Whys: Swirls and Light

We found recent commentary about the "ever-growing trend toward the exclusive use of photo-shopped images on kids’ book covers." The author cites four examples, including Brad Strickland's Grimoire: Tracked by Terror (2007):

Memoriam: Gary Gygax

The father of role-playing games and the co-founder of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax, has died. Gygax, along with Dave Arneson, created the long-popular fantasy game in 1974 which is estimated to have been played by 20 Million people.

The Cons of Film Adaptations

First...this is nice...someone put together a presentation about “the guy" who wrote House.  Perhaps they were thinking of Ron Bellairs.  Second, speaking of “Ron" and that aborted project, here’s a bit of commentary on making House into a movie. They say don't.

Just Call Me Angel of the Mourning

According to this post, The Doom of the Haunted Opera contains a “weeping angel.” At first we wondered if this was a type of the statues Lewis sees in the cemetery.  You may recall in The House with a Clock in its Walls, Lewis sees gravestones with “weeping women leaning on urns and cupids extinguishing flames [64]”.