SOMETHING BORROWED by PAUL MAGRS
Headline hardback/trade paperback, 310pp, £19.99/£11.99

The sequel to Never the Bride, Magrs’ latest novel continues the fan boy sensibility of his recent work with yet more of the adventures of Brenda, the Bride of Frankenstein, who now lives in Whitby and tackles mysteries with her good friend Effie, the descendant of a long line of wise women. And the ladies certainly have more than their fair share of troubles to contend with, what with their old friend Jessie being transformed into a flesh eating womanzee, a plague of poison pen letters that have the town held in the grip of fear, a troublesome haunting and a set of wicker garden furniture with attitude, to name just a few. To complicate matters further, Brenda‚Äôs former beau Henry is back on the scene, an immortal who stirs old memories of things best left forgotten, of their long ago involvement with the Smudgelings and fight against Count Alucard. (more…)

Tags: black • book • Borrowed • Bride • Frankenstein • Magrs • reviews • Something • static • Tennant • Whitby

FINAL DESTINATION: DEAD MAN’S HAND by STEVEN A. ROMAN
Black Flame pb, 408pp, £6.99
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: PROT?âG?â by TIM WAGGONER
Black Flame pb, 408pp, £6.99
DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO: CITY OF NIGHT by DEAN KOONTZ & ED GORMAN
Harper Collins pb, 474pp, £6.99

We live in commercial times, with only the dilettantes and the most successful able to pay more than lip service to the desiderata of art for art’s sake. For the rest, profit is the inescapable bottom line, and nowhere is this more true than in the cutthroat world of Hollywood. The money men who underwrite the latest blockbusters want a good return on their investment, and so it’s doubtful if any film with a significant budget gets made without a merchandising strategy in place beforehand. Not just a film then, but a line of toys, computer games, soundtrack albums, bargain meals at McDonalds, tie ins with Coca Cola, or whoever else shows an interest, and, of course, for those strange people who want words as well as pictures, a book of the film, inevitably followed by books inspired by the film.

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Tags: Black Static • Book Reviews • Final Destination • Frankenstein • Gorman • Koontz • Nightmare on Elm Street • Peter Tennant