[Editor's Note: Horror Yearbook has survived our first year, and now we are scratching and clawing just to survive the rest of 2007. In efforts to move on and move up, we are doing a bit of Spring cleaning. First was our Clean Out Sale (Details Here), where we gave away tons of free stuff to our readers, and now I am publishing random articles and reviews that for some reason or another we never used.

First I give you a very awful book review I wrote, for a very good book...GHOST ROAD BLUES by Author Jonathan Marberry. The reason I never published it was because it SUCKS, the review, not the book. I enjoyed GRB so much, but because I am such an awful writer, I just couldn't write a decent review. I wrote it 3 to 4 times, but with my limited vocabulary I just couldn't come up with the words to do it justice. So here it is, one of the worst things I have ever written, for one of the better things I have read in 2007.]

Ghost Road Blues is one of the best books I have read this year. Already winning the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel by Author Jonathan Marberry and with a planned second book, DEAD MAN’S SONG there isn’t really much more to say then hurry up and read it because you don’t want to be left behind.

I was instantly hooked from the opening pages when the character called “The Bone Man” kills his first victim or demon (your not sure which) with only his guitar. It brought images of that Ralph Macchio film Crossroads to my mind. It also made me wonder why blues music and the devil seem so perfect together. I guess when I think of blues music I think of “cool” and one would imagine that the devil would just be a cool, sly cat if one were ever to meet him.

Ghost Road Blues is one of those epic good vs. evil battles; kind of like Steven Kings “The Stand.” Where the two sides are gearing up for a final smack down but most of the participants don’t even have a clue what they’re involved in it. Minus the radio show by Kathy Bates of course.

Thirty years earlier the small town of Pine Deep is plagued with murders during the year of the “Dark Harvest.” When “The Bone Man” is blamed for the killings street justice is taken by some of the town folks, but little did they know that their acts would come back to haunt them, bringing along a second “Dark Harvest” one that this time the town may not survive.

I very rarely hate books that I read but then every once and awhile something like GRB’s comes along and reminds you what a great book is. It reads like a movie, to be cliché, a real page-turner that is just done right. Not annoyingly over descriptive like a lot of books, but the kind of novel that leaves vivid images in your head with a great story and I could go on and on but I’m starting to sound lame. I really look forward to what else JM has in store for us. Writers like him don’t come along often.