Flesh by Laura Bickle ~ Review and Giveaway

Posted: October 17, 2018 in giveaways, Guest Post, horror, YA
Tags: , , , ,
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Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I love making decorations
for this time of year. I looked around at the materials I had rolling around my
craft room and raided the displays at the dollar store to come up with some
Halloween luminaries to perch in my windows.
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For this project, I used:
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Two wide-mouth jars
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A plastic witch
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A plastic ghost
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Black sand
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Glue gun and glue sticks
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Plastic spider rings
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Ribbon
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Two LED light strings – I used pumpkins and bats
I already had the jars, glue, spiders, and ribbon, but found the LED
lights, sand, witch, and ghost at my local dollar store. So I’ve invested about
five bucks in this project. I won’t too feel
bad if it doesn’t turn out!
First thing I did was stuff the witch in
a jar and the ghost in jars. I had originally intended to use mason jars, but I
didn’t have any with mouths wide enough to squeeze the plastic sculptures
through. So I used some plastic jars I had handy. I settled the witch and ghost
in their new homes, then poured some black sand around their feet to simulate
ground. You could also use glitter or black salt or fine pebbles.
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Then I put some batteries in my lights and tested them out. I think
that I could use fairy lights for this step, too, but I liked the bats and
pumpkins.
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I arranged the light strings in the jars. I used a pencil to push them
around so that they showed most clearly from the front. I made sure that the
tail of the light string, with the battery pack, extended outside of the jars. I
wanted to be able to turn my luminaries on and off and change batteries without
digging the whole string out of the jar, though you could leave it in the jar,
too. Here’s what they looked like:
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Then, I screwed on the lids. Since my lids were plastic, they didn’t
damage the thin wire. I made sure that the wire fed out the back side of the
jar. If I needed more room, I would have cut out part of the lid or put the
pack behind the figure inside the jar, but this seemed to work fine with these
materials.
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I cut two lengths of ribbon and fished out a couple of spider rings
from the bag of spiders. I cut the ring part off the spiders so that they would
lie flat.
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I made a bow with each ribbon and glued one to the top of each jar. In
the center of the bow, I glued a spider.
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And I was done! Here’s what my finished luminaries look like:
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I can’t wait to put these in my window on Halloween!

Flesh
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by Laura Bickle 
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Genre: YA Horror/Paranormal/Fantasy
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My Review
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Charlie isn’t afraid of the dead. It’s her tenth grade classmates that can send her screaming. Halloween is rolling around again and she isn’t expecting much excitement. Especially after the fiasco from last year. Her parents didn’t appreciate her throwing a party at their funeral home.

This year Charlie is keeping a low profile. She’s not looking for trouble but trouble finds her when a deceased classmate, Amanda, who’s body should be resting in a morgue drawer, gets up and starts munching on corpses. That’s just the beginning of many bizarre events that start happening. Faster than you can say Ghoul Girl, she’s scrambling to hide Amanda and find out why the dead aren’t staying dead.

This book is tagged as YA Horror and there were some gruesome scenes. Like the one where Amanda starts chowing down on live worms like they’re gummies. And when she chews on a corpses arm like it’s a drum stick. Those scenes made me squirm. But Laura also made them funny. The family dog, Lothar, loves Amanda because she shares her kibble. Yep he’s a man eater, kind of.  He even liked the worms.

Flesh doesn’t have tons of action, but there’s enough to keep the story moving fast. The character’s act genuine. And there’s a legend about Bob the Catfish that adds an interesting twist.

I was torn over how to rate this book. Keeping in mind this was aimed at the younger audience, I went with 4 stars. It didn’t wow me but I had fun and I think it hit the mark for the young adult readers.

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Book Description:
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The dead are easy to talk to. Live people, not so much.
Charlie Sulliven thinks she knows all the secrets of the dead. Raised in a funeral home, she’s the reluctant “Ghoul Girl,” her reputation tied to a disastrous Halloween party. But navigating her life as a high school sophomore is an anxiety-inducing puzzle to her. She haunts the funeral home with her parents, emo older brother, Garth, their pistol-packing Gramma, and the glass-eyeball-devouring dachshund, Lothar.
Chewed human bodies are appearing in her parents’ morgue…and disappearing in the middle of the night. The bodies seem tied to a local legend, Catfish Bob, who has resurfaced in the muddy Milburn river near Charlie’s small town. When one of Charlie’s classmates, Amanda, awakens in the cooler as a flesh-eating ghoul, Charlie must protect her newfound friend and step up to unravel the mystery…and try to avoid becoming lunch meat for the dead.
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Amazon     BN     Kobo     iBooks
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About the Author:
 
Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology-Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs. Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.
More information about Laura’s work can be found at 
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www.laurabickle.com
 
https://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle  
 
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle
 
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Comments
  1. James Robert says:
    October 17, 2018 at 6:57 am

    I am enjoying these tours and finding all the terrific books my family is enjoying reading. Thanks for bringing them to us and keep up the good work.

    Reply
  2. Sassy Brit, Author Assistant says:
    October 17, 2018 at 7:19 am

    Charlie isn’t afraid of the dead. It’s her tenth grade classmates that can send her screaming. (Had to laugh out loud at that one!) Great crafting ideas – simple but very effective.

    Reply
  3. Priscilla Bettis says:
    October 17, 2018 at 10:35 am

    The luminaries are so cute! Worms . . . ew, I’m eating breakfast as I catch up on my morning blog reading! Fabulous review!

    Reply
  4. Laura Bickle (@Laura_Bickle) says:
    October 17, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    Thanks so much for taking the time to read and review my book! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Sherry Fundin says:
    October 17, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    So cute. I have read some of Laura’s work and enjoyed it. This is another good one.

    Reply
  6. Cathy French says:
    October 17, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    I’m excited by the series. New to this author

    Reply
  7. Barb (boxermommyreads) says:
    October 17, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    I need to meet Lothar! I have a few books by this author and keep meaning to read her. This one sounds good but munching on worms – ewwww.

    Reply
  8. Beware Of The Reader says:
    October 17, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    Eeeeek! Chwing down worms!!! I feel nauseated all of a sudden LOL NOw your little handmade lanterns for Halloween that I like 😉

    Reply
  9. Kathryn Meyer Griffith says:
    October 17, 2018 at 5:57 pm

    I love your Halloween luminaries! So pretty. Years ago I used to make lit-up bottles (empty wine or fancy whiskey bottles) with colorful designs on the outside of them. I did art shows selling them along with noodle angels (remember them?). My sister and I have done crafts on and off through the years and craft shows. Now the books and their promotions take all my time.
    Oh, the book looks good, too. Funeral homes to me have always been haunted.

    Reply
  10. Debbie P says:
    October 17, 2018 at 6:08 pm

    This sounds like an awesome read. The cover look great.

    Reply
  11. Lelia T says:
    October 17, 2018 at 11:25 pm

    I love those luminaries—and admire people who make such things 😉

    Reply
  12. bookwormbrandee says:
    October 18, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    I love the luminaries! That’s such a great idea! The book…well, I’m not much for zombies, honestly. But Flesh does sound kinda fun. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  13. chucklesthescot says:
    October 19, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    What brilliant decorations! I’d love to have these in my revamped book cave!

    Reply
  14. Angela Saver says:
    October 20, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    I enjoyed the book description. Sounds good.

    Reply
  15. clickclickmycat says:
    October 21, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    Thanks to this blog for the intro to Laura Bickle and her work. I look forward to reading her books. (jozywails@gmail.com)

    Reply
  16. clickclickmycat says:
    October 30, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    Looking to get a hold of Laura’s other series.

    Reply

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