Tag Archives: Laurell k. Hamilton

Books, Television, Top Horror Lists

TFO’s Top 3 Favorite Supernatural Series

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Do you love to read?  I do.  I love curling up with a good book, a nice cup of tea, and a blanket and just getting lost in my imagination.  And, of course, being who I am, my favorite books are scary or related to the supernatural.  Also, I really enjoy getting to know certain characters and revisiting my “friends” from time to time, so finding a good series is very important to me.

Here are my top 3 favorite supernatural series

3.  Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series

You might already be pretty familiar with this series from its TV adaptation, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin.  The show is good, but it really strayed from the source material.  So if you have already seen the show, don’t worry.  You can still enjoy the books.

They’re so much fun, and Sookie is such an endearing heroine.  Vampires take center stage in this series, and her interactions with the various vampires around her, as well as with other supernatural creatures, are sexy, harrowing, and sometimes hilarious.

2. Kim Harrison’s Hollows series

Rachel Morgan is the star of this series.  She’s a sassy witch in the post-Turn U.S. where vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, fairies, and other supernatural creatures have come out of hiding after a semi-apocalyptic event takes out much of the human race.

Rachel and her partners Ivy (a vampire) and Jenks (a pixy) tackle many obstacles in their quest to make their own place in the world.

1. Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series

Anita Blake is a badass.  I met her in high school after stumbling upon “The Laughing Corpse,” the second book of the series, in the public library.  After wearing out the library’s copy, I found out that the series was still going on, and that’s all she wrote (except obviously not).

Anita is an animator, or zombie raiser, that interacts frequently with other supernatural creatures, including vampires and werewolves.  I say “interacts,” but it’s so much more than that.  Just read them. You’ll be glad you did.

Scary Stories

Scary Fairies: Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry Series

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Today is International Fairy Day, and since it’s also time for a Friday Night Frights post, I thought we’d do a mashup.

I know what you’re thinking.  Fairies?  On a horror blog?  You must be trippin,’ yo.  (That’s what you’re thinking, right?)  But while most people think of Tinkerbell when they think of fairies, you should know that not all of them are sugary sweet.  Some fairies are downright scary.

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Like this one, but not as hot. Heh. Hot. Get it?

Monstrous fairies pop up in folklore from all corners of the globe.  There’s the Celtic fairy, Ankou, who is doomed to collect souls forever.  The Berberoka are a race of fairies from the Philippines that are basically mermaids who lure fisherman to their deaths.  And we really can’t talk about fairies without mentioning the fairies of Scotland.

Scotland, in particular, has quite a few in their legends that take on some very menacing forms, including – my favorites – the sluagh and Red Caps.  The sluagh were believed to be spirits of the restless dead, and Red Caps were a group of fairies that would mop up the blood of their vanquished foes with their caps.  Cool, right? These guys actually feature pretty prominently in one of my favorite book series: Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry novels.

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As you can see from this pic of my well-worn copy of the first book in the series, I’m a fan.  And if you’re interested in reading about some very non-Disney fairies, I suggest you check these books out.  As of right now, there are only nine in the series (Ms. Hamilton isn’t quite finished yet), and if you like them as much as I do, they won’t take long to read.

What are they about?  I’ll give you a quick rundown (Spoiler Alert?).  Merry is a faerie princess of the Unseelie court (look it up) who comes out of hiding involuntarily and must return to court to find a suitor to give her a child (i.e., knock her up) so she can win the throne.  Along the way, she encounters a whole host of freaky fairies with all sorts of cool, creepy powers.

For real.  Read these. They’re fun.  I wouldn’t lie to you.

Let me know if you end up reading the series, or if you already have (and in that case, kudos to you), let me know what you think in the comments.

I hope everyone has a very Happy International Fairy Day! What are you going to do to celebrate?