The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 2

Title: The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 2

Author: James Tynion, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire

Publisher: DC Comics 2023

Genre: Comics

Pages: 176

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: None

Where I Got It: Library

One of the most critically acclaimed and bestselling horror books of 2021 returns for its shocking second act—and now is the perfect time to enter the house! The 10 hardy survivors gathered in the house by their mutual friend Walter thought they’d finally cracked the code on his plans…and now everything they thought they knew has literally changed. Can they free themselves from their patterns? Or are they all just determined to build a prison of their very own?

I finally grabbed the second trade in this series and goodness, it was a journey. The first couple of pages really threw me. The reader has to orient themselves to the story being told. Once I got my bearings, I sped through the next chapters of this story. I loved the interplay of the different personalities and their reactions to the events. I do wish that the story would have a progressed a bit more before we got to the end. Now I just have to wait I guess. No idea when the next chapters will be released.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1

Title: The Nice House on the Lake Vol. 1

Author: James Tynion, Alvaro Martinez Bueno, Jordie Bellaire

Publisher: DC Comics 2022

Genre: Comics

Pages: 200

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: None

Where I Got It: Library

Everyone who was invited to the house knows Walter-well, they know him a little, anyway. Some met him in childhood; some met him months ago. And Walter’s always been a little…off. But after the hardest year of their lives, nobody was going to turn down Walter’s invitation to an astonishingly beautiful house in the woods, overlooking an enormous sylvan lake. It’s beautiful, it’s opulent, it’s private-so a week of putting up with Walter’s weird little schemes and nicknames in exchange for the vacation of a lifetime? Why not? All of them were at that moment in their lives when they could feel themselves pulling away from their other friends; wouldn’t a chance to reconnect be…nice? Collects The Nice House on the Lake #1-6.

How did I miss this series? Probably because it came from DC Comics. I’m definitely more of an Image reader. But I finally picked this one up and devoured it. This is a story that starts slow, but hooked me immediately. I desperately wanted to unravel the mystery presented with the inhabitants of the house. We get clues here and there and then the story takes a huge turn. I was absolutely floored and cannot wait to grab the next volume.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Injection Vol. 3

Title: Injection Vol. 3

Author: Warren Ellis, Jordie Bellaire, Declan Shalvey

Publisher: Image 2017

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 120

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

An archaeological dig in Cornwall has gone very wrong, very quickly. And Maria Kilbride has her hands full already, as the effects of the Injection begin to dig in. So Brigid Roth, her old comrade from the CCCU, gets hired to go to a stone circle in the middle of a moor, under a granite tor, to find out why a ritual murder might have torn a hole in the world.

What is the Cold House?

We’re back to the very strange dip into the supernatural while following Brigid’s adventures. I think she is my favorite out the five so far. I loved her approach to information and tackling the unknown. Plus, we get some great folklore and a very interesting archaeologist. I cannot wait to read more in this series. Unfortunately, it looks like this series has not continued to be written.

Injection Vol. 2

Title: Injection Vol. 2

Author: Warren Ellis, Jordie Bellaire, Declan Shalvey

Publisher: Image 2016

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 120

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Consulting detective Vivek Headland, originally of the group that caused the release of a haunted artificial intelligence into the world, lives and works in New York, dealing with all the strangeness that very strange city can throw at him. But a case involving a stolen ghost and human deli meat causes him to call for help, as the details of the investigation reveal a new battleground between humanity and The Injection.

Oh I see! Every trade focuses on one of the people who created the Injection. This time, we get more insight into Vivek Headland and his very unusual life. I loved learning more about Vivek and more about what they created. The revelation of the ham sandwich was very disturbing.

Injection Vol. 1

Title: Injection Vol. 1

Author: Warren Ellis, Jordie Bellaire, Declan Shalvey

Publisher: Image 2015

Genre: Graphic Novel

Pages: 120

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Once upon a time, there were five crazy people, and they poisoned the 21st Century. Now they have to deal with the corrosion to try and save us all from a world becoming too weird to support human life.

Injection is the new series of graphic novels created by the acclaimed creative team of Moon Knight: From The Dead, about how loud and strange the world is getting, about the wild future and the haunted past all crashing into the present day at once, and about five eccentric geniuses dealing with the paranormal and numinous as well as the growing weight of what they did to the planet with the Injection. Beginning with Maria Kilbride, the troubled troubleshooter for the research wing of mysterious multinational FPI, dragged from hospital to investigate a case of a possessed laboratory and a disappearance that, impossibly, has the hallmarks of ancient folklore.

I randomly picked this series up from the library. It’s strange and convoluted and has some gruesome scenes Right up my alley. I am not quite sure what was happening in some of the scenes, but eventually I figured out what caused the world to go all weird. I will definitely be continuing to read this series.