Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Jim Bolone’s Zombie Seagulls: And 13 Other Bite-Sized Nightmares! offers spooky tales that will have any reader bracing for ultimate suspense and surprise. This book was meant for young readers. This collection of horror stories prepares even the less avid readers to embrace the written word, with chills running deep. Many characters faced their peril in the 14 chapters. The stories took place on scenic Mackinac Island. Bolone portrayed cursed caves, ghostly mirrors, wicked clowns, a witch, giant spiders, and more ghoulish phenomena.
Interestingly, Bolone chose Mackinac Island as the location of the stories. The island sports three well-known caves: Skull Cave, Eagle Pt. Cave and Devil’s Kitchen, with Skull Cave being the most famous. The fur trader Alexander Henry hid in Skull Cave during Pontiac’s War in 1763, and the cave served as an American Indian burial site. The island had been a place of much historic activity from the fur-trading days, and part of the War of 1812 was fought there, too. The island was in the hands of the French, then the British, and finally the Americans. Mackinac Island has been a place that faced many horrors. Bolone led the reader down an eerie path of supernatural encounters.
The main theme in the stories is supernatural happenings that are difficult to explain and cause terror for the people experiencing them. Two children saw a gargoyle in the courtyard of the place they were staying. They think they saw it move. They told their parents, who did not believe them. Their parents end up missing, and the children are trapped on the island. A child was bitten by a bat, then ended up behaving like a bat. He hung upside down in a cave. A clown’s mask was found by a child. Children were held captive. The mask was returned to the clown, and the children were returned. A witch stole souls and placed them in jars. A grandmother had a shard of glass hanging above her bed with a picture of her grandson on it who was missing. Was she the witch?
When reading this book, the television series “Supernatural” came to mind. The series ran from 2005 to 2020. Sam and Dean Winchester were the main characters. When their mother was burned alive by a demon, their father took them on the road in search of her killer. The family fought witches, demons, ghosts, leviathans, even Lucifer and Lilith made appearances, and the Winchesters were aided by angels, especially Castiel. On many occasions, they had to deal with the bones of dead people. They usually ended up burning them. In Bolone’s book, a young woman had to deal with the bones of a dead woman. His book was laced with supernatural occurrences. The book that came to mind when reading this book was “Goosebumps House of Shivers” by R.L. Stine. Twins visit their uncle and meet a mysterious cousin. They had to venture into the Wayward Forest and brave strange creatures. The twins needed to escape the dangerous creatures, both magical and human. In one of Bolone’s stories, boys went into the woods to find their missing friend and faced a scary witch. They managed to escape.
I am not a stranger to the supernatural. I was visiting my daughter. She lived in an older home in Marquette. When I was sleeping upstairs, I saw a ghost of a woman walk through the wall in the room I was sleeping. My daughter reported seeing the same ghost. I have experienced a multitude of supernatural situations that could be difficult to explain. I have friends who are members of the Upper Peninsula Paranormal Society. There have been sightings of a little girl in a white dress standing on the corner of Portage and Ashmun and many of the older buildings have been known to be haunted in Sault Ste. Marie. Staff refuse to be left alone at the Antlers Restaurant at night.
Zombie Seagulls: And 13 Other Bite-Sized Nightmares! has revealed scary stories, including the chapter “I Scream.” A girl heard a child in the basement of a fudge shop. She explored the basement and ran into a misshapen girl. She could not escape. A clerk’s eyes did not match the smile on her face at the same fudge shop. Large spiders were another scary phenomenon described in this book. Bolone brought to life in a chilling manner the horrors of a place that had already faced darkness.
Title:Zombie Seagulls: And 13 Other Bite-Sized Nightmares!
Author:Jim Bolone
