Bookcover Spotlight #276

This week is a favorite Hardy Boys cover.  

Black Spot S1E4 No More Walks in the Woods

Cora's been kidnapped. I think those Children of Arduinna fuckers nabbed her after they caught her looking into them. Lauréne wakes up and she's not in her room. And some kids are messing around in the woods and hear strange noises, find some weird ritual kinda stuff, and a girl named Sophie ends up deceased. They go out and find all these animal parts hanging from a tree. Niice. Sophie is still missing- they find her dress, not a good sign- and of the two guys with her, one is dead and the other in shock. Cora, meanwhile, gets roughed up but then realizes her kidnapper is Roman, a guy she met at the library. 

She wants to join the Children of Arduinna cause she hates the Steiners. Lauréne keeps calling her even though she's a terrible mom and is never home. And it turns out the kids were in the woods for their All-nighter, a tradition in Villefranche where kids stay in the woods all night when they turn 18. Considering this is Villefranche, with a horned Wood God or something lurking out there, seems like a bad idea.  

Our major Lauréne has not so good memories of her All-nighter. And Roman shows Cora around the Arduinna place. We get some flashbacks to Lauréne's All- nighter all those years ago and some of the locals think All- nighters should be banned, but Sabine disagrees and says it is one of the last connections to the forest they have. Cue to Lauréne in the woods just before her ordeal, and there are strange glowing motes floating about.  

Siriani decides to snoop into Lauréne's medical records from twenty years ago, and ooh the plot thickens. The kid killed in the woods was banging his friend's mom. So now the husband is suspected. Siriani gains Lauréne's respect though when he figures out who really did it. 

Adventure Into Fear #31

"Yes, Michael darling! We are the same now! We can be together at last!" 

So begins issue #31 (the last one) of Fear with Morbius. Martine (his fiance) has been turned into a vampire- a supernatural vampire, unlike Morbius' own scientifically induced condition. She's just killed a policeman as well, sadly. Actually, no she didn't do the killing- the one who turned her did, she's just feeding off... the remains. At any rate, she tells Morbs hey it's not so bad, we can be immortal together now, yeah? 

"Let us feast on them together, Michael..."

As a total aside- as they recap Morbius' origin here ( he used the blood of a bat to try and cure his blood condition- obviously it didn't quite, um, work super well) it got me thinking about the theory that Covid (derived from a bat?) originated in a lab.  

Anyway Stroud figures out that Morbius is responsible for the murders and vampirism going on in Boston- they were thinking prior to this that he wasn't since his condition seemed non- communicable. Writer fiat. Something about radioactive blood blah blah. Meanwhile Martine is on the hunt, and finds a coed to feast over. 

"Simpering mindless adolescent" 

Stroud and Morbs find Martine at the same time and Morbs has an antidote that the cops juryrigged for him (how did they do that???) but our girl Martine is like uh-uh she likes being a vampire. Morbius meanwhile starts to succumb to blood lust- as he always does- and is like fuck it, she's trying to kill me, I might as well feast on her. 

Relationship issues. 

Stroud and Morbs end up facing off (these two) again, and Morbius gets shot. 

"I want your blood, Michael! All of it." 

So Martine is like wait, we're still fighting. Stroud takes advantage to try and jab Marti with the syring but she slaps his ass away. He injects her though and... she returns to a human form. 

"What--what's wrong, Michael? Why are you staring at me that way? "

That would be because... he wants her blood. Unable to restrain himself, he attacks her, and somehow stops himself from draining her fully. After a blood transfusion Martine is saved, and she tells Morbs that she understands now what he's going through. After they talk Stroud turns to find that Morbs is gone - he would still be guilty of the Boston murders and she says he would never willingly be taken so. 

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new Top Ten will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week is the Books I'd Want on an island category. I'm not sure if I've ever done this topic- I think I probably did- but it's been a while. Some familiar ones will be on this list since it's kind of a favorite books post, in a way, but *shrug*.