by Becka Hons

The Popcorn and Poltergeist Audiobook Review, Do You Believe In Ghosts?

Popcorn and Poltergeist is book 9 in the Vampire Knitting Club series by Nancy Warren. These cozy mysteries are a series, but can also be read as stand alone books. I personally prefer to read them in order though so you can see the character development and relationship growth. If you’re anything like me, you like reading books in order, so, here’s my review of the first book: Audio Book Review: The Vampire Knitting Club. I’m a fan of just about every book in this series, but let’s find out what you think with this The Popcorn and Poltergeist Audiobook Review.

Genre

This would be considered a paranormal cozy mystery.

The Vampire Knitting Club series as a whole would be considered paranormal cozy mystery.

“cozies”, If you aren’t familiar with the term, it is a sub-genre of crime novels that usually feature an amateur sleuth, placed in a small town or close knit community pardon the pun, and all of the violence or intimate situations happen off page. They generally focus on puzzle solving more than suspense.

This book is on the short side, the audio book is 5 hours long. So it’s probably considered a novella.

The Popcorn and Poltergeists Book Summary

There’s more than one type of popcorn, and when you’re talking about knitting I think most would think of the texture stitch. I of course think of the crochet popcorn stitch. (The Crochet Popcorn Stitch Tutorial) In this case Alice, a friend of Lucy’s, is holding a class on how to make a popcorn sweater.

But when Fiona McAdams, a professor at St Mary’s who was signed up for the class never shows up Lucy gets a bit worried.

Dinner and a murder

Rafe a handsome 500 year old vampire, visits her bearing some tasty morsels from William, Rafe’s butler. She can’t turn down the good meal and soon she forgets her worries. Especially since Rafe is telling her about his latest job as an antiquarian book expert. He’s giving St. Mary’s library an estimate on their book collection. Unfortunately two handwritten manuscripts, Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, have been missing for 10 years. This is a huge blow to the collection, especially since the college is finding itself in financial trouble. If that’s not enough Rafe shares that there’s a poltergeist in the library.

They get interrupted when Rafe gets a call about a murder at St. Mary’s College. Lucy immediately thinks of Fiona, and insists on tagging along.

In addition to trying to find the missing manuscripts, and solving this latest murder at the college. Lucy finds herself being asked to communicate with the poltergeist. It’s up to her and the vampire knitting club to catch the killer before anyone else gets hurt.

Reader

Sarah Zimmerman is the vocalist for this audio book and the rest of the books in the series. It took me a couple of chapters to get used to her ironic/sarcastic tone in the first book, but I love her now.

The main character is quite sarcastic, so she chose that tone for the first person narration. Her various voices and accents make it clear that she is a wonderful voice actress.

Each character has a different voice and speech pattern that is quite enjoyable. You can easily tell the difference between them as well which is always something I look for in an audio book.

My Popcorn and Poltergeist review

Popcorn and Poltergeists really shows the deepening relationship between Lucy and Rafe. I am so pleased to see the two of them growing closer. Although I did shout at the phone as I listened to it a couple of times… Lucy does not want to acknowledge the relationship due to fears over his not aging while she does. At one point in this book there is a scare over whether all the vampires will have to leave Oxford. Lucy asks him a question. That along with Rafes answer makes me feel that she is only fooling herself if she believes she’s not in love with him.

Wishful thinking

Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could have the same opportunity as a book character? I have always been something of a bookwyrm. (Yes I spelt it correctly. A wyrm is a type of dragon.) My mom often refers to me as a bluestocking. I have an extensive home library and to say that I wished so much that I could have had access to the library in this book is putting it lightly. Poltergeist and all, I would have been in there for hours, days if I could.

I was even jealous of the handicraft books that Lucy hated reading through so much. I agreed with Lucy’s first thoughts about Victorian handicraft books being something important. Especially at the time, these crafts were a point of pride. The women that kept these notes were passing on the knowledge to future generations. Not knowing that crafts would one day be considered things only done by older women or children. I am lucky to come from a long line of crafters who had hobbies that ranged from knitting, sewing, and crochet, to paper crafts, candle making, and even decoupage.
Lucy becomes horribly bored by these books very quickly. It was exactly what she thought it would be, but I suppose that she romanticized it in her mind.

If You’re Interested

In any case, I am very interested in vintage crochet patterns specifically. If you are as well, I wanted to share a few people that I follow who specialize in vintage patterns. (crochet, knitting, and sewing patterns that is) The first is Ayita of Recletic goods, I have had the pleasure of talking with her on a quite a few occasions. She has helped me immensely in finding resources. Ayita is most active on Instagram, and this is her profile: https://www.instagram.com/reclectic_goods/
She has more patience than I ever will in the crochet garments that she makes. Even if it’s just to marvel at her intricate work, please check her out.
The second, is a YouTuber that goes by Engineering Knits. Here’s the link to her YouTube channel:
I have binged just about all of her videos. It’s like an informative vlog. https://www.youtube.com/@EngineeringKnits

Short rant..

Hester being a goth vampire teenager has been a running theme throughout the series.. she’s not particularly pleasant since she was turned in the middle of her teenage angst stage. I get that… However, I’m seriously tired of authors making the all black or goth aesthetic a cry for help.

I’m a sucker for a love story, so when a new Vampire close to Hester’s age comes into the picture I was thrilled for her. But, when she abandons her black clothes for new (to her) clothes that everyone else is wearing so she can fit in… I was less than pleased. As someone who is a grown adult and still wears predominately black, I was put off by the idea that she seems to be “growing past it” as a character arch. Everyone is entailed to their own style, but the whole from goth to pretty concept really annoys me. You’re already pretty, your style has nothing to do with it. Dress how you want. Rant over sorry, I suppose we’ll see how it goes from here.

WHERE TO GET Popcorn and Poltergeist

Here is the book on Amazon: Popcorn and Poltergeists

If you like this series, prefer audiobooks, and you use Audible, then you should look on audible for the three book box set: https://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Knitting-Club-Boxed-Set/dp/B09Z79RSZZ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1DJYNMRBTIRZY&keywords=nancy+warren+box+set&qid=1685985638&s=audible&sprefix=nancy+warren+box+set%2Caudible%2C242&sr=1-2

You might be able to find it at your local library or request it. Just go to the circulation or check out desk and ask for a book request form. (That’s how my library works with requests any way) Bear in mind that you’ll probably be waiting a while if you do a request form.

WANT MORE AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS?

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