The shadows live just on the other side of the wall.… Gallant is a delightfully Gothic YA fantasy novel by V. E. Schwab that centers on a family cursed to guard the border between the human world and its shadowed mirror realm. It came out just last month, and is an excellent place to start if you haven’t read any V. E. Schwab before. Continue reading Review of Gallant—A YA Gothic
Month: April 2022
Review of Social Creature—A Decadent Thriller
“When Lavinia dies, she will be thinking exactly of this night, and of the stars and of the sea. Louise will know this. She will be there.” These ominous lines are the first hint that something’s about to go very, very wrong in Tara Isabella Burton’s debut thriller Social Creature, which came out back in 2018. Lavinia and Louise clash together in this tale of obsession, toxic friendship, and the deadly allure of glitz and glamor, which I highly recommend to any reader who loves high stakes, flawed characters, and decadent depictions of New York City’s party scene. Continue reading Review of Social Creature—A Decadent Thriller
Gothic Novels as Broadway Musicals
There’s just something about the aesthetics and melodrama of the Gothic that lends itself so well to the stage. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that more than a few classic Gothic novels have been adapted into modern pieces of musical theater—and often quite successfully! Below are some well-known and lesser known examples of Gothic adaptations that have been performed under the bright lights of Broadway: Continue reading Gothic Novels as Broadway Musicals
Review of Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror
Horror has really been having a moment lately! This was part of the thought 
process of editor John F. D. Taff when he decided to compile the short story anthology that became Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror. This collection, which came out last month, was created in the spirit of the seminal 1980s horror anthology Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, and is meant to do for our current moment of horror what Dark Forces did in the ’80s. Continue reading Review of Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror