So I’ve already done the Vampire Literary Canon and the Zombie Literary Canon. I feel like at this point, I’ve got to make one for all the Big Bads of gothic fiction. And who could be bigger or badder than the Devil himself? Devils and demons have been an important part of the tradition of disturbing and macabre literature long before Gothic even became an official genre. As the personification of all of humanity’s fears, the Devil is arguably a touchstone of the horror genre. Continue reading The Devil & Demon Literary Canon
Review of The Graveyard Shift–Stephen King Short Stories
I’ve been really trying to make good, lately, on my goal to expand my reading and get back into genres I used to enjoy. As you saw from my Bourbon Street Ripper review, I decided to start by trying my luck on a detective thriller series from an author I’d never heard of before, with mixed results. Having finished that, I was struggling to decide what direction to go in next when I remembered my general reading philosophy: when you don’t know where to start, start with the classics. Now, this usually means I go digging through my collection of literature from the Romantic or Victorian era, but a book doesn’t need to be centuries old to be a classic! Some authors become classics in their own time, like the father of contemporary horror and suspense, Stephen King.
I’m a little ashamed to admit that I really haven’t read much Stephen King before. I decided the easiest way to start would be with a collection of his short stories. So while doing menial tasks at work last week, I downloaded and listened to the audiobook of The Graveyard Shift which seems to be a small made-for-audio selection from King’s larger short story collection Night Shift, read by John Glover. The audiobook contains five of King’s short stories that showcase the versatility of his writing and the range of emotions he can evoke in the reader. Here are my impressions of each story: Continue reading Review of The Graveyard Shift–Stephen King Short Stories
The Bourbon Street Ripper Review–A Detective Thriller
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been meaning to expand the types of books I read and review, especially by getting back into genres like mystery, thriller, and horror. Well the perfect opportunity to get started on this goal presented itself when a brand representative for Leo King contacted me about reviewing The Bourbon Street Ripper. The Bourbon Street Ripper is the first book in King’s Sins of the Father trilogy, a mystery series of the detective fiction subgenre. The representative hinted that there would be elements of the supernatural, but these didn’t seem to come into play much in the first book. Continue reading The Bourbon Street Ripper Review–A Detective Thriller
Bloggiesta To Do List: Spring 2016
Earlier this year, I participated in my very first Bloggiesta event—the Winter 2016 Mini-Bloggiesta. For those who don’t know, Bloggiesta is blogging marathon in which a bunch of bloggers band together to challenge and support each other as we each work on improving our blogs. This whole week, starting today and going until Sunday, March 27, is a week-long Bloggiesta event. You can learn more at the Bloggiesta website.
Last Bloggiesta I got a lot done: I got to know a bunch of other bloggers, participated in some twitter chats and mini challenges, linked to my reviews on other websites, rearranged parts of my blog design, and started to actually plan out my blog posts in advance! I’m not going to be particularly ambitious with this Bloggiesta because it’s hard to do blog things during the week when I work full time, and I’ve been really struggling with time management lately. That said, I’m going to try to set myself a few reasonable goals.
To Do List:
- Participate in The Novel Life‘s Bookish Mastermind Group mini-challenge
- Back up my blog posts! (Farm Lane Books Blog has an old “Backing Up Your Blog” mini-challenge that I intend to check out.)
- Leave at least 3 comments on posts by other bloggers
- Participate in at least one twitter chat (and try to read through a few of the others after the fact)
- Plan out my blog posts for April
- Add links to Goodreads and Amazon for reviews I’ve done since last Bloggiesta
Are you participating in Bloggiesta? Have you done it in the past? What are your goals? Let me know in the comments!
Irish Writers of Gothic Literature
St. Patrick’s Day is this week, and that means it’s time to celebrate all things Irish—like me! But your favorite gothic librarian aside, there are actually a whole bunch of Irish writers who have contributed significantly to the gothic genre. In fact, without Irish writers, we wouldn’t have Dracula, Carmilla, or Lestat. So you can thank the Irish for pretty much the entire vampire genre. Read on to find out more about how the Irish have impacted gothic literature!
The Zombie Literary Canon
So I’ve written before about the vampire literary canon, which granted has a bit more solid of a literary tradition. But with the rising popularity of zombies in TV shows like The Walking Dead and iZombie, as well as in the mildly uncomfortable new zombie subgenre of paranormal romance books, I figured that an examination of the literary history of these brain-eating undead was in order. While more popular with visual media like movies, video games and TV, zombies still have a strong literary presence, especially in recent decades. Below are some works that I consider to be part of the zombie literary canon.
Gothic Tropes: The Creepy Housekeeper
It goes without saying that one of the defining characteristics of Gothic fiction is a creepy setting—a castle falling into ruin, a haunted manor, or some mist-covered moors. But what’s a creepy setting without some creepy inhabitants? One of the most iconic of these, particularly in mansions and manors, is the creepy housekeeper. The creepy housekeeper is usually an older woman with personal ties to the manor itself or its previous inhabitants. Her primary role is generally to make the young female protagonist feel anxious and out of place as a newcomer and to provide either threats or warnings of danger.
Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers looms behind the nameless narrator in Hitchcock’s Rebecca.The Darkest Part of the Forest Review
“Come now, my child, if we were planning to harm you, do you think we’d be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”
These ominous lines by poet Kenneth Patchen serve as an epigraph to my new favorite faerie-based urban fantasy, by an old favorite author—Holly Black. You may remember my recent review of Holly Black’s morbid middle grade ghost story, Doll Bones. Well, Black has come back into the wonderful world of YA with one of her newest novels, released last year, The Darkest Part of the Forest. While nothing will ever replace vampires for me in the paranormal romance department (sorry, werewolves and zombies), faeries tend to come in second among my favorite supernatural creatures. Like vampires, they force you to confront the paradox of beautiful monsters. How can something so alluring be bad? And how can something so dangerous be beautiful? While confronting these paradoxes outwardly, the characters of The Darkest Part of the Forest also have to come to terms with the beauty and the monsters inside themselves. Continue reading The Darkest Part of the Forest Review
Is Sherlock Goth???—Detective Fiction and the Gothic
Is Sherlock goth???
I talk a lot about how modern horror fiction and paranormal romance have descended from the classic Gothic novel. Well, detective stories are yet another example of a popular genre that rose up from this immensely fecund area of fiction. Many of the earliest detective stories were written by authors of Gothic fiction, or otherwise incorporated Gothic elements. In fact, detective fiction is a relatively young genre, and its origin is generally accredited to one of the greatest gothy patriarchs of all—Edgar Allan Poe. Continue reading Is Sherlock Goth???—Detective Fiction and the Gothic
Morbid Love Poems for Valentine’s Day
Who says love poems need to be all rainbows and sunshine? Sometimes death and decay can be just as romantic. If you’re tired of sappy hallmark cards and sickly sweet phrases written on candy, consider sharing some of these creepy classics with your loved ones.
