#Gothic Police Procedural

[trilogiesofterror]

The Ripper Lives: Jack the Ripper Series I - Psycho (5/10) is available exclusively on Amazon. The entire series is Free on Kindle Unlimited.

A STARTLING DISCOVERY POINTS TO GUILT ... BUT OF WHAT?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CRQ38QFY "The feeling lingered all the way to the landing, increasingly unkempt, slowly dialling up the mustiness of the odour. It wasn't blood - closer to dried salts, with a subtle edge of wax and pine. I glanced around and found my answer ... The entryway had been sealed, lined with what appeared to be some sort of gauze, mixed with adhesive glue and applied to the entire outer frame. It was stiff, now cracked and crumbling where Mcnaughten had forced his way in and QUICKLY BEEN MET WITH REGRET." In the dramatic mid-series finale, a shocking find incriminates a suspect. But clashing factions once again hinder the investigation, leaving many questions unanswered. "I went to the window and tore away some of the sheets of newspapers for light ... AND MY EYES FELL ON IT." Episode 5: PSYCHO As a serial killer runs free and the body count grows, Abberline and company race against a ticking timebomb. Working the beat between glory and disgrace, they close in on the Ripper while fending off aggressive competing forces.

Book Series Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR7Y98R6

[ghostdrinkssoup]

idk how controversial this is but I’m actually such a big fan of s3a. it’s the exact kind of phantasmagorical bullshit that makes me kick my feet and grin like a fool. the whole show goes haywire and completely abandons the generic structure of the police procedural, and it totally gets away with it because at this point the narrative has unravelled so much that the show can safely let go of whatever conformity it was barely hanging onto in s2b. and on a metafictional level the shift in external genre strangely parallels the progression of the two main characters: just as will and hannibal have changed each other, the show too has revealed its true nature

[vamprisms]

there was a sharp drop in the writing quality this season but the image of deb walking in on dexter mid-murder in a beautiful crumbling church is unparalleled. everyone else is in a police procedural but she is in a gothic horror story

[thequiver]

you got any indie comics recommendations?

OH BOY DO I

So some of these are educational graphic novels bc of who I am as a person but they're SUPER GOOD and you should still read them - but here's my list of recommendations in no particular order

Marie Curie: A Quest for Light (a graphic novel bio of the famous scientist that highlights her politics!)

Folklords (only 5 issues, does some really cool stuff with subverted fantasy tropes, Ansel is a cutie, 8/10)

The Magicians (this is based on the book series by Lev Grossman, and if you're familiar with the FX show you already know the premise, but it's VERY FUN and I like it so it's on here)

The Good Neighbors (this is more of a YA vibe and as the title suggests deals with fae nonsense, very fun)

Something is Killing the Children (some other comics go along with this one like House of Slaughter, all are in the horror genre, and it's a GREAT TIME if you're into that sort of thing)

Shubeik Lubeik (THIS IS A REALLY COOL BOOK ABOUT WISHES AND HOW THOSE WOULD LOOK IN A MORE REALISTIC CAIRO AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH)

Pixies of the Sixties (this is a period piece that deals with things like xenophobia and racism while also playing up the aesthetics of 1960s London and fairies)

Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard (a graphic novel bio of the first African-American fighter pilot)

Little Monsters (a horror story about children vampires in a post apocalyptic setting)

Judas (yes, Iscariot, it's a really fascinating look at the Biblical figure)

Heavy Vinyl (wlw, late 90s record store, teen girl vigilante fight club- good times)

Grimm (based on the NBC show of the same name, there are other titles set in this world too, I'm very fond of this extremely trashy fairtytale-cop show mashup and how poorly it represents cops)

Godshaper (there's a god for every person, except one and he teams up with a god who doesn't have a person and together they travel around looking for a warm welcome and a paying rock gig)

Evita, the Life and Work of Eva Perón (a biography of the former Argentinian first lady)

Eat the Rich (a little bit like Knives Out)

Carmilla: The First Vampire (queer feminist murder mystery inspired by the gothic novel, Carmilla, and pulling from Chinese folklore)

Bone Parish (a necromantic horror story about the rich peddling drugs made with the ashes of the deceased)

Blue Book (true tales of ordinary people encountering the strange and impossible - ex. alien abductions)

Art Brut (equal parts police procedural, hyper-fantasy, and psychological thriller set on a backdrop of a trip through art history)

Aristotle (biography of the philosopher dealing with more than just his ideas)

Alienated (a story about having the power to change the world but not being ready to wield that power- more YA vibes but a good read for any age imo)

Abbott (and Abbott: 1973- a tabloid reporter investigates grisly crimes she knows the police have ignored and that she knows are occult in origin)

[aesa]

writeblr intro

𓆩⟡𓆪

hello, everyone! I'm njsa (she/her), a 22 year old university student from australia, currently studying a bachelor's degree in space science. I'm returning to writeblr with more inspiration and dedication to sharing my writing projects. A bit more about me can be found here. On this blog, I'll be posting anything to do with writing, including worldbuilding and inspo boards, as well as other writeblrs and writing projects! I won't be participating in tag games, so please don't tag me in them. Feel free to ask me questions, I'll try to respond as soon as I can. I would prefer it if only those who are 18+ follow my blog, as some of my works may contain mature themes. None of my posts will contain explicit content. All of my novels will be labelled as adult fiction.

about my writing

𓆩⟡𓆪

All of my writing projects (at this point in time) are contained within a single fictional universe, VESSEL. Majority of my works are high fantasy, with a dash of science fiction, (space) western and southern (australian) gothic. My goal is to publish my novels as serials. Eventually, I'd like to turn these into physical books once completed, though I'll aim to always have the serials available on my website (to be released) for free ✧

my writing projects

𓆩⟡𓆪

Vessel is the story that started it all - my magnum opus. This is a high fantasy series that expands across the galaxy. It is a progression fantasy with extensive worldbuilding, political intrigue, magic, other-world species and so much more. It is the origin and main focus of my writing; all of my other novels surround it. This epic follows Brynas, a girl born on Earth, and her path to becoming a legend known throughout the galaxy as she discovers her true calling. Inspirations and similar stories: game of thrones, cosmere, dune, star wars and heavy inspiration from retro-futuristic, space-surrealist aesthetics.

𓆩⟡𓆪

Snake Oil is a prequel story to the Vessel series, and the first novel I intend on publishing. It is set on Earth in the late 19th century and is an Australian gothic, mystery novel. At the moment, it contains three POVs. An elite academy in the Irish countryside discovers, once closure procedures commence, that three of their students have been missing for over a decade. Reinforcements are called to investigate. ~ A constable stationed in the Australian high country is tasked with transcribing police reports. People grow restless over the lack of action taken by law enforcement on the mysterious disappearances of fellow townsfolk. When a group of locals decide to take matters into their own hands, he volunteers. ~ Deep within the Australian mountain ranges is a village unknown to the outside world. A girl with peculiar abilities begins to question her faith when strange visions plague her mind, and the comforting security she felt as a child begins to unravel as she enters adulthood. Inspirations and similar stories: picnic at hanging rock, ethel cain (music), immaculate (movie), sour switchblade - elita (song).

𓆩⟡𓆪

Rogue Frontier is a story that runs alongside Vessel. It is a space western that is, at the moment, only an idea with a few scenes, though the main cast is well established. Genuinely only came up with this idea because I crave found family stories. A comedic space western that follows the adventures of a bounty crew that are begrudgingly forced to work together under an anonymous boss. Over time, they learn that the promise of riches isn't the only thing keeping the crew from falling apart. Inspirations and similar stories: guardians of the galaxy, cowboy bebop, wayfarers series, rogue one, oingo boingo's music (the entire dead man's party album) and 80's music in general.

If you'd like to be added to the tag list of any of these stories, let me know!

other blogs

𓆩⟡𓆪

I have a side blog dedicated to my writing projects, @vesselserial Here, you can read more information about VESSEL and keep up with my progress. I also have a general blog / studyblr @dunedreamr, where I'll be posting my progress in completing my bachelor's degree (and future career pathways) as well as other interests that I have, like books, movies e.t.c.

star divider made by saradika on tumblr (linked)

last updated: July 16, 2024

[queenlua]

i very much enjoyed this five-part piece that starts off talking about Life and Trust, which apparently is the new immersive theater show by the Sleep No More people, and is apparently a Gilded Age-y roaring-20s-y retelling of the Faust legend

(sigh, once again i must seethe with jealously at the east coast's immersive theatre scene...)

& then it transitions to a deeper dive on various versions of the Faust tale, including a bunch of shit i knew nothing about (apparently it was originally a chapbook?? coulda SWORN the marlowe play came first)

random highlights i "hmmed" and/or "lol'd" and copypasta'd while reading

"If we accept the Christianized notion of a 'tragic flaw,' we would have to say that Faustus’s pride blinded him to the true nature of Christianity, leading him down his demonic path. If we think more in terms of Oedipus, who was attempting to do good things (e.g., avoiding murdering his father and marrying his mother, or looking out for his city) without realizing the trap he was in, the play becomes more interesting [. . .] From this perspective, the tragedy of this Tragical History is not that Faustus has chosen damnation but that he was, like Oedipus, born under the wrong circumstances. His mistake is to seek out pure disinterested knowledge in a world where it can only appear as demonic and can only lead to damnation. Marlowe may not have succeeded in crafting a cohesive play, but if my reading does not miss the mark, he did intuitively, and profoundly, grasp the potential of the Faust legend. The original Faust chapbook amounted to a salacious gossip rag laundered with a superficial moral lesson (“don’t sell your soul to the devil, kids!”). In Marlowe’s hands, it becomes an existential meditation on the deadlocks of a world where Christianity appears as a legacy that is at once 'paltry' and inescapable."

and

The main plot [of Goethe's Faust]—leaving aside various fanciful digressions and the entire interlude with Helen—reminds me of a scene from the classic HBO police procedural The Wire. After months of surveilling the cautious and methodical gang leader Stringer Bell (played by Idris Elba), an investigator has an epiphany: “He’s worse than a drug dealer, he’s a property developer.” The same could be said of the Faust of Part 2—he’s worse than a demon-summoner, he’s a property developer.

[batcows]

gotham is such a fucked up little changeling of a show. theoretically a gritty comic book origin story based police procedural, in reality an absurdist mafia murder mystery/political thriller. when does it take place? anywhere between 1960-1995. don't worry about it, shut up. the main character is the least interesting and almost completely irrelevant to the plot. i shit you not- he is Just Some Guy. the violence level is at the same time cartoonish and visceral. it crams in almost every major batfam comic event of the last 40 years into 5 seasons and does each one wrong because they were legally prohibited from saying the word 'batman' or any major DC superhero/villain names.

who is the target audience? that's the mystery. it's too campy for serious watchers and too complicated and violent for children. so who is for, you may ask? people who love comic books but hold nothing sacred. who desire the gothic noir aesthetic of the burton movies and the unhinged absurdity of the adam west tv show- ZERO COMPROMISES. and that, dear friends, is where i come in

[sounknownvoid]

Spn wincest is gothic horror trope

Just wanted to put this out there that kripke n co knew exactly what they were doing with supernatural ... because it was part of the tradition of gothic horror and one of the key tropes of gothic horror? = incest.

From https://www.thegothiclibrary.com/gothic-tropes-incest/ :

"Incest has been a core trope of the Gothic from its very beginnings with the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764). " the others being atmosphere and mystery....sounding familiar?...

We've also seen it in movies like "crimson peak" and recently in good ol GOT... but usually, its a cis-het pairing and usually its a "period piece"-setting.... this one is more "modern gothic"

What sets "Supernatural" apart is that 1) its 2xhot guys 2) its a scripted show on a tv-channel with attendant restrictions on portrayal of taboo-topics - incest (or domestic abuse or child abuse etc) is certainly not what you'd "normally" expect to see on a network channel show unless it was a police procedural and even then it'd be heavily restricted. 3) the show manages to somehow bring in these subjects in not only its case-fics and monster of the week formats but also as a series-long arc.

For those that feel like they're "glimpsing" something that perhaps may not be there or "shouldnt" be there or "wtf"-ing through it - its legit and its real - and its a well-known trope of the genre that this show originally started out being an instance of.... coz remember, there are actual lines and long lingerring camera shots and atmosphere created between the brothers - in a scripted show - this stuff had to be written, rehearsed several times with a full crew there and full lighting and camera-angles adjusted, theres editing and post-production and approvals from execs to be obtained etc,etc - all the things that go into making a series..... they didnt just wake up 1xday and go "right we're turning this into an incest thing" - the actors can certainly "slip in" something or writers or directors but it'd be limited to a season or an eposode if they had - it wouldnt be a long running theme throughout the whole show incl other characters and actors saying lines that allude to it (zachariah or ash and his "soulmates" line).

Yes incest is taboo. Yes it is also a legit part of the show - because its part of the genre of gothic horror that supernatural belongs to.

The point of it is to introduce a subject matter that is in itself considered "repulsive" or introduce a level of "social horror" on top of any ghosties and ghoulies in the story....the point is to make it a driver for some of the horror also.

And guess what? - adding a wincest lens does that in spn - it amps up the pathos,the underlying despair and "wrongness", the tragedy of the brothers within the larger story of gods and demons and angels and monsters ...in a very human way. It adds and magnifies the theme of "family is hell" (thanks tenlittlebulletts) and also that just coz they love you, doesnt make it less horrifying - ie love as horror.

What the makers probably didnt bank on and later season-makers backed away from most likely - is how much the 21st century tv audiences wanted 2xhot guys to get it on and didnt care if they were brothers or not - ie, they underestimated how much of a "freak" we,the audiences, were/ are!....😂😅😉

Im still putting together the piece on all the ways that wincest adds/amps things up in the series-arc...likely a longer piece.... [this is not to take away from the awesome performances of all involved or any of the contributions from anyone and yes there might be all this other stuff going on around it: j2 irl speculation or actor-drama or fandom drama etc,etc that ive no idea about xoz i only watched spn during covid n got hooked - but i know theres drama - and im choosing to ignore it all in favour of simply looking at what is in front of me objectively and understanding its role in the genre and within the story being told itself - a story i love deeply].

Hope this helps anyone struggling with their sanity when they see these glimpses and helps to validate what you're seeing - you're not crazy - its there - & it has a purpose within format or "formula" / trope of the genre/story itself.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Further thoughts on season 3 -

Because season 3A is, of course, the show sloughing off the remains of its police procedural suit and letting its dreamlike gothic vibes-based surrealism run wild. It doesn’t have the same comforting, familiar scaffolding to contain the weirdness that the show previously had.

But also intriguing to me is the way the second half mines its uncanny qualities from its seeming return to normalcy. The Italy arc hinges on the characters being temporally fractured and unmoored from the surroundings that once defined them - and this is reflected in the structure and placement of “Aperitivo”, in which the characters are all, through their introductions, tethered to their pivotal moments of trauma.

But season 3B, oddly, doesn’t try to make the three year gap felt in that same way - the story simply breaks off at Hannibal’s capture, the stylization of the arc not applicable to the mundanity of his trial and incarceration - and then when we rejoin the characters, they’ve all been relocated and shunted into their proper positions for the Red Dragon adaptation to play out. The uncanny effect comes from how simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar everything feels - the return to a more “conventional” crime story, the anchoring of Fuller’s “remix” approach in a well-known and previously adapted larger plot line (much more straightforwardly so than the show’s adaptation of the novel Hannibal) with previously used lines and story elements retrodden, and the characters in similar places to where they were introduced to us. Will is married now, but once again pressed by Jack into consulting; Hannibal is in prison but still entertaining guests; Alana has Chilton’s former role. And yet there’s such an underlying sadness and loss to all of it - it feels insufficient and insubstantial, somehow. The passage of time is felt in just how much it isn’t dwelt on, like the characters have someone melted into these new and unsustainable approximations of their old roles.

And the editing, too, is so much artier than the previous seasons were, even in little cinematic details like the transitions from scene to scene. It’s as though the conventions of the plot are haunted by the strangeness of the first half of the season - as though there’s something far more bizarre and violent trying to burst out of the straitjacket of its plot, just like Dolarhyde’s violent side bursting free of him. And of course, it does, by the end, with Will’s transfer of his allegiance to Hannibal’s way of thinking.

I often think that the lack of flashback to time within the three year gap, and general effort to make that length of time feel weighty, feels like a curious excision. And I’d ideally have liked to see both halves of the season expanded into their own full seasons, because there’s so much more you can mine there than just suggestion. But I think the lacuna itself is a fascinating bit of fragmentation in its own right.

[cha0ticr0b0tic]

I just watched Manhunter – the 1986 Michael Mann adaptation of Thomas Harris’ infamous novel Red Dragon – and I have some THOUGHTS that I cooked up in the shower because this could not be more different from Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, and that’s not a bad thing at all!

A little bit of context so I can explain where I’m coming from: back in late 2019 I was studying abroad in the UK and our professors took us to a Blake exhibition in London. As a writer, socialist, and avid horror fan, I was floored. I got really overwhelmed in there and spent the next couple days decompressing before I started digging into his work in earnest, as well as works revolving around his art. I bought a copy of Red Dragon not long after that trip and worked my way through it when I had free time. I also started working on a paper for class about Blake’s influence in my favorite movie, Blade Runner, which meant I was deep-diving into noir as well as this trippy artwork – lots of anticapitalist rhetoric, lots of body horror, lots of monsters. Sooooo many monsters. 

The pandemic hit, we all were sent home, and I watched a lot of crime shows – Twin Peaks, Mindhunter, and Hannibal were the main ones. I was really excited to get to the Red Dragon storyline in Season Three and I was not disappointed. By that point in the show, Hannibal had turned from a police procedural with supernatural undertones to a full blown queer Gothic romance. That also includes the Dolarhyde/Reba storyline, even if it didn’t last. 

Dolarhyde got a lot of attention in the show – more than I was expecting, honestly. Richard Armitage did SUCH a wonderful job portraying that character, it’s incredibly nuanced and sympathetic. Our first moments with Dolarhyde are where he’s working out, practicing his speech, and getting his infamous back tattoo of the Dragon. There is a lot of attention paid to his body, and his discomfort in his body. I’m half-joking, but the trans vibes are strong with this one: “Becoming” might as well be referring to transitioning, albeit into a giant monster (whatever floats your boat!). As an out-and-proud director making an out-and-proud show, it makes sense that Fuller is focusing on the queer elements of the Red Dragon – the coding was always there, but now he’s really bringing it front and center via Dolarhyde’s physicality/body language.

I was kind of surprised, then, that Dolarhyde was not as prominent in Manhunter. There was hardly any discussion of the Red Dragon artwork at all, which was also surprising – is it because it was too fantastical for a director who deals with grounded, gritty crime? Compared to the NBC show, this Red Dragon was kind of one-note, which was a shame. He’s the bad guy, after all. He’s the guy Will is supposed to catch. But then I remembered: Dolarhyde is this movie’s Waingro. He’s the destabilizing element. I’m not an expert in Michael Mann, but I know he’s very into the stability of the family unit (shout out to good dad Will Graham!) and Dolarhyde specifically targets stable families – this was already in the Harris novel, he didn’t have to make that up to fit his thematic interests. Dolarhyde only matters because he serves as a threat to our hero and his values.

This version of Will Graham is surprisingly grounded, privately tortured, and full of resolve and dedication. We see that he’s got a history with Hannibal – there are definitely some queer moments here (there are a surprising number of 80s love songs in the soundtrack, hmm wonder what that’s about), and it’s a bummer we don’t get much of Cox’s Lecter because he is delightfully funny. Still, I don’t see this Will succumbing to his inner darkness anytime soon; he’s got a very good relationship with his wife and son (Vincent Hanna, take notes.) He is very much a Michael Mann Protagonist, even if he comes from another writer’s mind. In contrast, Bryan Fuller’s Will comes across as a Gothic hero(ine) in that his sensitivities are always highlighted, he looks like he needs to be taken to the seaside for his health, and he can’t seem to shake his demons (Hannibal is, after all, difficult to avoid.)

In any case, both adaptations are valid and it’s kinda comparing apples to oranges. Manhunter leans way more noir, Fuller’s Hannibal is Gothic all the way. I am definitely going to be rewatching Manhunter to pick apart some of the queer coding & subtext hehe

[trilogiesofterror]

JACK THE RIPPER'S REIGN OF TERROR CONTINUES The world’s most elusive and terrifying serial killer returns in the 10-part serialized Victorian gothic murder mystery novel The Ripper Lives. Dripping with 19th-century atmosphere and intrigue, each thrilling, suspense-filled chapter ends with a shocking cliffhanger that compels the reader forward. The fear builds as the historical horror story unfolds, culminating in an explosive, mind-bending conclusion.

The Ripper Lives is a sequel to the true story that commences after the slayings of the Canonical Five. As a secretly appointed task force works to bring the butcher to justice under the radar of the newspapers, the unsuspecting public believes the threat has subsided. But while hiding in the shadows, the serial killer's compulsion to mutilate has grown exponentially stronger, and for Whitechapel, the harrowing nightmare of tension and terror has only just begun.

Book Series Page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR7Y98R6

[justforbooks]

Best crime and thrillers of 2023

Given this year’s headlines, it’s unsurprising that our appetite for cosy crime continues unabated, with the latest title in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, The Last Devil to Die (Viking), topping the bestseller lists. Janice Hallett’s novels The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, which also features a group of amateur crime-solvers, and The Christmas Appeal (both Viper) have proved phenomenally popular, too.

Hallett’s books, which are constructed as dossiers – transcripts, emails, WhatsApp messages and the like – are part of a growing trend of experimentation with form, ranging from Cara Hunter’s intricate Murder in the Family (HarperCollins), which is structured around the making of a cold case documentary, to Gareth Rubin’s tête-bêche The Turnglass (Simon & Schuster). Books that hark back to the golden age of crime, such as Tom Mead’s splendidly tricksy locked-room mystery Death and the Conjuror (Head of Zeus), are also on the rise. The late Christopher Fowler, author of the wonderful Bryant & May detective series, who often lamented the sacrifice of inventiveness and fun on the altar of realism, would surely have approved. Word Monkey (Doubleday), published posthumously, is his funny and moving memoir of a life spent writing popular fiction.

Notable debuts include Callum McSorley’s Glaswegian gangland thriller Squeaky Clean (Pushkin Vertigo); Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster), a police procedural with an AI detective; Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (Pushkin Vertigo), featuring queer punk nun investigator Sister Holiday; and the caustically funny Thirty Days of Darkness (Orenda) by Jenny Lund Madsen (translated from the Danish by Megan E Turney).

There have been welcome additions to series, including a third book, Case Sensitive (Zaffre), for AK Turner’s forensic investigator Cassie Raven, and a second, The Wheel of Doll (Pushkin Vertigo), for Jonathan Ames’s LA private eye Happy Doll, who is shaping up to be the perfect hardboiled 21st-century hero.

Other must-reads for fans of American crime fiction include Ozark Dogs (Headline) by Eli Cranor, a powerful story of feuding Arkansas families; SA Cosby’s Virginia-set police procedural All the Sinners Bleed (Headline); Megan Abbott’s nightmarish Beware the Woman (Virago); and Rebecca Makkai’s foray into very dark academia, I Have Some Questions for You (Fleet). There are shades of James Ellroy in Jordan Harper’s Hollywood-set tour de force Everybody Knows (Faber), while Raymond Chandler’s hero Philip Marlowe gets a timely do-over from Scottish crime doyenne Denise Mina in The Second Murderer (Harvill Secker).

As Mick Herron observed in his Slow Horses origin novel, The Secret Hours (Baskerville), there’s a long list of spy novelists who have been pegged as the heir to John le Carré. Herron must be in pole position for principal legatee, but it’s been a good year for espionage generally: standout novels include Matthew Richardson’s The Scarlet Papers (Michael Joseph), John Lawton’s Moscow Exile (Grove Press) and Harriet Crawley’s The Translator (Bitter Lemon).

Historical crime has also been well served. Highlights include Emma Flint’s excellent Other Women (Picador), based on a real 1924 murder case; Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s story of a fortune teller’s quest for identity in Georgian high society, The Square of Sevens (Mantle); and SG MacLean’s tale of Restoration revenge and retribution, The Winter List (Quercus). There are echoes of Chester Himes in Viper’s Dream (No Exit) by Jake Lamar, which begins in 1930s Harlem, while Palace of Shadows (Mantle) by Ray Celestin, set in the late 19th century, takes the true story of American weapons heiress Sarah Winchester’s San Jose mansion and transports it to Yorkshire, with chillingly gothic results.

The latest novel in Vaseem Khan’s postcolonial India series, Death of a Lesser God (Hodder), is also well worth the read, as are Deepti Kapoor’s present-day organised crime saga Age of Vice (Fleet) and Parini Shroff’s darkly antic feminist revenge drama The Bandit Queens (Atlantic).

While psychological thrillers are thinner on the ground than in previous years, the quality remains high, with Liz Nugent’s complex and heartbreaking tale of abuse, Strange Sally Diamond (Penguin Sandycove), and Sarah Hilary’s disturbing portrait of a family in freefall, Black Thorn (Macmillan), being two of the best.

Penguin Modern Classics has revived its crime series, complete with iconic green livery, with works by Georges Simenon, Dorothy B Hughes and Ross MacDonald. There have been reissues by other publishers, too – forgotten gems including Celia Fremlin’s 1959 holiday‑from-hell novel, Uncle Paul (Faber), and Richard Wright’s The Man Who Lived Underground (Vintage). Finished in 1942 but only now published in its entirety, the latter is an account of an innocent man who takes refuge from racist police officers in the sewers of Chicago – part allegorical, part brutally realistic and, unfortunately, wholly topical.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[vampirecatprince]

I still can't believe that a police procedural starring one of the most infamous horror villains of the 21st century got so wildly derailed by the sheer chemistry between the two lead actors that it accidentally ended up turning into queer romantic gothic horror

[wastrelwoods]

I CAN SAY MORE just bc hannibal later breaks away from the police procedural structure and focus to do wild cerebral gothic romance and you root for the guys to leave that system behind and kill people and local police aren't particularly effective doesn't mean it doesn't also take for granted that prisons and police and especially federal police have some kind of good, necessary job. it still functions that we see people working for the FBI use lethal force and duck rules and break laws and violate privacy and set up elaborate entrapment schemes and have confidental conversations about how one of the investigators should kill the prisoner in his custody without due process and those actions are always justified textually as being 'the right thing, the only thing they can do to finally stop the guy' and those measures ALWAYS effectively lead them to the guilty party even tho hannibal usually is one step ahead in the end. friends i did not think we were under the impression that watching this show is equivalent to condoning all its politics. thats when it comes to the murder-cannibalism and also when it comes to tacitly assuming police are neutral-to-good and need to exist

[essayofthoughts]

Tag Nine People You'd Like To Get To Know Better Tag Game

I was tagged by @chamerionwrites over Here. I will be tagging no one, for I am where tag games go to die.

FAVOURITE COLOUR(s): As mentioned in the last tag game I completed (here) it's purple! I wear other colours more frequently, but I have a lot of small purple things around.

FAVOURITE FLAVOUR(s): That's hard. I like savoury and sweet at the same time, I suppose, and I like adding some confit garlic into a toastie because it just... elevates the savoury of the cheese with some extra umami. I like a good chai or a medieval spice mix - cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves. In the UK they're so often used specifically at Christmas but they're such a good combo all year round.

FAVOURITE MUSIC: I am... bad, at genres. I like what I like and the music I like tends to be... melodic but textured? It's not just one instrument or type of instrument, I like the roughness of a more metal guitar over the smoothness of a rounded backing beat or melodic synth, and I like more melodic tunes than pure beats - this is why I don't gel with a lot of rap or hip-hop. They can be lyrically very impressive, but I listen to music for music, and I've got to be in the right mood for a spoken word poem over a beat. I also just... don't like Musicals in general. I'm not opposed to songs with stories - one of my most-listened to songs is Aviators' Godhunter which is about someone revered by a god who's waiting to be hunted by the person who's killed the rest of their "godly" kin - but I just don't like musicals in general, so musical songs are more miss than hit for me.

FAVOURITE MOVIE(s): Crimson Peak. Guillermo del Toro's films do not miss, and this is the one that dragged me into the gothic horror/romance pit and made me realise that while I don't like standard "thriller", shock-value horror, I like things that go "Hey, isn't this fucked up? Do you want to see how more fucked up it can get?". Things that are aware of the awfulness and don't revel in it but use it to show you and teach you and help you see.

FAVOURITE BOOK(s): Probably the Several on my trauma reading list, honestly, with right now A Dowry of Blood by ST Gibson being tops. For all of you hyped by @theabigailthorn's "Dracula's Ex Girlfriend" announcement who wants something of that premise while they wait, it's a fantastic look at abusive relationships and is told from the perspective of one of Dracula's brides after she and the others have murdered him. Exceptionally good and crunchily fucked up.

FAVOURITE SERIES(es): I don't know, actually. I don't think I have a singular series I enjoy (Well. I did. But then the author went to shit, so it's kind of tainted now). Or- no actually. The Gotham TV Show. Started as a dull as dishwater police procedural set in Gotham and by the time it gets to multiply resurrecting definitely not the Joker you're not sure how it got there but the tonal shift makes perfect sense somehow. Fantastic style, fantastic cast, why are Nygma and Penguin so perfect as bickering, acrimonious exes.

LAST SONG: When I like I song, I listen to it on loop. It is still:

LAST SERIES: That I actually finished was probably Raven of the Inner Palace which is an extremely good anime! Magical worldbuilding and mystery, slowbuilding relationships and fun court drama. It's like Apothecary Diaries but with more magic, and has a similar style to it's worldbuilding as Mars Red - where that slowly dripfed you information on the vampires and makes a rewatch well worth one's time, this also sets stuff up and lets you start to figure it out as it slips in more lore. Highly recommend it.

LAST MOVIE: As said in the last post - it would be Barbie, last week's film night pick. Was good.

CURRENTLY READING: A book called Old Gods, about Finnish wildlife and folklore. I like folklore a lot, so seeing how folklore affects how people have historically seen the world is really cool!

CURRENTLY WATCHING: The latest dubbed episode of Apothecary Diaries (yes, I watch dub. Sadly, I am bad at paying attention when it's subbed because I like to multitask).

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: Several fic projects. Currently aiming to finish up the Kash backstory fic.

[thosearentcrimes]

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a lot better than Dracula. The flow of the text is better, it's more fun to read, the themes are more subtle and interesting. Perhaps a better work to compare to would be The Vampyre, a work which arose from the same impromptu writing circle as Frankenstein, and which apparently introduced the vampire into anglophone literature in a form recognizably similar to that which appears many decades later in Dracula. However, I have read Dracula, and so have many others, and I have not read The Vampyre.

By way of example of the superiority of Frankenstein, consider the use of the epistolary device. Dracula retains it throughout the narrative, in which it interferes constantly, to no appreciable benefit. The rapid shift from narrator to narrator is not accompanied by significant insight into their character and internal world, as the characters are in fact precisely who everyone else takes them to be. By contrast, Frankenstein also begins with an epistolary introduction, but then transitions reasonably cleanly into narrative. The epistolary device is not used to much greater effect, but less of a bad thing is still an improvement.

The writing of these letters is remarkably bad. I understand that tastes change, but the letters (including those cited in the non-epistolary section) consist largely of people telling each other things they clearly already know, for the benefit of the reader. Surely there is no point in writing letters into the story if they're not going to make sense within the narrative? Additionally, both letters and dialogue are all rendered in the same voice.

On this note, while Shelley has gone to great lengths to justify the eloquence of the monster, and this eloquence does in fact serve a worthwhile thematic purpose, the effect of it is reduced somewhat by every other character being bizarrely eloquent as well. Additionally the mechanism by which the monster is rendered eloquent is quite frankly a long series of plot holes. As appropriate as it is for the monster to reference Paradise Lost, it is quite inexplicable for a French-speaking monster in 18th century Germany to have found a copy of it (and some other books) in the first place, let alone been able to read it, for starters.

Some of the character introductions, especially but not exclusively those done by way of letters, are a bit too obviously utilitarian. I rather prefer it when the author either sets up all the characters and plot points in such a way that the reader cannot tell that they serve a specific narrative purpose later, or that they simply introduce them when they come up. A character brought up with no immediate motivation a chapter or two before they become narratively relevant is like a recognizable big-name actor in a police procedural, it gives the game away. I wonder what happens in a couple chapters with this tragic innocent in this gothic horror novel!

Despite all my criticism, I quite liked Frankenstein and I think it is not only worth reading but additionally a good book. The story has relevant themes, ably explored, without letting them get too far in the way of a gripping narrative. The philosophical points it sets out are still valid and relevant today, and not in a facile way. Merely substitute "life" for "intelligence", which in any case is really a substitution of synonyms as far as the general form of the argument goes, and make other minor adjustments as necessary, and you get a more intelligent analysis of AI than almost any I have read in the press or in blogs, though that speaks more to the miserable state of that discourse than anything else.

Easily the most affecting part of the book is the narration by the monster himself, and really the book improves as it approaches this point, and deteriorates as it departs. Some decontextualized quotes that particularly stuck with me: "I, too, can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him", "My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor", and best of all "I intended to reason. This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess."