#time to read bram stokers classic gothic novel again

[aussie-bookworm]

THE KING IS BACK

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

[godzilla-reads]

🧛🏽‍♂️ Dracula Daily: Reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula in Real Time with Commentary by the Internet edited by Matt Kirkland

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The epistolary story of Dracula was first published in 1897, not the first vampire novel, but one of the most famous. In 2022 Matt Kirkland edited the story chronologically to be read in e-mail form as if you’re getting letters for each entry. In 2023, that format was published in book form with all the fun comments and fan art from different people on the internet. Still restarting every year on May 3rd, we’re pulled back in to Jonathan Harker’s world as he takes a trip to Transylvania.

Ok, enough with the history lesson. Reading along with this book was such a fun experience! I’ve read “Dracula” multiple times and am a fan of the 1992 movie “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” directed by Francis Ford Coppola. “Dracula” is my favorite piece of classic literature, specifically gothic literature. The book influenced so much of what we know as the vampire genre, even though it was far from the first vampire story.

This physical copy of the e-mail chains is filled with modern fan content thats funny and horribly relatable. One of my favorite ongoing jokes is Count Dracula’s “lizard fashion”. The experience of reading along with this book and counting down the days brought a whole new life to the classic story. If you haven’t experienced this before, I highly recommend finding this book OR signing up for the e-mail here.

“Once again...welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”

[yandere-romanticaa]

hi ana! back in your inbox again for some advice... i honestly feel like you're like my distant mentor or something hehe 😅

i feel like i've been losing the gothic touch to my writing ever since i've been writing too many romcom-esque scenarios. i want to get back into it, but my brain's at a loss for how to do it. is there any books you can reccomend that i can take inspiration from?

While it is super cute to me how you view me as a mentor, save yourself. Find a better mentor because almost all of my advice is beyond basic. Just like the one I'm going to give you now.

This isn't a book but when I want to get into the proper mood to write something I usually have a playlist going on in the background and this gothic one is one of my favorites. It's a simple playlist but it gets the job done + it's not too fast paced which allows me to focus better.

The books I'd recommend you take a peak at would be Dracula by Bram Stoker, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson. All three books contain very vivid and beautiful imagery which sucks me in absolutely every time I read and the first two are just really good gothic literature and I'll never fucking shut up about them and please go read them both novels are unironically good, especially Dracula. Some people have called me boring and basic for liking classic literature but sue me™, I can't help it. Going back to the basics really is the key to everything, at least for me.

As for a Dowry of Blood, that one is a retelling of the Dracula story from the perspective of his wives but it's incredibly interesting. You can try taking inspiration from it how a darling might act towards her captor. It's also just overall really good and I think you'll just flat out like it.

[pesbianlanic]

april 2023 reading

books in bold are especially recommended!

Lord of the Butterflies by Andrea Gibson - 7/10. there were some beautiful lines in this book of poetry that will stick with me.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - 8/10. i loved the magical world of this book. i need more fiction with trans main characters.

Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery - 9/10. what a weird, wonderful book! james t. kirk is a beautiful lesbian. (also, please do not ask me why i’ve been vibing with books by/about transmasc ppl lately. i am not in the headspace to seriously question my gender/thoughts on transitioning 🤪)

All the Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 - 8/10. it's a vast improvement on anything jkr wrote. i laughed, i cried, i had a good time.

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich - 9/10. Erdrich has a beautiful way with words, and i enjoyed watching each of her characters throughout the book. READ THE AFTERWORD, it was the cherry on top of a wonderful read.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu - 7/10. sapphic vampire story that inspired bram stoker’s dracula?? hell yes. read the version edited by Carmen Maria Machado for a lovely guide through an even more queer reading of the text. CW // racist description of a character in chapter 3 (it is brief, and the character does not appear again).

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher - 8/10. if i had a nickel for every time i’ve read a fungi-centric gothic horror novel, i’d have two nickels (see Mexican Gothic). which isn’t a lot, but it’s excellent that it happened twice.

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz - 8/10. beautiful coming of age story about grief, identity, and family.

Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake - 10/10. this book is fucking fantastic. changed the way i think about myself, the world, and fungi. fungi are wild, y’all. (also, is it just me or is Merlin Sheldrake the perfect name for a guy obsessed with fungi?)

Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures by Adam Zmith - 8/10. this is not quite the book i expected, and i mean that in a good way. also, i have never seen the use of QUILTBAG before reading this and. i'm here for it

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - 9/10. this story is utterly captivating. i really want to read the metahemeralism essay. we love satire about academia, classicism, and privilege!

The Art of Starving by Sam J Miller - 8/10. TW - eating disorders. i loved this book and the way it explores eating disorders in an engaging, unflinchingly honest way.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever - 9/10. a hannigram shipper’s dream novel!

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - 8/10. insane world-building. colorful (hehe) and engaging story!

This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki - 7/10. emotional, with beautiful artwork.

a book i stopped reading

Cursed by Marissa Meyer. the sequel to Gilded, which i read last month. i could not get into this. the writing (at least for the portion i read) was so repetitive. i kept waiting for the plot to start. and i still do not see the chemistry in the supposed romance. not for me, i guess. might reread The Lunar Chronicles for a palate-cleanser.

[thevampriss]

Dracula by Bram Stoker review

3/10 | Started reading on 10/19/23 and finished on 11-8-23

I would not recommend this book unless if you like sitting in sorrow, with NO action, for extended periods of time. But even then I'm sure there are better books out there! Don't hate on me, I know it's a classic. I just didn't like it for me!

Quick summary: Jonathon Harker becomes imprisoned at Dracula's castle while Dracula is traveling to London to feast on new, oblivious people who don't know of him. Jonathon and his friends get together and work to stop Dracula's plan.

Get the book here My thoughts and some spoilers on the book below ↓

This was my first time reading a gothic horror novel so maybe I am just unaware of how the book is supposed to feel but personally I felt like the book was WAY too slow for me. I initially looked forward to reading this book because so many other readers and dark subject fanatics have always raved about Bram Stoker and Dracula as a whole so I imagined it was going to be more in depth. I was eager to learn about Dracula himself but they didn't REALLY start using the word Vampire or talk about his abilities until chapter 17 I think...

I was waiting for it to pick up for the entire book and even felt that the ending was too abrupt and non descriptive for as long as the *very slow* build up was. I was just as bored ending it as I felt when I first started (with the exclusion of Jonathon Harker's experience at the castle, but it still left me unfulfilled and wanting more from the story). Renfield was the most interesting character and there was hardly an explanation for his death other than "we know Dracula did it" and it never elaborated on his story or why he worshipped Dracula. I think they could've finished the book in less than half of the pages that it took to write it, but instead Stoker spent 12 chapters talking about Lucy and how sad her situation was and continuously said "Oh, poor Miss Lucy!" enough times to fill up half a chapter. I wish that they touched on the three undead women that were seen in and near the castle along with more imagery of the castle. I also wish it went over more about how the superstitions came to be and why they work instead of magically knowing that communion wafers would do the trick to stop him. Also did not like that suddenly Mina knew exactly what to do and decided that she needed to be hypnotized and then they would have everything figured out! And then that was the entire last half of the book other than a few moments that were slightly different, just to go back to hypnotizing every day and having the same result and waiting for it to move on. I also would have LOVED to learn how Jonathon escaped from the castle because it was such an important part of the story and was even referred to later from Dr. Van Helsing but it was never explained! Ugh. It's also strange that Jonathon was sent there by his boss and then his boss immediately dies and gives his property to Jonathon and Mina but then it's never discussed again.

Over all it was boring and forgetful for me and I will not be continuing reading anything that was further written by the Stoker family and will just stick to the movies for this one!

[socially-anxious-wizard]

You fuckers asked for this, Wizard rambles take one (This is very disjointed and I’m not checking for spelling btw):

Let's talk about Dracula! Original novel by Bram Stoker published in 1897. Genuinely one of my favourite books, Dracula works as a story because it's disjointed and told through multiple narratives, Adding onto the slow burn horror of the story. Tbh I don't believe you could ever write a faithful and enjoyable Dracula Movie, Although a found footage style TV Show might be interesting. But it's characters and themes have been so misconstrued and rewritten so many times it’s hard to find anything faithful to the original. Not to mention the oversexualization of Vampires in general has contributed to a misunderstanding of the creatures.

Dracula in the book is described as a pale ugly old man with long teeth.

It's interesting to note how sex repulsed the book can be at times.

But I digress. One of my favourite things about this book is Van Helsing, Most retellings characterize him as a lonely and serious man but in the book he's actually closer to the oddball doctor archetype with weirdly pacific knowledge to the occult. He is a very charming male character which is very hard to find in older Gothic literature. (Or just writing in general)

Call me cursed but I read his description and thought “Someone with Daddy issues is projecting so hard right now.” And I’m not sorry, We all want the friendly doctor to be our father figure. It's okay.  

Oh side note! Transfusions were a recent discovery at the time so the book is full of them without regard for blood type. And that makes it so much funnier to me that literally every chapter somebody has to be stabbed with a needle to get more blood for Lucy. 

Van Helsing and Mina have the only brain cell for most of the book. Mina herself is also funny because it's very clear the Author likes her, Because every character goes out of their way to compliment her and talk about how great she is (As they should, Look at this girlboss).

Also shipping Mina and Dracula became a big thing that makes me extremely uncomfortable because of the scene that describes Dracula force feeding his blood to Mina. One if not the only Moment they shared together is extremely traumatic for Mina sooo yikes. 

I can also see where the LGBT subtext many people have associated with vampires comes from although not for healthy reasons, Dracula at one point gets possessive over Jonathan, the main character. Many people read this as gay subtext but don't look at the context, Jonathan is a prisoner in the Castle, Jonathan at this point doesn't want to be there and was just attacked by Dracula’s Brides (Who I believe are actually cousins? I might have misread that part though).

So yeah, considering how demonised sexuality is in this book anyways I don't think it's a positive idea to draw connections to LGBT rep.

But again this comes back to my point of vampires being rewritten over and over again to fit the motivations of who's telling the story. Vampires went from being horrible creatures of the night to seductive royalty, And it's not lost on me this story is about a wealthy Count sucking the blood from vulnerable women. 

It makes me quite upset how little people have actually read this book. Not only is it a very good book, it's charming and enjoyable. It's one of the least outwardly bigoted older horror Novels (LOVECRAFT GET BACK IN YOUR CORNER GODDAMNIT-)

It’s not the most Interesting Horror Novel I’ve read (That would be Frankenstein) but it’s a classic and I’ve got a soft spot for the story because of the charm of the rather goofy horror and the genuinely skilfully set ambience. 

I could talk about this Book for hours tbh and you’ll see more rambles about it, This is all VERY unorganised and messy but that's all my brain can manage today so-

*Passes out*

[eldritch-elrics]

top 10 reads of 2021

tagged by @medoisa !

hmmm i did not read a lot this year, and most of it was stuff for school, but i did read some things i liked! in no particular order (with a bit of added commentary):

the scum villain’s self-saving system by moxiang tongxiu

scum villain my beloved. the most fun i have had reading a novel in years. unashamedly stupid. tons of my favorite tropes. excellent literature

annihilation by jeff vandermeer

(banging pots and pans together) soft cosmic horror!!!!!!!

anyway, why hadn’t i read this before, what the fuck! this is going to stick with me for a very long time

dracula by bram stoker

a classic!! it’s so fun and intense and probably my favorite thing i read for gothic lit class

the woman in white by wilkie collins

a long but extremely well-woven victorian gothic/sensation/mystery novel. if you didn’t think a novel about inheritance laws could be interesting then think again

lady audley’s secret by mary elizabeth braddon

another solid victorian sensation novel! notable for the title character of lady audley, who is just excellent. fellas do you ever just fake your death, run away from your husband, and marry a stupid rich dude

the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

i JUST finished this and wow it’s so fun!!! i love pretentious men behaving badly. gay rights

chainsaw man by tatsuki fujimoto

i forgot i read this this year because i read it in january but omg. very good manga with an interesting concept and great characters. gaslight gatekeep girlboss

the zhuangzi by zhuang zhou (and others)

this counts as a book!! this is a work of literature!!! it’s literally just silly short stories what more could you ask for. the daode jing is overrated read this instead

shit that’s only 8 books. well i read other books too but idk if any of them were notable enough to put on this list. wuthering heights wasn’t bad! uh, the liezi? mengzi? literally all i read this year was early chinese philosophy and victorian gothic lit

tagging: @lady-in-the-lair @gusu-emilu @qi-ling @cloudheaded @the-golden-ghost @skeleton-richard !

[pricescigar]

Book Analysis

Trigger warning: Mentions of abuse, Bullying, Murder, PTSD

Summary: These are the following books, that Elvira Wolff loves to read and why they mean a lot to her

Book one: Dracula (1897) - Bram Stoker

Dracula the infamous Vampire of Transylvania, the Vampire with the thirst of human blood. Elvira was gifted with this book, by her late grandmother who owned the first edition of the book. Given to her on her sixteen birthday, Elvira knew how much this book meant a lot to her grandmother. So she took special care of it, and refused to let anyone borrow it. Due to how valuable it truly is.

The story of Dracula alone, was so compelling to Elvira because she has a soft side of gothic literature. Due to the meaning, and how well in depth it goes to explain all about the supernatural creatures. To Elvira to see the story of Dracula in many different point of views, made it all the better.

Elvira would read this book, time and time again and she would never get bored of it.

Book two: Carrie (1974) - Stephen King

Elvira owns a few of Stephen King's books, and actually relates this book especially the book "Carrie" To a personal level. Elvira bought this book when she saved up her own money, and from the moment she read it. She couldn't put the book down, a troubled young teenager, bullied, teased, abused by her own mother. Suddenly has telekinesis, and kills most of the students who had been bullying her.

The story of Carrie, related to Elvira so much to her in so many possible ways even personally. Elvira was constsntly bullied at school, teased at school, she abused both by her parents, before she witnessed her mother being murdered by her own father. While her father abused her, for most of her childhood too. This book showed her that she wasn't alone, she wasn't the only child in the world that was abused.

Elvira revisiting this book, is almsot therapeutic to her due to her not being believed by many that she was abused.

Book three: The War of the Worlds (1897) - H.G Wells

Another old classical book Elvira is truly fond of, from the old Victoian England. And the planet being invaded by the aliens from Mars, a very strange peculiar book but Elvira took an interest it. A very easy book to read in her eyes, the detail of the invasion and how mankind survived such a tragedy of aliens attempting to take over the world.

Elvira finds this book compelling in many ways, she truly believes that there's other life dorms somewhere else. Some where deep in space, that we do not know of. Because humans can't be the only people in the whole universe, right?

Book four: The Mysterious Stranger (1916) - Mark Twain

The famous Author Mark Twain, and his short Stroy. The Mysterious Stranger, tells a tale about a boy named Theodore Fischer. And his encounter with Satan, a young youth who claims to be the nephew of the original Satan. The Story began in 1590 in Austria, Theodore and his friends encountered the young youth. While he tells them, he is an angel named Satan.

Now why does Elvira find this book so interesting? Because that alone explains the difference, mankind and Satan in so many different levels. As Theodore had asked Satan. Why he sees such a difference, between his kind and man.

To Satans answer: he cannot be compared to humans because they possess the Moral Sense, the ability to discern right and wrong. 

In conclusion, the book explains the harsh conclusions about human existence.

Book five: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) - George Orwell

A dystopian novel, of the distant future. George Orwell's compelling story 1984, when the world has fallen victim to a perpetual war. An omnipresent government, propaganda and historical negationism. It tells a story of a controlling government who would always watch every footstep, and would always tell you to live in a certain away.

Elvira found this book so interesting because, the future is so interesting and in 1981 when technology is getting better and better by the day. Who knows what would happen in the future? Thst is the biggest question to Elvira, she wonders what the future would be like.

[aion-rsa]

House of Dark Shadows: The Craziest Vampire Movie You’ve Never Seen

https://ift.tt/37TdnN3

This article contains House of Dark Shadows spoilers.

In 1970 House of Dark Shadows flipped the vampire subgenre on its head. While certainly a B-horror in the Hammer mold, this chiller wasn’t satisfied with one bloodsucker, or even two. Instead Dark Shadows would turn nearly its whole cast into the ravenous undead, indiscriminately slaughtering beloved heroes and heroines, not caring for a second that they were also the stars of a daytime soap opera—one that was appointment TV for millions of kids across America.

Clearly it was a different time. And therein lies its charm.

When the television series Dark Shadows premiered in 1966, it wasn’t an instant pop culture phenomenon. Creator Dan Curtis was savvy enough to see the appeal in a daytime melodrama draped in a Gothic aesthetic, but he didn’t yet have the necessary hook for his central character as she stepped off a train in New England. Sure, mysterious Victoria Winters (Alexandria Isles) would meet the Collins family, who more or less ruled over the town of Collinsport from their ancestral home of Collinwood, but the reason to stick around only came about a year into the series’ original run.

That eureka moment turned out to be the dapper and effortlessly suave Jonathan Frid. Cast as Barnabas Collins, the Canadian theater actor was initially hired for a single storyline (a set number of episodes) as the heavy: Barnabas was an ancient and forgotten vampire, who’d been buried alive like the family’s dirty little secret after a curse condemned him to drink blood in 1795. Now he was out and wreaking havoc by feasting on the locals and obsessing over Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), whom he was convinced was the reincarnation of his lost love Josette—a fiancée who threw herself off a cliff in the 18th century rather than become Barnabas’ corpse bride.

It was morbid, obviously, but also romantic at a time when vampires were defined by the coldness of Christopher Lee or the goofiness of Scooby-Doo. Instead here was the most pitiable of creatures, one who doesn’t wish to be a vampire, and through impeccable manners and courtesies revealed a soft love for the Collins family, even when he preyed on them. Rather than create a great villain, Curtis inadvertently invented a tragic hero who audiences flocked to, both the typical daytime target demographic and also, surprisingly, kids and teenagers, who’d rush home from school to be lost in a melancholy land of eternal loves, ancient curses, and of course fangs.

Thus Dark Shadows became a blender for all things Gothic. Following in the success of Barnabas’ introduction, the series would go on to add ghosts, werewolves, séances, multiple stints of time travel, and one particularly devilish 18th century witch named Angelique (Lara Parker). It also appropriated every classic horror trope from Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, and Edgar Allan Poe, and synthesized them for an audience that was now consuming it along with kid-friendly board games and trading cards.

So why not a movie, too? As early as 1968, Curtis began pursuing the idea of making a Dark Shadows movie, even while the series was still going. Eventually, House of Dark Shadows was the result. Released 50 years ago this week, this toothy amusement was the chance to do everything Curtis wanted with the series, but was prohibited from by Broadcast Standards and Practices censorship, budget constraints… and maybe even audiences’ good taste.

“Blood flows,” actor Roger Davis observed in The Dark Shadows Companion: The 25th Anniversary, which was edited by Scott. “It’s not like the serial. You have a few dabs of blood and the network brass have apoplexy. TV does a mock-up on life. This is in living color. And the vampires really bite.” 

Whereas Dark Shadows, the television show, was appointment TV for those still in middle school, House of Dark Shadows was aimed directly at the drive-in crowd with its emphasis on blood gushing from neck wounds and stakes violently going into almost every character’s heart. As Scott’s book surmised, the film was “entirely the child of its creator,” who would at last have his evil Barnabas. And at a glance, it is an American riff on what had already become kitsch by 1970 thanks to Hammer Film Productions’ seemingly endless line of Dracula movies, plus the knockoffs.

And to be sure, House of Dark Shadows is in many ways a Dracula movie. It’s also insight into how Curtis originally viewed the Barnabas character before Frid went on a charm offensive. Playing almost like a CliffNotes version of Barnabas’ first several storylines on the show, the vampire is awakened during the film’s opening moments because of the foolishness of groundskeeper Willie Loomis (John Karlen). Barnabas then forces poor old Willie to become his living slave and creates a fictitious narrative about being a distant cousin descended from the original Barnabas Collins, whom family lore claims sailed away to London in 1795, never to be heard from again.

Bringing back the “original” Barnabas’ family jewels to ingratiate himself, the Barnabas of 1970 is free to attend family gatherings, fix up an old ruined house on the estate, and even feed on cousin Carolyn (Nancy Barrett), a dear relative who becomes a dead ringer for Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s famed novel. Even so, Carolyn cannot displace Maggie (still Scott) in Barnabas’ eyes, who he is sure is the reincarnation of Josette.

It very much has the narrative beats of a traditional vampire movie, but the charm that lingers a half-century later comes in part from seeing these actors, who are intimately familiar with their characters, going through the paces with better production values. That quality also manifests in Curtis’ sense of atmosphere, now liberated from the stage-bound quality of daytime drawing room drama. I would even argue House of Dark Shadows is one of the more satisfyingly atmospheric vampire movies to come out of the 1970s.

Curtis filmed in the upstate New York’s Tarrytown area, mostly on the actual Gothic Lyndhurst Estate, built in the 1830s, and shot much of the exteriors in the legendary Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Whereas Hammer films tended to rely increasingly on sets during this period, and most B horror movies had no budget for evocative locations, House of Dark Shadows was filming its sequences in between tours of the Lyndhurst Mansion and in the same atmospheric cemetery that helped birth the myth of a Headless Horseman.

Regarding the filming location, screenwriter Sam Hall remarked, “It’s a wild house. I’d hate like hell to live in it.” 

This is only accentuated by the fact Curtis knows how to drain a spooky location dry. Images like vampire Carolyn standing in a window, draped in white, beckoning her lover to become one of the damned is a better use of Lucy iconography than any Dracula movie made before House of Dark Shadows. And the film’s ending sequence reaches an operatic opulence rarely seen, even in vampire cheapies. Barnabas, bathed in a blue light and shrouded in inexplicable fog in the interior of his decrepit home, beckons Maggie, now in a wedding dress, toward him as the famous melody of Josette’s music box twinkles, only now in a weeping minor key.

The corruption of that wistful melody is intriguing. An original part of the Dark Shadows television series, Josette’s music box, and Frid’s soliloquies about it, is what first gave Barnabas his soul, distinguishing him from the general depravity of other pop culture vampires. One could even say Barnabas is the first significantly sympathetic male vampire in fiction. In House of Dark Shadows, he has a more sinister mean streak, but the pathos remains.

Hence why the film plays at times like a gonzo delight. It may feature the original, more wicked Barnabas, but it is still derived from the genteel series, and many of those elements carry over. Take Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) spending half the movie trying to cure Barnabas, a subplot that eventually ends happily for the pair on the show, but less so here. It’s soapy pulp, yet it’s given as much stone-faced gravity as the Collinsport Police Department unquestioningly agreeing to patrol around town with standard issue police crucifixes. One might ask if they keep silver bullets in every squad car too?

The overall effect is bizarre, but endearingly so. It’s also fairly influential, as confirmed by what happened after Dan Curtis dropped Barnabas in favor of another vampire.

Read more

TV

Dark Shadows’ Witch Was As Influential As Its Vampire

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic

By David Crow

In 1974, following Dark Shadows’ cancellation, Curtis wrote and directed a Dracula TV movie for CBS that within its opening titles billed itself as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Far removed from Stoker’s novel, the little remembered television film nonetheless starred Jack Palance as the vampire, and introduced several significant elements to the story by overtly making Dracula an undead version of historical figure Vlad the Impaler (which he is not in the novel) and turning Lucy into the reincarnation of his great lost love.

Curtis was in essence trying to recast Dracula as Barnabas Collins. Like House of Dark Shadows, Curtis even sought to build a Gothic atmosphere by filming in real locations, albeit now Eastern Europe. The result was effective in those scenes, even if the rest of the movie failed in no small part because Palance could never wear the tragic cloak so well as Frid.

In spite of its shortcomings, many have fairly speculated on whether Curtis’ Dracula influenced James V. Hart, the screenwriter of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hart was certainly more successful at turning Dracula into a lovelorn prince, and Coppola made that idea permanent in the pop culture imagination. Yet, at the end of the day, they were still remaking the pop culture image of Dracula so as to be closer in line with Barnabas Collins, instead of the other way around.

I would even argue that Coppola’s film is closer in tone with Dark Shadows, at least in its romantic moments, than Tim Burton’s big budget Dark Shadows movie was in 2012. Burton of course attempted to avoid some of the mistakes of House of Dark Shadows, namely by keeping Barnabas as the good guy who is trying to save his family instead of ultimately destroying them, as well as retaining the other fan favorite character, the witchy Angelique (who like all other non-vampire elements was omitted from House of Dark Shadows). But Burton also played her and the whole concept as pure camp, making the Collins’ a subject of ridicule, and their problems a punchline.

Admittedly, there is something faintly camp about the 1960s daytime series and its ‘70s drive-in remake; plots turn on ludicrous developments like Julia falling in love with Barnabas, and then intentionally sabotaging his vampire cure when she realizes he loves a younger woman. But they were sold with absolute sincerity, and in the case of Frid, a palatable conviction.

House of Dark Shadows continues that conviction, no matter how batshit things become. Thus the ending where, accepting he’ll never be cured, Barnabas transforms family patriarch Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) and even the film’s version of Van Helsing (Thayer David) into vampires. And we get to a finale so madcap that it turns “Renfield” into the last remaining hero. Madness, indeed.

Ironically, House of Dark Shadows was blamed by some for the eventual death of the series. Every character in the film, including Barnabas, had to be written out of the show, for some weeks at a time, so the actors could go shoot a movie upstate (another reason Angelique and other significant characters were left out). This correlated with some of the series’ weaker storylines that lost audiences’ attention.

Additionally, it’s believed parents who went with their children to see the movie in October 1970 were appalled by the amount of blood and sensual subtext in the film. As a result, some may have forbidden their kids from watching the series further… with the show getting cancelled in April 1971.

“The TV ratings fell after the movie,” Scott’s The Dark Shadows Companion revealed. “It has been suggested by some that House of Dark Shadows led to the series’ eventual demise. Perhaps it was the audience’s reaction to seeing their hero Barnabas in an evil light. Perhaps it was because parents attended House of Dark Shadows with their children and, seeing the amount of blood spilled across the screen, discouraged their children’s choice of television viewing material.”

Star Frid was even more unsparing in his final analysis.

“[The film] lacked the charm and naivete of the soap opera,” Frid said. “Every once in a while the show coalesced into a Brigadoonish never-never-land. It wasn’t necessary to bring the rest of the world into Dark Shadows, which is what the film did.”

Nevertheless, both the series and movie left a few marks on the throat of pop culture. The series certainly paved the way for more multidimensional portraits of vampires to be explored, opening the door for, yes, the Coppola Dracula movie, but also Anne Rice and True Blood. In fact, even if House of Dark Shadows might’ve been considered too brutal by parents in 1970, decades of pop culture refinement would find a way to make the sympathetic vampire archetype much more tolerable when instead of drinking from his cousin, he sparkled in the daylight and told his prey they needed to wait until marriage.

Without Barnabas, his series, and his slice of bananas role is House of Dark Shadows, we may never have gotten Lestat, Edward Cullen, or Gary Oldman’s Dracula. At least not as how we know them. Fifty years on, that’s a bloody good legacy for a daytime drama and a B-movie you’ve never seen.

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[studyself-care]

26.04.20

Hey everyone!

As promised, here is a master post of my favourite books and some other recommendations from friends to get you through lock down! I mostly read the classics but have tried to mix it up a bit! Enjoy :)

- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte: This is my favourite book of ALL time. I’d recommend everyone read this at some point, it’s about an orphan that becomes a governess and starts working for wealthy Mr Rochester, typical 19th century Victorian Gothic.

- Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte: Very similar to Jane Eyre in themes but can be compared to a ‘twisted and dark romance story’.

- Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier: Again, very similar to Jane Eyre in the way that the book follows a woman who marries a rich man (Max de Winter) and is haunted by his dead wife Rebecca. This book is said to have some of the most beautiful imagery/description ever written.

- What we talk about when we talk about love, Raymond Carver: This is a collection of short stories that was written in the 1980s. The stories are set in the mid-west and follow ‘lonely men and women who drink, fish and play cards to pass the time’.

- IT, Stephen King: Just read it, you won’t regret it. It’s more than just a scary book!

- The Shining, Stephen King: As you can see I’m a big fan of King, everyone’s watched the film but the book is wayyyyy better.

- The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath: This is said to be a semi-autobiographical book by Sylvia Plath, which follows Esther Greenwood who travels to New York to work on a magazine. Esther’s downfall explores important themes about the treatment of mental illness in the 1960s.

- More than this, Patrick Ness: This is more of a dystopian novel for people that are into that, follows a boy that wakes up in another dimension/world and follows his journey. Bit of a supernatural/fantasy.

- Small Great Things, Jodi Picoult: I know this book has won awards already and is said to be the modern day ‘to kill a mockingbird’. Brilliant, modern read that explores racism and white supremacy in the modern day, prejudice and justice. 

- The Secret, Rhonda Byrne: For people who like a bit of non-fiction spirituality, the secret might be for you. This suits everyone, whether you’re spiritual or not and takes you through ways in which you can transform your life through your thoughts and manifestation.

- Power, Sex, Suicide, Nick Lane: Sticking with the non-fiction (and because I had to throw a science one in here!), Nick Lane writes about cell biology and how humanity came to be as it is today, beginning with mitochondria/small cell organisms. This is probably my favourite scientific book.

- Dracula, Bram Stoker: Again, everyone knows what this is right? Now’s your time to read it! Amazing description/imagery.

- Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins: I actually haven’t read this but was an excellent recommendation, similar to the secret in themes but explores assertiveness, motivation and self.

- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon: Again, I haven’t read this but have wanted to for a long time, a murder mystery that follows 15 year old Christopher Boone who has Asperger’s Syndrome.

- Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig: This is a memoir based on life experiences of living with major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder. ‘A moving exploration of how to live better, love better and feel more alive’.

I hope everyone enjoys and as always, if you have recommendations about what you would like me to write about in the next post feel free to message me!

Stay safe and lots of love, Logan x 

[notimetoblog]

Thank you all so much for joining the World Book Day celebration! It was a pleasure getting to hear about your favorite books! I am a fervent believer that reading is so powerful. It expands your minds, takes you to places you had never even imagined, and can teach you so much about the world and ourselves.

I have compiled the list (in alphabetical order by title) of all the books that were recommended during this celebration. Each book links to the original recommendation, states the genre of the book, and has a brief synopsis of the book :D

If you would like to recommend more PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DO SO!! We could always use more books in our lives!! Thank you all again and I hope you’re able to read some books on the list that you haven't read before!

BOOK RECS

A Court of Thorns and Roses Series by Sarah J. Maas

Recommended by @wintersxsoul here

Genre: Young Adult / Romance / Fantasy

Synopsis: Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price.

Around  the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Recommended by @just-add-butter here

Genre: Fiction / Adventure / Classics

Synopsis: One ill-fated evening at the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions £20,000 that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days - and he is determined not to lose. Breaking the well-establised routine of his daily life, the reserved Englishman immediately sets off for Dover, accompanied by his hot-blooded French manservant Passepartout. Travelling by train, steamship, sailing boat, sledge and even elephant, they must overcome storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks and the dogged Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard - who believes that Fogg has robbed the Bank of England - to win the extraordinary wager. 

Burn for Burn Series by Jenny Han

Recommended by @marvelsangel here

Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal / Young Adult

Synopsis (of first book):  Postcard-perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops, pristine beaches, amazing oceanfront homes—and three girls secretly plotting revenge.KAT is sick and tired of being bullied by her former best friend.LILLIA has always looked out for her little sister, so when she discovers that one of her guy friends has been secretly hooking up with her, she’s going to put a stop to it.MARY is perpetually haunted by a traumatic event from years past, and the boy who’s responsible has yet to get what’s coming to him.None of the girls can act on their revenge fantasies alone without being suspected. But together…anything is possible. With an alliance in place, there will be no more “I wish I’d said…” or “If I could go back and do things differently...” These girls will show Jar Island that revenge is a dish best enjoyed together.

Code Name Verity By Elizabeth Wein

Recommended by @notimetoblog here

Genre: Historical Fiction / Young Adult

Synopsis: Oct. 11th, 1943 - A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? 

Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural South by Anne Moody

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Memoir / History / Nonfiction

Synopsis: Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till's lynching. Before then, she had "known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was...the fear of being killed just because I was black." In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.

Crazy Rich Asians Series by Kevin Kwan

Recommended by @marvelsangel here

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Synopsis (of first book): the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back.

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

Recommended by @just-add-butter here

Genre: Romance / Fantasy 

Synopsis: It begins in a cold and shabby tower room, where young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill prepared, a war that threatens the homes and lives of the very people they are trying to protect. But war is simple compared to what follows, when the bloody fighting is done and a fragile peace is at hand. Although she wants to turn her back on politics and the crown, Meliara is summoned to the royal palace. There, she soon discovers, friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting--with wit and words and secret alliances. In war, at least, she knew whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one. 

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

Recommended by @rosegoldlilacs here

Genre: Fiction / Young Adult

Synopsis: Ben Wolf has big things planned for his senior year. Had big things planned. Now what he has is some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on the world.How can a pint-sized, smart-ass seventeen-year-old do anything significant in the nowheresville of Trout, Idaho?

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Recommended by @wintersxsoul here

Genre: Classics / Fiction / Fantasy

Synopsis: Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so he may find new blood and spread undead curse, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Recommended by @softhairbarnes here

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Thriller

Synopsis: On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

Harry Potter Saga by J.K Rowling

Recommended by @agentpegcxrter here / First book recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult

Synopsis (of first book): Harry Potter's life is miserable. His parents are dead and he's stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he's a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After a lifetime of bottling up his magical powers, Harry finally feels like a normal kid. But even within the Wizarding community, he is special. He is the boy who lived: the only person to have ever survived a killing curse inflicted by the evil Lord Voldemort, who launched a brutal takeover of the Wizarding world, only to vanish after failing to kill Harry.Though Harry's first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it's his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Recommended by @notimetoblog here

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis: Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time

How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City by Joan DeJean

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: History / Nonfiction

Synopsis: At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Paris was known for isolated monuments but had not yet put its brand on urban space. Like other European cities, it was still emerging from its medieval past. But in a mere century Paris would be transformed into the modern and mythic city we know today.Though most people associate the signature characteristics of Paris with the public works of the nineteenth century, Joan DeJean demonstrates that the Parisian model for urban space was in fact invented two centuries earlier, when the first complete design for the French capital was drawn up and implemented.

Love Style Life by Garance Doré

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Nonfiction / Memoir / Fashion

Synopsis: Garance Doré, the voice and vision behind her eponymous blog, has captivated millions of readers worldwide with her fresh and appealing approach to style through storytelling. This gorgeously illustrated book takes readers on a unique narrative journey that blends Garance’s inimitable photography and illustrations with the candid, hard-won wisdom drawn from her life and her travels. Infused with her Left Bank sensibility, the eclecticism of her adopted city of New York, and the wild, passionate spirit of her native Corsica, Love Style Life is a backstage pass behind fashion’s frontlines, peppered with French-girl-next-door wit and advice on everything from mixing J.Crew with Chanel, to falling in love, to pursuing a life and career that is the perfect reflection of you.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Fiction / Japanese Literature / Cultural

Synopsis:  This leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Recommended by @chocochipcookieyum here

Genre: Historical Fiction / Classics

Synopsis: A story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Recommended by @gamorazenn here / by @agentpegcxrter here / by @arosewithdaisies here

Genre: Fiction / Romance / Classics

Synopsis: The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Fiction / Romance

Synopsis: Tsukiko is drinking alone in her local sake bar when by chance she meets one of her old high school teachers and, unable to remember his name, she falls back into her old habit of calling him 'Sensei'. After this first encounter, Tsukiko and Sensei continue to meet. Together, they share edamame beans, bottles of cold beer, and a trip to the mountains to eat wild mushrooms. As their friendship deepens, Tsukiko comes to realise that the solace she has found with Sensei might be something more.

Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L’Engle

Recommended by @thesaltyduchess here 

Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult / Science Fiction

Synopsis: When fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace Murry shouts out an ancient rune meant to ward off the dark in desperation, a radiant creature appears. It is Gaudior, unicorn and time traveler. Charles Wallace and Gaudior must travel into the past on the winds of time to try to find a Might-Have-Been - a moment in the past when the entire course of events leading to the present can be changed, and the future of Earth - this small, swiftly tilting planet - saved.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Recommended by @arosewithdaisies here

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Crime / Classics / Short Stories

Synopsis: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. It was first published on 14 October 1892; the individual stories had been serialized in The Strand Magazine between July 1891 and June 1892. The stories are not in chronological order, and the only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson. The stories are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view.

The Bean Trees by Barbara King

Recommended by @nerdgirljen in a comment here

Genre: Fiction / Contemporary

Synopsis: Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis

Recommended by @agentpegcxrter here

Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult / Classics

Synopsis: Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil—what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, written in 1949 by Clive Staples Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Recommended by @notimetoblog here / by @arosewithdaisies here

Genre: Fiction / Classics

Synopsis: This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

Recommended by @lunardanvers here

Genre: Fiction / Contemporary

Synopsis: It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a thirteen-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love-and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris

Recommended by @wintersxsoul here

Genre: Fiction / Mythology / Fantasy

Synopsis: The novel is a brilliant first-person narrative of the rise and fall of the Norse gods - retold from the point of view of the world's ultimate trickster, Loki. It tells the story of Loki's recruitment from the underworld of Chaos, his many exploits on behalf of his one-eyed master, Odin, through to his eventual betrayal of the gods and the fall of Asgard itself.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Recommended by @marvelsangel here

Genre: Fiction / Young Adult

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr

The Immortal Rules Series by Julie Kagawa

Recommended by anonymous here 

Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Paranormal

Synopsis: Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Recommended by @redandpurpleskies here

Genre: Science Fiction / Classic

Synopsis: The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Fiction / Japanese Literature / Classics

Synopsis: The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of the novel. It is a sad story, and structurally is a novel very much within the confines of the Japanese take on the novel in a way reminiscent of authors such as Nobel Prize winner Yasunori Kawabata – the social interactions are peripheral and understated, nuances must be drawn, and for readers more used to Western novelistic forms this comes across as being rather wishy-washy. Kazuko’s mother falls ill, and due to their financial circumstances they are forced to take a cottage in the countryside. Her brother, who became addicted to opium during the war is missing. When he returns, Kazuko attempts to form a liaison with the novelist Uehara. This romantic displacement only furthers to deepen her alienation from society.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Recommended by @consttantina here

Genre: Historical Fiction / Fantasy / LGBT / Romance

Synopsis: Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

The Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce

Recommended by @just-add-butter here

Genre: Fantasy / Young Adult

Synopsis: The Song of the Lioness quartet is the adventurous story of one girl's journey to overcome the obstacles facing her, become a valiant knight, and save Tortall from conquest. Alanna douses her female identity to begin her training in Alanna: The First Adventure, and when she gains squire status in In the Hand of the Goddess, her growing abilities make her a few friends -- and many enemies. Books 3 and 4 complete Alanna's adventure and secure her legend, with the new knight errant taking on desert tribesmen in The Woman Who Rides like a Man and seeking out the powerful Dominion Jewel in Lioness Rampant.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Recommended by anonymous here

Genre: Historical Fiction / Classics

Synopsis: The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

[thenightling]

NOPE BOOK TAG!

Tag creator (A BookTube Book) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQt_…

1. NOPE Ending: A book ending that made you go NOPE either in denial, rage or simply because the ending was crappy.

This is a tough one.  I rarely hate how literature ends.  I’ll name a few comics and then move on the literature.

Novels: The Man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis (Love this novel but hate the ending.) The Dresden Files: Changes The Frankenstein Papers by Fred Saberhagen (He writes Dracula so well but his Frankenstein Monster...  Spoilers, he’s a f--king alien with amnesia.  That’s the twist.  He just THOUGHT he was created by Victor Frankenstein.  It’s so... Stupid. The Last vampire by Whitley Strieber.   Lilith’s Dream by Whitley Strieber   On my Honor

Lolita.  WHY is this a classic?!?

______________________________  

Comics: The Sandman: The Kindly Ones.  I know it’s a classic but out of all of the original Sandman this is the one I liked the least, loved the rest. The Dreaming (1990s to early 2000s version).   It’s just... awful. Madman & Monster (written by Steve Niles and published by IDW).  I hate the ending but like the premise.

Nineteen eighty-four by George Orwell.  Great novel, just very depressing.

Manga:

Return to Labyrinth.  The author (Jake T. Forbes) just wanted his cake and eat it too.  He establishes that Jareth is Sarah’s true love but at the same time decides that they can’t be together “For reasons” and has Toby give a “I learned something today” speech that lasts several pages to justify it.   No, if it’s true love, they’re supposed to be together.  Don’t try to placate both the shippers and the fans who want them to not be a couple, you won’t appease anyone if you try to appease both.    

Wolf’s Rain: It’s just so sad.   Why!??

 _______________________   

2. NOPE Protagonist: The main character you dislike and drives you crazy.

Novels: Miriam from The Hunger, The Last Vampire, and Lilith’s Dream by Whitley Strieber.   

The Vampire Armand from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles.   He’s too much of a Sadist.  I don’t understand the appeal.   Lolita.  WHY is this a classic?!

Comics:

Echo from The Dreaming (Late 90s / early 2000s version) 

Riri Williams, the current writing of the Captain Marvel comics,  actually pretty much all of Marvel at the moment... _______________________________________________ 

3. NOPE Series: A series that turned out to be one huge pile of NOPE after you’ve invested all of that time and energy on it, or a series you gave up on because it wasn’t worth it anymore.

Novels:

The Hunger book series by Whitley Strieber 

Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, most everything after Tale of The Body Thief and Tale of the Body Thief wasn’t that good... The Dresden Files.  I don’t know, my interest just kind of waned and also I came across a few unpleasant fans who legitimately believe women and men “talk differently” and “use different language” when speaking and told me a woman can’t write male characters and visa versa.   Mary Shelley begs to differ!    Comics: The current Sandman Universe comics...

Morbius: The Living Vampire (1990s run)

Manga:

Return to Labyrinth.  The author (Jake T. Forbes) just wanted his cake and eat it too.  He establishes that Jareth is Sarah’s true love but at the same time decides that they can’t be together “For reasons” and has Toby give a “I learned something today” speech that lasts several pages to justify it.   No, if it’s true love, they’re supposed to be together.  Don’t try to placate both the shippers and the fans who want them to not be a couple, you won’t appease anyone if you try to appease both.     

_________________________________ 

4. NOPE Popular pairing: A ship you don’t support.

I don’t really hate many pairings...

Oh, wait.  Lolita.  Do I really need to explain? Comics: Joker and Harley Quinn (original versions as created for Batman The Animated series.) Cain and Abel and their sister-wives in The Dreaming (late 90s to early 2000s comics).  That was just...  Oh, my God. Was that just to be edgy!?    For God’s sake, Abel’s fraternal twin sister was Cain’s wife and locked in attic!?   WTF?!? Lucien and Nuala (also in The Dreaming late 90s and early 2000s version).   Essentially “Hey, the people we’re in love with are dead.   Why don’t we hook up?” “Okay!  You’re good enough.  Let’s settle on each other.” 

Does Caitlin R. Kiernan have any concept of love, at all?  Steve and Bucky. Not because it’s a bad ship or because it’s gay but because the fans who support it are so rabid and if you suggest it’s not canon they immediately assume you’re a homophobe and send you hate.

SwanQueen (Emma Swan and The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time) similar reasons as above.   ____________________________ 

5. NOPE. Plot twist: A plot twist you didn’t see coming or didn’t like.

The Frankenstein Papers by Fred Saberhagen.

(He writes Dracula so well but his Frankenstein Monster...  Spoilers, he’s a f--king alien with amnesia.  That’s the twist.  He just THOUGHT he was created by Victor Frankenstein.  It’s so... Stupid. _______________________________ 

6. NOPE. Protagonist action/decision: A character decision that made you shake your head NOPE.

Faust and his hornness for FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Gretchen and almost everything he did because of that horniness. 

7. NOPE. Genre: A genre you will never read.

I don’t think there’s a genre I’d never read. But I’m not a big fan of young adult romances or bodice rippers and torture porn.    I’m not into errotica or graphic violence even though I adore Gothic Horror.

8.  Nope format:

Umm....  I prefer hardcover to paperback but I don’t avoid any particular format.  I do hate when the new Barnes and Nobel classics call things like Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, and Bram Stoker “Gothic fantasy” written across the cover.  It perpetuates the idea that horror is lowbrow and it angers me that we refuse to consider good quality horror to be horror anymore. 

Anne Rice’s Prince Lestat (when I read it with wet hands and the dust jacket off) the color on the cover started to turn my fingers dark blue.   I never want that to happen again.  

9. NOPE. Trope: A trope that makes you go NOPE.

Long lost child that the protagonist didn’t know they had because the mother (or in rare cases someone else) thought it would be best the child never know they are related to the protagonist because their life is too dangerous / cursed / ect...  I hate when parental rights are stomped on for plot, and especially when “it’s okay because it’s the mother who did it and the mother just wants whats best for the child.”  

10. NOPE. Recommendation: A book recommendation that is constantly hyped and pushed at you that you simply refuse to read.

I’ve never refused to read a recommendation but I have later thought “Why did you think I’d like this?!”

Twilight “Because you love vampires.” Oh, and Frankenstein’s Monster: A Novel by Susan Heyboer O’keefe.  Just because he looks like the version from the Shelley novel doesn’t mean he acted like it.  That as awful.      

  ______________________________ 

11. NOPE. Cliche/pet peeve: A cliche or writing pet peeve that always makes you roll your eyes.

Wasn’t this already number 9?  I thought we covered this with tropes.  Many tropes are cliches.   Oh, well...

Long lost child that the protagonist didn’t know they had because the mother (or in rare cases someone else) thought it would be best the child never know they are related to the protagonist because their life is too dangerous / cursed / ect...  I hate when parental rights are stomped on for plot, and especially when “it’s okay because it’s the mother who did it and the mother just wants whats best for the child.”    (Cough) Susan in The Dresden Files. (Cough.)

Oh, and “He’s blue collar so we’re going to use him as the serrogate racist / bigot now even though he wasn’t before.”  (Cough)  Merv Pumpkinhead in the new version of The Dreaming. (Cough.)

12. NOPE. Love interest: 

I thought we established this with the ship conversation?

I don’t feel like re-writing it, just re-read that one.  Same answers apply.   I guess I can add The Corinthian from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.  You know if it ever gets a film or TV series adaptation someone somewhere will find him attractive and start making errotic art and fan fiction about him...

13. NOPE. Book: A book that shouldn’t have existed that made you say NOPE.

The Dreaming Late 90s early 2000s version.   I don’t really like saying any book shouldn’t exist. But there are some that are really awful sequels or insults to an established lore because of how subpar they are.   ___________________________________ 

14. NOPE. Villain: A scary villain/antagonist you would hate to cross and would make you run in the opposite direction.

The Corinthian from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and pretty much any antagonist created by George R. R. Martin. 

15. NOPE. Death: A character death that still haunts you.

Morpheus in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

And even Abel’s death even though he comes back later.

___________________________ 

16. NOPE. Author: An author you had a bad experience reading and have decided to quit.

Anne Rice.  She doesn’t even remotely write the way she used to . It feels vapid now.  And i have trouble reconciling myself that the angry bird aliens from Brevena and the Replimoids exist in the same universe as Interview with the Vampire.   

Also she’s been very cruel and unprofessional in her behavior to those who have criticized her work and “I didn’t know I was sicking people on anyone” shared negative reviews with direct links to pages on her Facebook over the years.  it got nasty.  She even dug up one of my old reviews for Blood Canticle that I wrote FIFTEEN years ago!   

And to a lesser extent, J. K. Rowling.   Her views of Americans and especially “Nomaj” (linguistically) just makes me cringe internally.  Americans are the more old fashioned with language, not hipster (i.e Elevator vs. Lift, Cellular phone vs. Mobile). Not to mention cloistered religious-style orders (like Catholicism) use the same terms from country to country.  This is also true with Wicca.  Linguistically the American terms in Fantastic Beasts do NOT make sense.   

@sorry-for-the-chocolate @thesaramonster @zal001 @missghostlymoonshadow @kaimaciel @endlessemptynight @deathlyendless @vagaryhexxx @thegreatvampirekiller @unnecessaryhorns @sweatyeddieandaliengoo

[vaatistrife-purplemage]

Horror and me, two things that can’t fit well together ever since my very childhood.

...UNTIL NOW IT SEEMS.

I grew up being scared by a lot of things which would basically leave me terrified of anything that had to do with horror. 😅

However, having seen Van Helsing 2004 more than once on Netflix it’s such an underrated movie, having watched clips of said movie, as well as having seen Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak (more than once) and The Shape of Water (recently), along with my seemingly constant craving for dark fantasy, gothic romance and novels with gore in it and whatnot, I think it’s safe to say I am less ‘’’’’scared’’’’ of Horror than I used to be. Then again it depends all on the amount of horror, as well as jumpscares, etc.

Thanks to Van Helsing’s Dracula (portrayed by Richard Roxburgh, one of my favourite actors), I came to appreciate and became fascinated by the works of Bram Stoker, the author of ‘’Dracula’’, ‘’Dracula’s Guest’’, you name it, as well as Vampire myths and legends themselves.

Due to my love for vampires which all started with the Twilight Saga which I don’t watch nor read anymore due to vampires being way too romantized in those movies and novels in my opinion, no offence to those who love it, I decided to get myself this today:

My first - ever actual horror novel, bought while getting some some discount. A hardcover and clothbound edition of Bram Stoker’s famous novel ‘’Dracula’’; which, according to the front page is a revised edition as well. 

Despite this and despite having Dracula right now, I might get myself another second different edition of it because I like the Barnes & Noble Dracula and Other Horror Stories edition too. Perhaps I might get Mary Shelly’s ‘’Frankenstein’’ novel someday also, but I don’t know yet.

It’s quite funny that, when I walked over to the counter to buy it, the employee selling the Dracula novel to me warned me it’d be a very scary read, which had me shrugging (though I can tell I might lay awake at night when reading this every now and then).

I decided to go and try out a new bookstore for once today. American Book Center, or as I’d like to call it, ‘’Bookworm Heaven’’. They didn’t have much of the specific editions I was looking for but I was also pleased with this one. They even had Manga, so I was having a hard time not to drool while standing inside of that bookstore. Due to the Manga section, my sibling (who hardly ever reads) even wanted to go back there when we were leaving the city we were at haha.

Unfortunately I wasn’t given much time to examine and admire each book there. I only had like a couple of minutes. My parents were in a hurry because for one, it was raining a lot (after three months of no rain and two heatwaves) and two, my dad doesn’t seem to appreciate novels or at least going to bookstores much- 

Nevertheless, book - hunting was fun today, although it was raining like crazy.

I plan on reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula near October, because I feel like that’d be the perfect month to read a horror novel such as classic and scary as this one. Besides I still have to finish reading The Gospel of Loki, The Testament of Loki, Norse Myths and Tales, the movie novelization of Crimson Peak and Crimson Peak: The Art of Darkness. At least my To Be Read pile is going to kill some time when it comes to waiting for Cornelia Funke’s The Glass of Lead & Gold novel, as well as her Reckless IIII: The Island of the Fox novel.

It’s ridiculous how many novels I have at this point. Probably more than I used to have as a child (about 100 novels from one novel series). Of course my novel - taste has changed /drastically/ ever since I got rid of most of my childhood novels.

Like, it went from innocent High Fantasy in which good would always win from bad to mostly a majority of Dark Fantasy with violence, gore and supernatural things, Gothic Romance and now even Horror. Plus Manga with demons in it. (Kuroshitsuij / Black Butler).

[kuuderekun]

Mithrandir’s Halloween Anime Recommendations.

Mithrandir’s Halloween Anime Recommendations. 

I’m by no means the first Otaku to provide some Halloween season Anime recommendations in October.  So why care about mine?

October 31st happens to be my Birthday.  So even though I’ve defined myself as not a Horror fan in the strictest sense (in that I’m not looking to be scared by any fiction I watch) I have other reasons for enjoying a lot of stuff in the Horror and Gothic genres.  And I have a lot of memories of enjoying such fiction during the Halloween season.  

I love the classic Universal Monster movies, I’ve also enjoyed many Hammer films.  And other more obscure horror movies, like those Public Domain ones you sometimes find in DVD box sets selling 50 for only $10.  Slasher films I’ve tended to not be fond of, but I do enjoy Halloween 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.  And some of my favorite episodes of Western live Action television have been Halloween specials, from NCIS episodes like Witch Hunt to Pretty Little Liars‘ epic trilogy of Halloween specials.  Plus I love the first two Ghostbusters movies, and I don’t hate the reboot.

Since I’ve become mainly a Anime watcher over the last couple of years.  It’s overdue that I make some Anime Halloween recommendations.  Though I feel kinda like I haven’t watched enough Horror centric Anime.

I listened to about like an hour of the Podcast that Mother’s Basement did with Digibro, Gigguk and BestGuyEver about their Halloween recommendations.  And really none sound like they fit what I look for this time of year, but they might for others.

One thing Gigguk said that rubbed me the wrong way, was that he doesn’t like how Anime Horror is too “aesthetically pleasing”.  I don’t like how western horror in recent years is so obsessed with being Aesthetically ugly.  I like the first two Saw movies as Mysteries, and that’s about it from the Torture Porn genre.  And I like none of those movies that revolve chicks crawling out of caves all slimy and muddy and dirty.  Classic Horror, like Universal and Hammer gave us, was very Aesthetically pleasing, it was simply a Gothic Aesthetic.

These recommendations are largely for people relatively new to Anime in general, if you have a respectable MAL already you’ve probably at least tasted all or most of these.  If however you consider yourself a hardcore Otaku and you’ve missed any one of these, you need to reconcile that immediately.

Why give Halloween themed recommendations to Newbies?  Maybe Horror or Gothic romance simply is your favorite genre and so Halloween fitting Anime would be the best entry point possible.  Or maybe now simply is the time you decided to finally give Japanimation a shot.  Or maybe you’re already at phase 2 or 3 of burrowing down the Otaku rabbit hole and are looking for new routes to dig into.  Perhaps specifically saving the Horror Route for October.

One more note before I start.  I haven’t watched the Castlevania series on Netflix yet.  I’ve decided to wait till during this Halloween season (and thus after I’ve already posted this) to watch it.  Then I might talk about it somewhere if I feel compelled to.  (Turns out it’s not actually Anime.)  I don’t want to include in this list something that hasn’t already stood the test of time somewhat anyway.  And it gives me something new for the season to enjoy myself.  It annoys me that the Godzilla Anime doesn’t drop till November.

I’ve already declared When They Cry/Higurashi the ideal Horror Anime.  If you haven’t seen it yet, don't read that post past the Spoiler Warning.  In summary what I’ll say here is it has very much the Japanese equivalent of a Gothic Aesthetic.  And it makes an engaging mystery, with well done shocking moments.  And never abuses the Jump Scare.  

But one thing I forgot to mention in that post was the Score, the Music in this show is perfect at setting an eerie mood.  If you can find the music on it’s own, it’d be excellent for a Haunted House.  

Another note before moving on, for the numbered entries here I’m not recommending entire franchises but single series that might be part of larger franchises but still have a distinct entry on MAL or most Streaming sites.  For Higurashi it’s really only season 1 I’m recommending for October viewing.  Season 2 is perhaps better for early November, when you’re kinda still in a Halloween mood, but want to phase yourself out of it before Christmas.  (Don’t expect Christmas recommendations BTW.)

Vampire Princess Miyu, the 4 episode 80s OVA.  This would be best if you want something shorter to get your feet wet.  It’s probably the only pre-2000 Anime I’ll recommend here.  It similarly has the Japanese equivalent to a Gothic Aesthetic.  And I really like it’s use of sound effects.  I also like the 90s TV series, but that’s better watched in the context of how to make a darker Magical Girl show.

School Live I now consider the best Zombie Anime.  Highschool of The Dead still has value, but if you’re gonna watch only one watch School Live.  Don’t let the cuteness fool you, it gets pretty scary.  And isn’t filled with tasteless fanservice.

Witch Hunter Robin.  I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this on this blog more yet, since it’s about as ancient as the BeeTrain trilogy in my development as an Anime Fan.  It’s use of its horror elements is pretty interesting.  It's also got intrigue.  And is one of the best examples of why I love the 26 episode structure.

Hellsing, (the original Anime not Ultimate).  Is a satisfying Anime spin off to the legacy of Bram Stoker’s novel.  While all of the above 4 have Dubs, and the Dub is what I watched, this is the only one I feel confident in calling a top tier Dub, after all Alucard is Crispin Freeman.  Though I will say for Miyu not to write off the OVA’s dub on how the 90s show’s gets called one of the worst of all time, it’s a very different kind of Dub.

The only honorable mention I shall provide is the Fate/ franchise as a whole, it has Horror elements but that is not quite it’s main appeal.   But since the mythology/folklore is a large part of why I’m into Horror in the first place, it does overlap well with part of why I like Fate/ so much.  From the quasi Lovecraftian quality of Fate/Zero’s Caster, to the Fate/Stay Night:Unlimited Blade Works Caster’s berserk button being when she’s called a Witch.   Those are as I’ve explained before the best entry points to Fate/.  

Heck, Rin Tosaka is pretty much always dressed like it’s Halloween.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, is the worst entry point only appealing at all if you're really into the niche it’s made for.  I am, so I enjoy even it’s much maligned Dub.  But as the ultimately least dark version of the Fate/ universe, it still has some solid Halloween season material.

The Grand Order OVA’s Dub becomes available this October, so I’ll also be watching that before the month is over, I can’t comment on it before then.  But on the subject of single episode OVAs, Fate/Prototype can be a spooky quick Halloween viewing experience.

But another reason I couldn’t leave Fate/ out of this post is that Fate/Apocrypha is a currently airing show that includes the characters of Vlad The Impaler and Frankenstein’s Monster, and also Jack The Ripper.  So if any currently airing TV Anime this October needs to be mentioned it’s that one.  The tone however doesn’t fit Halloween as well as the other shows from what I’ve seen so far, unfortunately.  Maybe they’re saving the scarier bits for the Fall, either way it is again not a good entry point for Fate/.

As of episodes 8 and 9, Vlad and Frank’s characters are finally getting some good exploration.  And as of episode 11 I’m very into it.

Normally a list like this doesn’t end on the honorable mention.  But I organized this from the top down anyway.

It turns out this year’s October 31st will be the last day the legal streaming site www.Daisuki.Net operates, it’s being shut down.  So this month is your last chance to watch any Anime there.  But it has none of what I’ve recommended so that’s not actually helpful here.

Vampire Princess Miyu and Witch Hunter Robin had past legal western releases, but I can’t find them currently legally streaming anywhere.

School Live, Hellsing and Fate/ should be easy enough to find legally, between Crunchyroll, Funimation’s Website and Netflix.

Higurashi I was having trouble finding on any legal site, but then I found HIDIVE.  You can watch stuff free with ads, but need a paying subscription to view the Dubs it has.  For Higurashi the Dub isn’t that well received anyway, I was okay with it mostly but I can see why others wouldn’t be.  School Live is also on that site.  And it has some Fate/ stuff as well.

[artsy-jandi]

I need to finish my second listen of the audiobook.

THE KING IS BACK