Month: July 2019

Harry Potter and the Gothic: Plot Tropes

Around this time last year, in honor of Harry’s birthday, I wrote a blog post on “Gothic Elements in Harry Potter.” Earlier this month, I expanded on that post to do a full panel about “Gothic Influences on Harry Potter” for a convention called MISTI-Con. I’ve found working on this topic to be so much fun that I wanted to share with you a bit more of what I’ve learned. This post may even become part of a series as I continue to explore the connections between my favorite genre and the books that kicked off my early love for literature.

Last time, I touched on some of the Gothic settings, themes, and motifs in J.K. Rowling’s books. Now I want to examine in more depth a few specific plot tropes that Harry Potter borrows from the Gothic. Continue reading Harry Potter and the Gothic: Plot Tropes

The Sisters of the Winter Wood Review

“Come buy! Come buy!” While I don’t recommend that you hearken to the call of goblin men, I do highly encourage you to come and buy a copy of the debut YA fantasy novel The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner. Set in an Eastern European shtetl, Rossner’s story is a particularly clever retelling of one of my favorite poems, Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” that blends in Slavic folklore, Jewish traditions, and historical elements. I always love a good fairy tale retelling, but this is one of the most creative examples I’ve ever encountered that both truly honors the source material and also uses it to say something new. Continue reading The Sisters of the Winter Wood Review

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue Review

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue coverAh, the Grand Tour of Europe—that most exciting part of coming of age for any young Victorian gentleman. Monty’s Grand Tour, however, gets a bit too exciting in The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee—a queer YA historical novel that my friends have been ranting and raving to me about for well over a year. Apparently, July is the month for me to finally catch up on all the great reads from the last few years that I somehow missed. I actually met Mackenzi Lee back in 2015 at the Brooklyn Book Festival and reviewed her debut novel, This Monstrous Thing. And yet I still managed to be the last one to hop on the Gentleman’s Guide bandwagon. Oh well, better late than never! Continue reading The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue Review

Review of The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince coverI just can’t resist those evil fairy princes! Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, the first book in her new Folk of the Air series, has been out for well over a year now, but I just recently hopped on the bandwagon. Now I wish I hadn’t waited so long! As I learned from reading her Modern Faerie Tales series over a decade ago, you can always count on Holly Black to create some delightfully degenerate Fair Folk. Continue reading Review of The Cruel Prince

Steampunk Con 2019: A Rundown

Me in my my best Steamgoth style

Now that I’ve had a chance to recover, it’s time to go over my impressions of the very first steampunk event hosted by VampireFreaks, Steampunk Con. A few weeks ago, I wrote up a preview of what we could expect from this new convention, which took place in  Piscataway, New Jersey, on June 21–23. As a first-year event, Steampunk Con was modestly attended and somewhat mellow, but its small size had the advantage of creating a feeling of intimacy and a close-knit community of attendees. This convention’s other great strength lay in the way it found a unique area of overlap between steampunk and goth. Read on for a few highlights from the weekend: Continue reading Steampunk Con 2019: A Rundown