Magic is drying up in Great Britain and the blame is about to be placed on the country’s most hated magician.… Sorcerer to the Crown was the debut novel by Zen Cho, which came out back in 2015. It’s a striking read-alike to a more recent release, The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk. Both explore sexism and clashing cultures in a magical alternate Regency setting. But Sorcerer to the Crown adds one more element that I love—the fae. Continue reading Review of Sorcerer to the Crown–Ambition and Fairy Bargains
The Women of Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft is not particularly known for his varied and nuanced depictions of female characters. In fact, he’s known for barely depicting women in his tales of cosmic horror at all. Discounting female eldritch gods and dead queens, I’ve come up with a total of three women across Lovecraft’s oeuvre that play significant roles in his stories. Let’s take a look at how they fit into the mythos: Continue reading The Women of Lovecraft
Review of Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor
A few months ago, I reviewed the much talked-about Netflix television show The Haunting of Hill House. And as requested, I’m back with a review of the follow-up season The Haunting of Bly Manor! Like Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor was created for Netflix by Mike Flanagan and it features many of the same actors, but it is not a direct sequel. Instead, while Hill House took on Shirley Jackson’s most famous novel, Bly Manor tackles the works of another beloved American author, Henry James. Loosely inspired by James’s ghostly novella The Turn of the Screw, with plot elements from a few of his other stories thrown in, the nine episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor debuted on Netflix on October 9, 2020—just in time to be the perfect mid-pandemic binge. Continue reading Review of Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor
Gothic Vocab: The Grotesque
Perhaps more so than the other vocabulary words we’ve discussed thus far (the sublime and the uncanny), “grotesque” is a term you’re just as likely to hear thrown about in casual conversation as in academic discourse on Gothic literature. We might use it to describe anything that’s bizarre, incongruous, unnatural, or gross. But where does it come from, and what does it mean in a literary context? Much like the word “Gothic” itself, grotesque has a convoluted and roundabout history that covers a wide range of meanings and takes us back to ancient times. Continue reading Gothic Vocab: The Grotesque
Gothic Tropes: Animate Portraits and Tapestries
The eyes of the portraits are watching you, seeming to follow you no matter where you go.… It’s such a classic scene in horror that we see this moment parodied in nearly every sitcom or children’s cartoon that has a haunted house episode. But where did this trope come from? To an extent, it’s inspired by an actual artistic phenomenon—an optical illusion called “ubiquitous gaze,” in which the artist’s use of perspective makes the subject appear to be looking at the viewer, no matter what angle the viewer approaches it from. In Gothic literature, however, a supernatural explanation is more likely. In fact, in several classic works, the portraits do quite a bit more than merely follow you with their eyes. Below are a few of my favorite examples of portraits and tapestries that come to life:
Continue reading Gothic Tropes: Animate Portraits and Tapestries
Review of Wicked Saints—Holiness and Heresy in a Fantasy World
A battle-hardened blood mage, a girl touched by the gods, and a monster forged by magic each have one goal: to overthrow the king. Delicate alliances, heartbreaking betrayals, and devious machinations fill the pages of Wicked Saints, the first book in Emily A. Duncan’s young adult fantasy series Something Dark and Holy. I picked up a copy of this book back when it first came out in 2019, but only just now got around to reading it—right in time for the trilogy’s conclusion! Book 2, Ruthless Gods came out last year and now the final book, Blessed Monsters, comes out tomorrow, April 6. If you haven’t hopped on this bandwagon yet, you’ll want to dive right in with Wicked Saints and then keep on reading the next two books. Just brace yourself to fall in love with some monsters! Continue reading Review of Wicked Saints—Holiness and Heresy in a Fantasy World
Review of Maplecroft–Lovecraft Meets Lizzie Borden
Take the story of Lizzie Borden and cross that with Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth”.… This is essentially the plot of Cherie Priest’s 2014 horror novel Maplecroft. This book has been on my to-read list for years now, and I finally got around to listening to the audiobook. If you love bold women swinging axes, casual queer representation, and eldritch beings emerging from the sea, you’ll want to pick this one up, too! Continue reading Review of Maplecroft–Lovecraft Meets Lizzie Borden
Review of Lost in the Never Woods–A Dark Peter Pan
What if Wendy’s brothers never came back from Neverland? Aiden Thomas, celebrated author of Cemetery Boys, is back with a dark and spooky twist on Peter Pan! Lost in the Never Woods is a YA fantasy novel that takes on one of the most iconic characters in children’s literature to explore the themes of trauma and grief. It comes out tomorrow, March 23. Continue reading Review of Lost in the Never Woods–A Dark Peter Pan
Pernicious Plants in Horror Fiction
Man vs. Nature. It’s a conflict at the core of so much of Gothic and horror fiction and takes a myriad of forms. But the most literal iteration of this trope when the story’s protagonists find themselves up against deadly, monstrous plants. From poisonous perfumes to strangling vines to invasions of invasive species, who knows what untold horrors might be hidden in the greenery around you! Below are a few of my favorite examples of people-killing plants throughout horror literature.
Early Vampire Poems
I’ve written before about the Vampire Literary Canon—some of the most popular works that cemented the vampire’s place as literature’s favorite monster. But before vampires worked their way into novels (like Bram Stoker’s Dracula), novellas (like J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla), or even short stories (like Polidori’s “The Vampyre”), many of the earliest appearances of these creatures in Western literature occurred in poetry. Below are a few of my favorite examples of early vampire poems:
