November 2009

  • The Tomb

    By akgoemans on 11/20/09 6:28am
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    The TombThe Tomb
    Nothing says creepy horror like an H .P. Lovecraft novel, does it? Well, this story, The Tomb,  is not one of his bigger novels; it is, in fact, one of the short stories included in The Vagrant. I remember reading it long ago and picked it up again when I saw it in a compilation of horror stories on Librivox. You know those scary stories that slowly works its way towards a frightening conclusion whilst playing around with your imagination? Not the boom-voom fast numbers but something that takes its time in scaring the living daylights out of you? Yea, that's what The Tomb is all about.


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  • Stephen King, "The Bone Church"

    By erika on 11/16/09 7:15pm
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    Stephen King is everywhere all of a sudden!  He most recently has a poem published in Playboy, which you can read at the Playboy website here.  [NSFW obviously, it being Playboy and all.]  Despite having a degree in English Lit with a focus on postmodern poetry, or perhaps because, I will confess to being a bit baffled by this poem.

    I can forgive the style and voice of "The Bone Church," which is meant to evoke Lovecraft crossed with Heart of Darkness.  That being said, I could do with fewer piratical interjections like "Arr" by the narrator, though.  (He really does say "Arr," several times, without irony.)  And references to a nickelodeon which are every bit as baffling as anything else in the poem. 

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  • The Historian

    By roskopp on 11/12/09 7:17am
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    The HistorianThe HistorianThe old staple characters of horror like Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula were fantastic creations which caught the public imagination and enflamed the genre for years. Even today there are books based on these classic horror tales and one such example is The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.


    This is modern re-imagining of Dracula as a young woman begins to investigate a murky and little told history. The gripping narrative sucks you right in with the young girl discovering a mysterious letter in her father’s library. It alludes to some kind of terrible secret and immediately elicits her curiosity, and by proxy, that of the reader.

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  • Stephen King, "Premium Harmony"

    By erika on 11/10/09 12:05pm
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    Stephen King's latest short story recently appeared in the New Yorker.  You can read it here at the New Yorker website.  I wonder what Stephen King in the 80s would have said, if you had told him that one day he would be published in the New Yorker?  

    I wonder if Stephen King in 2009 remembers what it was like to be that earlier, scrappier, broker Stephen King?  I've wondered this for years, as I watched King's protagonists reflect his gradually rising standard of living.  And his poverty-level characters go from working class heroes to buffoons and scary idiots - from "I" to "The Other."


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  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    By akgoemans on 11/6/09 4:50am
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    frankensteinfrankenstein

    Given its place in history, it is hard to avoid any references to this classic horror tale. Be it books, graphic novels, plays or movies, Frankenstein has been done to death. Of course, since it is a nifty trend-setter, this story never gets old. I must ask though – even though we're all familiar with the basic concept of Frankenstein, have any of us really read the book? The original one by Mary Shelley? Alright, so I have and thus that's how this review came about. And on a side note, early exposure to the original would also explain my love (and by that I mean completely normal, acceptable sort of love) for everything zombie-like. Just what is so great about the original that you can't experience in the numerous remakes and re-imaginings?

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