January 2010

  • The Stephen King Universe

    By sarajean on 1/30/10 4:48pm
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    Many people believe that Stephen King is your garden variety scare king who happened to make it big. His stories are often wet-your-pants terrifying, sometimes made into movies, and widely popular. There are those who would claim that those are pretty much the facts surrounding the author, and that he’s not exactly known creating anything “important.”

    Neither are true.

    He has some works that are purely thrill rides, for sure; but who is to say that thrill rides have no value? Why are they cast aside while books about the depression, the 1920s, coming-of-age stories—hey, aren’t those all about depression?—are glowing in the limelight, particularly in schools and colleges across the country? I would argue that fantasy and horror, as a genre, is pretty damn creative, if not important, and that to snub them is simply a mistake at best, hubris at worst.

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  • The Grey Woman

    By akgoemans on 1/22/10 2:41am
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    The Grey WomanThe Grey Woman

    Thus far, I am only familiar with Cranford from all of Elizabeth Gaskell's works and was initially wary of reading her Gothic horror tale, The Grey Woman. Sure, it would be brilliantly written but would it be scary? As it turns out, I was fretting for nothing; I enjoyed this book far more because of its different take on the horror genre as well as its specific style of writing.


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  • Told After Supper

    By akgoemans on 1/15/10 12:31pm
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    Told After SupperTold After Supper

    In all honesty, I was hoping for a creepy horror story when I first picked up Jerome K. Jerome's Told After Supper. Admittedly, I was not familiar with his work and thus, was not expecting a quirky little comedy about ghost tales. Once I started reading the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was mostly his sense of humor and his way of adding a dark twist to our everyday customs. 

    In true ghost story tradition, Jerome has opted for a storytelling session on Christmas Eve. Of course, soon enough, you realize that he doesn't do this because he is conforming to a social habit. Rather, he has a plan for poking fun at some of our habits which we take as norm.

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  • The Were-Wolf

    By akgoemans on 1/8/10 7:47am
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    The Were-WolfThe Were-Wolf
    This is another story that was bundled together with collection that also contained John Polidori's take on the vampire. Published in 1896, The Were-Wolf is a short story written by Clemence Housman. I say horror story but it also falls into the drama category. After all, you get generous doses of human angst and relationship woes, not to mention a bit of moral message about the age old fight between good and evil. 

    The overall story is quite simple. It is set in a cold, far off location in Scandinavia where a little farming settlement is plagued by animal attacks. The two main characters of this family setting are two brothers called Sven and Christian.

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