Finally, I have reached the novel Bram Stoker is most famous for; Dracula. Everybody has probably heard about Dracula, and it hardly feels like it needs any introduction. The first time, I read it, I did not have a lot of expectations to the story, except (you know) vampires, and I was a bit sceptical at the beginning, because I could not quite figure out what was happening. Although, once I got further into the story, I was hooked and I ended up absolutely loving it.
I think most of the short stories are way better than The Jewel of the Seven Stars and Lair of the White Worm (It’s hard to be worse than the White Worm). Mostly they are rather good, some of them are really bad (but at least they are short.) Minor spoiler below
Dracula’s Guest
Summary: Tourist refuses to listen to local people’s warnings about going to explore a village that is very obviously haunted. In consequence stuff happens.
Continue reading “Bram’tober: The Short Stories”I am reading Dracula and other horror stories by Bram Stoker this month, to be honest I did not know that Bram Stoker had written any other stories beside Dracula. Since there is a lot to review and time is a finite thing, the reviews will be fairly short. I will start with the two not-Dracula novels; The Jewel of the Seven Stars and The Lair of the White Worm. (Some spoilers below)
The Jewel of the Seven Stars
Continue reading “Bram’tober: Jewels and Worms”
Horror is not really a genre that I read a lot of, but I just so happened to stumble upon this one. The cover was really what drew me in, it’s completely black, and the title and author’s name are imprinted into the cover, (this is the reason I took a picture, as the protective covering from the library actually makes it possible to see imprints, which is more interesting than just a complete black cover).
Continue reading “Book Review: Hvileløs – Wittenbergjornalerne “
The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis is a YA thriller, which is not a genre I read a lot of and those I have read has been “adult” thrillers, but if all YA thrillers are like this one, I’m definitely going to read more of them in the future. It is also a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe A Cask of Amontillado, so let’s start with a brief summary of that story. (There are some spoilers in the trigger warnings at the end of this post)
Continue reading “Best Reviewed Cold: The Initial Insult”If I was better at planning I would have published this last month… but I’m not, also there is more sci-fi than horror, so let’s pretend that is why. Unusually there are only four podcasts reviews in this post, but I think you could argue that The Penumbra Podcast count as two, since it has two very different storylines.
It’s that time of year again, when ghosts and ghouls come out to play, or perhaps more likely when pumpkins, fake blood, and fake spiders are everywhere you look. And this month, I’m borrowing (with permission) Sunny’s “Podcastmania” concept, because down below you will find a bunch of recommendations for the all those horror podcasts that takes up (probably more than) half of my podcast feed and fills the silence, when I bike around the city, make dinner, clean my home, crochet, and…. well, essentially every time I have a quiet moment.
Also, fair warning, while most of these podcasts list trigger warnings either in the episode descriptions or before the stories in the episodes, some do not, so if you have any specific triggers, please look in to the shows and check out episode descriptions before you listen.
Here are my top five favourite short stories by Neil Gaiman. It tends to change depending on my mood, but these are my current top five (I have included the collections, where you can find the stories, if you want to read them, and I highly recommend you do). There are no spoilers, though I will be mentioning, what the stories are about and what I like about them, so don’t read this if you prefer to go in blind.
5. We start off with “A Calendar of Tales”, which is a short story comprised of twelve short tales, that Mr. Gaiman (@neilhimself) wrote from the following twitter answers to his questions:
Continue reading “Top Five Favourite Neil Gaiman Short Stories”Here are a couple of podcasts with completed story arcs for those of you who have the patience of subscribing to an ongoing podcast and then having to wait patiently for them to update. It’s a bit of a mix bag of genres; there is some sci-fi, horror, thriller, adventure, comedy, I think I’ve got most bases covered in this one.
The Bright Sessions is a sci-fi podcast about people with superpowers in therapy. I have over time, probably due to all the superhero movies, developed an interest in how “normal” people would deal with having superpowers, so this podcast was a godsend for me. It’s really interesting to listen to the problems they face both due to their powers, but also their “normal” problems and how having superpowers affect or exacerbated those. As the show progress the various story lines starts to merge and the various patients’ stories also becomes part a bigger plot. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in an unusual approach into superhuman life, and all the trouble that entails.
Continue reading “Podcastmania: fiction”Alas, no hat trick for me. But Hunter was on fire this time, she has been done for months at this point. Whereas I started each book with enthusiasm and then got distracted by other shinier books, before I was halfway through. Also, there were a couple of the bingo books I didn’t like at all, but were too stubborn to dnf like I usually would. Basically, I have a thousand excuses, and I’m totally going to win next year. Here are my Book Bingo reviews for 2020 in reading order.
A Book With a One Word Title
Originally, Middlegame by Seanan McGuire was the book I’d chosen for the time travel category, Continue reading “Book Bingo Reviews: Didn’t Win This Time :(“
Our Thoughts in Transit 