My favorite mental escape has been, as of late, coming home after the gym, and popping on my audio book of The Hellbound Heart, the quintessential horror novella of the mid-1980's that inspired the long-running Hellraiser horror franchise, making macabre wunderkind Clive Barker into an international celebrity and a bestselling author, as well as a much-applauded director. (He's also a graphic artist, and began his career as such.)

I read “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley primarily because it was on the syllabus for GCSE Literature whilst I was at school. I found it on a reading list online and thought I would spend the summer trying to understand the angles of it, even if we didn’t study it - I thought it was a good exercise in my ability to read and understand an older text. I was thirteen years’ old and it would prove one of the most intense experiences of my life. It took me only one day to read the entire book. I just could not drag myself away from these extensive narratives. Over ten years’ later when I would be in the midst of teaching this book, I found I had the same passion and the same vigour for the novel I had felt in my teen years. It made me feel almost so young again. This book would become to a thirteen year old what a best friend that accepts a freak becomes to the freak. It became a statement of power. It became to me what I had never really had too much of before - it would become my friend. Especially the Monster. The Monster would be my very best friend.

This book is every person’s nightmare turned into a reality. Whether you believe in intuition or not, everyone has those moments in life when you feel as though you are being watched, as if there is someone just out of your line of sight that is keeping tabs on your every move. Some people feel this more strongly than others, and for those of us, myself included, who feel this so strongly that the hairs stand up on the back of our necks, I would offer a word of caution before reading this book; this book takes the illusion of your home representing safety and security and smashes it to pieces. A lifetime of horror movies have taught me to trust my intuition and that you never investigate mysterious sights/sounds, especially if it’s coming from your dark, musty basement.

When I was nineteen and a year away from starting my first year of university to study screenwriting, Flowers in the Attic caught my eye in a bookstore. The name was vaguely familiar and I remembered my English teacher recommending it to a friend, but neither of us was keen on reading a book about abuse and incestuous relationships at fourteen. Although ironically I was in the midst of reading the House of Night series by PC and Kristen Cast, which tackled similarly dark themes.

Rating: 5/5

Unreliable Narrator Analysis

I’m really not sure where to start with this one because I absolutely loved every minute of it! I have been a fan of Darcy Coates ever since I read her book “Craven Manor” last summer. There is just something about the way that she writes that can beautifully and so vividly pull you into the universe that she creates on the page. With Coates’ amazing ability to craft a story that sucks you in, I found myself unable to put this book down.

I happened to purusing through YouTube to find some Junji Ito stories to read, and I found this video about how overrated Junji Ito was, I was fair and I watched the video on his stance. The main point was that his work was just "gross". I could understand the fact because of most of Junji Ito's work does involve some uncomfortable moments of what happens to someone, a terrifying transformation, or an unfathomable demise to a character. As a fan of Junji Ito's I immediately was on the fence about this argumentative fact, but I am a neutral person, I see this from both sides.

The Fall began when the young Abraham heard her tell the legend of the evil that lurks and waits in the dark. Decades later, a plane landed at JFK airport in New York, but, something was wrong. The plane has been 'muted'. No lights, no noises from pilots or passengers. Everyone died and mysteriously drained their blood. The total solar eclipse coinciding with the death sentence on the plane was also the time when the demons' breath came to the surface. No more light, dark night dominates, vampires invaded the whole world like a giant pandemic that is constantly spreading and destroying. From here begins the war of the living to protect humanity and defeat the conspiracy of the devil.

I have a rule about always reading a book before seeing the movie or TV show that it’s based on. If I read it after, I feel like my imagining of the characters is skewed. Also, in my opinion, it’s just more fun to see something come to life after reading it than it is to read something you’ve already seen.

Upon Robert Lewis Stevenson’s publishing of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886, the social classes in the "civilized world" were facing the threat of destruction by the hands of left-winged rouges and radicals. The political philosophies of Karl Marx, the Paris Commune, and the Anarchist riot in Haymarket Square made the message clear that social reform would be inevitable; be it in a year or in an entire generation’s lifetime. The elements of 19th century society and politics inspired Stevenson’s characterization of Edward Hyde as a left winged radical, fueled by the desires of chaos and anarchy.