Tag: Gothic

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Best of List Index Recommendations Watchlist

Watchlist 2025: Mini-Reviews [Long List]

Happy New Year 2026!

Lots of watches this past year 2025, and here’s a time capsule of everything good that I binged on.

Frankenstein (2025)

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Standout watch of the year. This movie is a spellbinding visual feast. To think it is based on a book written by 20-year old Mary Shelley during a writing contest among friends in 1818! This story remains relevant for modern times, as genius scientific inventions come perilously close to upending longstanding concepts of humanity… and you wonder, at what cost? Where are we heading towards?

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Joan of Arc is a fascinating historical figure, so I jumped to watch this French silent film, which has been restored after great damage to the original reel and is in public domain. Yes, I know, silent films are difficult to watch, especially when superstition and religion are added to the mix. But seriously, the acting by Renée Jeanne Falconetti is phenomenal. She does not need words, her facial expressions of the solemn, devout, hurting, doubting Joan convey it all. When they burn her at the stake near the end, it is an electrifying, goosebump-raising, horrifying moment that will bring tears to your eyes. An underrated masterpiece.

Conclave

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Ralph Fiennes has been my favorite actor ever since I saw him in The Constant Gardener and he shines in Conclave too. The election of the next Pope is a grand but top-secret affair, and now we look within to see how it all plays out. But what if the former Pope had been murdered? Fiennes, playing caretaker of the Papal elections, has a difficult task indeed. I am not particularly fond of the resolution, but I know I was glued to the screen throughout.

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Best of List Books Memes

Books set in Ominous Places

This week’s Top 10 Tuesday prompt (ten books in special settings or time period) was so cool and could have gone a thousand different ways. Yet, what I ended up thinking of were books set in ominous places.

I was thinking of places that are remarkable and likely very dangerous, not somewhere you may want to venture — at least, not outside of a book.

1 / The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Trapped in a castle with a wicked uncle and no way out? Crossed out.

2 / Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Stuck at an afternoon picnic where reality and dreaming are blurred? Crossed out.

3 / The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip
Desperate to enter a tower which won’t let you in? Crossed out.

4 / In the Forest of Forgetting by Theodora Goss
Lots of known fairy tale characters forgetting what’s important? Crossed out.

5 / Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Living in an amusement park in a swamp while wrestling alligators and fighting off rabid competitors? Crossed out.

6 / The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Raised in a library that is not really a library? Crossed out.

7 / The City in the Lake by Rachel Neumeier
Trying to figure out a mirror city that is trying to become the real city? Crossed out.

8 / Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Packed off to a remote and dreary island for reformation? Crossed out.

9 / The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino
Feasting with weird and melodramatic people straight out of tarot decks? (Hopefully) crossed out.

10 / The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Living in fear for your life in a house surrounded by a moat, when you know Sherlock Holmes will be too late to the rescue? Crossed out.

What about you? Which ominous fictional places have stood out in your recent bookish memory?

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Starred Recommendations

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

What a strange and mesmerizing tale! Gilling has incorporated elements of folk legend, superstition, horror, The Gothic, complex mythology and epic knight quests, and made it into a completely new and unique genre of its own.

The simplest description: There is an abbey at the top of a mountain, where people visit for answers from the gods. A bunch of diviners (think: oracles) offer their interpretations of the signs they read. But then many of these diviners disappear, and the last one standing, “Number Six” (think, Brienne of Tarth) decides to find out what’s happening. Her allies are a rather insecure boy-king and his band of knights, who may or may not believe in the gods or the diviners’ great gifts.  

Some parts of the story, especially early on, seem a little implausible, and you do have to suspend disbelief. But it’s a small price to pay, for a very rewarding plotline overall. The characters, all of them, are very well written, each one with a distinct voice. And that ending is something you will never see coming, and yet, it couldn’t have ended any other way.

I read it once, and then I went back and read it all over again. It’s that good. I was a huge fan of Gillig’s Shepherd King duology in 2023, and The Knight and the Moth is no different.

Recommended for fans of: The Gothic, Cozy Horror, Gargoyles, Complex mythology systems, Epic knight quests/ Arthurian adventures, Medieval fare, Dark academia, Folktales, Brienne of Tarth, Oracles/ Divination stories, Darkangel Trilogy, House of Salt & Sorrows, Naomi Novik’s work, The Familiar, etc. etc. etc.

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Best of List Books Memes

Ten Deliciously Dark Reads

Happy Halloween! And right on cue, we have Top 10 Tuesday giving out a Halloween freebie treat. I’m by no means a horror fan, but I will try to wrap up the month with top 10 spooktastic and deliciously dark reads.

1 / The Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig

Phenomenally gothic and creepy. This duology took me completely by surprise and got me out of my reader’s block. Absolutely mindblowing world-building, plot AND writing.

2 / The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

In Udolpho, young Emily St. Aubere finds herself orphaned and in the clutches of her wicked uncle-in-law, Montoni. Montoni is up to no good, and more than one skeleton hides in his closet. This is Gothic suspense at its finest, and is highly recommended.

3 / Cry Baby Hollow by Aimee Love

I found this on Goodreads for lesser known Urban Fantasy reads. One of the reviewers said that the “Hollow” was for “holler” — and this is not about your friendly neighborhood wolf. It was such a change from the usual Urban Fantasy, recommended.

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Miscellany

Monthly Wrap Up (May-June ’23)

This will probably be the world’s shortest wrap-up. Still, I do need to keep tabs on what I’ve read or watched in the past few months, so here it goes.

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers. Historical with (possibly) SFF elements as it plays with the question of who is a true psychic and who is just a quack. Heroine is rescued from prison to speak to a client’s dead wife, but is she the real deal? The suspense builds up splendidly but the ending felt needlessly convoluted. Works well overall for a Gothic mood read.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I’ve seen reviews likening this to Hunger Games + Sarah J. Maas. I thought it was a lot like Divergent + Dragonflight, and let’s face it, very very tropey. In any case, it was enjoyable but made me think I’m too old for this.

The Fallen Idol (1948). Old British thriller full of unreliable narrators declaring that “the butler did it” (do you believe them?). There’s this one critical scene that I had to go back and rewatch at least thrice to understand how it changed everything. Seriously, kids say the darnedest things!

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. A neighbor persuaded me into watching this one with her. Despite my I’m-too-old-for-this grumpiness, I managed to laugh my way through this one. If you’ve seen the movie, you know that Wolf is QUITE scary. I particularly loved This is the End song (above).

Also binge-watched a couple of Asian dramas on Netflix: Who Rules the World and Till the End of the Moon. Lots of fantasy martial arts and villainous scheming, a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If you’re new to Asian dramas, probably not the best place to start. But they’re great for stress-busting.

That’s it for May-June ’23! Pretty bad reading stats for this year so far, but I still have hopes for the rest of the year.

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Recommendations Watchlist

Movie Review: The Inugami Family

The Inugami Family (Japanese Movie)
Year of Release: 1976
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Based on the Book: The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo
Recommended for fans of: Gothic, Foreign Period Dramas, Eerie Mysteries, A touch of Horror, Brilliant Plot, Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Some time back, Words & Peace had recommended The Inugami Curse and I’d wanted to read the book ever since. I decided to take the shortcut when I accidentally discovered there was a subtitled movie adaptation too.

It’s a superb plot. The patriarch of the Inugami family clan dies, leaving behind several competing successors and a really crazy will. I don’t think it’s giving away spoilers to say that the will goes along the lines of “If A dies, B gets the property. If B dies, C gets the property….” It’s like the dreadful old man was setting them all up to murder, starting with A! Along the way there are some red herrings – the challenge is to identify which ones are red herrings and which ones are not.

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Books Music & Poetry Recommendations Watchlist

Tri-Monthly Wrap-Up/ Mini Reviews

Is “tri-monthly” the right word? June, July, August — loads of books and shows that I discovered and even liked (wonder of wonders)! Interestingly, in pretty much all of these, I also found that the blurb or the trailer had been misleading. Here’s a (long post) wrap up.

Castle Barebane by Joan Aiken

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

A rather strange and underrated historical fantasy work set in the 1880s involving a “road trip” from New York to Scotland. The journalist heroine sets out to help her odd brother (and also escape her marriage). Then she finds herself embroiled in a blackmail plot and with her young nephew and niece in tow. This book really defies genre and age groupings. The suspense is slow to build-up, the “fantasy” part is very, very subtle. I even thought there was some LGBTQ representation in this 1976 book. Also historically accurate, as can be expected from Aiken.

Why didn’t they ask Evans?

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A very quirky new adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s more complex mysteries. This cryptic question changes every time: Why didn’t they ask Evans? Why didn’t they ask Evans? Why didn’t they ask Evans? Wait at least till Episode 2 for the show to really get going.

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Miscellany

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

The Witness for the Dead
Series: The Goblin Emperor Series (but can be read as standalone)
Published: June 2021
Book Themes / Tropes: I can speak to the Dead, Judicial power politics, Court intrigue, A Good Person
Recommended if you like: Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold, or generally any mythological fantasy work
Rating: 9 of 10

How many times do we come across truly good, kind people in fiction? People who do the right thing even if that doesn’t help them much politically, simply because it is the right thing to do? In Witness for the Dead, Addison has created a good person in the form of Celehar who works as a witness for the dead.

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Books Recommendations

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

About The Forgotten Garden
Published: 2008
Book Tropes: Foundlings, Time Hops, Family Secrets, Mysterious Houses, Australia
Recommended for fans of: Susanna Kearsley, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Possession by A. S. Byatt, The Thirteenth Tale by by Diane Setterfield

Forgotten Garden was the first book that I decided to read from my Fall 2021 Reading List — since that was the book most people recommended! It turned out to be a very engrossing read, and managed to get me out of my reader’s block.

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Memes To Be Read Books

Fall 2021 Reading List

September is nearly gone and I’m still struggling with the reading/ blogging blues that first showed up for me in July. Still, a reading list for Fall 2021 for this week’s Top 10 Tuesday seemed doable — even if I (probably) won’t end up reading through. 🙁

The reading list is tailored for:

► The R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril (RIP) XVI Reading Challenge 2021 hosted @perilreaders on Twitter and Instagram, where you get to try out spooky stuff, at least once a year (in my case), and

► The Treason & Plot #WitchWeek2021 Challenge hosted by Calmgrove and LizzieRoss Writer, where you get to try out books involving gothic mayhem and dark magic.

If these reading challenges interest you, here are a few suggestions!

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