Tag: Gothic

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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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Books Recommendations

Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand

Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand
Published: 1950
Book Tropes: Unreliable characters, mysterious letters, remote houses
Recommended for fans of: Agatha Christie // Hitchcock movies // Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier // Gothic literature // Wales

Katinka Jones works with a women’s magazine and starts a correspondence with the lonely Mrs. Amista Carlyon. Amista lives in a very remote village in Wales. Tinka develops a fondness for her and decides to visit her. But surprise, surprise. There’s nobody called Amista living in that old house. So who was writing those letters? And who is this mysterious Mr. Carlyon who seems to hide a desperate secret of his own?

“And in Katinka Jones, the Welsh blood of her father’s family rose up and painted for her mind’s eye, a scene she loved: the grey valley where the brave green struggled through the earth’s scarred surface under the soft Welsh rain: an old house, clinging to its hard-won foothold on the stony breast of the mountain; the river lying like a silver sword between a young girl and the companionship of men — of all men but Carlyon. ”

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Books Recommendations

The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce

The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce
Books: The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, The Pearl of the Soul of the World
Published: 1998-1999
Recommended if you like: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin / The Chronicles of Narnia / The Ancient Mariner / Gothic mysteries in general
Rating: 8.5 / 10 – Recommended!

The Ancient Ones created the world, and disappeared. The wicked White Witch took advantage of their disappearance, and enslaved and bewitched the Wardens of the kingdoms. Her evil magic has caused the planet to become a barren, perilous desert.

The Witch’s vampyric sons, the Icari, also trap the souls of human women in order to become immortal. One of them, Irralyth, kidnaps a human bride and the bride’s slave girl, Aeriel.

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Books Starred Recommendations

Mask & Dagger Series by Teresa Edgerton

Edgerton Goblin Moon

Books 1 & 2: Goblin Moon / Hobgoblin Night by Teresa Edgerton
Genres / Tropes: 18th Century Alternative History, Fantasy, Alchemy, Search for Atlantis and Philosopher’s Stone, Zorro-like Vigilantes
Published: 1991 / 2015
Similar Books: Sorcery & Cecilia by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, Books by Georgette Heyer, Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater, The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells, The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Rating: 10 of 10. Highly Recommended.

The Plot:

Two alchemists try to raise a dead magician who may know how to make the Seramarias Stone. Two women try to flee a vengeful fairie halfling and her troll minions. A secret glassmakers guild plans to raise a submerged Atlantis-like island. A half-mad, sleepdust-addicted Zorro-like vigilante risks all to expose black magic cartels and the slavers’ trade. And no one can make sense of the homunculus and the golem out in the world. Clearly, a lot happens!

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