Books Blog : gothic fiction

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

HRevvdon@evpl — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:55:00 GMT

Set in a small southern town, Beautiful Creatures (2009) revolves around Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes. Ethan is born and raised in Gatlin and can’t wait to get out. He runs with the "in" clique and is a basketball star. Then Lena comes to town. Lena is an outcast from the start because she is not from Gatlin and she is different, she is also part of one of the founding families that has always been at odds with the rest of the town…mostly because for some mysterious reason their plantation house was the only one left standing after Sherman’s March during the Civil War.

Ethan and Lena fall in love through a series of interconnected dreams and supernatural occurrences. Ethan soon learns that Lena is a “caster” and that she is about to be “claimed.” She will basically become dark/evil or light/good. Their mission is to make sure that she goes light. Along the way all of Lena’s caster family gets involved and all the mean, prejudice, and closed-minded townspeople cause all kinds of angst for the young couple.

This novel is very gothic in nature, as you would expect, and starts very promising in its uniqueness. It is reminiscent of Anne Rice, only for a younger audience. It has some humor as well. I thought it was great that the Lena’s reclusive uncle names his dog Boo Radley after the character from To Kill a Mockingbird. A little over half way through the book though it starts losing its uniqueness, it even has a scene directly out of Stephen King’s Carrie (which would have worked if it had been acknowledged and poked fun). I think the ending was weak at best. I am sure there will be a sequel but I will skip it.

"The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

MediaPhile@evpl — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:13:00 GMT

If you read and enjoyed Ruiz's international bestseller "Shadow of the Wind," you should probably read his newest (and related) novel "The Angel's Game." This is the second in a series of novels that will all link back to the fictional Cemetery of Forgotten Books featured in "Shadow."

"Angel's Game," set in gothic 1920s Barcelona, centers around an impoverished pulp fiction writer, David Martin, who unwittingly sells his soul to the devil. He finds, of course, that he has made a terrible bargain and must pay a price.

The plot is labyrinthian. Either read this one really carefully the first time, or plan on reading it twice in order to grasp all the threads. I read it twice, and am glad I did.

The author's website is full of intriguing tidbits, including downloadable Barcelona wallpaper and original soundtrack music composed by the author.

Lucky "Thirteenth"

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:59:00 GMT

I'll admit when it comes to literature, I am something of a late bloomer. It took a book group assignment last year for me to finally read Jane Eyre, and of course, I fell in love with it. Recently I followed some friends' recommendations of a book that's reminiscent of that classic novel.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a dark, Jane-Eyre-on-a-roller-coaster kind of book. In the story, renowned English author Vida Winter is dying, and has called upon a bookseller's daughter and sometime-biographer, Margaret Lea, to write Winter's life story. What follows is a well-paced, very Gothic, sometimes creepy tale, replete with twins, ghosts, a governess, mistaken identities, and a bit of madness thrown in for good measure. Though parts of the ending seemed a bit contrived, there were still enough surprises to be satisfying.

If you haven't tried The Thirteenth Tale yet, by all means do so--and let us know what you think!