Tag Archives: Dark Fantasy

Wolf Alice by Angela Carter

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

Wolf AliceTitle: Wolf Alice
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Dark fantasy, Werewolves
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: She grew up with wild beasts.

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Synopsis

A feral child, whom some nuns have attempted to “civilize” by trying to teach her standard social graces, is left in the house of a monstrous, vampiric Duke when she cannot conform. She gradually comes to realise her own identity as a young woman and human being, and even develops compassion for the Duke, going far beyond the nuns’ stunted views of life.

Thoughts

Sometimes we just can’t conform to others’ beliefs of “normal”. But, that’s not always a bad thing, it’s just something that happens. And, in the case of this short story – that non-conformity led to a young, feral girl child being abandoned to an older, vampiric gentleman. What a way to punish someone for not doing as you expect them to! And, you know, there’s a lot of symbolism in the fact that the young, untrained girl is literally given away to an older man. One that is a blood-sucker to be more precise.

This was a great way to finish The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories – it is vivid, descriptive and just as wickedly twisted as the rest of the stories in this collection.

 <- The Company of Wolves Review The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Book Review, , , , ,

Overview

Skulduggery PleasantTitle: Skulduggery Pleasant
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #1
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Dark fantasy, Easy reading, Paranormal fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2007
5th sentence, 74th page: I don’t know.

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Synopsis

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant. Sure, he may lose his head now and again (in fact, he won his current skull in a poker match), but he is much more than he appears to be—which is good, considering that he is, basically, a skeleton. Skulduggery may be long dead, but he is also a mage who dodged the grave so that he could save the world from an ancient evil. But to defeat it, he’ll need the help of a new partner: a not so innocent twelve-year-old girl named Stephanie. That’s right, they’re the heroes.

Stephanie and Skulduggery are quickly caught up in a battle to stop evil forces from acquiring her recently deceased uncle’s most prized possession—the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Ancients were the good guys, an extinct race of uber-magicians from the early days of the earth, and the scepter is their most dangerous weapon, one capable of killing anyone and destroying anything. Back in the day, they used it to banish the bad guys, the evil Faceless Ones. Unfortunately, in the way of bad guys everywhere, the Faceless Ones are staging a comeback and no one besides our two heroes believes in the Faceless Ones, or even that the Sceptre is real.

So Stephanie and Skulduggery set off to find the Sceptre, fend off the minions of the bad guys, beat down vampires and the undead, prove the existence of the Ancients and the Faceless Ones, all while trading snappy, snippy banter worthy of the best screwball comedies.

Thoughts

I haven’t read this book for years. Actually, it’s been in a box in a cupboard for a few years (the joys of moving around). So, the first thing that I did when I unpacked my many, many, many books, was crack open this story again. There is something fun and entertaining about this story that always leaves a smile on my face. Plus, there is an attitudinal, sassy thirteen-year-old girl who completely takes centre stage.

Following the death of Stephanie’s favourite uncle, and her subsequent inheritance, she is thrust into a world of magic and mayhem. Which, as any anarchic teen would, she completely adores and eventually decides to join. The fact that everything always seems to go wrong and her mentor is actually a living (but not quite breathing) skeleton just adds to the joy and absurdity of this story. Which is probably why, as a thirteen-year-old girl myself, I insanely enjoyed this series. A completely off-kilter mentor, a world just beneath our own where you can be something more, and a teenager who is making all of her own decisions.

Sometimes revisiting an old and well loved series just leads to heartache and a sense of loss – there’s nothing like finding out that it isn’t quite what you remember it to be. However, for me, rereading Skulduggery Pleasant was a really fun and memorable journey… now I just have to buy the next books in the series (I only had the one!)

 <- The Horror Writers’ Halloween Ball Review The Lost Art of World Domination Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Werewolf by Angela Carter

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

The WerewolfTitle: The Werewolf
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter)
Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Dark fantasy, Werewolves
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: Here, take your father’s hunting knife; you know how to use it.

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Synopsis

A tale of a girl who goes visit her grandmother, but encounters a mysterious werewolf on the way…

Thoughts

Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have! And now I shall cause you bodily harm and take your place.

This is possibly my favourite Carter retelling so far. Most of the fairytales, I genuinely enjoy, but Little Red Riding Hood is one that I never really related to. Possibly because I never go to see my own grandmother, and I can’t imagine skipping down a forest path to do so. Plus, what sane family would send their small daughter into the forest where wolves are known to roam? But, I digress. The very things that kind of frustrate me about the original are twisted to fit this fantastic retelling.

For only three pages, this was a really fun and kind of twisted story.

 <- The Lady of the House of Love Review The Company of Wolves Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

The Company of WolvesTitle: The Company of Wolves
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Dark fantasy, Werewolves
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: He strips off his shirt.

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Synopsis

The wolf is described as an evil thing. The first story is about a witch that turned a whole wedding ceremony into wolves. She likes them coming to her cabin and howling their misery for it soothes her. The following story is about a young lady and a man that are about to have sex on their wedding night. As they get ready, the husband says he needs to stop and relieve himself in the forest. The wife waits and he never returns. Off in the distance you can hear a wolf howling. She then figures her husband will never return and marries a new man. With her new husband she bears children. Her first husband comes back and sees his wife and the story unravels… Later we meet a girl walking in the woods. She was loved by everyone and feared nothing. She made a deal with a hunter; whoever can get to the grandmothers house first wins. If the hunter wins she owes him a kiss. She lets the hunter win because she wants to kiss him. The hunter arrives at the grandmothers house but she’s frail and sick, holding a Bible for protection. The last thing she sees is the young man at the foot of her bed…. “See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny’s bed, between the paws of the tender wolf.”

Thoughts

The ultimate story of seduction over the wild beast. Kind of a spin on Little Red Riding Hood but with a far cooler ending. After all, the big teeth ultimately lead to a happily ever after… of sorts.

The story doesn’t just tell the story about the young girl with the red hood though. It displays the wolf as an evil thing – it is a creature turned by witchcraft. It is a killer and the scariest thing in the woods. No one wants to cross the wolf. Yet, the most beloved, and innocent of all the village goes into the woods and somehow manages to find a way to belong in the company of wolves.

 <- The Werewolf Review Wolf Alice Review ->
Image source: Wikipedia

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

The Bloody ChamberTitle: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Dark fantasy, Short story collections
Pace: Slow
Format: Collection
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: No response to my tentative rap on his door.

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Synopsis

Angela Carter was a storytelling sorceress, the literary godmother of such contemporary masters of supernatural fiction as Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Audrey Niffenegger, J. K. Rowling, and Kelly Link, who introduces this edition of Carter’s most celebrated book, published for the seventy-fifth anniversary of her birth. In The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—Carter spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.

Thoughts

I started reading this book over a year ago. And after the first three stories, I felt completely overwhelmed. Honestly, they are hard going. But, after having a very long break, I decided to return to the world of Angela Carter. And I don’t know if it’s that I was in a better frame of mind for it, or maybe my reading tastes have developed, but there is something about Carter’s lyrical writing style that made it almost impossible to put this down.

There is a way about Carter’s writing that not only flows beautifully, but completely turns everything on its head. Her retake on many familiar stories leaves hauntingly familiar tales that you can’t quite put your finger on. It’s eerie and haunting, and has definitely given me a lot to think about.

 <- Wolf Alice Review The Bloody Chamber Review ->
Image source: Angela Carter

The Lady of the House of Love by Angela Carter

Book Review, , , , , ,

Overview

The Lady of the House of LoveTitle: The Lady of the House of Love
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Angela Carter)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Dark fantasy, Vampires
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: All the silver tears fall from the wall with a flimsy tinkle.

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Synopsis

A virginal English soldier, traveling through Romania by bicycle, finds himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity and virginity have a curious effect on her.

Thoughts

Sleeping beauty with a dark twist. And not in the slightest what I expected. Actually, it kind of gave me the heeby jeebies. The beautifully lyrical and intense words seemed to completely offset the dark, twisted nature of this vampiri-fic (yes, I went there) story. It was actually so unsettling that I’m glad I read this early in the morning, not late at night. After all, who ever heard of sleeping beauty as a reluctant vampire?

As with everything else that I’ve read by Angela Carter, she has an uncanny ability to turn something that I well-recognise and twist it until it is only liltingly familiar. Turning the women from the place of rescuing, to the attackers or rescuers themselves. In this case, the young woman alone in her castle is most certainly the predator. And the endless sleep? Well, it’s kind of a happy ending…

 <- The Snow Child Review The Werewolf Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

The Corsers’ Hinge by D.M. Cornish

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Overview

Legends of Australian FantasyTitle: The Corsers’ Hinge
Author: D.M. Cornish
Series: Monster Blood Tattoo #2.5
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Dark fantasy, Medieval fantasy
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: One Mister Emptor Settlepond; he owns a whole bunch o’ tallowbellies and is constantly seekin’ sturdy souls to work ’em on account of ‘im always openin’ more.

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Synopsis

Bunting Faukes has a debt and no way to repay it – times are tough for grave robbers. But a way out is presented in the person of Atticus Wells, a sleuth with strange eyes that see into everything.

Thoughts

There is something about D.M. Cornish’s writing that takes a lot longer for me to process. It’s a combination of the convoluted writing style, and the creation of a totally new world that seems to stump me, and, when I’m struggling to concentrate, I find it epically difficult and almost impossible to read at times.

Not that that means that I don’t like this novella… it’s just that it took me a really long time to read. And I generally like the shorter stories for the fact that they are an enjoyable afternoon spent. The different storylines and points of view that all connect is something that I have always enjoyed in a story. It’s great to see how the same thing can stem from multiple viewpoints and storylines.

I honestly don’t know whether I loved or hated this story. I suppose something in between. It was difficult to read, but still something that is stuck in my mind. A great story by a man with an incredible imagination, just one that I probably won’t be able to read again.

 <- The Spark Review Tribute to Hell Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins Australia

The Gauntlet by Karen Chance

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
The Gauntlet

Title: The Gauntlet
Author: Karen Chance
Series: Cassandra Palmer #0.5, Cassandra Palmer World #1
In: The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Paranormal romance
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Karen Chance Online
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: Lots o’ moles.

Synopsis

The Gauntlet is a Kit Marlowe short from The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2 and a companion piece to The Queen’s Witch.

Thoughts

I loved the way that this novella flicked between two different points of view – the vampire and the witch’s. Although originally it is easy to take the witch’s side, it quickly becomes possible to not only see the blossoming romance between the two, but also why each acts as they do. No matter how odd and absurd riding across a battle on a keg may seem.

Actually, it’s the rather absurd battle and ways in which the characters are able to overcome their difficulties, differences and the dangers around them that I most love about this story. The imagery that Chance brings to the tale have stayed in my mind a lot longer than they usually would, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into The Queen’s Witch.

<- More Karen ChanceThe Queen’s Witch ->

Image source: Goodreads

The Highest Justice by Garth Nix

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

To Hold the BridgeTitle: The Highest Justice
Author: Garth Nix
In: To Hold the Bridge (Garth Nix)
Rating Out of 5:  4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Dark fantasy, Easy reading
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: You’re the rightful type, I can tell.

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Synopsis

Princess Jess wants justice for her mother’s murder. So she finds someone to deliver the highest justice.

Thoughts

Who decides on justice? Where does it come from? What on earth is the highest justice?

Princess Jess’ journey kind of helps to look into these questions. It is an investigation into how justice can be dispensed, and more importantly, how it is often dispensed in medieval times. Jess’ desire to bring her mother’s murderer to justice and reunite her mother with the love of her life bring about a slightly obscure adventure. After all, there aren’t any other stories I’ve read that combine a Princess, a unicorn and a zombie…

<- An Unwelcome Guest Review Master Haddad’s Holiday Review ->
Image source: Goodreads

Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
on-the-prowl

Title: Mona Lisa Betwining
Author: Sunny
Series: Monere: Children of the Moon #2.5
In: On the Prowl (Patricia Briggs)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Paranormal romance
Pace: Fast
Format: Novella
Publisher: Berkley
Year: 2007
5th sentence, 74th page: Or even by Blaec, Halcyon’s father, though he had been the tool in sending them on to the final darkness.

Synopsis

Among the children of the moon, Mona Lisa is of Mixed Blood- part Monere, part human, and destined to be alone. Then she meets a man who could be her salvation- or her downfall.

Thoughts

This novella sends goosebumps running up my arms – the raw sensuality of the words is enough to make you glance sneakily around for an audience. But the emotive descriptions of the night, the moon and the forests add to this heightened sense of reality which Sunny is able to so effortlessly create. This heady combination left me speechless and dreamy for a long time after finishing this novella – something that is incredibly difficult, believe me!

Mona Lisa’s grief and confusion at her feelings, lovers and new role in life are so tangible throughout the story. And it is Dontaine who appears to bear the brunt of her negativity – a man that reminds her of not only what she’s lost, but what she has unwittingly gained. However, his very compassion and understanding of her in ways that she is barely able to comprehend are such an endearing quality that you can only hope for his continuing presence in her life.

The vividness with which Sunny describes both the setting and Mona Lisa’s potent sexuality definitely makes this story feel more like a guilty pleasure than a bit of classical reading. The unabashed way in which she describes the couplings throughout the story are both erotic and romantic, a difficult balance for any writer to strike.

<- Buying TroubleOn the Prowl ->

Image source: Patricia Briggs