Toni's Blog for Lit. of Horror

Borne was really something else to experience. I think it really fits the concept of “The New Weird” because everything within the world that Rachel lives in felt so unusual and surreal. Of course it typically would be that way for a post-apocalyptic setting, but Borne dives into interesting detail about this mysterious organization referred as the Company that conducted bio-engineering and releasing creatures into the world. This single concept actually spiced up a setting used in a lot of fiction. The weird aspects of Borne, Wick, and Rachel’s relationship kept me interested, especially of the seemingly infinite forms Borne could take. Something that stood out to me was how sweet and adorable Rachel makes Borne out to be. At first he appears as this gross, multicolored tentacle monster that happens to talk and just exist. He kind of gives off this feeling of creepy-cute, much like No Face from the film Spirited Away. The fact that Rachel ends up taking Borne in and treatin...

Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase was quite an interesting read to experience. I was only able to make it halfway through the novel, but there was something about the main character’s attitude that drew me in. A lot of depressing events have happened in this story, such as the death of this girl he got together with and the divorce of his wife, but he really never showed strong feelings towards anything. He just kind of…let it happen, and I found that pretty cool about his attitude! Once he started talking with the man about the sheep with the star birthmark and the strange tumor in the boss’s head, the story started to pick up a little, since at this point, some strange things begin to be addressed. The girl with the magical ears was also interesting to think about. The main character never explained why they were so compelling to him, but he always stated that there was something about them that was drawing him in. He never seemed surprised or terrified about her ears tho...

Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire . For the longest time, I have been wanting to read this book, and this week was a pleasant excuse to do so since I’m unhealthily obsessed with vampire fiction.   For the first quarter of the novel, I was all over the story and ate it up. Reading about the characters and their world felt like a wonderful breath of fresh air, being that a lot of vampire media has been disappointing to me lately. Rice delved into the psychological impact of immortality and Louis’s struggle with his new life as a vampire. Louis’s reflections of his past, his letting go of humanity, and his complex, almost toxic relationship with Lestat were all extremely compelling to me because of how beautifully written it was. And god, Lestat may be a jerk and I hate his attitude, but he is beautiful. Reading this novel was an experience that really captured every ounce of my attention…until Claudia showed up. I was able to tolerate her for a while, but once ...

Week One - Frankenstein Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein contained quite a few gothic themes, which is no surprise for a classic horror novel. I read the graphic novel version of the story, which seemed to tell the tale very well and I was able to catch the dark themes of the story with no issue. The concepts that describe the premise of the story the most are fear and death. After Victor Frankenstein created his monster, he and everyone that laid eyes upon it immediately became terrified of the creature, since it’s basically a sentient amalgamation of dead body parts. There would be no doubt that the monster would be horrifying to look at, but almost no one took time to consider the monster’s emotions. As the story progresses, Victor’s worries and regrets towards the monster takes the overall feeling of the novel downhill into depression. When the monster confronts Victor and talks to him about its experiences after it runs away, its story almost feels like a metaphor for harsh real...