While I may be a Creative Writing and English Lit student I’ve fallen into a horrid habit of not reading outside of my necessary reading list during the semester. Since I’m on my break I made a little To-Do List of books I already own that I will read. I have a guilt complex that I won’t allow myself to buy new books because I have so many I own that I haven’t read, but since I’m getting back into their pages it’s about time I did a series of Goth-like book mini-reviews!
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Other Tales by Edgar Allen Poe
I suppose this is a classic when it comes to Goth beloved literature but what really caught my attention were tales like The Pit and the Pendulum and the couple of murder mysteries (which are my favourite stories to read. When starting The Pit and the Pendulum I thought it was going to be Poe’s typical Gothic horror in which the character is slowly driven into madness while the reader watches the characters changing perspective in terms of morals and the world. It does do all of this, but the ending changes everything. I won’t spoil it but if you’ve thought the same about this tale as me than you might be caught with the same sense of ohmyfuckinggodwhatwasthat at the ending and be forced to Goggle it to make sure your conclusion is correct! It was fabulous.
My murder mystery conclusion only hit me when I was Googling films like The Raven which I love but most people think is horrible. Anyway, I came across someone that was wrong on the internet and had proposed Poe’s mysteries to be after the original Sherlock Holmes. I had flung into a passionate rant about the obvious period differences when I realised that Sir Arthur Conan was probably heavily inspired by writers like Poe in his creation of Sherlock Holmes.
Anyway, read it. It is great if you don’t like reading big books at once because the short tales range from five to fourty pages each.
The Vampire Lestat
It feels like a million years ago that I first read Interview with a Vampire, and that I fell in love with Lestat’s cold personality and rage at the world. I feel like with each book outlining each of the character’s histories I fall in love with another character. Louis was never my favourite but Interview forced my love into Lestat, and The Vampire Lestat has forced my love into Armand. The Vampire Armand is definitely next for me.
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
When I first remembered that I put this book on my reading list these holidays I regretted it. But then two days later I’d finished the first book and realised how much better it represented the characters than in the (Swedish) films. I suppose it could be included in a Gothy book review since the main character is a Goth. Lisbeth Salander dresses in her token worn leather jacket, books and black. But she also listens to unpopular music whose CD’s consist of “musicians on the covers [who] looked like vampires from outerspace.” Sounds pretty familiar?
But I feel like the character in the books holds so many aspects of general alternative lifestyle that is totally under represented in the films. Lisbeth thinks consistently on mental health and the unjust treatment of those that are open about it. She’s obviously a feminist that at one point coerces someone into giving money to the women’s crisis center. And consistently thinks about sexuality from a fresh perspective (actually there’s far more about sex in the book than the film would suggest).
Now, if you don’t remember from my past film mini-reviews you can find here, my ‘mini-reviews’ aren’t really reviews. Instead they’re a short word-vomit/rant/love-list of things that really caught me about each. As such you might have entirely different ideas that I would love to read in the comments. Do you have any books that you think other Goth’s would love? I’ll put them on my to-read list!
The Walrus Room 