Natasha from King Rat

Urban Vermin

King Rat , a “New Weird” fantasy-horror novel by China Mieville, is quite the tale. The story is centered around a man who is half human, half rat that gets accused of killing his father. When King Rat comes to break the man - Saul - out of jail, Saul is introduced to a secret version of London, including monarch-based animal societies, a relentless pied piper, and a unique view of the city itself. With his superhuman abilities, or rather super- rat abilities, Saul usurps the throne from King Rat and helps the birds, rats, and spiders of London take down the malicious Piper. The story is simultaneously familiar and original. There’s the typical coming-of-age plot used when introducing Saul to the world of the rats mixed with a detective mystery from the point of view of Mr. Crowley. Old folktales and fables are recycled into new renditions of themselves, such as Anansi the Spider and the Pied Piper. However, mixing the worlds of fantastical animal societies with urban, Jungle music...

College Killers - A Look into the Reasoning Behind the Young Ages of Classic Literature's Murderers

Victor Frankenstein, the now infamous mad scientist, creator of reanimation, and star of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , is often imagined as a man in his late forties, using decades worth of knowledge and expertise to create his iconic monster. The real Victor Frankenstein, however, is merely a college student- a young, naive, and freshly independent college student. The idea of such a young man creating life and subsequently causing multiple murders because of it seems like a unique idea for a story, yet a college student committing a murder is the same plot of two other novels: Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Donna Tartt's The Secret History . All three of these books deal with a similar story involving a college student committing (or indirectly causing, in Frankenstein's case) a murder of someone they know personally. The murderer proceeds to fall ill, isolate themselves, undergo serious mental torment over the guilt, feel the urge to confess, and even...

Cabin in the Woods: The Ultimate Horror Movie Trope Compilation

What do you like in a horror movie? Zombies? Ancient rituals? Blood and gore? A comedic, Scooby-Doo style? Government dystopia? Ghosts? Mermaids? If you checked any of those off as a “yes,” then Cabin in the Woods is the movie for you. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect when I first started this film, but it immediately grabbed me with its humor and kept my attention through its ridiculousness. Now, don’t get the wrong idea that this movie is all just goofy gimmicks. Cabin in the Woods definitely has its moments of terrifying thrills and chills. The film manages, however, to seamlessly blend the two genres - comedy and horror - by orchestrating the most over-the-top horror movie I’ve ever seen. The movie follows a group of five young adults vacationing at an old, isolated cabin in the woods. Great idea, right? Well, this particular cabin is controlled by an underground government organization that uses its library of horrible monsters to kill its guests as a sacrifice to appeas...

Abby's Blog for Literature of Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

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