Literature of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy- Jay Burns

When I think of vampires I always think of the craze of "sexy" vampires from the early 2000's. The book slightly gave off the vibe but it was also very interesting how they got into the psychological process and thoughts of becoming a vampire. It went into detail about Louis' decent from thinking like a human and caring about lives to not caring at all and killing a bunch of vampires and even coming close to killing the character interviewing him. It also tackled a kind of loop hole in vampire lore with Claudia and her not being able to age past five years old while her mind still developed. While I thought this was particularly very creepy, especially in the movie were it showed an actual child talking about adult things, it was still an interesting topic to include in the book. I particularly liked how the book was so involved with showing the complexity of Louis and Lestat's relationship. How it kept going back and forth between Louis thinking Lestat was aweso...

Frankenstein was a much different book than I thought it was going to be. When I think of Frankenstein I think of a goofy caricature of the actual thing. There is so much more to the story than what meets the eye and that is one of the first aspects of gothic literature it shows. I always thought the book would just be a simple story about creating life out of a bunch of human parts and then it goes wrong but it’s so much more complex. It’s about the nature of humanity, isolation, and madness. These are all concepts often shown in gothic literature. The setting is also important when it comes to gothic literature. We often think of darkness, nighttime, and old large buildings when we think of it and that is certainly true for Frankenstein. Mary Shelley makes sure that we know it’s a dark and scary atmosphere by always telling us about how it is night. Although it isn’t the classic haunted house on the hill, Victor is still surrounded by large buildings such as his apa...

The unknown- aliens, monsters, something never seen, unfamiliar locations and situations Serial killers Loneliness/isolation- seperation from the group or location such as cabin in the woods Something ancient- "native american burial grounds", books of witchcraft, monster is something from before humans Night time Violence and death Religion- most often christianity(demons/satan usually) but can also be evil from other religions (such as Pazuzu) Unnerving music Damsel in distress