Dragonwyck (1946)

 

Synopsis From Rotten Tomatoes:

For Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), moving to New York to live in Dragonwyck Manor with her rich cousin Nicholas (Vincent Price), seems like a dream. However, the situation gradually becomes nightmarish. She observes Nicholas' troubled relationship with his tenant farmers, as well as with his daughter (Connie Marshall), to whom Miranda serves as governess. Her relationship with Nicholas intensifies after his wife dies, but his mental imbalance threatens any hope of happiness. 

Here’s a weird little contradiction that lives within the recesses of my brain—a contradiction I’m okay with: I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction when it comes to reading, but I absolutely love it when it comes to my viewing habits. I’m not sure if it’s because my brain processes the information differently, or if it’s some other "defect" that alters how I interact with the two mediums. Either way, while I may reluctantly delve into a historical fiction book, I’ll jump right into the story when it’s on my screen—especially if that story is gothic and dark.

If you know me even a little, you know that I’m a sucker for classic movies and almost any film that explores the darker side of life. When those two loves come together, it’s almost guaranteed that I’m going to fall in love from the moment the title sequence starts. Dragonwyck is perfect for me in that regard.

Dragonwyck begins in 1884, two years before the patroonship system was formally abolished in the United States. Nicholas Van Ryn is one of the last patroons left and is in need of a companion for his eight-year-old daughter, Katrine. He engages a distant cousin—granted reluctant permission from her parents—to travel to the Hudson Valley and take up the governess position. It’s a world that’s privileged and opulent, yet also on life support. A world quickly dying as the Anti-Rent movement rapidly dismantles a system that had been in place since the Dutch established New Amsterdam.

I won’t go into all the twists and turns that quickly envelop Miranda, but I’ll say this: it’s a delicious gothic tale of class, tradition, obsession, and murder. Gene Tierney, who can be a little hit-or-miss for me, is cast perfectly as Miranda. She gives a terrific performance, balancing naïve innocence with a desire for more out of life. As the movie progresses, we see her mature, and by the end, she carries a strength that’s delightful to see.

It’s Vincent Price as Nicholas Van Ryn who truly steals the show. I’m sure it goes without saying—but I’ll say it anyway—Vincent Price was a master of his craft. He can be aloof and tender at the same time, and he descends into madness like no other actor could. He is both subtle and over the top, depending on what the moment calls for. He is utterly perfect in this movie, and I cannot imagine another actor in the role.

As the weather starts to cool and the nights grow longer, I’m sure I’ll once again find myself visiting Dragonwyck Manor.

The Old Dark House (1932)

 

Synopsis From Rotten Tomatoes:

Driving through a brutal thunderstorm in Wales, three travelers take refuge in an eerie house owned by the Femm family. Reluctantly admitted by Horace Femm (Ernest Thesiger), the three sit down to a strange dinner. Horace is neurotic; mute butler Morgan (Boris Karloff) is an alcoholic; and Horace's sister, Rebecca (Eva Moore), raves about chastity. When the storm brings in an industrialist and chorus girl Gladys DuCane Perkins (Lilian Bond), Morgan's lust and Rebecca's ire are ignited.

Do you have those movies that, no matter how many times you watch them, you keep coming back to? I hope you do—because returning to old favorites should feel like coming home, even if they're dark, gothic masterpieces directed by the great James Whale.

I've been a huge fan of Frankenstein—Whale's 1931 classic—for a long time. So when I first heard about The Old Dark House, I knew I had to see it. I actually bought it without ever watching it first. It had just been re-released on Blu-ray, so I ordered it from Barnes & Noble, and a few hours after bringing it home, I had it in the player. Within fifteen minutes, I was completely hooked on this weird little gothic gem.

The acting is peak 1930s camp, and I love every second of it. Karloff is perfect, obviously. Gloria Stuart—decades before Titanic—is stunning and sharp. Eva Moore? She should’ve played every witch in every movie, ever. And then there’s Melvyn Douglas, who just so happens to be one of my favorite forgotten actors. Honestly, how is he not mentioned in the same breath as Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart? I’ve never seen him in a role I didn’t halfway fall in love with.

This movie is a total blast. It all takes place during one stormy night in a creepy old manor, and it’s packed with bizarre characters, buried secrets, and more atmosphere than the Titanic could handle. I’ve watched it at least fifteen times, and I’m sure I’ll be back at the Femm House a dozen more.

The Broken Hours by Jacqueline Baker

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

In the cold spring of 1936, Arthor Crandle, down on his luck and desperate for work, accepts a position in Providence, Rhode Island, as a live-in secretary/assistant for an unnamed shut-it. 

He arrives at the gloomy colonial-style house to discover that his strange employer is an author of disturbing, bizarre fiction.  Health issues have confined him to his bedroom, where he is never to be disturbed.  But the writer, who Crandle knows only as "Ech-Pi," refuses to meet him, communicating only by letters left on a table outside his room.  Soon the home reveals other unnerving peculiarities.  There is an ominous presence Crandle feels on the main stairwell.  Light shines out underneath the door of the writer's room but is invisible from the street.  It becomes increasingly clear there is something not fight about the house or its occupant.

Haunting visions of a young girl in a white nightgown wandering the walled-in garden behind the house motivate Crandle to investigate the circumstance of his employer's dark family history.  Meanwhile the unsettling aura of the house pulls him into a world increasingly cut off from reality, into black depths, where an unspeakable secret lies waiting. 

I haven't read a lot of H.P.  Lovecraft's writing, nor do I really know much about his personal life, so when I stumbled upon this book in the store, and was captivated by the cover, I knew I had to give it a shot.  Once I got it home, it stayed on my bedside table for a few days, but once I picked it up, I was lost in a world of Gothic madness and fear.

If you have seen the movies Thr3e or Dream House, you will quickly catch on to what's going on, and you will definitely get a good understanding for the title of this book.  If you haven't seen those movies, I'm not going to spoil the book, or the movies for that matter, by explaining what they all have in common.  Just know this, even though I was able to figure out the twist of this book about half way through, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it, nor did it keep me from buying into the story of Arthor Crandle and his employer.  The clues are there for you to pick up on.  As long as you are paying attention to the side characters, and how they interact with Arthor as he encounters them, you won't stray too far into the woods.

This is one of those books where the atmosphere is everything.  This is a book that you feel enveloped in from the moment you first crack it open.  It's heavy and oppressive.  You feel like you are drowning underneath a layer of unease and tension.  From the moment Arthor appears on the page, you know he is not going to have a an easy time of it, and that he is hiding from his life  The tension and unease all stem from him, like a miasmatic fog wafting over a fetid swamp, you know he is the source of it all.

Of course, like any good Gothic story, the house plays a big role in the tone of the book.  It's falling apart, full of memories and ghosts, and presents the perfect backdrop for Arthor and his secrets.  It's a confusing labyrinth of secretes and misdirection, all built around the goal of playing games with Arthor's, and the reader's, mind.  It's hard to put a finger on what's real, and what's not.  But, as long as you follow the trail of bread crumbs the author leaves behind, I'm sure you will be able to figure it out for yourself.  If you can't, I'm sure Arthor will help you feel at home.

The Children's Home by Charles Lambert

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

In a sprawling estate, willfully secluded, lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins.  Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his gardens.  One day, two children, Moira and David, appear.  Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign of the mansion he shares with this housekeeper, Engel.  Then more children begin to show up. 

Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgan's lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan is, and beings to spend more time in Morgan's library.  But the children behave strangely.  They show a prescient understand of Morgan's past, and their bizarre discoveries int he mansion's attics grow increasingly disturbing.  Every day the children disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgan's mind.

Every once in a while I come across a book that is almost impossible to review, not because it's horribly written or boring to read, but because it defies description.  The Children's Home is one of those books that no genre label is really going to fit.  There are elements of horror, fairy tale, fantasy, and science fiction.  Throw in generous helpings of the Gothic and psychological, and you may be able to grasp the sort of book this is.  I'm going to assume, if you were to look for this in your neighborhood bookstore, it would be shelved under the generic Fiction label.  At least that's where I hope you find it after you read this review, and take a car trip to get your own copy.

My reaction to this one, is as close to my reaction to Gillespie and I by Jane Harris, as I've had since then.  I'm gong to simply tell you guys to read this book, pray that you do, and give a big "I told you so", once you do it.  But if I'm expecting you guys to just do what I say, maybe I should try to get across why I loved this one as much as I did.

In Morgan, we are given a narrator who is both deeply flawed, and extremely likable. Morgan is one of those characters that I could easily see myself spending time with, holed up in his mansion, floating from conversation to conversation.  He has a painful family past, and no true familial relationships to ground him.  He is a passive participant in life, though I'm not always sure of that, as glimpses of a "real" Morgan do appear from time to time.  At first, he lives alone, except for some nameless staff, on this massive estate, closed off from the outside world.  In a very Shirley Jackson style way, we are given to know that maybe this is for the best, and that outside those walls, society is falling apart and isn't a place anyone in their right mind would want to be.  His household grows with the inclusion of his housekeeper Engel, who is definitely not all she is purporting to be.  And then the children start to arrive.  And that's when the Shirley Jackson aspects of this book, really start to kick in.

As the reader, you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that something is definitely off about the whole thing.  The children range in age from newborn to early teens, and they just show up.  Some appear on the doorstep, others emerge from the lake, and some just appear out of thin air. You are really never sure, including after the bizarre ending, who these kids are, or where they are coming from.  Are they the ghosts of kids sacrificed for the family fortune? Are they time travelers from the past and future, trying to prevent an even more heinous outcome? Are they from another reality all together, trying to save some aspects of this one?  Regardless of who they are, or where they come from, the bigger question is why are they there.  After the ending at the factory, it's safe to say we know the answer to that, but I'm not totally convinced.  There is an almost dreamlike quality to the scene, I'm not sure if Morgan, Dr. Crane, or I as a reader, can truly trust everything that happened.

With any good Gothic story, there needs to be an element of romance, and we have that with Morgan and Dr. Crane.  The author does a terrific job of navigating their relationship; keeping it on the purely platonic level, but allowing a reader to infer what is really going on between them.  As with the rest of this book, their relationship is open to interpretation.  I can almost bet, 50 of my friends could read this one, and not pick up anything of a romantic nature between the two characters, but it's all I noticed when they were together.  Maybe it's because, after all he's been through, and after the children leave, I want Morgan to have a solid future.  It doesn't have to be a blissfully happy life, but I need for him to be on solid ground, sure of his place and of those in his life.

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb (Giveaway Included)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

It's 1937.  In a village on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild and lonely upbringing, until the arrival of renowned artist Charles Aubrey - along with his exotic mistress and their daughters - changes everything.  Over the next three summers, Mitzy sees a future she had never thought possible, and a powerful love is kindled in her.  A love that grows from innocence to obsession, from childish infatuation to something far more complex.  Years later, a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily drawn portrait and wonders at its intensity.  The questions he asks lead him to a Dorset village and to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s.

Katherine Webb is one of those authors that I first discovered in 2011 when I read her first book, The Legacy.  It didn't take me long to fall in love with the author's extraordinary talent of weaving past and present into one cohesive narrative.  With most other authors, I find myself getting distracted when a book shifts to the past, mainly because these shifts are only there to further the "current" storyline, so they aren't as well developed.  That's not the case with The Legacy or with A Half Forgotten Song.  The shifts are absolutely essential and in some ways a hell of a lot  more important than what's going on in the present.  They are the backbone of the story, not the helping hand.

If the flashbacks are the backbone of the story, then Mitzy acts as the connective tissues holding the whole thing together.  Whether we are visiting with her elderly self, listening to her version of what transpired between her and Charles Aubrey, or witnessing the events first hand as we are given a truer glimpse of what transpired during those fateful summers, Mitzy is the one who ties not only the characters together, but the it's her influence and her actions that set the entire tone of the book.  And if you are annoyed by the above sentence structure, I apologize.  Every twist and turn eventually leads right back to Mitzy and The Watch, her cottage on the coast.

Not to take this analogy even further, but if the flashbacks are the backbone and Mitzy acts as the connective tissues, then it's Zach and his search for purpose that takes the place of the neurons, spurring and charging the action forward.  I think I'm really stretching my analogy a little thin right now, but it's too late to stop now.  Zach is a young father whose marriage has fallen apart and his daughter is being taken across the Atlantic to America.  His art gallery has been hanging by the skin of it's teeth, and he is a man who for many reasons is at a crossroads in life, and all roads seem to lead to nothing.  Through an odd set of occurrences, Zach finds himself heading to the Dorset coast and the village where Mitzy and the Aubreys had their lives altered beyond belief all those years ago.

It's Zach's search for the truth behind a series of sketches by Aubrey that have been popping up on the market, and a half foggy notion of writing a book focusing on those three summers Aubrey spent in the village, that jump starts Mitzy's longing for the past, allowing us to get the truth behind what happened all those years ago.

Now forgive me if this review does not seem worthy of the book, because after reading what I've already written, I'm not sure it does.  For whatever reason, I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts and feelings into words.  I'm not finding the right way to express how much I love this books and it's characters.  Much like The Legacy, A Half Forgotten Song is about family and those connections that ties us all together, even if those connections exist only in our own heads.  It's about secrets and actions done in haste, born of strong emotions, that take upon themselves a life of their own.   But most of all, it's about the consequences, the foreseen and unimaginable, of those actions.  It's about how we deal with and internalize them, how we cope and how we hide from them, and how eventually, no matter how hard we try, how we have to face them head on and hope for the best.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other, hopefully more coherent reviews.

The wonderful group at TLC Book Tours have generously offered my readers the chance to win a copy of this book for themselves.  The giveaway will last until 11:59 pm, CST, on 6/27/13.  You must be a resident of the United States to enter, and all you have to do is leave me a comment with your email address.  

The Sleeping Bride by Dorothy Eden

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Aurora, beautiful, glamorous, immensely attractive to men; and her sister Lydia, whose beauty is of a quieter nature.  Although she could have had any man she wanted, Aurora impulsively chose Philip Nash, a young artist she had met only recently.  Then, on the very eve of her wedding, she disappeared without a trace!

In the frantic weeks that followed, Philip and Lydia were together constantly in their search for the missing bride, and it soon became evident to Philip that Aurora's plainer sister was the one he loved.  But could Lydia, aware of her own growing desire for her sister's fiance, dare take what he wanted, as Aurora had always done?  And where was Aurora?  Had she run away voluntarily, or was there something sinister about her life that no one - least of all her sister - had ever guessed.

 I don't know what's happening to me, but I'm rather starting to like my mystery/suspense with a little romance.  I'm not sure how this has happened, but between The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie, various Mary Roberts Rinehart books, and  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I'm starting to appreciate the mixture.  That's not counting all the other books I've read lately that seem to be blurring the boundaries between mystery and romance.  I do have a little caveat though, I seem to prefer older books, rather than the romantic suspense stuff that is written today.  I don't know if it's the settings or the writing style, but what annoys the hell out of me in a modern mystery novel, doesn't even phase me in a book written prior to 1960.  I'm sure that some would call this a double standard, and want to question me on it.  They are welcome to question away, because I doubt I have any answers they will like.  I'm not concerned enough over it to sit down and really analyze my feelings on the subject.  I like what I like, I don't what I don't.

The mystery itself was rather tangled, just the way I like them.  Aurora isn't the only one who is missing, it seems she was trying to help an elderly woman who's sister is missing as well.  Did she get too close to the truth, or is her disappearance another matter all together?  What about her boss, who seems to give her expensive presents, but when Lydia meets him, he just doesn't seem to be the type.  Is this who Aurora is supposed to been having an affair with?  And what is being hidden at his country home?  Why are there no servants, except for one man who seems to do it all, and is the bedridden, elderly woman the woman that is missing?  Lydia and Philip put their own lives on the line in order to find out the secrets of that house, and to find Aurora before it's too late.

Challenges:  A-Z, VM (Wicked Women)

The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Even as Dr. Dick Livingstone took Elizabeth in his powerful arms, she felt a shiver of doubt, of dread, run through her young body.

Was the man who pressed her to him the Dick Livingstone whom she thought she knew - kind, gentle, dedicated, loving?

Or was he the man who she had glimpsed when his make had seemed to drop - vicious, ruthless, savage, burdened with guilt, and fearful of discovery?

Elizabeth did not know.  She only knew that now she was in this man's total power - for God-given good or diabolical evil....

My last Mary Roberts Rinehart book of the year, and while it may not be what many would consider a true mystery, I couldn't be happier with ending the year on such a high note.  Much like The Street of Seven Stars, The Breaking Point is more of a Gothic like romance, with a tinge more mystery than would normally be suspected.  Once again, and I should have know better by now, I wasn't expecting the focus to be on the personal relationships so much, but I didn't care.  Mary Roberts Rinehart is so brilliant at creating characters and relationships between them, that I would be willing to read just about anything by her.  At this point in time, if I come across a straight out, full blown romance book that she wrote, I would jump right in, no doubts clouding my mind.

As usual, the synopsis from the back cover is a little misleading, both in tone and in point of view.  Instead of focusing on Elizabeth, the book mainly focuses on Dick, a young reporter trying to garner the truth, and various other characters as they come in and out of the story.  We do hear Elizabeth's voice from time to time, but most of the story is taken over by Dick as he tries to restore his past.  It's a past he doesn't remember, but one he feels he needs to know about in order to move on with his life, a life he wants with Elizabeth.

Now I don't want you to get the impression that there isn't a mystery here, because there is.  Dick Livingstone doesn't remember anything about his past.  Other than for the last ten or so years, in which he went to war, medical school, and now practicing medicine with his uncle and aunt in a small town, he knows nothing about his life.  He's been told a few things by David, the aforementioned uncle, but he doesn't really remember them.  It's that lack of knowledge that keeps him from moving on with his life, especially once he realizes Elizabeth feels the same way about him.

What he doesn't know is that he is about to open up a whole can of worms.  He doesn't know that his past includes a torrid affair with an up and coming actress, a vast inheritance which he drank and partied up, a murder, and a drunken escape into snow covered mountains.  From that moment on, every trace of who Dick Livingstone was before vanished, most thought he was dead.  It's only when he goes back to uncover the truth, that the horror of his past finally catches up with him.

Now it's up to Dick, David, the young reporter, and a few other friends to piece together the truth and finally put the past to rest.  Hopefully it won't be too late for Elizabeth or those left behind.  Of course, since this is a Gothic romance, I'm sure he can figure out what happens in the end.

Challenges:  VM (Cherchez le Homme)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Synopsis From Goodreads:

On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. Fearing the end of his dynasty, his father, Manfred, determines to marry Conrad's betrothed, Isabella, until a series of supernatural events stands in his way. . . .

I fell hard for the Gothic genre last year.  From the moment I opened the first book, I was hooked.  I love the way a good Gothic novel can suck you into this realm that, at first, seems as solid as your own, but the further you get into it, the sands start to shift beneath your feet.  What you think is real, starts to become fuzzy.  The boundary between reality and the supernatural starts to wobble a bit.  You many not always cross over the line, but you are pulling and stretching it the entire time.  So needless to say when I saw someone mention The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, and the fact it's one of the founding fathers of the genre, I had to check it out.    Now that I've done it, I'm still not sure what I'm thinking.  Those sands have never stopped shifting around on me.  Regardless of what I think of this one, I'm glad I read it.

Written in 1764, after the author had a rather haunting dream, The Castle of Otranto is full of the melodrama and over the top dialogue, so common of the era.  Most of the time, those two things get on my nerves and I'm forced to put a book down.  They are amongst the many problems I have with reading the "classics."  I can rarely ever take them seriously or really allow myself to get to involved with what I'm reading.  I'm not sure if it's the subject matter or the way in which Walpole constructed the story itself, but this book actually lends itself to those factors that makes other books intolerable for me.  

The Castle of Otranto is full of underground labyrinths, family curses, prophecies, betrayal, secret identities,  and plenty of death.   Giant pieces of armor come crashing down, sometimes with fatal results. Ghostly apparitions are seen walking the halls and speaking words of doom.  Young women are forced to go on the run, one in order to save herself, the other to save a young man she may love.  For a book that is less than 100 pages, it's chock full of every cliche that Gothic literature has come to be know by.  

I'm of two minds on whether I liked the book or not, but I can say I enjoyed every second of it.  For those of you who love Gothic literature, you should give this book a read so you can appreciate where the genre came from.  If you aren't a fan, this may not be the book for you, but I would almost be willing to bet, you would enjoy it anyway.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House:  Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past.  As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead.  For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

I think most of us know that book blogging doesn't have a lot of drawbacks.  We get to read/review new books that we may not have been exposed to any other way.  There is this wonderful community that gives us a forum to talk about something that we derive so much pleasure from, and they don't plug their ears while we are doing it.  I could list the benefits of book blogging until I turn blue in the face, but that wouldn't get me any closer to making a point.

And my point is this, for me, if there is a drawback to book blogging, it's that I don't reread my favorite books as often as I would like, or even as often as I used to.  Before book blogging, I was a voracious rereader of my favorite books.  I never understood why I wouldn't want to revisit a book if I loved it.  It would be like meeting a real cool person, hanging out with them for a week, becoming good friends, and then never returning a phone call because you've been there, done that.  I would look forward to picking up an old friend, and diving back into the characters and a story that never gets old, never fails to entertain, and never lets me down.  One of those books is, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

I can't remember the first time I read this book, but I know it was after I watched The Haunting, the 1963 screen adaptation with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I had seen the movie quite a few times before I ever picked up the book.  Once I did, my love for the story only deepened.  I've lost count of the times I've dived back into Hill House, but sadly this is the first time I've picked it up in the three years I've been blogging.  Once I opened up that cover, it was like coming home.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, never seen the movie, and didn't read the synopsis, the plot is pretty simple.  Researcher wants nothing more than to prove the existence of the supernatural, so when he finds the perfect house to investigate, Hill House, he starts to assemble a team to help him out.  By searching through the records of paranormal investigators, newspapers, and police records, he compiles a list of individuals with previous experience with the unexplained.  Of those he invites, only two of them show up, so with the nephew of the owner along for the ride, they get to work.

Where this book leaves most other haunted house tales behind in the dust, is in the way Shirley Jackson crafted her characters and in the atmosphere of the house they inhabit.  When the author sat down and created the characters of Dr. Montague, Luke, Theo, and Eleanor, the writing gods must have been looking down upon her.  In those characters, especially with Eleanor, Shirley Jackson created such vibrant, psychologically complex characters who I never tire of spending time with them.  The way she takes the character of Eleanor and integrates her with Hill House, is such a feat, that only a true wordsmith can accomplish.

Hill House itself, is one of the most important characters, a character so essential to the book, that this masterpiece could not exist without it.  Hill House breathes.  It moves and ungulates in subtle ways, manipulating it's occupants by playing with their minds.  It's off angularity throws the research team off their game, almost from the beginning.  It's a house that lives in every way.  It's mean.  It's evil.  It wants nothing more than to take, for itself, the lives residing within.

The People From the Sea by Velda Johnston

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Diana Garson had liked the shabby old farmhouse from the moment she crossed its threshold.  The atmosphere seemed friendly and homelike, almost as if it were welcoming her.  David Conway, her friend and neighbor in Manhattan, had heard about the house and persuaded her to rent it for the summer.  Here, in this quiet place on the Long Island shore, she hoped to recover from the emotional blows that had brought her to the brink of a breakdown.   And for a while she did find a soothing peace.  But she also encountered the people from the sea.

Whether they were real in any sense of "real," Diana did not know.  Only one thing we certain:  the evil in which she became enmeshed because of them was very real, as real as the hands that wrapped themselves around her throat one fog-shrouded afternoon on the beach.

There are the moments when you need a certain type of book to get you out of a mood or reading pattern that developed without you knowing it.  Somehow, and I don't really mind it, I've found myself reading a lot of nonfiction lately.  After about the 4th one in a row, I needed something to refresh my palate.  Like most of you, I have hugs stacks of unread books just sitting around waiting for me to pick one of them up.  On a whim, I picked up The People Form the Sea, and a little over 4 hours later, I was turning the last page.

When Diana is talked into renting the seaside cottage, she thinks she's finally in a space she can heal in.  Newly divorced, Diana has been floundering a bit, not sure of what she wanted or where she was heading.  She thinks she is starting to fall for David, but is a little unsure of his intentions.  She is at a turning point in her life, she just has no clue which road to take.

From the moment she is left alone in the cottage, she feels at home and safe, a feeling she hasn't had in a long time.  As she settles in, she finds an old photo album, and quickly gets enmeshed in the lives of the family that used to own the cottage.  A mother and her two grown children, were brutally murdered on board their yacht.  The scars of that tragedy lay deep on the small coastal town, scars that Diana feels she needs to start poling at.

She has seen all three of them in the cottage.  She has danced with the son, and listened as the daughter played the piano late into the night.  She isn't sure if what she is seeing is real, but it's changing her, and not always for the better.  What starts off as a question here and there around town, quickly turns into a full blown investigation into what happened on the boat.  It's a search that will threaten Diana's life, her future with David, and the tranquility of a town she has grown to love.

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino (Giveaway Too!)

Synopsis From Back Cover:

When the nanny to the young Darrow boys is found mysteriously murdered on the outskirts of the village of Blackfield, Charlotte Markham, the recently hired governess, steps in to take over their care.  During an outing in the forest, they find themselves crossing over into The Ending, "the place for the Things Above Death," where Lily Darrow, the late mother of the children, has been waiting.  She invites them into the House of Darkling, a wondrous place filled with enchantment, mystery, and strange creatures that appear to be, but are not quite, human.

However, everything comes with a price, and as Charlotte begins to understand the unspeakable bargain Mrs. Darrow has made for a second chance at motherhood, she uncovers a connection to the sinister occurrences in Blackfield and enters into a deadly game with the  master of Darkling - one whose outcome will determine the fate of not just the Darrows but the world itself.

I have never thought about reading a slightly lighter Lovecraftian tale told within the confines of a Victorian  Gothic novel.  It's not something that I even considered before, but now that I've read it, I'm slightly confused as to the reason why nobody thought of doing this before.  Now when I say Victorian and Gothic, I'm still speaking of terms of being slightly lighter.  None of the thematic elements really dominate the structure of the novel.  Instead it's like the author used them as the basic outline of the structure, then filled those lines in with something else.  What that something else is, I'm still not sure I have a word for it.

Now despite my apparent confusion, I'm here to tell you that I actually really enjoyed this one.  Sadly, I can't really tell you the reason though.  There are sometimes, no matter how much you think about or analyze something, you can't really explain your reaction to it.  I know I liked it.  I know I enjoyed getting to know The Ending and those that dwelled inside.  I know I loved the way those denizens were structured after some of Lovecraft's well know Elder Beings.  I even liked the civil war the author forced them to fight.  I never thought of the Elder Beings as being political or of having schisms amongst themselves.  I also thought of them as monstrous beings bent on ending the world as we know it.  The author took the world of Lovecraft and made it more human, something I didn't think I would like until I read it.

I think the only thing that would have made this book stronger, at least for me, is that I would have liked to see the "romantic" elements be a bit stronger.  I guess I can't really enjoy a good Gothic novel without there being a strong romantic element.  The main "romance" was between Charlotte and Mr. Darrow.  It was never a relationship I ever bought into or liked, and it always felt as if it existed in her head more than anything else.  It was a bit too forced for my taste, and because of the direction the book took, it was doomed before it left the ground.  Similarly the minor romantic liaisons never felt all that explored and the one I liked the most was barely touched upon.  On one of their trips to Darkling, the oldest Darrow boy is introduced to a young man who belongs to a race of creatures that inhabit the world.  The particular family takes a human visage, and the two hit it off.  It's obvious from the get go that there is something between them from the start.  Of all the relationships, it was the only one that developed a real sense of affection, though it was only shown a few times towards the end.

I was going to ramble on about the causes behind the civil war, the landscape that Mr. Darrow and Charlotte traveled through on their last foray into the world, and the way Death is introduced; but I won't.  All these elements are interconnected and I think it best that a reader discover them on their own.  I was even going to touch upon the idea of a parent striking the deal that Lily Darrow made in order to see her children once again.  But her character and her motivations are, once again, best left to the reader to explore themselves.  What I will say is that whether you end up enjoying the book or not, Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling will be more than worth the time.

Now onto the giveaway.  One lucky reader will win the book for themselves, though that reader must reside in the United States or Canada.  All you need to do is leave a comment letting me in on a secret.  I want to know about a book that you liked, but can't really explain why.  You also need to leave an email address so I can contact you if you are the winner.  The giveaway will run until 11:59 pm CST on Monday, August 13th.

The Seance by John Harwood

Part Of The Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance's sister,  the child she lost.  Constance takes her to a seance:  perhaps she will find comfort form beyond the grave.  But the meeting has tragic consequences.  Constance is left alone, her only legacy a bequest that will blight her life.

For Constance's bequest comes in two parts:  a house and a mystery.  Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation.  Now the Hall belongs to Constance.  And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life.

I can't remember who's review I first saw that made me want to read this book.  All I know is that after reading that review, I knew I had to give it a go.  Of course I think it helped that I was on a Gothic fix at the time, so it sounded even better.  So to whomever you are, I thank you for reviewing this book and convincing me that I needed to read it.

It's going to be rather hard for me to say anything about the book without giving away plot points that need to be discovered on your own, but I do want to say how much I appreciated the author's ability to craft a tightly woven story, saturated in fear.  Every single character lives in a constant state of fear.  They are scared to live, scared to die, scared of what's around the corner, scared of being discovered; it's a wonder any of the characters are able to function.  What I loved though was that fear never overwhelmed me as a reader, it didn't bog down the book.  It allowed just the right amount of emotion to seep off the page and get me emotionally involved with what was going on.

Now I'm not saying this was a perfect book, because I did have a few issues with characterization, but nothing that detracted from the overall story.  It was a nice Gothic break form all the vintage mysteries I've been reading.

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Synopsis From Back Cover:

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley Again."

So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse of the windswept Cornish coast.  With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten... her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant - the sinister Mrs. Danvers - still loyal.  And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca... for the secrets of Manderley.  

I'm not even going to try to go into an in depth review on this one.  I think almost everything that can be said about this one, has already been said.  I don't think I will have a new take on it or any breakthrough in understanding of the themes.  What I can say, is I loved it.  I'm not really sure why it took me so long to read it.

Daphne Du Maurier wrote this with an almost decadent lushness that I found overly appealing.  I got lost in her descriptions of the grounds of Manderley.  I wanted to walk those paths through the woods to the beach.  I wanted to wander the halls and peer into rooms, long abandoned after Rebecca's death.  I wanted to touch, taste, and smell everything our heroine was experiencing.  If it had been possible, I would have lost myself and not been able to make it back.  I would have holed up in a room somewhere and forgot the rest of the world.  If there is only one aspect of a Gothic novel that I love, it's that decadence in the writing.

The other aspect of this book I found utterly fascinating were the female characters.  I love the idea of our heroine never having a first name.  It makes the recounting of the past that much more personal.  It gives the impression that as a reader, we are already friends with her.  It was as if we were together, sitting in a library much like the one in Manderley, and that she is telling her tale during a lazy afternoon.  It allowed me as a reader to get even more involved with the action and the characters.  It was in intoxicating feeling at times, one that I never wanted to let go of.

I guess that leads us to Mrs. Danvers.  I'm not even sure where to being on my feelings towards her.  Before I had actually read the book, the one thing I've heard from everyone is how evil and nasty this woman is.  When I began the book, I was waiting to meet her, because I wanted to see how bad ass she really was.  At first, I was a little disappointed.  For a while, I thought she was a bitch, but not much more than that.  She just seemed to have a massive chip on her shoulder, one that would never go away.  Needless to say, I was feeling a little let down.  I was wanting the devil incarnate and instead I was getting Gargamel.  Thankfully, Mrs. Danvers redeemed herself.  She finally became the manipulative hag I had been hearing so much about.  What she tried to do to the new Mrs. Danvers will go down in literary history as one of the most evil examples of mental abuse.  She was brilliant at it, and I love her for it.  This book was worth reading, just for Mrs. Danvers.

I haven't watched the Hitchcock adaptation of this yet, but if everything I've heard about it is true, I can't wait.  Either way, I think this will be a book I reread often.  It will be one of those that I discover new things in every time, and I can't wait.

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

Synopsis From Back Cover:

When they were children, Erica Calcott and hers sister, Beth, spent their summer holidays at Storton Manor.  Now, following the death of their grandmother, they have returned to the grand, imposing house in Wiltshire, England.  Unable to stem the tide of childhood memories that arise as she sorts through her grandmother's belongings, Erica thinks back to the summer her cousin Henry vanished mysteriously from the estate, an event that tore their family to pieces.  It is time, she believes, to lay the past to rest, bring her sister some peace, and finally solve the mystery of her cousin's disappearance.

But sifting through remnants of a bygone time is bringing a secret family history to light - one that stretches back over a century, to a beautiful society heiress in Oklahoma, a haunting, savage land across the ocean.  And as past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two shocking acts of betrayal... and the heartbreaking legacy they left behind.

When my roommate saw this book sitting on the kitchen table, he asked me why was I reading a "chick" book.  It told him that wasn't what it was, but I don't think he ever really believed me.  All he would say was, look at the cover.  Based off of that alone, I probably would have agreed with him.  With this cover, I don't think I would have ever picked this one up.  It's a shame really, because if I hadn't, I would have missed out on an amazing story.

As soon as Erica and Beth step out on the page, you know something is horribly wrong.  The tension between them is palpable and Beth seems like she can wilt at any minute.  Something is obviously weighing on, suffocating her to the point that she could be crushed at any second.  Whatever is destroying her has broken up her marriage, kept her from being around her son all the time, and is threatening to consume her.  Erica is at a loss of what to do, she has been trying to keep her sister afloat for years now and she is hoping spending Christmas in the country will somehow cure her.

Erica, already suspecting it, quickly figures out that whatever is eating Beth is rooted in their childhood.  Erica, who can't remember the circumstances behind Henry disappearing, thinks that summer is behind all of Beth's problems.  With the reluctant help of a childhood friend, Erica attempts to uncover the truth and remember what happened.

As she tries to cobble together the truth of what happened all those years ago, she also starts to uncover something she never suspected.  Maybe the reason why her grandmother was such a tyrant was because her mother, Caroline, never showed her love.  And the root of all of it could be found in the picture of Caroline with a baby boy, a boy that nobody knows anything about.

The two stories are intermingled as they build to a climax that will resolve what happened to Henry but will leave Erica with something other than the truth about Caroline and that mysterious baby.  She has a great theory, one that is very close to the truth, but with no concrete evidence, she has to go with the more obvious answer.

I loved the idea of us, the reader, knowing what happened with Caroline and the mysterious baby, but the characters never really knowing the truth.  Erica really never finds written proof to back up what she believes to be the truth, though all the evidence points towards her conclusion..  The fact that it isn't really the whole truth, makes the story all the more believable to me.  Something like this would not have been written down, and for a woman like Caroline to leave it all in black and white on a page, wouldn't have made sense.

Both storylines are compelling and kept me hooked the entire time.  The author built wonderfully developed characters that were believalbe in every way.  She then gave them the perfect, concrete setting that framed the story and the characters wonderfully.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  To read other opinions on this one, please visit the tour page.  If you would like to find out more about the author, please visit her Facebook page.

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

Synopsis From Goodreads:

When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom, their whirlwind relationship leads them to purchase Les Genevriers, an abandoned house in a rural hamlet in the south of France. As the beautiful Provence summer turns to autumn, Eve finds it impossible to ignore the mysteries that haunt both her lover and the run-down old house, in particular the mysterious disappearance of his beautiful first wife, Rachel.

Whilst Eve tries to untangle the secrets surrounding Rachel's last recorded days, Les Genevriers itself seems to come alive. As strange events begin to occur with frightening regularity, Eve's voice becomes intertwined with that of Benedicte Lincel, a girl who lived in the house decades before. As the tangled skeins of the house's history begin to unravel, the tension grows between Dom and Eve. In a page-turning race, Eve must fight to discover the fates of both Benedicte and Rachel, before Les Genevriers' dark history has a chance to repeat itself.

This is going to be one of those reviews that's heavily influenced by the amount of time passed between finishing the book and writing the review.  If I had sat down to write this review a day or two after finishing the book, it would have been a blabbering mess of praise and worship  I'm not sure a word of it would have been coherent, but it would have been glowing none the less.  This will still be a positive review, simply because I did enjoy the books, it just won't be the overtly exuberant.

The first thing that I noticed, right off the bat, was how wonderfully descriptive Deborah Lawrenson is with her writing.  There was never a time I did not have a crystal clear picture of the setting in my head.  She made the sights and smells of Provence come to life and leap off the page.  I could see every petal and stem growing in the garden.  I could witness the eerie glow of the lantern as it's light danced in the darkness.  I could touch the rough floor tiles, as Eve struggled to be rid of a reddish brown stain that refused to budge.  There was even a moment where I thought I could smell a touch of lavender wafting through the air of my living room.  I got lost in the sensory elements of the book so often, I would forget it was only a book.

It was that sensory overload that allowed me to buy into the storyline and care about Eve and Benedicte as their stories were told.  These two women were separated by decades, but both seemed to be trapped in circumstances out of their control.  The past would not leave either of them alone and death seemed to be a constant companion.  They both had to deal with family secrets that threatened to destroy the lives they were trying to build.  I cared about both of them and was horrified by the events that threatened to consume one of them.

As much as I loved the setting, characters, and atmosphere of the book, two aspects of it got on my nerves a bit.  The narrative choice was a bit confusing for me at first.  When we first meet Benedicte, she feels like a  ghost that never managed to leave the farm.  Throughout the rest of the book she reads as an ghost or an elderly woman remembering the past.  It's not until the end that I understood she was both of those things, but not at the same time.  The way her voice was interjected into narrative was an interesting choice and not one I think I've seen used before.  I'm just not sure it worked for me.

My other quibble was with the modernism of it all.  I'm just not sold on the idea that a gothic story works as well set in the present.  In an age of internet and cell phones I found myself not believing the way Eve was finding out the information she was seeking.  When she went to a internet cafe to look up Rachael, Dom's former wife, she found stories Rachael had published in magazines, but nothing else about her life or death.  There is no way a published writer could pass away without someone writing an obituary, an obituary that would be found in a google search.  The modern era (technology) robs some of the mystery away from the story.  It's makes that sense of foreboding and danger, a little light.

Despite my issues with the story, issues I may not have thought of had I wrote the review earlier, I enjoyed the book immensely.  Over the course of the last year, I have found myself getting lost in the gothic world, and I'm loving it.  My only regret, is not diving in earlier.  Hopefully, I will be moving on to Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier soon, since it's listed as an inspiration for The Lantern.

I would like to thank Trish of TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read/review this book.  Please visit the tour page to read other reviews.

The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Harmony Wells came to Vienna to pursue her career as a concert violinist.  Instead the beautiful young American girl found herself playing a part in a strange concert of evil when she moved into the old mansion on the Street of Seven Stars.

In this house of intrigue, a sophisticated older woman, a charming, sinister man of the world, and a handsome, reckless young doctor each had plans for her. Yet whose lead should Harmony follow as she was whirled into a mad dance of passion and betrayal, and the throbbing heartbeat of love was drowned in the terrifying dissonance of danger?...

LOL.....I'm just laughing over the synopsis, sorry, I won't do it again.  I love the way these older books used a few well written paragraphs to grab your attention and demand that you read the book.  This one is a perfect example of a cleverly written, over the top synopsis that just won't let me go.  Anytime I read something like this, sometimes to my detriment, I end up snatching the book up and diving into it's pages.  The fact that this was a Mary Roberts Rinehart book, sealed the deal.

By now, you probably already know that I'm obsessed with her work.  She is quickly taking a seat right next to Agatha Christie in my love of a good mystery.  There is something so wonderfully lush about her narrative style that I get transfixed by what is taking place on the page.  The plots and characters are so cleverly written and thought out, that I can't help but fall in love every time I crack open the pages.

When I first picked this one up, I assumed that it was another one of her mysteries.  After I got past the half way point, I realized I had been duped by the synopsis and the cover.  This wasn't a mystery at all, it was a gothic romance.  I will admit that I was a bit miffed at first.  I felt cheated somehow, as if I was offered a gourmet, seven course meal, only to find out I would only get to enjoy the first three courses.  I actually put the book down for a few hours, stewing in my disappointment.

Soon after, I had a strange nagging sensation that would not leave me alone.  There was a voice in my head screaming at me to finish the story of Harmony and her young doctor, Peter Byrne.  Every time I glance at the cover, I felt Harmony's eyes boring into my brain, demanding that I pick her up and find out how everything ends.  Once I relented and dug back in, I was hooked.  I had to know if Harmony and Peter would be able to work past all the obstacles thrown in their way.  I had to know if Dr. Anna Gates would continue to live with them or be forced to go back to the U.S. to take care of her dying father.  I had to know if Jimmy, the young boy dying of myocarditis, would live or succumb to his illness.  I even had to know if  Stewart would keep treating Marie so shabbily, and if he did, what she would be driven to do.

As you can tell, there are some wonderful side story lines going on in this one.  Each of which is just as well crafted and detailed, down to the smallest emotional nuance.  I also enjoyed how the author used the characters to explore societal morals and standards.  There is a small American colony in Vienna, most of them known to each other, so when our heroes don't quite match up to what is "morally" acceptable living, the ramifications are used to further muck things up for both Harmony and Peter, though Harmony seems to take the brunt of it.

Rinehart did not let me down on the suspense part either, though it did take a backseat to the overall story.  There is an international spy who not only has a crush on Harmony, but is eventually arrested and condemned to death.  There is also an attempted murder via a branch thrown in the way of a fast moving, down hill sleigh.  The attempt is born out of jealously and despair, instead of malice or evil.  The suspense nuggets weren't much, but they were enough, especially considering the overall tone of the book.  I don't think I ever understood the term gothic romance until I read this book.  I love the atmosphere she creates for the characters to envelop themselves in.  Other than the lack of someone being murdered, I felt as if I was on the tip of my toes the entire time.  I was tense while I was reading this, but it was that wonderful tension that forced me to continue until the end.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Part Of The Synopsis From The Dust Jacket:

All children mythologize their birth.... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of short stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself - all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret.  Now old and ailing ,s he at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life.  She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain.  Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

I'm in love.  I don't think there is any other way I can put it.  After reading The Little Stranger I realized I really enjoy Gothic fiction.  After finishing The Thirteenth Tale, I'm in love with it.  I don't know how much of it I will read this year since the reading list in my head is pretty full already, but I'm looking forward to whatever I'm able to cram in.

What I loved about this book, and I won't get into many specific details, is the interaction between Vida and Margaret.  Their lives, while different in many ways, have a very tragic core to them that unites them at times and allows Vida to tell her tale.  And what a tale it is.  By piggybacking on their joint childhood pain, Vida is able to manipulate the narrative, allowing Margaret to see the truth and get distracted all at the same time.  It's a wonderful exploration of using personal narrative to tell a life story.  What parts of that story truly matter, which parts are simply window dressing, and which parts are purely fictional and only existed in the imagination.  Vida Winter is the true wordsmith of her life and it shows as she twists and weaves the truth with a bit of misleading information that fogs Margret's eyesight and keeps her from coming to the correct conclusions before Vida is ready.

There wasn't anything that I didn't love about this book.  I loved Vida's narrative style as she spun tales about her family, the Angelfields.  She brought each and every once of them to life as they interacted with each other and their home.  There is nothing out of place and every detail is needed to explain the actions of the wild twin girls, their adulteress governess and the last two remaining staff who keep secrets better than anyone.  The book is a treasure to read from the marbled green pattern your eyes see when you first crack open the cover to the carefully chosen words on every page.  This will be a book I keep and reread for a long time to come.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Synopsis From Back Cover:

One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall.  Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in it stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine.  It's owners - mother, son, and daughter - are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their won.  But are thy Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?  Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

I finally did it, I read a Sarah Waters book and I loved it.  Her books have been on my list for a while now but I always seemed to get distracted by something else.  When I found The Little Stranger for a dollar, I could no longer pass it up. The problem, or maybe it wasn't a problem, was that as soon as I bought it, I had a uncontrollable urge to read it.  Every time I picked something else up, this book cried out "No, Read Me!".  Once I obeyed, I couldn't put it down.

I found myself getting lost not only in the story of this family but in the Hall itself.  I'm not sure one can be separated from the other.  The story of the Hall is the story of the family.  As the rate of decline speeds up in the Hall, it speeds up in the family.  Where one suffers a setback, so does the other.  There is no clear line of where they begin or end.  The fact that the decline is told in such lyrically descriptive detail kept me glued to the story and left me feeling a little cheated once the last page was turned.

Everything in this book is flawed.  There is no one thing or person that doesn't have a trace of that decay running through it.  This is a land and it's people that are struggling to find their way again after the war and their story is told through the lives of the Hall and it's inhabitants.  The tension and sense of foreboding that runs throughout the pages kept building in small waves that slowly started to submerge the characters and the Hall in a flood of terror and utter despair.

When I first started the book I was under the impression that Dr. Faraday was going to be the hero of the tale, but as I got to know him more, I'm not at all convinced that he wasn't behind the slow descent into madness that took place.  Whether or not the troubles took place at the hands of some supernatural force, Dr. Faraday's growing obsession with the Hall, or some combination of both, Dr. Faraday was at the heart of a lot of it.  He, more than any other character, illustrated for me the dangers of a new world that doesn't quite make sense anymore. 

As a quick side note, I've never thought of myself as a fan of Gothic fiction.  But lately I've found myself almost enraptured by the whole genre and have recently picked up several more book and plan on picking up even more.  I'm really enjoying myself as I get lost in the type of storytelling that takes place.  I'm not sure if this change in my taste is permanent or not, but I'm going have fun while it lasts.

Challenges: GLBT, M&S