Loads Of Women Running From Houses: The Gothic Romance Paperback

June 28, 2014

I was hoping at least one Deanna Dwyer cover would have made an appearance but alas not.

THE Gothic horror tradition can be traced back to any number of sources.  Mathew Lewis’ Monk is probably the best starting point: it has every Gothic convention you can imagine: darkened tombs, black misty forests, haunted hallways, satanic clergy.  It would make one helluva movie, but it’s so nonlinear that I honestly don’t see how you could translate it to a screenplay.
It was Ann Radcliff’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) that really serves as the impetus for the “women running from houses” genre. What exactly is the “women running from houses” genre?  I’m glad you asked.  It refers to Gothic romance novels (generally paperback) which WITHOUT EXCEPTION pictured a woman running from a house on the cover.  It’s really a bit insane when you think about it: for several decades an entire genre (a quite popular one at that) featured the exact same cover with very little variation.  It’s mental.

Read the full article @ Anorak.co.uk.

‘Odd Thomas’ did a lot to prove that ‘odd’ can still be a lot of fun

June 28, 2014

Here’s a late-comer to the Odd Thomas film reviews.

With this film, ‘Odd Thomas,’ it was more because of a legal issue that it wasn’t able to succeed on the big screen.

That mainly has to do with the fact that it was never given a chance to.

Overall, though, it is a shame because I would have liked to see how the public would have received a film like this.

Read the full review @ Maryville Daily Forum.

Another The City giveaway

June 28, 2014

Random House has copies to give away. Head over to Random House Reader’s Circle to enter.

'Odd Thomas’ And The Historical Roots Of Bodachs

June 28, 2014

Being a monster nut, I was particularly intrigued by the bodachs. I knew the name “bodach” sounded familiar, so after I watched the film I went to my little library of monster books and started flipping through them. As it turns out, “bodach” is an old Scottish term for a “bogeyman” – and of course, “bogeyman” is in itself just a variant of “boggard” or “boggart” – a type of goblin or household spirit. However, the bodach isn’t just any goblin. Even in Scottish folklore, they can appear as omens of death.

Read the full article @ Suvudu.com.