The woman in black is still my favourite ghost story. I’ve read the book and it’s good as the movie, even if they are different in multiple ways. Also, can we talk about Daniel Radcliffe? It’s fantastic in this gothic/horror roles.
4) The conjuring (2013)
Could I write a Top Ten horror without mentioning The Conjuring? Even if I watched it during the afternoon, I was terrified.
The second movie in The Conjuring series is even more terrifying than the first.
2) The Final Destination series (2000 – 2011)
Maybe, this series isn’t exactly horror, is more splatter, but it’s still one of my favourite series of all the time. I particularly like the link that exists between the characters or the deaths, and how the last movie closes the cycle. And can I hear a wahoo for Tony Todd? (Yes, this is a Good Omens reference)
1) Krampus (2015)
Krampus is like Nightmare Before Christmas: it’s a horror movie based on Christmas, so when you can watch it? At Halloween or at Christmas? Both is good. Krampus begins like a Christmas comedy, with family drama and Christmas songs. But remember that he sees you when you’re sleeping…
And that’s the end! Have you some movie reccomendations for me?
When famed Byronesque poet Hugh de Bonne is discovered dead of a heart attack in his bath one morning, his cousin Robert Highstead, a historian turned post-mortem photographer, is charged with a simple task: transport Hugh’s remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, a stained glass folly set on the moors of Shropshire, was built by de Bonne sixteen years earlier to house the remains of his beloved wife and muse, Ada. Since then, the chapel has been locked and abandoned, a pilgrimage site for the rabid fans of de Bonne’s last book, The Lost History of Dreams.
However, Ada’s grief-stricken niece refuses to open the glass chapel for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain: before he can lay Hugh to rest, Robert must record Isabelle’s story of Ada and Hugh’s ill-fated marriage over the course of five nights.
As the mystery of Ada and Hugh’s relationship unfolds, so does the secret behind Robert’s own marriage—including that of his fragile wife, Sida, who has not been the same since the tragic accident three years ago, and the origins of his own morbid profession that has him seeing things he shouldn’t—things from beyond the grave.
Kris Waldherr effortlessly spins a sweeping and atmospheric gothic mystery about love and loss that blurs the line between the past and the present, truth and fiction, and ultimately, life and death.
Review:
This had the potential to be my fave read of the year, no, my fave read of all the time.
It has everything I’m searching in a book: a creepy beginning set in a past era; a tormented main character; the mention of the post mortem photography; a lonely house in the moor; ghosts that haunt people and houses; a tragic love story; a dark and gothic atmosphere.
I love it so much.
I was reading this in total darkness (tablet in night mode), and it gave me chills. I also had a couple of nightmares during my reading. If you are easily scared, this book is not for you!
But everyone knows that all good things come to an end, and the end for this book it’s literally the ending: it has ruined pretty much everything.
The beginning is amazing, the plot is really well done and it develops with a lot of twists, there a lot of characters and a lot of locations to memorize, but everything is so captivating and I was on the edge of my seat at least a couple of times.
Robert is an interesting main character, Isabelle is a little annoying with her obsession for Ada, but we want to know what’s inside the Ada’s Folly.
There are a couple of scenes during the entire book that doesn’t suit well: one is involving the death of many animals, and I really don’t like it. My main issue is the ending: I love when there are plot twist, and I love when a book is unpredictable, but the Lost History of Dreams is a traitor. All the pieces of evidence, the tales about Ada, the scenes involving Isabelle led the reader to a certain type of ending, or at least, that was for me.
No, we don’t have what we expected: a glorious horror ending. We have however a romance style ending that has let me in tears not for her magnificent, but because it has broken all my expectations and has ruined my love for this book.
That was literally my reaction.
Also, I really don’t like s*x scenes throw like that, when they are not necessary. I don’t think that only because a book is labelled “adult” it means you can write weird adult scenes involving (enlight the rest of the phrase) make s*x on the floor of a chapel with your dead aunt next to you. This is a no-no for me.
Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”
Review:
“Give me a name that means “light”, not shadow, and we may be able to show them there’s beauty in horror.”
I’m very emotional because this is the first ARC that I got approved on Edelweiss! And it’s from one of my favourite authors!
The cover is amazing, and shows perfectly the character of Lenore, Edgar’s muse.
Let me say this: Cat Winters is fantastic writing gothic and horror books. She has a talent to let you fall into the story.
In The Raven’s tale, I completely fell in love with Lenore from the very first time she appears on the page.
However, this is not the best Winter’s book, and that’s why: we understand that it’s made for a younger audience, so the writing style is lighter and easier to read; we read of the conflict of young Edgar, who want to be a student in a prestigious university but it’s attracted to this dark and frightening Muse; we also participate in his success and his failures, but in the end we know that he has indulged in the horror tales that Lenore inspires him.
I comprehend that with this story we know more about the young Poe, about his family and what in the world inspires him to write, but in the end I was like: well, he’s known to everyone for his horror tales, so I already know that he will follow Lenore, no matter what.
“There’s nothing wrong with tales of fright and horror told late at night. They make your listeners appreciate waking up in the morning, discovering they’re still alive.”
But the most disappointing thing in this book is the ending: I honestly thought it will be another chapter but no, it finishes like this, with a scene that seems to lead to a great revelation and a great scene of Lenore and in fact it ends with nothing.
I was also disappointed because in the ending that’s not a reference or a connection to the most famous poem of Poe, The Raven. With a horror muse that resembles a raven, and with this title, I was eager to read a scene when Edgar writes the poem with Lenore on his shoulder.
To conclude this review: the setting and the characters are all well done, we know better about Poe, but this is really far away from the first and still best book of Cat Winters “In the shadow of blackbirds”.
All the quotes are from my ARC copy, that I received in exchange for an honest review.
Fortunately, the book 