Tom's treasures of fiction, poetry, literature and more...

Welcome all to my latest offering on the blog! This time I am reviewing the mysterious gothic short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I read this short story for university when we looks at women writers of the Fin de Siècle, pronounced  as /f æn dʊ si:ɛkl   in phonetic or those who do not follow, simply pronounced as  "fan du see-eh-kl" with the "du" sounding the same as in look or put. In case you actually wander what the Fin de  Siècle is French for end of the century. The emphasis is on the ending of the 19th century and it's characteristics. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a good example of the Fin de Si ècle. The short story highlights the struggles that women can face and how women can fall victim to being diagnosed with hysteria. In the short story, the narrator reveals she cannot do certain things because she is unwell. She sees life as exciting and considers that a ...

Welcome people. After reviewing the first two books in Darren Shan's Zom-B  series, I decided to take to the third book, Zom-B: City  (2013) like narrator and protagonist B took to London. In this novel we see B roaming the streets of London to determine what state the outside world is in since the zombies attacked. Throughout the novel we meet a varied range of characters including Coley, Timothy Jackson and Sister Clare to name a few. A small number of the characters I liked; most of them I did not. One character who I met in the first novel, raised suspicions then and here in this novel, they made me loathe them. I will not give away the spoiler of who, in case anyone wants to read the series... The characters are what made this novel excellent because of how often characters made me react. Depending on the character (no spoilers given), I winced, I shuddered, I cringed, I became discombobulated and even I felt sick. The only character I liked, aside from B was Timothy Jack...

Welcome back to my blog people! Today I am going to be revealing my thoughts and feelings about opinions, explaining why I like Halloween as well. I know not everyone likes Halloween but I do. I like always think horror and spooky. I will not use the word scary because some things I find scary for good reason and will not want them. These include theme park rollercoasters that spin you around at an alarming fast rate, or drop you deep and then raise you high repeatedly. If you see me at a theme park, I get scared with those big super-fast rides while everyone else around me gets scared from the ghost train. I actually like the ghost train. Thinking about spooky things, since being a child I have been a massive scooby doo fan. I grew up to love the fictional eco-goth rock band The Hex Girls, who have featured multiple times across the Scooby Doo media. Then I took a big loving to Doctor Who. This was followed with the 2016 Ghostbusters  film quickly becoming one of my favourite film...

Hello all! Do you ever feel you want something sweet? Do you ever want something you know you should not have? That is exactly what happens in Christina Rossetti's gothic poem "Goblin Market" (1862)… In today's review I am going to give my thoughts on Rossetti's poem of sinful desires and greeds. Here we have two sisters: Laura and Lizzie. When the goblin men tempt them with their fruits, Laura is interested. Lizzie however, insists that her sister should ignore them. This could be seen as allusion to Adam and Eve with Nachash the snake in the garden of Eden. This wanting of the bad fruit that a woman knows she should not have. Unlike Eve though, Lizzie does not get an apples on offer. Instead there are many other fruits for her to bite into. She tells her sister as such - ‘I'll bring you plums to-morrow Fresh on their mother twigs, Cherries worth getting; You cannot think what figs My teeth have met in, What melons icy-cold Piled on a dish of gold Too huge fo...

For today's blog post, I wanted to share with you a little poem that I recently wrote, called Halloween . I hope you like. Halloween: Hot tomato soup warms me up as people get in the spooky spirit, laughing at toilet roll mummies and listening to chilling tunes. Outside children are trick or treating, walking about the streets as scary vampires and evil witches hoping for lots of sweets at the end of the evening to take back home. Their parents are worried, not wanting the kids to be sick from scoffing all their treats. That was my poem that I recently wrote as I was thinking about Halloween. Here's to the rest of this month, and if you are doing something for Halloween, I hope you look have fun! Until next time, Thomas.

I am here again with more Zom-B scariness from author of the month Darren Shan. This time I am reviewing his second novel in the 12 part Zom-B series -  Zom-B: Underground  (2013). SHHH! Secrecy, cover ups and deception are sprawled throughout this horror novel. As zombies and B's racist dad plagued B's world in the first novel,  Zom-B  (2012), it transpires how actions can have consequences. This novel demonstrates how one person's deception and dishonesty can cost them a lot, sometimes including their life. The novel carries on from the first novel. However where that was in the streets, homes, school and so forth, this second novel was underground. Reading this, I discovered that being underground does not equal safe and out of harms way from the zombies, or anything for that matter. B's previous life was when B was just a normal school kid with no worries. Most of B' previous life has gone. Except the day B met the mutants. These hooded creeps gave me a huge ick...

Lately I have been thinking about horror and its subgenres. There is gothic, which I have mentioned here on my blog. There is also the supernatural, which I have not covered yet. That is about to change... For today's blog post I am reviewing the supernatural novella  A Christmas Carol  (1843) by Charles Dickens. I remember first reading this Victorian ghost story back when I was at school. What stands out most to me is how Dickens makes us realise that people can change and that does mean anyone. At the start of the novella we see that Scrooge is a grumpy man who despises Christmas. To him Christmas Day is just another ordinary day. But when the ghosts start to appear, Scrooge is made to rethink some of his attitudes and opinions. As the ghosts continue to offer him the versions of what was, is and could be, Scrooge changes. Sometimes I think now that we showed some people what could be if they continue to make the choices they make, then we could do some good. However, that ...

Hello all, I am back with another bookshop visit. For bookshop visit number 10, I took a trip to Kentish Town where I looked around the Books for Amnesty there. I love the one in Brighton, which I visited earlier this (check my review), and I thought it seemed too good an opportunity to miss it! As soon as I walked in, I book caught my eye. It was a Zadie Smith book which I failed to acknowledge that it was signed. I mean, I know it was hardback but I thought it was odd that it was differently priced to most of the other hardbacks. I did not purchase it as I had that book already and my shelves are choking with books as it is. Besides, I have been on a mission for certain books and what with having to travel, I did not want to have too much to carry. I did also see two Margaret Atwood books there that interested me. One was a novel in hardback and the other was a little poetry book. I knew for definite that I had the novel though I was unsure on the poetry book. For this reason I did n...

Saw? Scream? Halloween? It? These are four well known and popular horror films. Are these my favourite horror or do I prefer something a little different? Stay tuned for today's blog post as I reveal my favourite horror films... 1: Ghostbusters (2016) directed by Paul Feig. This film starring Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig as the leading characters was incredible! I found it funny, I found it cool and I found it highly engrossing. I absolutely loved it and could not get enough of the film! Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig are such a power force together as a group of four fierce leading women. They all worked well together, had perfect connection and wonderful humour. Out of all the films I have watched, this is one of my favourites. 2: Scooby-Doo (2002) directed by Raja Gosnell. Now you may or may not consider this a horror film but this comedy horror film was so fun and sinister in equal measure. I am a massive Scooby-...

Welcome to today's blog post readers. Today I am reviewing my first Darren Shan work, Zom-B  (2012) as he is author of the month. His first novel in this twelve part series was a disgusting, creepy action-packed story when zombies start to attack. Not everyone believes the zombies are real. The protagonist known as 'B', is one of them. B's influencing problem is her father. Aside from the zombies, B's father is the other main distraction in the novel. B struggles with what B' father says. B knows he is extremely racist and Darren Shan has highlighted this very well in his novel. I can see in this novel that Shan has emphasised this racist idea of 'us vs them'. While it is clear that B tries to be so different from this racist that we see with B's father, sometimes B almost as if gets trapped. B does not want to be racist though at times is. I dislike B for that and it does disgust me. However, I can see how B's father is far worse. He is racist, ...

No! No! No! There are some gothic novels which strike terror and cause absolute shock in readers alike. Then there is the subject of today's review post - Matthew Gregory Lewis' petrifying 1796 novel The Monk . Where do I begin with a novel as evil and as twisted as this one? The extremes of gothic are present here in this affrightening  tale and to the maximum I might add. As the title suggests, the novel centres around a monk who gives in to commit lustful sins. What gets me is how sexually detailed it is. There is rape, incest, murder and everyone tricking everyone. This leads to someone becoming victim to an angry mob and someone else becoming the victim of a ghost. Every however many chapters, this novel had yet another big moment that had me in gasp in shock, fear or disgust; though sometimes this was all at once and in equal measure. I have to say that this novel is not for the faint-hearted. During the time when this was released, it became marred in controversy and Mat...

Hi everyone. I'm back to tell you some of the stuff I have been reading in September. Over the past month I have enjoyed reading some different stuff and I am looking forward to stuff I shall read this month. Here is my list for September. 1: For the millionth time - my French.  Those of you that regularly read my blog will be aware that I am learning French daily on my phone. Every day I get various tasks to improve my knowledge of French. These include speaking, listening, typing and reading. I am slowly making progress and have no plans to stop. I find it fun and it will help me if ever I go to France, which is not out of the question. 2: Castle Dor  (1940) by Daphne du Maurier.  As Daphne du Maurier was author of the month, last month and I had the book sitting on my shelf, I decided to read her 1940 novel Castle Dor . Check out my review from last month to see what I thought of it. 3: Facebook and Instagram. I use these two to keep connected and updated on things tha...

Hello all. October is here and to me it is a good month. This is because October beholds Halloween which I love! I am here for all things spooky, witchy and whatnot. Sign me up to Scooby-Doo, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and creepy, chilling tunes. I have a playlist on my YouTube full of Halloween songs. Also, I have been known to throw a Halloween party once or twice before. This year though, it is going to be an extra scary October because I am continuing to drown in the horror genre as the theme for my blog. Although, this month I have moved on and we have a new author of the month. Whereas Daphne du Maurier was author of the month last month, for October it is the cool horror author Darren Shan. I am looking forward to reading a Darren Shan novel or two. So, be on the look out for more chilling tales and some horrid surprises in store! Here's to October... Until next time, Thomas.