Koji Suzuki-Ring

         One of Japan's most horrifying movies finds its roots in Koji Suzuki's book-a modern horror tale which still preserves the 'japanese legend' feel intact.

Although the film respects the book almost wholly, reading this has been a far more enlightening experience, even for one that has seen the movie half a dozen times(namely, myself.)

The characters are beautifully constructed, powerful personalities, bright minds yet still realistic...in other words, real. 

Writing-wise, Koji does an amazing job, creating a smooth bridge between the trivial and the mythical, between safety and silent danger, the result being a book that flows, and catches the reader in its net from page 1.

In conclusion, I find this book deserves an honest5/5. 

Basic update

Sorry for the no updates recently, Im currently reading a few books and will write a review about the one I will make a review of that one (Phantom Of The Opera). So, hopefully Fluffspider will write something soon, but she is very busy currently

This is something I wrote for school, its a bit more extensive review of Heart of Darkness

Polish-born British writer Joseph Conrad’s fourth novel, Heart of Darkness, is a classic tale about the hypocrisy of imperialism and what it leads to in the certain parts of the world. The book is extremely symbolical and it tells about the human condition and the psychological state of someone, who has been away for a long time.

The book has two major characters, Marlow and Kurtz, both from the different end of the character spectrum. Marlow is a very logical person and doesn’t let things get him down too easily. He works for the British navy and gets a job to see what happened to one outpost in the British Congo. He leaves London through Thames with his current crew, bound to Congo to find out what happened to the outpost and then make a report of it. Once Marlow arrives at the outpost in the British Congo, he is puzzled by the sight of the outpost having been burned down by a yet unknown person. Trying to look for the man in charge of the outpost, Kurtz, is a harder task than it should have been. They find Kurtz in the jungles of Congo and the mystery starts to unfold until the last lines of the book, “The horror….the horror”.

The book is extremely well written and keeps tension very well. I would say that it is a classic due to the subject of the book, the hypocrisy of imperialism that was never really touched upon, it was a very realistic story and very well written for the time. Reading this book made me realize the folly of imperialism and what it actually did to the countries affected by it and how it made a clear gap between the oppressor and the country being oppressed. The horror elements in the book were very subtle yet strong at the same time making it very effective.

Personally, I found this book a very interesting book to read due to its symbolism and very unique story. I stand by my claims that a short book is harder to write and make better than a long book since you have to make things seem natural in a shorter amount of text. By this logic, Joseph Conrad is one of the best writers I have read books from and looking at other books by him currently.

“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad is a definite must read for anyone who wants to read a good story, see original characters and like horror-esque literature or then wants to find about the folly of imperialism.

Jane Eyre

Oh my, I dont even want to do this, but here goes nothing, the book is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

So, let's begin by saying that length doesn't make a good book, it can make any good book quite boring, but that's not the case with this book, since it was already bad, but the length just made it worse than it already was. The type of writing isnt as effective, making the book deliver everything less efficiently, but it only has a few of those points since the book is bland (and that scene happened to be in the beginning, so theres nothing to look forward to after that). The plot is very basic, girl has unhappy childhood, falls in love with someone, gets mad with him and yet in the end, marries the guy. Oh, joy, I'm not even bothering to hide the plot from you since reading this book is like self torture. I could say that the running gag in the book is the crazy housemaid, but it's too bland to be a gag, so I think the writer was being serious when she made her..... WHYYYYY?! So, the plot isn't anything special, atleast the girl doesn't fall for the guy when she sees him on a hors........ OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. So, love at first sight, with a very cliched western image of love at first sight, making it painful to read if you have ever seen a movie with Clint Eastwood in it. The plot doesn't improve at any point, since at first thinks she can't marry the horseback man from before when she's poor and then it turns out that her rich uncle died and left her a huge fortune..... Do I even have to say that this isn't a good plot twist.

Well, let's get into the characters, maybe there's something good in them. So, we established that the main character had a rough life, and it has an effect on her future, but I doubt that it makes her a person that bland, well, that might be due to the fact that she is overtly religious and only believes in love... why didn't I just leave this book on the shelf.... oh yeah, I HAD TO read this for school. So, what about Mr. Rochester, the man of Janes life. He is a misanthropic rich man who likes being a polygamist, since he tries to marry Jane while still being married. Yeah..... this book hasn't got a single likeable character in it.... except the crazy housemaid since she tries to kill the main characters a few times since she's insane (OR BRILLIANT) depending on your view on insanity and sanity. What about the setting, Victorian Age London, huge mansion..... and a love story.... aaaand unhappy events.... THIS IS ONLY A STEREOTYPE OF GOTHIC STYLED WRITING! Read "How To Kill A Mocking Bird" if you wanted to read gothic literature.

Okay, I can't go on with this, this scheibe is bananas.

Noapte Buna

Chuck Palahniuk-Invisible Monsters

Palahniuk is best known for his bestseller, "Fight Club", which was later made into a film. Due to his controversial subjects and interesting writing styles, he was labeled as a king of the underground culture, as well as a nihilist(label which he does not agree upon, stating that he is merely a Romantic with more extravagant subjects).

"Invisible Monsters" deals with the mentality derived from working in fashion, and the negative consequences that come from offering beauty on a plate for thousands of eyes to see, often forgetting one's true personality in favour of one that pleases all-or nearly all.

There isn't much I can state about the plot which won't ruin your surprise at the end, and make me seem stupid until you get there.

Regarding the style the book is written in, I could characterise it as schyzophrenic,yet results in little confusion. The story starts off with several ideas, apparently unrelated, which tie up in the most unexpected manner.You cannot say you read half of a certain book, and got the message completely.

As I am divulging little to none of the contents of the book, I consider some occuring motifs might make you read it: Supermodel, mutilation, a not-so-dead brother, a drag queen.

This gets 5/5 from me, as I couldn't leave the book out of my hands until I got to a new chapter, which would calm me a bit.

Conrad

This time, a short story by Joseph Conrad called "Heart Of Darkness".

I don't really need to say much about this book, but I will anyways. Short books are harder to write long ones since you dont have that much space to "flesh out" the characters too well and they might be left bland. This book is a perfect example of how it is done in just a few pages. It's not too rapid and it doesnt happen at just the end, it happens gradually so its not in your face. The style of writing is also very clever, making you think while your read the book and might be tricky so it will take you a while to know what its talking about. The writing is also very descriptive especially in the very beginning, describing the departure from London. The imagery is very vivid and it sounds like they would have been going to the open sea from the Thames. The plot has alot of dimensions to it, a symbolical side, a realistic side thanks to the portrayal of Congo and a psychological due to the condition of the human mind it displays at the end. The perfect line and the last line of the book shows it accurately "The horror... the horror".

To talk about the plot a bit more in detail, it is about Captain Marlow and his voyage to Congo to find out what happened to a certain man called Kurtz, who is thought to be missing since he hasnt contacted anyone in a long time. Once Marlow gets there, he finds the outpost burned down and Kurtz alive, living with the natives, seemingly not wanting to leave or contact anyone. I'm not getting in to that anymore since you would lose your interest. But I will tell you, everything is not as it seems.

Can't really talk about such a short story too much without delving into the plot and giving away everything, so I'll leave it at here and hope that you will read it and have a good time.

Good Evening.

Corpse Exploitation

Guessed already? If not, the book this time is, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

To clear a few common misconceptions, the creature itself is not called Frankenstein, that is the surname of the doctor who created the monster and that Frankenstein's creation does not have bolts on it's neck. Now that those are out of the way, let's get into the book itself. The story has alot of backstory and a lot of character development, the book starts at the end and then talks about the beginning and what things lead to Victor Frankenstein to re-animate a corpse he put together. He is consumed by trying to re-animate a corpse and almost loses everyone in his life and himself while trying to do so. After re-animating the corpse, Victor denies the fact from himself. This makes a very interesting setting, allowing room for alot of character development. The monster itself, is more than a man, yet less than a man. Hated by everyone who sees the monster, treated well by only one man, making him feel like a real person, but then he is driven away from the old, blind man. So, even the "villain" is very identifiable by everyone who has been lonely or is a misfit in society. Many characters who are extremely identifiable even in todays world. Damn this book is sounding better and better all the time. I won't get into the story too much since anything more I would say, would almost ruin the whole book for you and this will leave you more interested to read it.

Now, let's talk about other things, in the terms of writing. The use of language was perfect and the way it was written matched that way. Brilliant characters, each one of them had a certain personality and strong development. Victor changes the most during the book being that he is present most of the time and many things happen to him.

Im making this one short since I dont know what to write about this time.

Good Evening

Paulo Coelho-Veronika decides to die.

This one exceeded my expectations, after the epic Alchemist fail. Don’t get me wrong-decent is a far concept from it, for I cannot call it more than ‘readable’. The writing technique is poor, but the action makes up for it in some parts, and the message-again-isn’t pure stupidity.
Pros:- interesting concept
-slightly catchy action-enough not to fall asleep with the book in your hand.
-good overall message
Cons:-Poorly written
-unrealistic depictions of patients with mental illnesses.
-the author himself appears as a character, but his contribution to the plot is insignificant, so it is clear that he put himself there so he can name another writing technique used in his books.Oh, and he self-proclaims himself an artist. Modesty sure isn’t his strong point!
! Incorrect medical information!The book claims serotonin was ‘recently discovered’(the book was written in 1997).Serotonin was originally discovered by Italian and American scientists in the late 1940s.(it was named in 1948, so no excuse!)
2/5.

Horror 101

Let's take an old classic horror book, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and as I mentioned in the Twilight review, one of the first vampire novels.

As most of you should know, Dracula is about Keanu Reeves.... oh wait, that's the horrible one-faced actor. The book revolves around Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker, his wife Mina, her closest friend Lucy Westenra and Dr. Seward. The book has a small amount of historical background, such as the "vampire" Vlad Ţepeş who was known for drinking blood among a few other things that I won't be getting into since this is supposed to be a book review after all. The plotline is original for the time, but it has been emulated many times to this date, so people who have read similar books to this novel, will most likely find it very similar. But they must remember one thing, THIS was written before them. I'll get into the story a bit more in-depth than the others. Count Dracula is a Transylvanian count who lives in an eerie castle, in the middle of nowhere and it has a lot of odd things happening inside it. Harker is spooked to the point of near heart attack many times until he is held as a prisoner inside the castle, forced to write letters to sooth the people back in England. Harker is also kept unable to run away due to all of the blood sucked from him during his captivity. One day, the Count and Harker move to Carfax Abbey, near the residence of Dr. Seward's asylum and Dracula sets his eyes on Lucy and Mina. I won't spoil anything more so you will still have a fun time reading it, that is just the premise of the book.

The book has a lot of character development and twists in the story to keep the reader interested. The only person who doesn't change is the ancient evil himself, Count Dracula. Harker becomes a frail man from the strong-willed assistant of Dr. Seward. Mina goes through changes when she encounters the vampire on multiple occasions and almost willingly goes away with him. Lucy is a very shallow person before Dracula shows up and after that she becomes a more terrified individual. *SPOILERS* And well, she gets turned into a vampire, which makes her a bit more seductive. *SPOILERS* So, many of the characters change, but slowly and making them feel like humans and not robots that are re-programmed each day to be different. You can identify yourself with plenty of characters, even with the Count. Even though he (or is it an it already) pale, frightening and odd, he still has positive aspects that people can identify with. He is elegant, charismatic and a very convincing. Me (that is me, Batsy) can identify with his elegance, the frightening factor and oddness. The personalities of every character are very different and very well thought through so you won't find faceless angst-ridden people in this novel. So, excellent plot, interesting characters, incredibly original and delightfully full of surprises, this book is a must read in my opinion.

That does it for this review, have a good read and remember, the oldest and most powerful kind of fear, is the fear of the unknown.

Good Evening

Classic 101

Good Evening,

I read a lot of books during the summer, I'm going to talk about one of the good ones. This book is called Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the tale of the good doctor who wanted to be an angel without evil.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was written by Robert Louis Stevenson, author of such books as Treasure Island and The Merry Men. It was written in the 19th century. Written about the duality of a man and the inner conflict within between good and evil within all of us. Dr. Henry Jekyll was a very good man, a doctor, who never did anything wrong, yet he still felt like a bad human being. He wanted to separate the bad in him so that it would not come out of him ever again, even though it never did. But the desired effect of the test didn't happen, but in fact, the exact opposite, he releases all of the bad in him every now and then when he feels or experiences any "evil" thing. Enter Mr. Hyde, all of the evil restrained inside a good person, coming out in bursts. So, every little and huge evil thing coming out at once.... ouch, not a good situation. Now the duality comes into play, imagine a person who never commits any evil deed and a person who commits nothing but evil. Hyde kills people and Jekyll tries to regain control of his body and restrain Hyde from killing innocent people. I will not talk about the plot more since I don't want to spoil a good book by giving away big events in it.

The actual level of writing of the book is amazing since it is harder to write a short story with alot of detail than a long book with alot of detail and effort put into it. The character design is very contrasting in the cast of characters the book has to offer. Every character that has a name has his/her own personality that has a major contrast to the other ones. It even has some decent character development between each character, Jekyll and Hyde go through most of the changes, when *SPOILER* Jekyll just stops caring about what happens to him in the end, yet he cannot end his own life since Hyde would come out *SPOILER*. Considering the length of the book, it is pretty impressive to have such character development. The plot line in itself is very intriguing and it has never been emulated well to this day. It will remain a literary accomplishment till the world pisses itself and dies and it will most likely remain unrivaled in the split personality department. This book is a definite purchase or then you can loan it out of the library, they WILL(at least should) have it.

This was another review by me, Batsy, have a pleasant night and a good reading session.

Paulo Coelho-The Alchemist

Sorry for the lack of political correctness, but this book is a major waste of time.Read its blurb and a few quotes, and the amount of information you get is exactly as much as you will receive in the writing itself.

Although I must admit-Coelho makes even Britney Spears believe she finally understood the secrets of the Universe and all that surrounds her.

The message itself is not a bad one, but I must comment the style the book was written in. It leaves no place for your mind to wander- The information is put in front of you, on a plate, already digested, you just need to metabolize it. Thank you Coelho, for making the world a less thoughtful place,else the synapses might have buried us alive!

Before reading this…thing, I thought:well, it might be bad-but at least it’s a book and made people read these days! Honestly, I’d prefer a stupid magazine instead of it.

1/5.And it’s getting the 1 because someone had the patience to type it, print it and tie it in a volume.

Twilight

Let us start with a new, very popular book called, Twilight, the story of the sparkling monster and that girl.

Twilight, a book by Stephenie Meyer, author of other books like.... well, let's face it, she has only written the Twilight series. A very cliched, un-original romance novel with sparkling vampires and evil vampires. Already we have reached one of the deepest lows of the art of writing. I'll introduce you to someone, Bram Stoker, he created the idea of a vampire from old folk tales of Eastern Europe, creatures described as seductive, sinister, extremely pale, corpse-like and very charismatic that can mesmerize people just by looking them into the eyes. And then we have Twilight "vampires", which are described with words like HOT, one of the most vague descriptions you will ever read in any book. Of course, that's not the only bad description you could come up for a vampire, atleast they don't sparkle... *reads a bit more*.... damn.

Okay, so, already we are knee deep in pseudo-literature and poor description, maybe the story will save it. Let's see, a girl falls in love with a boy and wants to frolick with him and .... I can't finish that sentence without saying, IT HAS BEEN DONE!. So, the story is un-original all the way through, and there is no build-up for the first twist when *SPOILER* Edward turns Bella into a vampire *SPOILER* . Even the scenes trying to portray the everyday life of Edward, which I assume are there for other kids to try and feel like Edward, being in that kind of a situation, but I don't think that it works aswell as Stephenie thought. So, you can't even identify yourself with the characters unless you yourself are a very bland person with little personality. You want an example of a good story and one very similar, but original with characters you can identify with, Titanic, two people from different worlds coming together and experiencing love, developing. And Twilight is just two people, other one drooled on the other and grabbed one arm, kissed and stayed there. No actual character development or any kind of romantic situation(a vaguely described kiss is not a romantic situation!), so this book failed to deliver the one aspect of books that should always be there and the one thing the genre is known for.

So, that's it for Twilight, write to you people later.

Twisted Literature

This blog is dedicated to book reviews(for good and bad ones) me(Batsy) and FluffSpider have read overtime, now or in the past. So, expect anything, but not everything since the availability on certain books is more than poor and we might not read the same kind of stuff you would hope. I might take some reading suggestions, but the book needs to have an English edition. You can expect a lot of old books from me(mostly horror and other books with a lot of imagery and that are well written, BUT, I'm also doing a few pseudo-literature books just to make it interesting.

So, without further introductions, you can look forward to a review sometime in the near future.