I’ve long been a proud gamer. Ever since the 1980s and my family’s first computer, an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen monitor, I’ve spent a lot of time growing up (or not) through gaming. Along the way, I’ve somehow also managed to get a doctorate in early modern drama and critical theory but despite that distraction I have also continued my dedication to the videogame. In part owing to the technical applications of Moore’s law (loosely defined as the idea that computer processors will double in complexity every two years) the transformation from the games that defined my initial

“Dark creatures are more fun” Interview with Joseph Delaney / Review of Slither’s Tale Slither’s Tale Publisher: Bodley Head (27 Sep 2012) ISBN-10: 0370332172 ISBN-13: 978-0370332178 Joseph Delaney is the author of the spectacularly successful dark fantasy series, The Wardstone Chronicles, written for children and young adults. The novels tell the story of Tom Ward, a farmer’s son apprenticed to the County ‘Spook’ on his twelfth birthday.  Tom and the ‘Spook’ live and work at the edge of their community, protecting the folk of ‘the County’ from supernatural

Just in my own stuff I’ve moved from imitating Lovecraft to a more contemporary style of psychological horror (a trajectory Robert Bloch’s career also described) and tried to bring the supernatural tale up to my own date (as Fritz Leiber, another author influenced early in his career by HPL, magnificently did). Every so often I make a bid to scale the heights of awe that Blackwood and Machen’s greatest tales occupy. And maybe I’ve even discovered my own little niche in the genre, which I’d call comedy of paranoia. To sum up, I haven’t discovered the limits of the field, and I doubt I will.

As group of friends we took a trip to The Edinburgh Dungeons, a place set on making sure history really comes alive—but only the fun, dark, gory parts.

Evenson, Brian. Altmann's Tongue. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002. 978-0-8032-6744-2. Reviewed by Laura Kremmel, Lehigh University. “He herded them out in the madness of the midday heat, butchered the horses before their eyes.” “Bone Job clawed his way through the smooth wood of the coffin lid, wearing his finger bones to the stubs.” “Having sewn Jerry’s eyelids shut, Hébé found himself at a loss as to how to proceed.” These opening lines from the short stories in Brian Evenson’s Altmann’s Tongue precede tales of broken and twisted families, medit

Natalie Wilson, Seduced by Twilight, McFarland and Co. 2011. ISBN: 978-0786460427 Gizelle Liza Anatol (ed.), Bringing Light to Twilight, Palgrave MacMillan, 2011. ISBN: 978-0230110687 “I’m so mad you think I read Twilight.” Fright Night I sympathise with Fright Night Ed’s frustration. When I tell people I’m researching Gothic children’s literature, often they say, ‘So, stuff like Twilight, then?’ Was it out of sheer stubbornness that I resisted so long? Literary snobbery? Was it the fact that when the films came out, my ‘tween’ niece thought they were ‘sooo amazin

By now, most readers will be familiar with the assertions by publishers, writers, bloggers and reviewers that the trend for vampire fiction is coming to an end. However, 2011 has seen a number of new vampire titles so far. Today’s post is a selection of recent offerings. It is not intended to be a definitive comment on the current state of the genre, but rather a review of some vampire titles that are currently gracing the (physical and virtual) bookshop shelves. First up is Scott G. Mariani’s Uprising. First published in 2010 (with Mariani writing under the name Sean McCabe), by Harper

In my previous post on this blog, I credited Stephenie Meyer with helping to create a new sub-genre of speculative fiction: YA paranormal romance. Today, I would like to consider one of her other, somewhat more controversial, creations: the sparkly vampire. When Twilight’s Edward Cullen walks in the sunshine, his skin glitters as though covered in precious gemstones. Little about the Twilight novels evokes such a vehement response – from both readers and non-readers alike – as the vampire that sparkles. But what is it that is making vampire fans so angry?

Since the 2005 release of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, the genre of young adult paranormal romance has, to put it mildly, flourished. Meyer's work is credited by some as creating (or at least cementing the creation of) a new genre – the YA dark romance. As many reviewers and critics have commented (grumbled?), vampires have become ubiquitous.

When we left off last time, I'd been asking if there was much consensus in these essays about what 21st century Gothic was up to. You'd mentioned the very intriguing idea of the 'dark gifting' that appears in so many of these texts, and you'd also noted...