Emma and the Vampires by Wayne Josephson

Plot: Emma Woodhouse, beloved by all who live in her small town and matchmaker to humans and vampires alike, now has to fight a group of rogue vampires.
Emma has always been a carefree girl with nothing to vex her as far as society goes, mistress of her father's house, secure with a large fortune and never without a friendly ear.  Her dear friend Miss Smith though seems to be a magnet for vampires wherever they go.  It's not bad enough that Miss Smith has fallen in love with two already, now Emma must keep her friend from becoming dinner. Meanwhile, the town is abuzz with the return of another vampire gentleman, Frank Chruchill and an ever pale Miss Fairfax.  Everyone is very much looking forward to the two strangers visits.  Too bad it's at the height of vampire attack season.

Jane Austen and Vampires.   Two of my favourite topics.  This should be a given that I would love this idea.   

But it's not.

I was greatly disappointed with this remake of Emma. There were plot points that just did not seem to go anywhere.  Two major things were going through my mind during the course of this book, 1) why does everyone feel they need to have "vegan" vampires?   and 2) why does this feel way too much like a missing script of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  

I did like the new depth it gave Mr. Knightley, making him a vampire.  It added a layer of understanding that you always felt was missing in the original character.  As well, with Mr. Elton and Mrs. Elton being of the undead variety, their natural rudeness came across more appealing then ever their original characters did.  

The metaphor of biting the newlywed wives on the wedding night was a nice touch, only the question then was are we to assume that the vampire can only feed off his wife once and only because she'd have been a virgin?   The male characters keep thinking about how each other is in desperate need of sustenance and hoping each will marry soon. It was a subplot that made little sense to me, as you would think if half the town is inhabited by vampires, would there not be an "outlet" for such a thing? 

I wanted to love Emma and the Vampires but sadly, I could not.

July 31st 2010

You would think by now I would know better then to give a date on stuff when blogging but no.  I haven't learned my lesson yet.

I know, I promised three book reviews that I have not posted yet,  and I am behind on one right now.

I'm currently reading Emma and the Vampires for review.   I will have it up shortly.

PLUS  I was lucky enough to get an interview with Liane Shaw the author of thin and beautiful . com 


I will post that soon.  

And you're wondering what my hold up is?  Well, I have been suffering from a back injury.   Yes, I'm a mess.   Just sitting here for this last 5 minutes is torture.   Sitting is torture.  I've been in and out of the hospital all week.  

So fear not, the reviews and interviews are coming.  Just not as fast as I was hoping.

Books I've been reading lately

Between the one's I've been doing for review,  I've been doing a book club.

So far, we've had two selections

1. Jane Slayre  (April 's book of the month)
2. Eat Pray Love (June's book of the month)

With summer, we've sort of slowed down.  Hoping that things will pick up soon though.

I've also read for just myself  Bergdorf Blondes 


I will have reviews on these in the next few days.  The book club is still in the middle of Eat Pray Love     You can find us on Facebook too

Elvira Three Pack

Back in the mid 1990's Horror Hostess and Queen of Hallowe'en, Elvira along with her long time writing partner John Paragon, put out a series of books.

They were as campy as the Mistress of the Dark herself and filled with classic monsters but that wasn't the only gimmick they used. As the first book in the series Transylvania 90210 suggests, they mixed pop culture icons from Saved by the Bell and 90210 to create something that could only have come from The Mistress of the Dark.

These make for a light laugh out loud read at just under 200 pages each, and a series I dearly hope gets a reprint. I was little depressed to find out there were only 3 books in the series.

Movies about Books -part 2

Secret Window. Based on the novella by Stephen King, Secret Window Secret Garden.

Is about a writer who is being accused of stealing another writer's work. We are taken through this situation which is only a small part of his downward spiral into madness as we discover his recent divorce.

He's done this in the past, and now has to face this demons.

This being a King story right off makes it a good one, true horror comes from inside not out. Johnny Depp once again pulls you into this world and makes you believe that what you read might not be what you see.

Movies about Books

As I was working on my Jane Austen Challenge, I found myself returning more then once to the Jane Austen Book Club. Which is a movie about books.

And it got me thinking of the movie the Ninth Gate which is also a movie about a book.

In this case, a book written by the devil on how to bring him into flesh.

The movie is also based on a book.

What is it you think that draws us to books? To the idea of the written word? To the need to have them?

Is it the knowledge they hold, or is it the idea of what they might evoke? Wither we are reading a text book on math, a cookbook, a steamy romance or a religious text, books somehow bring out another side of us. And let's us get lost in that particular world for awhile.

The message in the movie Ninth Gate is one of caution. The book that Johnny Depp's character is chasing after is one that unlocks a puzzle to the gods. In turn, it unlocks a part of him that he didn't even know existed. Sometimes, when we go hunting for the answers, the answers are hunting for us.

Wishful Wednesday

I saw this on Bluestocking Guide

I really want to read "Dracula the Un-Dead by Darce Stoker"

But have to wait for it to go on sale.

Darren Shan : Cirque Du Freak Book 1

I received this one in the mail last week and only now had a chance to sit down and read it.

I have to get my hands on the rest of them, cause I think I found my new addiction.

Darren Shan is your average school kid. He likes playing soccer, hanging with his friends and spiders. When Steve his best friend manages to get them tickets to the traveling Freak Show, Darren can't wait.

The two boys witness what at first seems like simple stage magic while at the show but soon find out the best act is a real vampire.

Steve decides that he's tired of his life and begs the vampire to make him one. Only something goes wrong and he's left even more angry then before.

Meanwhile, Darren has a plot of his own, to steal the vampire's pet spider. Soon the two boys find themselves way in over their heads and facing their own deaths. Will they turn on each other or find another way to get away from Cirque Du Freak?

I have to admit, for a Young Adult novel this one had me glued. There is one scene between the character of Darren and his sister Annie that made me have to do a double take. It clinched the entire book for me, and I suddenly started thinking in metaphors and not taking the story as face value anymore.

Always a good thing in my view.

The characters are complex, rich and not at all what you would expect. The author managed to capture the emotional ups and down of young pre-teens with a vividness I haven't seen in this genre in years.

I love the little nod to Anne Rice by having the character writing under the pen name of Darren Shan as well as a very refreshing fact it's not set in the same old gloomy areas most vampire novels have been set. It's very much a British story so if you are unfamiliar with the British language it might throw you off at first.

This gets a 4 and a half out of 5 fangs from me.

The Shining by Stephen King- Review

As I said a few posts back, I was reading this for 2 book clubs.

I just finished it. I actually had a difficult time getting into this believe it or not.

I loved the movie version and could not get it out of my mind while reading.

I have to say, one theme by Stephen King, I have always been endeared to is the writer who looses his mind. He's done this more then once and is the best at it.

Stories about madness are always I find more scary then overly gory stories. Madness could happen to anyone at anytime for any reason.

I was alittle confused on a few elements, which I brought up in book club, that dealt with how certain items manifested themselves. And if it was a haunting or possession? It's never truly clear.

For anyone who has not read the original story it's about a man who is given a last chance to recover from his vices by taking his family to a hotel for the winter, where is has a job as the winter caretaker. His son is psychic and awakens the entity living in the hotel. Quickly one by one the three of them begin to loose control.

Given that this novel is 30 years old, it holds up brilliantly.

Vampires the Occult Truth by Konstantinos

This book was first released in the mid 1990's, but has since been re-printed, so don't let the cover art fool you into thinking this is fluff because it is not.
A non-fictional look at the world of vampires, this volume combines historical case studies with modern studies on energy use and manipulation.
A great guide through some theories linked to astral projection and how much of a threat that can be for some people.
The last half of the book focuses mostly on the psi vamp and with good reason.
Anyone interested in psi vampirism, mythology, psychology, astral projection should enjoy this volume, but if you are looking for something in the "gothic subculture" then look somewhere else.

Originally posted on my blog Alucard's Rose on June 15 2008

Shade by David Darke

This is one that surprised me. It is about a group of fans who are going to a book convention for a series of vampire novels. It sort of plays off of the popularity that vampires had in the 1990's as well as the role playing vampire games. The theme of this book is blurring the lines of what is real and what is not.
We meet Shade. She is a very sexy writer of vampire novels, who just happens to be a very sexy vampire. Her books lure and seduce her victims and then she finds them all over the world by using mirrors.
I liked this book because it took a fresh look at the vampire, not just as a horror story, not just as an erotic story, but as a media persona all it's own.


Originally posted on my vampire blog Alucard's Rose on July 1 2007

Cause I didn't have enough to read

I started a book club for my horror site Disturbia.

Our first selection is Stephen King's The Shining.

So far so good. Stephen King seems to bring out the best in real horror fans. Not as many people signed up for the book group as I had hoped but it looks promising.

I will have my review on here once I am done reading.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Quirk Classics already have the next book written in their Jane Austen re-write series. Hitting stores Sept 15th 2009 here is the official book trailer.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -Review

Well it took some slugging through as the middle seemed to get away from it's self for about 10 chapters, then when we hit the part where Lydia runs off with Wickham it got back on the right foot.  I can only guess that the re-author of this new classic, got bogged down with the actual love story end. 

I have said this before on my other blog  that I thought it was a joke when I first heard,  but it's not.  

P&P&Z  reads like a lost script of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, and I could not keep the idea of Mr. Darcy being played by the actor David Boreanaz (as the evil Angelus) out of my head. 

It's got all the romance we have come to love of P&P, and the witty one liners we have come to love of BTVS.  

The idea of Lady Catherine having a personal team of Ninjas is a riot in itself, but the idea that cauliflower is the perfect trap for zombies, I would not have thought.  

So many things that have left people wondering about the characters over the years are addressed in this version of the story. (Lydia being infact the town tramp and Mrs. Bennet making a move on Mr. Dacry in a subtle way)

Most of the minor characters have been given all new endings (Wickham being injured to the point of needing someone to change his depends) and a few personality traits are added to the major characters (Darcy being violent) but the story holds up. 

I can not wait to see the movie version of this  and the next offering from Quirk Classics.

Renfield by Barbara Hambly

There is something creepy about the cover of this novel that attracts you like the flies that seem to fill the pages. But I was trapped to it unable to put it down till I finished.

The story picks up with Renfield already in the asylum desperate for the tiny flies and spiders that can give him the strength to do "his job". Flashing back between nightmares of his past in India and the visions he sees through Dracula's eyes.
The novel also plays with the temperament of the 3 brides who are suppose to be waiting back in Dracula's Castle. Touching on the ideas that power comes in only one real form -fear- this novel tries to explain why everyone is betraying everyone else.
Less the erotic tartness that has seeped into the vampire genre for the last decade (about time we cleaned the steam and trash from the window) and more about how the fear feeds the will, Renfield Slave of Dracula, does follow the original story in the form of letters and diaries, and makes you care for the lesser public characters of Seward, Morris and Renfield.

The one element the novel has kept from recent vampire ideals is the use of the vampire as a metaphor for complete loneliness.


Originally posted on Alucard's Rose Dec 4 2008 by Ardeth Blood