Gothic Emporium Thursday:The Resurrectionist

Every Thursday on A Bibliophile's Reverie, Indulge in all things preternatural and Gothic.
Features Include Anything about the Latest in Gothic Literature

THE GOTHIC EMPORIUM THURSDAYS


"I am a Scavenger
A Resurrectionist
Yes, I enjoy my work
I'm a perfectionist
Supply and demand...
Supply and demand..."
-Emilie Autumn-Scavenger-           
Song of the Week, From Gothic Industrial Artist: Emilie Autumn 
      Given the fact that this week's highlighted book features such a morbid theme centering around the perverse desire of one doctor's plan for resurrecting bodies for the sake of scientific discovery, Emilie Autumn's Scavenger from her musical-themed album "Fight Like a Girl" thematically fits with Quirk Book's exciting new title "The Resurrectionist." Interestingly, this song was inspired in part by another Goth favorite from the eighties: Jim Henson's "Dark Crystal." While you are reading the below information about The Resurrectionist, be sure to listen to the song, as it will certainly set the right mood in your mind before you ever read the book later this month. (That is if you decide that you are intrepid enough to read about the abnormalities of this particular scientist's experiments This goes beyond the pale of Dr. Frankenstein's sole unnatural creation.)
                                
      Gothic Book for May (Review Forthcoming):
The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth; From Quirk Books



Synopsis (Courtesy of Product Details Page on Quirk Book's Website)

"Philadelphia. The late 1870s. A city of cobblestone sidewalks and horse-drawn carriages. Home to the famous anatomist and surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a “resurrectionist” (aka grave robber), Dr. Black studied at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis: What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts—mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs— were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind?

The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from his humble beginnings to the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus: The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts—dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus—all rendered in meticulously detailed black-and-white anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story."

Conversation With the Author: E.B. Husdpeth





Book Trailer 






Where the links and synopsis too horrifying and unsettling for your modest mind? Is the premise far too cadaverous to behold?

Gothic Emporium will most assuredly keep you abreast of anything that pertains to Quirk Book's The Resurrectionist before it's released into the world, come May 21, 2013.

Check out the links below for more information about this exciting new release!
Author's Website
Product Details Page (Includes links for Kindle,Nook, and Print Editions)
Facebook Page for The Resurrectionist

Anne Rice's Wolves of Midwinter Cover Reveal/Official Book Release News

Click the above picture for the official news, courtesy of Anne Rice's Facebook page

         News of the sequel to one of my favorite Anne Rice books,other than Interview with the Vampire, has been made officiated. For fans that are always keeping abreast of the latest news on her Facebook page, many of you are already aware of the news. For those of whom on here, who are solely followers of this blog, this will come as surprising news for all of you. If you haven't read the first novel, The Wolf Gift, it comes highly recommended from me. I recently included it as part of a psychoanalytic paper on the psychological progression of Anne Rice's hero/monster characters. Her books are imbued with so much psychological depth and intrigue.
      They are truly at the pinnacle of what supernatural fiction can succeed with in terms of relevant discussion about existentialism, philosophy, metaphysics, and the evolution of art. The Wolf Gift  is certainly no exception in the way it psychoanalyze the psyche of the vigilante hero, and how Reuben Golding really represents the first prime example of the stabilizing "ego" figure of so many of Anne Rice's multitude of different characters that represent distinctive parts of Freud's model of the unconscious mind. These books are thankfully ambiguous enough in these details to allow for any analysis; they are truly that well-written, in my modest opinion. Recently, I wrote one of the most enjoyable academic papers of my life, and it was all due to the intellectual discourse that underpins the seemingly frivolous action of these books. I cannot wait to see what depths of either the human psyche and spirituality that Anne Rice plans to explore within The Wolves of Midwinter.  As with any of you, I just can't bear the long slog that this wait presents for many of us. Therefore, the below plans for my upcoming blog theme should assuage our impatience
News about Pertinent  Blog Theme for the Summer
"Werewolf Renaissance"

     I'm so excited about The Wolves of Midwinter  to the point, where I feel the need to establish a blog theme that will act as an ongoing countdown for the release of The Wolves of Midwinter. Starting today and ending sometime in October around the release of The Wolves of Midwinter, I will be offering relevant posts that will involve a re-read of The Wolf Gift, along with deeper explorations into what makes that novel such an intellectual feast for our minds. Discussions will include the role of nature within the novel, more discussion about the various references made to other books within the Gothic fiction cannon that are alluded to throughout the book, and how The Wolf Gift  reads analogously as a metaphorical portrayal of some of Teilhard De Chardin's many unconventional ideas about spirituality. Anne Rice does not just simply make artful references to it in her book. Many of the events within the novel, particularly Reuben Golding's development from a idealistic journalist to a complex, hybridized man-wolf, reflects Teilhard De Chardin's interesting reflections on the ongoing intellectual progression of humanity. In some ways, The Wolf Gift  goes more into the depths of Lestat's image of "The Savage Garden." More will be discussed in the coming months, of course, about this and various other issues for the novel.

 

Queen and Commander Blog Tour

Title: Queen and Commander
Author: Janine Southard

Summary: On a world where high school test scores determine your future career, six students rebel. A pair of star-crossed lovers plot to stay together, rather than be separated by the system's college plans. A former off-worlder instigates: there's a ship in orbit, he says. We could take it and run away. But to take the ship, the three conspirators need more friends. Enter Rhiannon, the girl who set herself up for the ultimate success on this planet. She made sure her test would give the desired result: Queen. But her best friend begs her to take control of this plan to run away. So she drafts a would-be doctor who believes in following his Queen with all his heart. She finds a genius who can't seem to make the system work for him. And then she gets them qualified for the ship in orbit. The ship to freedom. Now what will they do with it? And was freedom what they really wanted?  

Excerpt Winning a ship means surpassing the competition. The three competing Queens swiveled their heads, hare-quick, to home in on new prey. They’d ignored her until she’d made that noise. Now they had the scent of fresh insecurity and would peck away until they laid her meager confidence bare for the massacre. “What a sweet little girl,” gushed the one in red. “Where’s your mother?” Dead, actually. Well, if this Queen planned to come after her for her age, she’d show her appreciation in the way only a younger person could. She raised her eye­brows and furrowed them down the middle, then pulled her head back onto her neck as though repulsed or doing a proper sit-up. From the way the older woman cringed back, Rhiannon knew she’d succeeded in making the derisive Did you seriously just say that to me? face that she’d seen on her more critical peers. A teenager can out bitch-face you any time, Queenie. Don’t try that tactic with me. The eldest cocked her head, more curious than cruel. Perhaps she found it as difficult to gauge Rhian­non’s age as the other way around. As far as Rhiannon knew, this woman had been one of Dyfed’s first Queens, self-made and just as untrained as herself. “Why do you think you deserve Ceridwen’s Cauldron?”

About the Author

 Janine A. Southard writes speculative fiction and videogame dialogue from her home in Seattle, WA. She sings with a Celtic band and is working on the next book in the Hive Queen universe. She’s also been known to read aloud to her cat. The cat appreciates all of these things. Maybe

. Website
 Twitter
Goodreads
  Amazon - US UK B&
N Nook-USUK iTunes- US UK Kobo- US UK




Review:
    I'm still pretty exhausted, after just finishing my last semester a few days ago. Nonetheless, I will offer what paltry words that I can manage to type about this book. I really wish I had more energy to write about this novel. Perhaps, I'll write something expanded, when I get the time.
    With the hype not set to die anytime soon for Hunger Games, there is a mad scramble for desperate readers to find something equal to the engrossing quality of that stellar series. No, Queen and Commander does not come exactly close to that high standard, but there is still plenty to be entertained by. The novel really is something fun, and points of the story has some very amusing, eccentric developments. Having finally gotten off the tiring slog of running on the analytic-treadmill for English majors, this fun novel with great banter, well-constructed characters, and an inventive story-line was the perfect antidote for English major burn-out. It's really just one of those handy YA novels that is neither too frivolous or too complex, but it has the right dosage of action and adventure to give anyone with a crazy, frenetic schedule a book that reminds them books have therapeutic benefits.
    With that said, it was probably unfair to make that latter comparison to the Hunger Games.  Queen and Commander has a plot that is differentiated enough to make it completely different in tone and style from that story. I was only using that very well-known book as a way to recommend this book to anyone, who feels that they haven't found anything worthwhile or entertaining to read in the YA section after reading Hunger Games. So, grab a cup of coffee (wine/beer for those like myself, who are over 21), and start giving your brain the break it deserves. (Okay, I'm speaking mostly for myself here).

     

"Die Like A Girl":A Sardonic ,Inverse Version of "Fight Like a Girl"

                 


Inspired by both Emilie Autumn's "Fight Like a Girl," and her commentary on the brutish sexism of Pre-Raphealite paintings. As a form of pure hypocrisy  I happen to have the painting of the "Lady of Shalott," serving as my undignified computer wallpaper. Given the below criticism, should I hide my head in shame? 
Die Like a Girl 


Come one, Come all
                   To the greatest theatrical show-
                   Invented by the demented minds of a true Opheliac
                   Tinkered by misery
                   Powered by Sadism and self-destruction
                    Appropriating the themes of Woebegone Mistresses
                 
                    Plummeting to the depths
              Or should I say-their deaths?  
In appropriately vibrant-colored Pre-Raphealite  paintings
                    Filled with Verdant Leaves and variegated flowers
                     Suffused with the brimming life
         Of traditional pastoral poems
                   
 As each of these victorian girls pant
                    Their dying breaths
                 -ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS-
                 Die the royal, honorable way
                  Of a Wayward Victiorian Girl
           

   We have inimitable imitations of the Lady of Shalott
  Sinking herself in a boat with her artistic work
   Wrapped about her wan body-her majestic cloak
    Meticulously worked by her pallid, lifeless hands
      She envisioned knights, courtiers,
 Kings, queens, cherubic-faced children
      Graciously attending her funeral proceedings
     This was her moribund stunt-
DEATH OF ANONYMITY-
 The Demise of an unnamed female artist
       

   Unparalleled by other artistic equals
   It is the shrewd mind of the gentry folk that conceived her pathetic
   Death as beautiful and aesthetically-pleasing
    Her befallen fate graces the walls of pretentious English professors offices
     Within and Without the world of academia
     
To die like her is to truly hate your female persona
And prize the male appreciation of your anonymous work
Above all else
Mask your art with the persona of a dainty "George Elliot"
Or an unassuming Curtier Bell
Never boast your real artistic, audacious alias of
 Such strong, sturdy women like Mary Shelley
Who would read the "Lady of Shalott" in a playful, nondefeating tone-
One used by a fine woman by the name of Anne Shirley


Do you feel spurned by men?
Come watch and gaze upon Ophelia
In this scene, she  recites poetry
Using a  semidetached tone to woo Hamlet one last time
WEAKNESS-A faint woman on the brink of slipping
An empty vessel that falls into strong currents of water
If unable to appease the interests of other men

Victorian men sigh and swoon
Conjuring up erotic portraits of such a fine damsel
Tragically falling to her death
The First Suicidal Girl
Spurned, Misunderstood repeatedly by
The historical romanticism surrounding
A grisly, visceral scene of
Self-destruction
Yet it's so artful, so genuinely Shakespearean
Let us appraise a woman's misery with
Unconcerned eyes of artistic awe

I say- Never shall any of these damsels
View any tangible life beyond their
Tragic Objective of death
Look upon the Lady Macbeth, Ophelia, Juliet, and the Lady of Shalott
With pure,unadulterated shame
If all we see is poetry, we have never learned
About what it really means to "fight like a girl"
Which we have misconstrued to be
"Die Like a Girl"
The asylum's legendary spectacle
Of doom and gloom ad infinitum



   
                       
                                             

What will I forget?

 What will I forget? (The Inverse, Poetic Version  of Emilie Autumn’s “What Will Remember?)

               Having never woken up at 4pm again,,, I sleep into perpetuity
              My dreams write this poem
               Forgotten, detached Lullabies
Smeared like blood against the walls of my dying dreams
             I’m still thinking, I’m still dreaming
               Am I still alive?

          There’s the vanishing bleep of life-support
          Trying to support something dying is truly
        A complete waste of an endeavor
        It reverberates through my mind-
      The beautiful tinkling of a phantom noise
       Beep, Beep, Beep-
     My disappearing act is summed up in one
      Clangorous , monosyllabic
      BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

      I’m still here though
    Hearing the beep nevermore
    No everlasting beep
   To Furnish the silence of the dead
    What will I remember?
     What have I forgotten?
                        
  As the dream of my dying thoughts vanish
 There’s no more................
 Not even a prayer...........  No AMEN to finalize this ineloquent pause
Before the great God of the medical machine                         Issues one last prayerful BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

A Ripple in Time Promo Blitz

   
Title: A Ripple In Time
 Author: Julia Huges
 Book Description: One hundred years after she sunk, the Titanic has a new love story. Wren awakes in a present day in which World War 1 never ended, and the alternative him died as a child. Somehow, his nightmares entered the consciousness of Carina, a girl on board the Titanic. Using Wren's knowledge, she has been able to avert the tragedy, so creating a ripple in time. With the help of Carina's descendant, Carrie, Wren must find a way to go back and restore the time line. If he does, the lives of those aboard the vessel will be lost, and the love of his life will never be born. Will he be able to save the present, or is history as we know it, doomed?
 A Ripple in Time by Julia Hughes FREE to download from April 14 – April 18: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

About The Author

 The London born author of the Celtic Cousins’ Adventures: A Raucous Time; A Ripple in Time; and An Explosive Time. The Bridle Path, and her latest title is a young adult/crossover action adventure: The Griffin Cryer. “I’m an eldest child and walking my younger brother and sister to school and back, I’d tell them stories – a captive audience! On leaving college, I worked at the BBC, helping write stories for their “Schools’ Programmes”. That was back in the day, before satellite telly made it over to the UK and ‘Auntie Beeb’ ruled the air waves! I gave it all up for the good life, and moved down to Cornwall, one of the most beautiful counties in England, and often known as ‘God’s own country.’ I think the greatest compliment I received was ‘Julia’s more Cornish than the Cornish.’ I picked daffodils in winter and made pasties for the holidaymakers in the summer. But all good things come to an end: I upped sticks to be closer to my family, and landed in a little village just outside London, and have been here ever since, scribbling away at my stories. ” I don’t specifically write in any one genre, an idea will flitter into my mind, and the story develops. My first three titles, “A Raucous Time”, “A Ripple in Time” and “An Explosive Time” are action adventures, while “The Bridle Path” is romance. I think I’d overdosed on the testosterone flying around in the previous three books and wanted something a little more feminine and romantic. My latest title “The Griffin Cryer” is an adventure/fantasy. What makes this genre special is the opportunity to really allow imagination to take flight, and even create whole new worlds for readers to explore.


Author Links Purchase on Amazon Blog Facebook Twitter

Blog Hiatus for April

   

   Right now, I'm working under the gun on my senior thesis, which fittingly revolves around Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. For that reason, I haven't been able to post any real reviews for the last few weeks, and the interminable pace of updates will continue for the whole of April. This thesis is slowly invading my subconscious, and it will be next to impossible to review anything with so much of my energy concentrated on this one painstaking task.
    Things will be back to normal in May!!

Touch of Scarlet Review

                                      Amazon (Kindle Copy)/Barnes and Nobles (Nook Copy)
                                                     
                                                               

"The Scarlet Letter was going to kill me" (Page 1)

                                                   
Songs for "Hypothetical" Soundtrack for Novel:

"There is something painstakingly heartbreaking about this song,and the intense,unrelenting melodrama of Touch of Scarlet  definitely suits this song. Plus, its based on the The Scarlet Letter, much like this book is." (Yes, the vocalist looks like Black Widow at points in this music video.) 

 "More-so than the song above, this song was the one I kept hearing in my subconscious while reading this book. Once you read the book, you'll know what I mean."

\

"For me, this song really conveys the aggressive side of Emma's emotions that she feels at certain intervals throughout the novel. While this song might be a bit too extreme in the emotional department, especially in comparison with this book, I really feel that this song does a good job of matching the frustrating emotions that Emma grapples with in a neat, techno-Gothic manner."

                           
Review


      . Overall, Eve Mont's sequel to A Breath of Eyre, A Touch of Scarlet, focuses much more on Emma's life spent outside the books she loves to quite literally escape into (if only it were just in a proverbial sense). The events of Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Scarlet Letter are not explicitly retold, in the same way that major events from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre  were explicitly retold in A Breath of Eyre.  Instead, The Scarlet Letter  becomes an allusive background to the grittier melodrama that is occurring within Emma's real-world setting. Her palpable sense of estrangement that results from a devastating emotional event before starting another year at school forces her to stay outside the psychic confines of the world of the books that she can telepathically inhabit at will.

      With effective prose,well-developed characters, and a finesse at evoking realistic character drama, A Touch of Scarlet  exceeds A Breath of Eyre  in terms of feeling like a more unified story. The fragmented construction of A Breath of Eyre  was of course incidental, mirroring Emma's adolescent identity crisis. In many ways, Jane Eyre  revolved around the search for one's identity, while The Scarlet Letter  concerns the tumultuous drama that accompanies heart-break and passion of any kind. The Scarlet Letter  has become a readily identifiable allusion, used in  Buffy the Vampire Slayer  and the film: Easy A.  There is something universal about the trials and tribulations of romance: the sordid alter-ego of blissful romance.
    A Touch of Scarlet  rivets the reader, as Eve Mont plumbs the emotional depths of the newest challenge that Emma faces throughout this novel, and she does it in a very mature and satisfying way. It is very hard to find Young-Adult fiction that goes beyond the pale of the superficial, and succeeds with creating something with so much depth and realistic drama. While I loved A Breath of Eyre,  this novel felt more polished, shrewd, and daring with where it was willing to go for the sake of making readers turn the pages more fiercely.
   Its very rare for me to find something that perfectly matches my own experience of watching Roman Polanski's eternally frustrating adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'uberville. This book was one where I was shouting at character's foolhardy decisions and hoping that they wouldn't be so obstinate at points, where a certain realization would make the difference between staying together with a certain someone or effectively sorting out things in their messy life. No, this isn't a criticism. It is praise for a book that made me feel very invested in what was happening with the characters.

   It was really reassuring to see that there will be yet another installment, based around one of my favorite novels, The Phantom of the Opera. Hopefully, it will be as nail-bitingly(Is this even a grammatically correct term?) frustrating in the emotional drama department. The last series to make me feel such aggravating, yet sweet,dramatic frustration was Downton Abbey.