October 2015

57.
Title: [Cerulean Sins]
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Too long to remember
Date Completed: October 2 2015
Rating: ***

Although the trajectory is a long one, Cerulean Sins may well be the tipping point at which Anita Blake books become less about police consulting, vampire slaying, and zombie-raising, and more about metaphysical sex and the psychology of supernaturals.  The court case of this volume is peripheral, and arguably useless; it's an opportunity to keep favorite characters (Zebronski) active, while offering little by way of development or interest; the conclusion is itself gratuitous.  I've long offered the terms "vintage Blakers" and "progressive Blakers" to distinguish between two fan bases of the series - those who prefer the police-consultant-Blake, and those who enjoy the sexual narratives - and my current re-reading of the series has challenged my own camp.  While I don't mind the evolution of the series, I find that the plot lines are more careless and less neat when the focus becomes the ardeur over Blake's professional escapades.  I also have no patience for the excessively "emo" characters which accompany the later.  Add in inconsistency - for example, Anita realizing that Musette is not Master enough to tell if she's lying, and then her later insistence that Asher is in trouble because Musette can sense a lie - and the novel is not nearly as satisfying as I found it the first time.

58.
Title: [The Picture of Dorian Gray]
Author: Oscar Wilde
Genre: Gothic
Medium: Broadview
Acquisition: Victorian Gothic
Date Completed: October 7, 2015
Rating: *****

59.
Title: [Cultural Politics of Emotion]
Author: Sara Ahmed
Genre: Affect Theory
Medium: Papeback
Acquisition: Theories of Culture
Date Completed: October 2015
Rating: ****

60.
Title: [The Island of Doctor Moreau]
Author: H. G. Wells
Genre: Gothic
Medium: Broadview
Acquisition: Victorian Gothic
Date Completed: October 14, 2015
Rating: *****

61.
Title: [Dracula]
Author: Bram Stoker
Genre: Gothic
Medium: Broadview
Acquisition: Victorian Gothic
Date Completed: October 21, 2015
Rating: *****

For my course I completed a reading of masculinities in the novel, questioning the roles of men and identifying the threat of Dracula. I read some great secondary sources, and pushed my readings of the novel forward beyond my previous scholarship; it was a very useful exercise.

62.
Title: [The Beetle]
Author: Richard Marsh
Genre: Gothic
Medium: Broadview
Acquisition: Victorian Gothic
Date Completed: October 28, 2015
Rating: *****

This atmospheric, threatening, and engaging story, told from four points of view, was actually more popular than Dracula at the time, and its horror well-translates to the modern reader.  I devoured the text and its complexities, and can't wait to read its problematic representations for my term paper. The question of why this fell out of favor is unanswered; fans of the gothic should seek this out at once!