Lit of Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-fi

The Haunted Vagina - Carlton Mellick III November 27, 2017            There's so much I can say about this story. First off, I can honestly say my attention was never lost. This was definitely a story that weirded me out so much that I actually enjoyed it. Now, It's definitely the first time I've read a story that involves a man physically climbing into a woman's vagina to enter a new dimension. The whole time I read this story, my mind was saying "what is going on!?". The whole time. Which is pretty hilarious. Don't get me wrong, the story was pretty good. A woman was known for having a haunted vagina that sometimes cried. Then one day something actually climbs out of her vagina, a skeleton. Only he melts the second he comes out. Of course, like any normal person, this freaks the woman out. Then like any non normal woman, she suggests her boyfriend to climb into her vagina because she believes there's a whole new world inside there. Boy, was

Bloodchild November 20, 2017          When I first started reading, my initial reaction was confusion as to what was going on. The story begins with talk about eggs, and aging, and so on. As I continued, I realized this was from the  point of view of humans along with aliens. The main character seems to be human, but the other did not seem human. It was strange reading the parts about the alien basically eating the person because she seemed to sound like another human being, yet she surely was not. She spoke like one, but didn't necessarily act like one, which was interesting. She also appeared to feel emotions towards things and people based on events that occurred with humans in the past. Overall, my reaction is that the story caught my attention. It's interesting since I don't read many alien stories.           Some of the connections I made with the story is the aspect of doing something to help someone else, even if it will have a negative outcome towards yours

Ghost in the Shell II November 6, 2017       I've always heard about Ghost in the Shell, but never got around to watching it until now! Now, I didn't realize I was watching the second movie until half way through, which is fine, but I think there could have been more to understand if I watched the first movie before this one. Anyways, Ghost in the Shell was strange, different, and a overall weird movie and I loved it. These robots have what it seems to be the "ghost" of a person that was either once living or still living (from what I understood). It makes me wonder what the world could be like if people began dying or were too sick for their own bodies, and they had a shell instead. If you've seen the movie "Chappie", it makes me think of that essentially. Since Chappie's "mom" dies, and basically takes all of her memories and puts it into the memory of a robot body. I could be thinking of the story wrong, since I didn't wa

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury October 30, 2017             This week I decided to read and watch Fahrenheit 451. It's actually not the first time I've gotten into the story of Fahrenheit 451. Back in high school and middle school we were asked to read the story, and eventually watched the film. Reading and watching it again really makes you realize what you didn't understand, or even just missed back then. One thing that did stand out when I read the book again, I noticed the character Clarisse is actually a teenager in the book, while in the movie she's a grown adult who becomes very close to Guy Montag. Also in the movie, she's played by the same woman who plays Guy's wife, which I never noticed until now. Anyways, I always found this story to be really interesting. A world where books are illegal and they burn them. I never quite understood it either. How did people educate themselves? Not exactly on reading of course, but to learn how to speak or

Serenity - Joss Whedon October 23, 2017           Oh man, Serenity was actually a movie I really enjoyed. I had never heard of the film before watching it for class. Serenity is a futuristic film that involves human kind not exactly living on Earth like we are now. There's a lot of space travel involved, and oddly enough, "zombie" like people. Apparently these people became savages and will kill anything in their way. One of the main characters plays a young teen who can basically turn into a human weapon when triggered in the right way. The government is actually looking for her and sets off her trigger out in the open, causing her to kill anything that stands in her way. I really did enjoy this movie, even though I saw negative reviews towards it. I know there's a show that is based before the time period of the movie, called "Firefly". I have heard of the show, which now after seeing the movie, I'm interested to see how it all plays out th

The Magicians - Lev Grossman October 9, 2017         This week I was introduced to the book series, "The Magicians." My first impression on The Magicians was "Harry Potter". Of course it's not exactly like Harry Potter. That is a one of a kind series! No one/ nothing can be like Harry or Hogwarts. When I started the story, my mind immediately thought of it because there's these group of teenage students that are going to a school for their magic, only it's in New York. I didn't quite finish the story, but from what I did finish it was really interesting to read. It's a young adult novel, so reading it felt easy and understanding. It also made me want to watch the show, to see which is better, or how they compare to each other. Overall, I see myself completing the series in the future.

The Hobbit -  J.R.R. Tolkein October 2, 2017 (Book and Movie)        This week I decided to read The Hobbit . I had never had the chance to read The Hobbit until now. The movie was already something I highly enjoyed in the past, so of course the book sounded interesting. One of the first things I noticed as I watched the movie again after reading the book; a single sentence can turn into half an hour scenes in the movie itself. Reading how everyone begins to enter Bilbo's home in the story is actually rather short compared to the movie. I loved how easy it was to read The Hobbit compared to The Lord of the Ring series. Not that I've really tried to read those books, but from first glance and reviews, I hear The Hobbit is probably a more enjoyable read when it comes to casual reading. It was an enjoyable read.

In the Future                     Our ideas of what the future will be like through movies and stories seems to become partially true eventually. In the past shows like Star Trek showed us what looks like cell phones; Back to the Future invented hover boards and self tying laces. We now have both of those, even if they aren't exactly identical to what we imagined in the past. Imagining what the future holds for us in 50 years is crazy to think about. If you have ever seen the show Black Mirror, I imagine the future to be a bit like some episodes in that. Black mirror is essentially the future of technology, and how it has a negative impact on life. In one episode we see people have a chip in their heads to allow them to play back every memory they have had. In another we have a gamer who is involved in what is similar to virtual reality, but a chip is also implanted in his head to make visuals appear around him and uses what he knows to create those images. I image the fut

Practical Magic - Griffin Dunne September 25, 2017         This week I actually decided to watch a movie. I had actually never heard of Practical Magic, so I wasn't sure what to expect except that it had witches. It was a cute witch movie, to say the least. It didn't feel quite like a "real" witch movie, more like a love story. Not saying that it wasn't a witch movie. It did of course have magic, a dead man coming back to life from a spell, and the usual group of people accusing the family of being what they are. I guess it was just a unique story of portraying witches, since the whole family was cursed with losing the love of their life. The symbol of death in this movie was a clicking beetle. Definitely a unique way to show that death is coming. Unlike the Hocus Pocus version of witches, these were normal people, just with extra abilities. I did enjoy watching the movie though. 8/10.

Monster Island - David Wellington September 18, 2017       Monster Island was definitely a book that I found interesting. I'm a huge fan of almost anything zombie, so having the opportunity to read a zombie book for class was cool. David's version of a zombie book is definitely different than what I'm used to, but I still found it interesting because of how different it was. One of the main characters you will come across, Gary, turns into a zombie. He was smart enough to try something that no one else did, trying to keep a functioning brain. Gary connects himself to a ventilation system, while submerging himself in ice cold water to keep himself "alive". That part almost reminded me of a movie called "Warm Bodies". Not a movie I'm a huge fan of, because it's a little too innocent of a zombie story in my opinion. Zombies are able to come back to their sanity with love and communication. Unless they are far gone, then they are just

Kwaidan : Stories and Studies of Strange Things - Lafcadio Hearn September 11, 2017            Kwaidan : Stories and Studies of Strange things consists of many, short Japanese ghost stories. Although some were more enjoyable than others, I enjoyed reading them all. The few that stood out for me were probably "Yuki-Onna", "Mujina", and "Rokuro-Kubi". Yuki-Onna was probably my favorite. I was happy to see that the story happened to be the film we watched during class, and it was almost exactly like the story. It's about this very pale woman in white, who basically sucks the life out of this man. This other man, Minokichi, is there to witness it. Since he was young and attractive, the woman let him live. The only thing he had to promise, was to never speak of what he saw or she would kill him. Long story short, he winds up telling the story years later to his wife.. who IS THE WOMAN IN WHITE. What a plot twist. She doesn&

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice August 28, 2017         Interview with a Vampire was the type of fictional story that almost immediately caught my attention for it’s unique way of speaking to the readers. You get to in vision the mind of the vampire while listening to his story rather than a narrator explaining his words for him. I don't normally read or watch many vampire things, but I actually did find this a bit interesting. The relationship that Lestat and Louis had was also interesting to say the least. Lestat sees Louis one night and chooses him to basically become one of him. He tries to get Louis to experience killing, but Louis feels guilt by it. Louis eventually meets a young girl named Claudia who he decides to feed on. Lestat decides to claim her as their child and turns her into a vampire as well. I'm not exactly sure what it's like in other vampire stories, but seeing the way that they turn was different for me. Usually wh