#theme: gothic

[misireads]

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher

[ audiobook, listened in english ]

a woman travels to the american boonies to become the new scientific illustrator of a doctor who's working on a book about his research on insects. the doc is a gloomy old guy and there's something a bit ominous about his studies on parasitic species. one day she finds out that he's taking live chickens to a sus af shed in the woods in the dead of the night and decides to figure out what's going on down there.

🎨🐛🪰

➕ the mood here is really excellent, very eerie, very "southern gothic" as we now call it. an off-putting place in the boonies with a community where everyone is a bit superstitious and seems to know more than they let the MC know, yesss give it to me. the doctor is one grim motherfucker. i enjoyed the cast of characters in general, they are very expressive. and the theme of parasitic insect horror alone is absolutely horrific

➕ there were some very strong spooky scenes in this, like the one with the possum at the door, and especially when she [spoiler] first finds the body in the shed, i am hardly ever spooked by books but that one i listened to in bed before sleep and was like oooookaaaaayyyy time to put this away now. that was some very intense imagery.

➕ i liked the way the MC describes things through painting. i mean i guess it got a bit old eventually but i also think it embellished her character nicely. maybe feels a bit like reading trivia about paint occasionally but eh

➕ one of the very few english-language audiobooks where the narrator gave each character a unique voice and i actually liked it? her acting really suited the vibe of this book.

➖ insects are the only thing i have a genuine phobia of myself so this was fucking GROSS AS SHIT. ghosts and whatever i can take in a stride because like whatever but bugs actually EXIST AND ARE SOMETIMES IN MY HOUSE

➖ i try not to be the person who judges female MCs for being stupid but man this woman is bad at connecting the dots. like it's so so obvious and predictable that [spoiler] the body in the shed is the guy the doctor "killed". immediately. it's so fucking obvious IMMEDIATELY. there was this weird sort of disconnect with this main character where she's simultaneously very self-aware about her own limitations but then kind of. seems to consider herself more intelligent than the narrative is making her be. i don't know if that makes sense. like she's simultaneously very on top of things but also not? it makes the story kind of jarring at times

➖ hated that ending, i thought it was stupid, i did not like that [spoiler] some characters we already knew were just killed off with what felt like very little gravity (yes they were unpleasant men but, i just don't think sonia would be so chill about it regardless??) while this new guy we knew nothing about previously is suddenly some kind of hero, very weird. especially because, as mentioned above, i found it fucking spooky af when sonia finds the body, and then the story just takes this weird stupid fucking turn about it and none of it is scary anymore…. nö.

⭐ score: 3 -- eehh mmmm yeaaahh i think this had its moments but. the ending definitely ruined it for me. still a decent horror book tho.

[thecutestgrotto]

hello! i was wondering if you could make gothic architecture themed dividers? your dividers are so lovely :)

if not its totally ok btw! im just an architecture nerd and i was curious 😅

Hi! You’re so sweet, I actually have an architecture tag but it’s rather barren (added it to this post for easy finding). I hope these are a good addition to the tag, and fit what you’re looking for. Thanks for the request! 💗

Gothic Architecture

[misireads]

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

[ physical book, read in english ]

follows the odd residents of an ancient stone castle named gormenghast. a new baby boy has been born into the noble groan family, the rulers of gormenghast, which means all sorts of disruptions to the castle dwellers' daily lives with all the ruckus, celebrations, and rites that are to follow.

at the same time, a sly young man working in the hellish kitchens of the castle decides to escape his current conditions and starts scheming how to take gormenghast over with his knack for suave manipulation tactics.

🏰👶🔥

➕ this is SUCH a delightfully weird book. it took me a long time to really get into it, but once my brain adjusted to the experience, it was pretty fun. this is one of those books that are all about the writing, rather than anything that actually happens. you read it because of the witty, imaginative writing that inspires some crazy crazy visuals in your brain. there's no structured plot to speak of so you never know what you're about to read when you pick up the book each day. at first just about nothing makes sense, but when the same elements keep repeating you just kind of accept that this is what gormenghast is about

➕ and how fun is the name "gormenghast". it's so fun to say, every time

➕ the world of gormenghast is very vivid and so solid, you really get a sense of this being something ancient, with all the strange rituals they have going on and even a designated rite master to lead all the rituals every day, that was fun.

➕ i liked how the book ended in the same place where it started (namely, in the man cave of the most introverted dude you could ever imagine, who doesn't do anything else in the entire book but lurks in this room in the first chapter and the last chapter and neither time has any idea what's going on, incredible)

➖ but… yeah… there isn't much of a plot here in the sense of a coherent story that starts and ends. this is a trilogy so i got the sense that you should keep reading to get a fuller picture buuuuut the only version available to me is this brick with the entire trilogy in one and i dropped that in the library after finishing this first part like yeah bye. i'm not sure if i'm that committed to this silliness, at all

➖ again perhaps might get some answers if i read the other books but i would have liked to know more about the world here. what kind of country or whatever gormenghast is situated in, how did the castle start, who was the first groan, why did he become the lord of this place. who are the carver people living outside. how does the society of this place work at large, where do all the servants come from to the castle. i really would have preferred reading about such things over a lot of what was in here

➖ and what WAS in here: a lot of words to say pretty much nothing, all the time. there's stuff like an entire paragraph just describing how a drop of water drops from a leaf, or something. or several paragraphs just for describing one movement of one character, or an expression. and dialogue where half of it is repetition. i get that this author is precisely beloved for his writing but man, as someone who doesn't speak english as a first language and does not really give a fuck about how decorative you may manage to make your english writing by stretching paragraphs on and on with weird metaphors, i simply didn't give a shit. i often skimmed the descriptive paragraphs without paying any attention to what i was reading because i just wanted to get to some character actually doing something again

➖ the characters are all insane, why are they all so uncaring and mean and selfish? literally the fucking bitch countess drops her newborn at an ancient nanny like, you raise this maggot now, i don't give a shit. even the count and countess don't like each other, the only people who like anyone is the nanny (who is also insane) and fuschia the lady of the house, the only sort of normal character. and there's an evil cook who's super duper fat and whose fatness is constantly described as grotesque, how original. the absurdity of the characters makes it very hard to take this as anything but humorous, if it wasn't for the writing this would feel like a children's book

➖ didn't understand why i had to read about the mud dweller woman and her love triangle drama at all (i guess her second baby is somehow important later, but was NOT in this book, so)

➖ why is everyone sticking their knuckles in their mouths all the time

⭐ score: 2½ -- not a three because i, again, dropped this after a few pages at first because the writing was super off-putting. but. well first of all this first book individually isn't very long, and secondly there's something oddly mesmerising about it in the end. like i ended up picking it back up because i wanted to see where it's going. almost like, can a book like this seriously exist, and what does it do with all these words that say nothing. well it sure did some things. but not a whole LOT of things. you could fit the actual events of this book in probably 20 pages if you shave off all the verbal flourish.

[thecutestgrotto]

hello! I really like your dividers, and was wondering if you had any plague doctor ones? If not, could you make some please? Thank you!

Hey! I can totally do that, you made them pretty generic because I wasn’t sure if you wanted them from the SCP foundation. Hopefully these work for you 🖤

Plague Doctor

The SCP Collection

[saradika-graphics]

hihi!! hope you’re having a nice day :D

do you think it’d be possible to do a version of these ones with a black + yellow colour scheme if you haven’t already?

hi hi, I hope you are too! I can do a yellow/black recolor for sure - here you go!! 💛🖤

[Free] Masterlist Headers & Dividers!

Please consider liking or reblogging if you use 💕

[thecutestgrotto]

Prettiest please, would you make an MCR set?? 🎶 🎸 🧛‍♂️ much love for your efforts and energy!

Hi anon, I don’t know how old you are but MCR was such a big deal when I was younger, this request made me a bit nostalgic remembering my extra long bangs, skinny jeans and eyeliner lmao, hope you like these 💗💗

My Chemical Romance

[misireads]

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

[ physical book, read in english ]

well this post is just going to be one big spoiler of both gideon the ninth and this book so. here's the spoiler-free review:

oh my ghod. oh my go my hod oh my god oh my gofd oh my

and here's the rest:

💀🚀🌊

after the bombastic finale of the first locked tomb book, harrowhark has become a lyctor and been taken to god's VIP space station with ianthe, the only other lyctor from their canaan house adventure. with the mentorship of two (or three, if attempted murder is mentorship) remaining older lyctors, they begin to prepare for joining the cosmic battle against "resurrection beasts" that roam the space. but something's not right with harrowhark; she's weak, sickly, and doesn't remember gideon having ever existed.

parallel to this, there's another timeline that's an alternate re-telling of the events in canaan house, except that nothing's the same. cavaliers and heirs begin to die in different order from the original, and the murders seem to be committed by a single gun-wielding, mysterious entity they call "the sleeper". also, harrow's cavalier is ortus, the man who was originally meant to be her cav but refused and was quickly killed off in the first book.

➕ you. never. know. what you get. in the locked tomb

➕ i love love love love muir's writing on so many levels. first and foremost i'm a lover of words and her words continue to be delightful. the writing also manages to be confusing as fuck but in a way that you parse together in the end anyway, at least eventually. usually. like this book really established what lyctors even are because that wasn't super clear in the first book. and even when you don't understand, it doesn't matter all that much because the words themselves are so good anyway. i'm thoroughly duped by her writing tbh

➕ how genius are the PoV changes here. at first i was like, ehhh a second person PoV? not sure how i feel about that… then i was like, oh it's to differentiate it jumping between this AU version of the first book events and the so-called present! okay i see now, pretty clever. then i got fucking annihilated by the chapter ending with the line about palamedes seeing "me" i have never ever ever been so

➕ DEVASTATED AND SIMULTANEOUSLY EXCITED ABOUT A FUCKING BOOK CHAPTER IN MY LIFE THAN I WAS BY THAT ONE!!!! gosh. just thinking about it makes me tingle. in all the places. jesus fucking christ i have not been into a fictional character like this in so long, this book was a horrible terrible lovely rollercoaster ride for a devout palamedes sextus fangirl. when i realised there's a re-telling of the first book i was like, and the sixth were there? :) the sixth were there right?? and then they were and it was to say their faces had been blown out and they died. and i was like oh. okay. well. and then in the jungle planet chapter camilla appears and i was like YEESS HEERRR IT'S HER YEEES SHE'S HERE because half a six is still good. and then just ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh auyughhghhhhhhhh himmmmmmmm i WAS DECIMATED!!!!!!!!! in a good way. and the scene about palamedes and camilla was also sooo good because it really paved the way for there obviously being more of them later. and because that "later" wasn't in this book, it has to be the third. which already WAS MADE IMMINENT IN THE EPILOGUE!!!! YOU GIVE ME A FUCKING NUCLEAR BOMB OF A BOOK AND THEN END IT WITH AN EPILOGUE THAT ENDS WITH A MENTION ABOUT PALAMEDES' BEAUTIFUL EYEESSS??????? OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

➕ okay. alright. umm. absolutely hilarious how in the first book we had gideon's voice which was full of ass and whimsy (which i kind of forgot, until she kicked in here and it was a blast) and harrowhark was kind of mysterious and really strong and just. like. kinda cool. and in this one? we have harrow's point of view and she is such a pathetic little meow meow. can't fight, kisses a girl, likes to be hugged. learns to make soup (even if it is murder soup, but anyway). not to mention that the whole premise of this book is that she loves gideon so much that she refused to live an existence without her and preferred tampering with her brain over that. what a fucking gigantic gay tsundere ass bitch i can't believe it, in my gideon the ninth post i said i didn't quite ship-ship them but appreciated them but you can't just read a story like this and not be like oooookay guys here we are. they are married. and the little sort-of triangle with ianthe? even that i love. especially ianthe calling her harry

➕ i also really enjoyed abigail and magnus being alive more because i adoooore these hets. and obviously dulcinea, the REAL dulcinea. can't be a pal fangirl without loving dulcie like he does

➕ a grande finale battle being fought by an ancient figure who's brought to life by harrow chiming in to ortus' slowburn fanfiction about the guy? bro. but also, it was so funny that the characters have all sorts of cool necromancy magic powers and fight with fancy swords and then an enemy walks in with a gun like, you fucking stupid idiots. and shoots them

➕ we have a canon coffee shop AU here, somehow.

➖ now. honestly…. i didn't really understand what happened in the story. and that sounds diabolical when i loved the book so much. but i truly kind of dropped the ball, especially with all the soap opera-ing at the end there. but i'm not even mad because it means i can re-read and understand better in the future (or read summaries online. either works) plus i'm pretty sure the third book will explain this all about gideon's parents better. much like i truly didn't understand rat's ass about lyctors and god in the first.

⭐ score: 5 -- i give up, i'll go for the full five, because i can't justify anything less for myself after having to put a book away for a minute just to kind of squeal and squirm in my chair over a chapter, i loved it soooooo much. and there's still one more book?! i have NO idea how the story of gideon and harrowhark can continue from here but i assume it does. somehow. these books man, you just have no idea what happens. either way i'll be there for palamedes' beautiful eyes.

[misireads]

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

[ physical book, read in finnish ]

a swiss boy named victor frankenstein moves to germany to study science with the ultimate goal to create life artificially with his own hands. after a manic episode of hyperfixating on the task, he creates a humongous man with an ugly face, then immediately regrets the decision and runs away from his own creation. he proceeds to pretend he never created anything until the creature catches up with him, explains that he's lonely and sad because humans all hate him for his looks, and asks the doc to create him a partner. frankenstein says Nope and runs away again. the creature keeps following him and murdering the people closest to him as revenge.

oh and this is actually all told by frankenstein in past tense in one sitting to some british guy who travelled to the arctic to study science and saved frankenstein from the ocean (and is real fucking gay for him also. is shelley aware she wrote a gay man in 1818)

....WHICh is actually told by the brit to his sister in letters that he's writing her. and i kind of forgot about all that already in the middle

👨‍🔬🧟✍️

➕ well! it's franksenstein. it's a classic. it's the first sci-fi novel in existence, written by a 20yo woman. it's got legacy. i feel a bit bad i have so few good things to say about it

➕ i'll give credit for the social commentary about ostracisation which probably honestly was pretty striking for its time.

➖ i can see why that legacy equates "frankenstein" with the monster and not the doctor. the doctor is a pussy. a bona fide unlikable Woe Is Me asshole who repeatedly makes the dumbest fucking choices and then runs away and moans like a bitch and never faces nor resolves any of them. this book would be 50% shorter if you cut out every mention of him feeling sorry for himself. i'm not sure if shelley wrote this thinking she's making a sympathetic character or if she was fully aware that the reader is just gonna want him to die? my questions immediately started from him apparently spending so much time making the monster, and very deliberately choosing how it's going to look like, spent YEARS AND YEARS on it, and apparently he not even once during those years gave it a single thought like hmm this is turning out a bit scary-looking! a bit spooky i'd say! why am i making it so grotesque? oh well here it comes anyway! and also not for a second considering what the creature will be like, and what he'll do with it once it's done. and then he's just eeeek D: and runs away from his house as soon as the creature comes alive, and he.. doesn't.. uhh.. go back? doesn't care that it's now in his house and just leaves it there i guess?? i was already done at that point, that's such nonsense, i'm sorry mary shelley i appreciate everything you've done for us but you wrote one dumbass incomprehensible imbecile fucker of a main character who is so thoroughly unbelievable and unrelatable that this is one of the most comical horror novels i've ever read.

➖ that's pretty much all my thoughts summarised. i could go on and on about how every single thing frankenstein does is stupid as shit but i think you get the idea already. (just make the fucking partner!! you are literally the one making it, you can make a guy or a woman without a womb. because the fucking monster just told you very elaborately that he's lonely and he just wants a friend. also why is victor literally so fucking unimpressed by the monster knowing how to speak french?!?? no???? we just gonna be like ahh noo here is the horrible monster of my creation oh noooo poor me… alright. alright….. i'm so normal and calm about this.)

➖ i know this is a literary style from ye olde times but i'm so done with novels with a frame story where it's apparently one person telling the entire story to someone else and then the narrative is nothing like a person telling someone a story. it breaks my immersion completely and i don't like it. there's also a part in the middle here where it's the monster telling his own story inside frankenstein telling his story to the british scientist. look me in the eye and tell me if our lovely victor here would really ramble on and on about the monster's backstory to this extent if he didn't give a single shit about him otherwise yES I KNOW YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE IT LITERALLY…. BUT THEN WHAT'S THE POINT OF A BOOK IF YOU DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY AND JUST KIND OF PRETEND AHAHA EHEHE WELL WE'RE PLAYING TELLIGN A STORY HERE IT'S NOT REAL NONE OF THIS HAPPENED ACTUALLY aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa KABOOOOOOM

➖ i am supremely. SUPREMELY annoyed. that this story takes place in switzerland. and. the characters' names. are in english? the fuck is "henry clerval"? shouldn't he be henri or henrik or something?? and victor's brother is "william", not wilhelm??? an italian girl named "elizabeth" instead of literally any italian name??? not to mention that "victor" isn't a german name either like frankenstein is. he should be viktor. you can't give me a book that does this nd tell me it's a very good book, a good classic you should enjoy. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WILL NOT

➖ a lot of this sounded like flexing with geography trivia which, i mean, yes very good from a female writer in 1818. but. it's flexing with geography trivia. in places where it wasn't really needed. cut out this and every line of frankenstein feeling sorry for himself and the book would be like 100 pages long

⭐ score: 2 -- good, i read one of the ultimate horror classics for halloween season, great…. now i crave euthanasia