Hayley

I have this book and I'm glad I read your review because it sounds a bit different to what I expected! I'm actually glad that it seems to be a lighter read than I thought, I expected it to potentially be quite depressing with the plague theme! I didn't know you did that. It must be incredibly frustrating. There's so much that's stupid and broken in the system. But that makes people who keep going to try to change those injustices even more special and appreciated Also one I really want to read!

I love this quote from Carmilla: 'But dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones, and their persons make their exits and their entrances as they please, and laugh at locksmiths'. That is definitely true about vampires and entertainment, I can't say I've ever read a boring book with a vampire in it! And that means you've finished the challenge Luna! It's not even the end of the month . Which was your favourite of the three? I'm still going with Lady Audley's Secret and still really enjoying it. I've had to be strict about putting it down at the end of a chapter so I don't end up going to sleep too late (I've had a busy work week!). Hoping to have a lot more reading time today, once I've caught up on neglected house things.

You know you've drifted deep into the Gothic when the characters start dying from death! (Still tempted by this Penny Dreadful option!) It does really depend on your definition of a Penny Dreadful. I agree Carmilla is fair. It's the right style and it was serialised. It's a bit unfair of the etsy listing to call The Dark Blue a penny dreadful magazine though. It was actually a pretty expensive magazine (a shilling) and it featured some incredible artists and authors (like William Morris, Rossetti and Andrew Lang). It was horribly managed, cost way too much to produce and the editor ended up fleeing the country after just a few years... but it wasn't just a penny dreadful magazine . Has anybody ever seen the 'Penny Dreadful' anthology book that Barnes and Noble bought out? Frankenstein was included in that one!

That does sound good! The plot doesn't strike me as something that's supposed to be humorous though. When you say it wasn't actually 'wickedly humorous', was it humorous at all?

Typo fixed

I haven't seen/read X Files - maybe I'd like that too! I bought two books: Letters from the Dead by Sam Hurcom and People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield (they were in the 3 for £5 offer at The Works and I was buying The Testimony of Alys Twist by Suzannah Dunn for my sister, so that's my excuse )

Maybe this is a conversation for the end of Victober but I don't think Mina is a weak woman in the book!

That just made me laugh. It does seem a bit extreme when you put it that way! (spoiler quoted the specifics though as Vodkafan mentioned he might read Dracula for this too!) I agree with Luna that life's too short to make yourself finish books you don't like - but I actually would suggest sticking with Dracula for now, because although you don't like the perspective in this part it will change again and I think you'll find Mina's story interesting! I think that is supposed to make it scarier to a British audience. Like vampires are something that happen to 'other' places - but what if they found a way to get here. Ooh I wonder whether that was intentional!? There were a few books featuring trains as scary, monstrous things.

Yeah I understand what you mean now! It was a three volume novel, so that makes sense! It was serialised before that too though. I wonder if anything was changed between the serialised version and the three volume print!? I'd forgotten about that bit. I suppose the Gothic was all about breaking rules and making people feel uncomfortable! I hope things are calmer now so you can get some reading time! It is so good so far.

I'm at a point where it's getting quite tense! I'll avert my eyes from this thread if you want to post your thoughts before I finish

I'm excited for you!! I hope you love them too! I'm a few chapters in to Lady Audley's Secret, but still also reading a chapter here and there of Silence in the Age of Noise.

I ducked into a charity shop to get out of the rain a few days ago (I wasn't looking for books - honest) and spotted A Very Murderous Christmas, a collection of short stories I remember someone reviewing on here (Chrissy maybe?). I will definitely be reading that one this December now! I love that the cover has a typical isolated house in a bleak landscape, but the title is flagged by cheerful little sprigs of holly .

If you can't bring yourself to build a snowman or even to clench a snowball or two to fling at the pine tree trunk, at least find some reason to take you out of yourself: scrape a patch of grass clear for the birds maybe; prod at your shrubs so they shake off the weight, straighten up; or just stump about leaving prints of your boots, your breath steaming out. Promise. Don't let yourself in for this moment again: the end of the afternoon, drawing the curtains on the glare of the garden, a whole day of snow nobody's trodden. Nobody by Michael Laskey

John Dungworth at home in a palace Like Christopher Robin and Alice When he went to the toilet No one would have known it

I agree with Raven. The type of train they'd have been using was a lot slower. The single train may well have made more stops too, but the speed would mainly explain why it takes so long in Dracula (although, compared to their past forms of travel, that was very fast!). There's actually a really interesting thing I read about travel in Dracula, but I can't tell you what it is without spoiling the ending! That's a pretty amazing fact - so no two Dracula's are the same! I've only seen the Gary Oldman one but it was a good film. I still can't believe how quickly you read Lady Audley's Secret! I still haven't fully decided on my Penny Dreadful, or if I want to try to read the whole thing!

I've actually never looked at the wish list function. Might have to play with that later, I like the thought of making a list of pretty books . maybe on a bookshop?

Oooh thanks for pointing that out! I do and there are a couple of books I want to buy as Christmas presents, so I might get them early for the points! There aren’t many better feelings than really wanting a book and realising that you have £10 on your Waterstones card

That one is lovely. The folio one looks worth indulging in though! I love the slipcase for that too. Well on the plus side, they do always send a voucher when it’s your birthday!

Just noticed the folio society have released their Christmas collection (is it always this early??) and it has a very nice illustrated Dracula. https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/new And a new James Bond with a very impressive slipcase!

Yep, hugely fluid! It's because the era can be defined by the reigning monarch or recognisable movements in culture (which are really hard to pin down!). As you said, Kev, the big obvious change in literature is around the first world war, so that's why some historians use 1914. I feel like I'm on the edge of a good bit at the moment, although I'm not very far in! Fingers crossed! I do find it really frustrating when there's a mystery to be solved but the narrative takes you away from that mystery for a long time. I have seen that one but it was a long time ago and I can't really remember how accurate it might have been. I do remember that they made a big point of Lucy being a lot more sexualised than Mina, which I know some people say is why she gets the fate she does in the book.

Your review reminded me that I really wanted to try the Maigret books! I love a good detective novel. Although, I think there are quite a lot out there that could be described this way (!):

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (which won the Costa book of the year award last year) is 99p on kindle for the month.

Agreed. I can’t wait to see how it ends! August feels like a very long time… I didn’t know that! I’m quite intrigued. I wonder what he changed!? Although we do tend to talk about the Victorian era as the literal reign of Queen Victoria, a lot of people would say the Edwardian era doesn’t start until about 1914. So you’d be safe with that still! That sounds good though! It reminds me a bit of Frankenstein! I read the first two chapters of Lady Audley’s Secret last night and I think I’m going to like it!

Oh yes! When you said The Dance of the Serpents was the last one I thought you meant the last one we have to read for now! I think the actual last one will be out next year. I really hope It was so good! There were so many intense moments and layers of mystery. That's good to hear! I'm just about to start it.

Oh yes! I suppose it all adds to a sense of a sinister threat approaching. I finished Dance of the Serpents last night (was NOT expecting that last scene!) so I'll be starting Lady Audley's Secret today. Reading the notes at the end of Dance of the Serpents - where Oscar de Muriel explains which elements were true and which were fiction - made me think about the way he actually writes about the Victorian period compared to other authors I've read and I think what I really like about his setting is that it actually feels real. There are a lot of novels with Victorian settings that end up like a kind of caricature of that period, with characters from real life thrown in to make it feel more genuine (although I actually think that often makes it worse). The characters in the Frey & McGray novels fit into their world perfectly; they don't have aside thoughts about the usefulness of telegram or to reflect on the railway in ways that we just don't do with everyday things in our own times. Oscar de Muriel posted on Twitter earlier this week that he'd had the final book in the series, The Sign of the Devil, back from his editor (and teased that one of the editor's comments was 'so many bombshells!!!') so I can't wait for that - although I will be very sad that no more books are coming out. Hopefully he'll start a new, equally good series!