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Adapting Frankenstein: The monster's eternal lives in popular culture
by Maria Bachman Paul PetersonMary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most popular novels in western literature. It has been adapted and re-assembled in countless forms, from Hammer Horror films to young-adult books and bandes dessinées. Beginning with the idea of the ‘Frankenstein Complex’, this edited collection provides a series of creative readings that explore the elaborate intertextual networks that make up the novel’s remarkable afterlife. It broadens the scope of research on Frankenstein while deepening our understanding of a text that, 200 years after its original publication, continues to intrigue and terrify us in new and unexpected ways.
Contagion and the Vampire: The Vampiric Body as Locus of Disease and Global Epidemics in 21st Century
by Simon BaconThis book examines how the vampire has always been connected to ideas of infection, pollution and disease—even more so in the 21st century where it expresses the horrors of unseen and unstoppable disease and the foreboding and anxiety that accompany viral outbreaks and wider epidemics. Here the vampire gives physical form to the contagion and associated anxieties around the perceived causes and spread of disease, where it can take on many forms from animal to pestilential particulate matter, creeping shadows and even malignant weather systems. If blood is life, it is the body of the vampire that is death. This timely study looks at how and why the vampire continues to fulfil this function and posits that the true patient zero in the 21st century is no longer the dangerous, ancient, outsider from the East but is the undying monster that is Western culture itself.
Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds
by Simon BaconExamining fictional purgatorial worlds in contemporary literature, film and video games, this book examines the way in which the female characters trapped within them construct identity positions of resistance and change. With the rise of populism, the Alt. Right, and isolationism in world politics in the second decade of the 21st Century, parallel, purgatorial worlds seem to currently proliferate within popular culture across all media, including television shows and films such as The Handmaids Tale, Us, Watchmen, and Margaret Atwood's The Testaments among many others. These texts depict alternate worlds that express the darkness and violence of our own, arguably none more so than for women. Featuring essays from a broad range of international contributors on topics as wide-ranging as mental health in the Silent Hill franchise and liminal spaces in the work of David Mitchell, this book is an original, timely and hope-filled analysis about overcoming the confines of a patriarchal, fundamentalist world where the female imaginative might just be the last, best hope.
Gothic Nostalgia: The Uses of Toxic Memory in 21st Century Popular Culture (Palgrave Gothic)
by Simon Bacon Katarzyna Bronk-BaconThis book is an original and innovative study of how Gothic nostalgia and toxic memory are used to underpin and promote the ongoing culture wars and populist politics in contemporary popular culture. The essays collected here cover topics from the spectral to the ecological, deep fakes to toxic ableism, Mary Poppins to John Wick to reveal how the use of an imaginary past to shape the present, creates truly Gothic times that we can never escape. These ‘hungry ghosts’ from the past find resonance with the Gothic which speaks equally of a past that often not only haunts the present but will not let it escape its grasp. This collection will look at the confluence between various kinds of toxic nostalgia and popular culture to suggest the ways in which contemporary populism has resurrected ideological monsters from the grave to gorge on the present and any possibility of change that the future might represent.
In the Night Wood
by Dale BaileyA FOREST. A BOOK. A MISSING GIRL. NOMINATED FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD AND THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR – TOR.COM
In the Night Wood
by Dale BaileyA FOREST. A BOOK. A MISSING GIRL. NOMINATED FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD AND THE SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR – TOR.COM
There Was a Young Zombie Who Swallowed a Worm
by Kaye BaillieEveryone's heard about the old lady who swallowed a fly, but now it’s time to meet a little zombie, who's swallowed . . . a worm. We don't know why he swallowed the worm, it made him squirm. A funny, cumulative rhyming story children will adore. Packed with toads, witches, bats, trolls and a VERY hungry little zombie. Watch Out! Brought to life by Diane Ewen, the bestselling illustrator of Floella Benjamin's critically acclaimed picture book, Coming to England.
The Birthday Boys: A Novel (Sound Ser.)
by Beryl BainbridgeA brilliantly realized evocation of the thoughts and voices of Captain Scott and the four men with him, who suffered extraordinary hardships before finally dying during their 1912 attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.'A whole lost era of fantastic courage, determination, idealism, curiosity, boyish foolishness and class mores is brought brilliantly and touchingly back by Bainbridge's penetrating psychological acumen and her superb scene and action painting...A masterly achievement, not to be missed by anyone who cherishes a strong, meaningful story beautifully told' Publishers WeeklyThe Birthday Boys is one of Beryl Bainbridge's most acclaimed novels, telling the story of Scott's doomed expedition through the voices of five men on the voyage. As Scott, Petty Officer Taff Evans, ship's doctor Dr Edward Wilson, Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Captain Lawrence Oates step forward for their place in the narrative, the reader is gripped by the the characters themselves alongside the vividly evoked period.
Young Adolf: A Novel
by Beryl BainbridgeParanoid, wilful, lazy, the young Adolf Hitler turns up in Liverpool to stay with his brother Alois and sister-in-law Bridget. Hailed by Alois as a student and an artist, Adolf soon irritates his family beyond measure by his constant sponging and his tendency to get into serious trouble with the English. Surely this is a young man who will never amount to anything.
Juggernaut
by Adam BakerThey searched for gold. They found deathIraq 2005 Seven mercenaries journey deep into the desert in search of Saddam's gold. They form an unlikely crew of battle-scarred privateers, killers and thieves, veterans of a dozen war zones, each of them anxious to make one last score before their luck runs out. They will soon find themselves marooned among ancient ruins, caught in a desperate battle for their lives, confronted by greed, betrayal, and an army that won't stay dead...
Outpost (Outpost Ser.)
by Adam BakerThey took the job to escape the worldThey didn't expect the world to end.Kasker Rampart: a derelict refinery platform moored in the Arctic Ocean. A skeleton crew of fifteen fight boredom and despair as they wait for a relief ship to take them home. But the world beyond their frozen wasteland has gone to hell. Cities lie ravaged by a global pandemic. One by one TV channels die, replaced by silent wavebands. The Rampart crew are marooned. They must survive the long Arctic winter, then make their way home alone. They battle starvation and hypothermia, unaware that the deadly contagion that has devastated the world is heading their way...
Terminus: Terminus
by Adam BakerThe world has been overrun by a lethal infection. Humanity ravaged by a pathogen that leaves victims demented, mutated, locked half-way between life and death. Major cities have been bombed. Manhattan has been reduced to radioactive rubble. A rescue squad enters the subway tunnels beneath New York. The squad are searching for Dr Conrad Ekks, head of a research team charged with synthesising an antidote to the lethal virus. Ekks and his team took refuge in Fenwick Street, an abandoned subway station, hours before a tactical nuclear weapon levelled Manhattan. The squad battle floodwaters and lethal radiation as they search the tunnels for Ekks and his team. They confront infected, irradiated survivors as they struggle to locate a cure to the disease that threatens to extinguish the human race.
Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture
by David Baker Stephanie Green Agnieszka Stasiewicz-BieńkowskaThis unique study explores the vampire as host and guest, captor and hostage: a perfect lover and force of seductive predation. From Dracula and Carmilla, to True Blood and The Originals, the figure of the vampire embodies taboos and desires about hospitality, rape and consent. The first section welcomes the reader into ominous spaces of home, examining the vampire through concepts of hospitality and power, the metaphor of threshold, and the blurred boundaries between visitation, invasion and confinement. Section two reflects upon the historical development of vampire narratives and the monster as oppressed, alienated Other. Section three discusses cultural anxieties of youth, (im)maturity, childhood agency, abuse and the age of consent. The final section addresses vampire as intimate partner, mapping boundaries between invitation, passion and coercion. With its fresh insight into vampire genre, this book will appeal to academics, students and general public alike.
Dreams and atrocity: The oneiric in representations of trauma
by Emily-Rose Baker Diane OtosakaThis volume explores the relationship between oneiric and historical episodes of atrocity as depicted in transnational twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, film, literature and theatre. Examining the political and aesthetic power harnessed by dreams in increasingly ‘dark times’, it takes as its starting point the overlooked significance granted to the oneiric beyond Freudian psychoanalysis. By reading the oneiric within variously known cultural texts – including Holocaust fiction, world cinema, Bronx theatre, surrealist art and two collections of wartime dream transcriptions – the volume also offers a renewed perspective on modern and contemporary trauma. In so doing, it demonstrates the relevance of the oneiric, beyond the interpretative framework of psychoanalysis, as an aesthetic and political tool with which to alert us and respond to the violence of our contemporary world.
The Woman Who Ran
by Sam Baker‘Clever and gripping with an ending so tense I was holding my breath’ Claire Douglas, author of The Sisters
Mercy Snow: A Novel
by Tiffany BakerIn the tiny town of Titan Falls, New Hampshire, the paper mill dictates a quiet, steady rhythm of life. But one day a tragic bus accident sets two families on a course toward destruction, irrevocably altering the lives of everyone in their wake. June McAllister is the wife of the local mill owner and undisputed first lady in town. But the Snow family, a group of itinerant ne'er-do-wells who live on a decrepit and cursed property, have brought her--and the town--nothing but grief. June will do anything to cover up a dark secret she discovers after the crash, one that threatens to upend her picture-perfect life, even if it means driving the Snow family out of town. But she has never gone up against a force as fierce as the young Mercy Snow. Mercy is determined to protect her rebellious brother, whom the town blames for the accident, despite his innocence. And she has a secret of her own. When an old skeleton is discovered not far from the crash, it beckons Mercy to solve a mystery buried deep within the town's past.
The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie
by Yvonne BanhamSent into the care of the mysterious Uncles in Edinburgh’s Old Town, Delores Mackenzie must learn to control her paranormal gifts without crossing the accepted bounds of paranormal activity and angering her strange new housemates. But when a sinister apparition appears and threatens the lives of her friends, can Delores really push back the dead?
The Wasp Factory: The stunning and controversial literary debut novel
by Iain BanksNamed 'one of the top 100 novels of the century' by the Independent, The Wasp Factory is a bizarre, imaginative, disturbing and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath Frank is no ordinary sixteen-year-old. He lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.Iain Banks' celebrated first novel is a 'gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down' (Financial Times) Enter - if you can bear it - the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, and unconventional, to say the least.'Brilliant...irresistible...compelling' -New York Times'One of the most brilliant first novels I have come across' -Telegraph
When We Were Birds
by Ayanna Lloyd BanwoMesmerising, mythic and timeless, the most unmissable debut novel of 2022 - for fans of Arundhati Roy, Toni Morrison and Monique RoffeyRecommended Read for 2022 in the Observer, New Statesman, Irish Times, Buzzfeed, Good Housekeeping, The Daily Nerd, Essence and more'BELIEVE THE HYPE' Stella, Sunday Telegraph'A searing symphony of magic and loss, love and hope... This book just might heal you' Marlon James'It's a knockout, and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a star. I want to read everything she writes' Niven Govinden Darwin is a down-on-his-luck gravedigger, newly arrived in the Trinidadian city of Port Angeles to seek his fortune, young and beautiful and lost. Estranged from his mother and the Rastafari faith she taught him, he is convinced that the father he never met may be waiting for him somewhere amid these bustling streets.Meanwhile in an old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide's mother is dying. And she is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: the power to talk to the dead. The women of Yejide's family are human but also not - descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.Darwin and Yejide both have something that the other needs. Their destinies are intertwined, and they will find one another in the sprawling, ancient cemetery at the heart of the island, where trouble is brewing...Rich with magic and wisdom, When We Were Birds is an exuberant masterpiece that conjures and mesmerises on every line. Ayanna Lloyd Banwo weaves an unforgettable story of loss and renewal, darkness and light; a triumphant reckoning with a grief that runs back generations and a defiant, joyful affirmation of hope.'Exceptional' Jacob Ross'Exquisite' Avni Doshi'When We Were Birds marks the emergence of a distinctive and powerful voice' Pat Barker, author of The Silence of the Girls
The Amazing Mr Blunden: Soon to be a Christmas Sky Original Film, starring Mark Gatiss, Simon Callow and Tamsin Greig
by Antonia BarberA CHRISTMAS SKY ORIGINAL FILM, STARRING MARK GATISS, SIMON CALLOW AND TAMSIN GREIGAN ENTHRALLING GHOST STORY WITH A TIME-TRAVELLING TWIST'When you come to the house, you will hear strange tales. They will tell you in the village that it is haunted, but you must not be afraid. When the time comes ... you will know what to do.'Mr Blunden's words echoed through Lucy's ears as she explored the house. It was such an old house that it seemed to Lucy as if all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as though it had a life of its own that continued to exist just beyond the reach of her eyes and ears. Did Mr Blunden, who went out of his way to offer their mother the job as caretaker, mean to help or hurt them? Could she and her brother Jamie really help those troubled ghosts from another age?'Charming, magical and life-affirming, Antonia Barber's clever and moving tale has become a much-loved favourite. The Wheel of Time spins - and off we go into an unforgettable adventure!' MARK GATISS
Hell Bent: The long-awaited follow-up to global bestseller Ninth House
by Leigh BardugoWealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell. Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory?even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can't call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies' most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren't just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she'll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university's very walls. Thick with history and packed with Bardugo's signature twists, Hell Bent brings to life an intricate world full of magic, violence, and all too real monsters.
Last Days: A Game Of Survival Horror (Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse)
by Ash BarkerLast Days: Zombie Apocalypse: Seasons brings an all new campaign to the skirmish-scale miniatures game of survival horror, taking players through the changing seasons and the challenges this brings to their Groups of survivors. As well as rival gangs and mindless zombies, your Group will have to deal with hunger, thirst, warmth, and the many other problems that can't be stopped with a well-placed bullet. Featuring a host of new character types, scavenge tables, scenarios, and even rules for using bicycles, motorbikes, and snowmobiles, this expansion is essential for a survivor during the last days.
Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse: Seasons (Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse)
by Ash BarkerLast Days: Zombie Apocalypse: Seasons brings an all new campaign to the skirmish-scale miniatures game of survival horror, taking players through the changing seasons and the challenges this brings to their Groups of survivors. As well as rival gangs and mindless zombies, your Group will have to deal with hunger, thirst, warmth, and the many other problems that can't be stopped with a well-placed bullet. Featuring a host of new character types, scavenge tables, scenarios, and even rules for using bicycles, motorbikes, and snowmobiles, this expansion is essential for a survivor during the last days.
Last Days: A Game of Survival Horror (Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse)
by Ash Barker Arthur AsaLast Days: Zombie Apocalypse is a skirmish-scale miniatures game of survival horror. It pits players against each other in a nightmarish near-future where the dead have returned to life and are feasting on the living. Players build their own factions, representing desperate civilians, military personnel, or hardened survivors, and must explore, scavenge, and fight in order to survive another day. Rival gangs are only one of the dangers they face – mindless zombies wander the streets, driven by insatiable hunger and drawn by the sound of combat! A gang's ability to scavenge is as vital as their combat ability, and players must ensure that they have the resources to survive in this hostile world. Scenarios and campaigns allow you to develop your gang, gain experience and recruit new henchmen to build up your strength or replace the inevitable casualties of the zombie apocalypse.
Last Days: A Game of Survival Horror (Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse)
by Ash Barker Arthur AsaLast Days: Zombie Apocalypse is a skirmish-scale miniatures game of survival horror. It pits players against each other in a nightmarish near-future where the dead have returned to life and are feasting on the living. Players build their own factions, representing desperate civilians, military personnel, or hardened survivors, and must explore, scavenge, and fight in order to survive another day. Rival gangs are only one of the dangers they face – mindless zombies wander the streets, driven by insatiable hunger and drawn by the sound of combat! A gang's ability to scavenge is as vital as their combat ability, and players must ensure that they have the resources to survive in this hostile world. Scenarios and campaigns allow you to develop your gang, gain experience and recruit new henchmen to build up your strength or replace the inevitable casualties of the zombie apocalypse.