Courtney's Corner

If you're looking for a story that follows the her's journey to a T, look no further. J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" is the perfect example. While I found the read a little boring and narrated in a strange point of view, the story is very fun. This is definitely the kind of book that works well as an audiobook, due to the voice of the narrator. I also found Tolkien's environment to be great as a writer. Ordinary World: Bilboa Baggins is a simple, quaint hobbit, living an ordinary life. He lives a cyclical life as most hobbits do. Call to Adventure: Gandalf comes to Bilboa's house and plans a meeting there. During the meeting, Bilboa is "asked" to join the group of 13. During the quest they will steal from a resting dragon. Refusal of the Call: In this story it's pretty obvious. Bilboa basically says no to adventure. He even gets overwhelmed and passes out. Mentor: Gandalf serves as the mentor here. He even saves the group after t...

I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge vampire fan, but I have seen a lot of vampire movies. Throughout the years, vampire movies and books have adapted throughout the years. We’ve gone from creatures that can’t go in the sun and are evil to “heart-throb” boyfriends that sparkle in the sun. I’d like to review some movies in how they’ve stayed true to tropes or changed drastically. 1.      Byzantium Probably one of my personal favorite vampire films, Byzantium follows a mother and daughter as they try to find a place to call home. The only problem is they’re both vampires, the daughter falls in love with a boy with leukemia, the mother is reckless, and a board of   vampires are hunting them down. This story throws away all vampire tropes except for the sucking blood thing and immortality. Like “Interview with a Vampire” there is a search of humanity through the daughter’s character Eleanor. Eleanor only kills people who are dying or are old and r...

This week I read book one of the series SWEEP, “Book of Shadows” by Cate Tiernan. This book focuses on the story of Morgan Rowlands, who starts to dabble with Wicca. Through this and her boyfriend/teacher she discovers that she is not only adopted, but a blood witch –someone who is born to two witch parents. A common theme that runs through witch stories is female empowerment. Throughout SWEEP the strongest characters are the women. The protagonist, Morgan is a blood witch from the most powerful clan (Woodbanes) and it’s rare for someone to have two Woodbane parents, but she does. This results in Morgan being a powerful young witch, which is where most of the conflict in this story stems. Morgan’s friends are all women. Her boyfriend’s mother Selene is also a powerful witch and the head of her coven. Another powerful female witch in this story is Sky, who is on the opposing side. She is a witch that works with a seeker, or someone who upholds Wiccan/Witch j...

A trend I’ve noticed throughout Japanese Horror is how benign everything is. It’s strangeness and weirdness leaves viewers and readers confused and frightened. While reading A Wild Sheep Chase, I couldn’t help but have chills at how strange the book was. I’ve noticed a common theme across all J-Horror that suspense is key. Nothing extremely scary or violent happens (there’s definitely a genre that has this) however, chilling moments or things that you anticipate do. For instance, in A Wild Sheep Chase feels like a man who is surrounded by spirits and obsessed individuals –with sheep of all things. I found at the end I didn’t know who was real or who was another spirit . What the story uses is a sense of mystery, only giving readers the bare minimum of what is happening. The last half of the story was scary because it was dream-like and surreal. This also happened in the film Pulse. There were so many moments that moved incredibly slowly, but in a way left your heart p...