Category: Other Reviews

“To M. L. S——” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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Edgar Allan Poe wrote this poem to Marie Louise Shew, who helped his  wife Virginia as she was dying. 

Its was pretty okay poem, it wasn’t good but it also wasn’t super bad.

For the most part this one was a sweet, short and quick to read poem.  And pretty much nothing more than that. 

This one is pretty enjoyable quick read which doesn’t give you any knowledge about the person which it was written to.

I personally not sure what this poem is or what it’s trying to convey. 

The writing style in this one was pretty much okay, but still as someone who have read almost every poem and story written by Edgar Allan Poe I know that he can do much better.

This poem is also one of these poems where the more times you read it the more you get confused.

I give this poem 1 / 5 

“The Empty House” by Algernon Blackwood Review

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In the story, a man accompanies his adventurous aunt to a notorious house where, a century ago, a servant was murdered by her jealous suitor. What will the man and his aunt experience in this house ? any ideas ? 

To be fully honest with you here i need to tell you that this story have a lot of dry ice packed around that meat for atmosphere but its still fun to read this story. Because it was published back in 1906 and it’s sort of seeing the journey of the modern day horror we have today. 

This story isn’t bad as most of the horror movies / games / books we have today but it isn’t either nothing original for todays standards because it is an average haunted house story.

Atmosphere in this story is a typical horror story atmosphere nothing unique but also nothing boring. The atmosphere good and sort of moody and old timely, and as we all know these two things together brings much more to the story. So I give this story points for the moody and old timely part in this story.

Ending was oh boy. It was very disappointing, it ruined the whole story. If I go into details then it will turn into a review with spoilers and this blog isn’t about this. So let’s move into something different. 

The introduction into this plot and whole story was actually oddly fantastic, wasn’t expecting this but here we are. But still the introduction doesn’t help the whole story that much because we are looking at the whole book / story not just parts of it.

In the end the whole story is a pretty good morning read, where you just have good time and nothing better to do. 

The main things why this story was so bad are 1) too short 2) too little descriptions + details. And thats all. The whole story and plot could have been million times better if the story was longer and events in this story would have been given more descriptions and details. 

The writing style is okay, but nothing to talk about. The writing style is survivable but it will not stick around with you for a long time. And it is far, far away from Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe level. 

I give this story 1 / 5

“The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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Two people, who have been renamed Eiros and Charmion after death, discuss the manner in which the world ended. Eiros, who died in the recent apocalypse, explains the circumstances to Charmion, who died ten years previously.

This poem is bad, like really bad. 

The whole point of this poem is confusing and hard to understand at least for me. It really didn’t make much sense one way or another.

The writing style isn’t better, its not the typical Edgar Allan Poe as you would have expected. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“Romance” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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This poem is about finding love and how Edgar Allan Poe thinks that he didn’t have the time to care for romance or love. He thinks that it might even be a bad thing if he did, but he couldn’t stop his heart if it trembled.

I need to be honest with you and say that this one is actually one of the few poems that I found enjoying while reading.

This poem is a nice easy and quick read, which is definitely worth reading. But it is not in the classic Edgar Allan Poe style as you might expect.

However this poem isn’t bad nor good. It’s for the most part a decent poem.

The easiest way to explain this poem is that it basically an ode to romance in a personified form with a little gothic vibe to it.

The writing style is pretty good, but as a die hard Edgar Allan Poe fan I know that he was able to do much better than what he did in this poem. 

However in this poem Edgar Allan Poe is able to contemplate the contrast between the world as perceived in his childhood to the world as viewed “of late” in his adulthood.

I give this poem 1 / 5

“To” (1833) by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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The title of this poem refers to 2 other poems carrying the same name as this one. 

This one is pretty dividend but it’s not like it is one of the top poems from Edgar Allan Poe.

The entire poem has 8 sentences, which means that you can read the entire poem within a minute or so. 

This poem was first attributed to Edgar Allan Poe by a man named John C. French.

This poem, despite its many reprinting it did get, never had any significant revisions.

I’m not the biggest fan of poems so it might be why I give this poem so low rating as I did. But I’m trying to break the ice between me and poems and that’s why I’m trying to read more poems.

The narrator of this poem equates breaking with his love as one of several failures which I personally liked. 

I give this poem 1 / 5

“The Woman in the Room” by Stephen King Review

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Narrated from the perspective of a man burdened with deep remorse, pain and his inner demons, the story concerns his decision to euthanize his terminally ill mother with painkillers. 

This story is started with a question which is one of the hardest question in the human history. The question of course is about death, and if it is right to help someone die when they ask you to.

This story is sort of a horror story ish which makes you really think if you could do the same thing which the main character have done. 

It’s important to say that this story is pretty normal when it comes to Stephen King’s work. It circles around the question about if it is right to help someone die when they ask you to.

It’s an effectively sad and depressing story which will stay in your head for a while. This story isn’t long, you can read it within an hour or so. Its short but enjoyable and effective 

The ending was something. Its was strange but kind of interesting. But again people will either love it or hate it. Because it is something you wouldn’t have expected, but again it is a Stephen King story.

It’s a pretty realistic story which doesn’t happen a lot when it comes to Stephen King. And it has the ability to really grip you and make you think. 

The writing style is pretty basic. If you are a hardcore Stephen King fan (like me) you will expect more, and you’ll get disappointed because of it

In the end this story is more sad than scary. And pretty much it is a mediocre story.

I give this story 4 / 5

“The Events at Poroth Farm” by T.E.D. Klein Review

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Jeremy, a college lecturer, takes a summer vacation in Gilead, New Jersey, to prepare for a course on Gothic literature he’ll be teaching in the upcoming semester. He rents an outbuilding from Mennonite couple Sarr and Deborah Poroth, and at first his holiday is happy and productive, but then odd things begin to happen.

This story or what you want to call it was published back in 1972 but it feels like a modern horror classic. Almost as if it was written not longer than 20 ish years ago. 

There are some gothic parts involved in this book, which we all love don’t we? 

The narrator spends some of his time on a remote farm which is of course the Poroth’s Farm. On this farm he spends his time to read Gothic classics for his classes at college. And that list which he have made for the books he wants to read is interesting and inspiring. 

This story will give you a sense of menace together as the unraveling of natural turns into a pastoral setting and a nightmare for a young man seeking a peaceful place to study. 

There are couple of signs in this story which are towards aberrancy. Which is in this story wrapped in an interesting way. And the narrators strange behavior and unforeseen actions makes this story even more eery.

However this story have the unnecessary misogynistic comments and undertones to it. And these things doesn’t nothing to the story for the most part. 

I give this story 3 / 5

“The Gentle Vultures” by Isaac Asimov Review

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This Science Fiction Short Story is set during the Cold War, postulating an alien race acting as Circling Vultures. Hurrians, an alien species, have set a small Moon base in secret, and have been waiting for fifteen years, much longer than they ever expected.

This book is a science fiction book which happens during cold war. Pretty unique take on it isn’t it? But in the end this book isn’t even close to the best science fiction books out there. Though it is a good one to read to sort of get a new breeze into the science fiction field. 

This book needs to get points for its unique and deeply fascinating critique of society and a peculiar analysis of our history which we had until this book was written. 

And the whole perspective or rather said view in this book on stuff like how small monkey-like aliens from space let one man and how they can change the entire structure their society is based with one word.

In the end this book is a typical science fiction book about intergalactic species which makes contact with humans and analysis the history of our species. 

The writing style was meh, it wasn’t good or bad. It was between good and bad but much closer tot he bad side than to the good side. 

I give this book 1 / 5

“The Pit And The Pendulum” By Edgar Allan Poe Review

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This is a short tale about the horror surrounding impending death after the narrator is sentenced for heresy by his inquisitors during the Spanish Inquisition. The mental break that follows results in confusion that makes the entire scenario even more frightening.

This is a typical gothic horror story written by Edgar Allan Poe. If you love the work of Edgar Allan Poe I’m pretty sure that you will love this story too. 

The main character in this tale is again the narrator like in any other tale / story written by Edgar Allan Poe. In this story the narrator has been condemned by a panel of black robed, white lipped, stern faced judges. The crime which the narrator have committed is unknown, but then this is the Inquisition so his offense could be that he is not a religious enough or he might have been accused of one of the many offences against God that require such a low level of proof. 

The narrator in my opinion needs to get some extra points for his high level of horror is something that is part of his nature.It is difficult to believe, as dire as a circumstance can be, that this is truly our final extinction. 

The whole plot is remarkably interesting, chilling, spooky and suspenseful. It needs to get points for the unique story which it has together with the unique perspective which Edgar Allan Poe used in this book. The perspective which this story has really brings a lot to the plot and surely it gives a unique and fun vibe and mood to it. 

The atmosphere itself, inspires the fear in readers mind and make us as readers think about what we really fear and what we might have done in some situations.

This whole story have only 56 ish pages, which is very small story in the end. But of course Edgar Allan Poe have the ability to make the shortest stories long enough to be good and incredible. This story is long enough to be very dark, interesting, scary and to have gloomy mood to it and horrifying dungeon to it. 

On the outskirts it’s just a Gothic horror tale about a man who is afraid to die. There are dozens stories about this topic now on days. But what makes this story fun is to see how the narrator deals and react to the two horrific situations which had nearly killed him. And how this is messing with his mental state.

I give this story 3 / 5

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe Review

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It is the story of a man named Montresor who decides to seek revenge against a man named Fortunato, who has insulted him. He meets Fortunato at a carnival, lures him into the catacombs of his home, and buries him alive.

And yet again we are talking about another classic written by no other than Edgar Allan Poe. 

The writing style is okay for the most part. But it cant be compared with some other work by Edgar Allan Poe. You will know what I mean when you read it. 

The narrator here is Montresor. He is suffering from a huge level of madness. And it is very easy to see that the truth terror here is his behavior. But the final act is also very chilling. 

The plot is good because it involves friend betrayal and we all love that in books dont we ? 

It is a gothic revenge story. This is a story about revenge but there’s nothing particularly elaborate about the revenge itself. It is just the good old murder by burying someone alive.

This story is no less creepy and very thrilling. However it is another carnival story with a tragic ending, but this time the setting is 18th century Italy. It’s something about that right? Everything seems more scary when it happens in that era. But this tale needs to get its points for the tipsy jester, super creepy and the connoisseur of fine wine atmosphere in it. 

This tale is one of the tales which you will either love or hate, so be warned about that. Be also warned that this tale might be hard and heavy for people who have claustrophobia.

This tale can be very easy be read dozens times without you being tired of it, because every time you re-read it you see some new things in this tale which you didn’t notice before. 

The ending itself is very eerie ending, and for sure it has something to it which a lot of horror / thriller books miss now on days. 

This tale is short, but Edgar Allan Poe is able to write a fully-developed story of revenge which not a lot of authors doesn’t have the ability to do.

This story is unique and interesting but it might not be for everyone. Because you know details and these amazing descriptions in it.

I give this tale 2 / 5