Posts by Jose Cruz

As this first month of reviews comes to a close, some readers may find themselves scratching their skulls at this last selection of the horror genre's type five essentials. Certainly, I must be mistaken in including a novel that is solidly in the field of science fiction. "My God man, have you gone mad?!" I hear you screaming at your computer screen. Actually, I am indeed quite insane. However, I believe the true lunacy would be to dismiss H. G. Wells's tale of a terrifying alien invasion as a simple romp into the world of the scientifically fantastic. Wells imbues his story with a palpable fear that will have the readers shivering with genuine fright at the thought of mankind meeting its end at the cold hands of an alien invader.(read more...)

Deep in the impenetrable mist, a beast cries out in the night, a cry that is longing for release and raging to quench a thirst that can only be satiated in the misery of others. This is the scene taking place both in the streets of London and in the tortured soul of Henry Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevenson's horror classic. Within a mere 87 pages, Stevenson takes us on a journey that we are likely never to forget, even after years of reading his beautiful words.(read more...)

When one makes an outlandish claim such as the chicken came before the egg or that it was Elvis who put the bop in shop-bop-a-loo-bop, one should expect to be met with a torrent of verbal venom and rotten produce. Saying that The Castle of Otranto is the very first horror novel in literature history seems like a claim that would receive a similarly warm reaction. Generally regarded as the first Gothic novel, I believe that by extension this book must have had a good amount of influence on the genre as a whole and helped shape the foundation of horror. While most definitely not perfect, Otranto serves as a nice little history lesson in terror. Like they say, it all had to start somewhere...(read more...)