Book Review: “The Hallowed Ones” by Laura Bickle

The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle 

Publisher: HMH
Publishing Date: September 2012
Genre: young adult, fantasy, gothic, horror
ISBN: 9780547859262
Goodreads: 4.05
Rating: ★★★★★

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers are free to experience non-Amish culture before officially joining the church. But before Rumspringa arrives, Katie’s safe world starts to crumble. It begins with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields, followed by rumors of massive unrest and the disappearance of huge numbers of people all over the world. Something is out there…and it is making a killing.

Unsure why they haven’t yet been attacked, the Amish Elders make a decree: No one goes outside their community, and no one is allowed in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the boundary of their land, she can’t leave him to die. She refuses to submit to the Elders’ rule and secretly brings the stranger into her community — but what else is she bringing in with him?

Katie is looking forward to her Rumspringa with Elijah in three weeks. It’ll be the one and only time she can live by her own rules before deciding whether to be baptized into the Amish church. She’s already a bit rebellious, questioning the Elders instead of blindly obeying. But after a helicopter crash and a few Amish disappearances, Katie decides to take matters into her own hands. Once an Outside stranger enters her world, her little rebellions pile up. Katie, fully aware of the Darkness infiltrating her small community, implores the Amish to toss their prayers and passive ways and fight back.

This was a terrifying book. I hardly slept. With each of Katie’s rebellions (questioning Elders, then buying comic books, then stealing Coke, breaking the quarantine, allowing a stranger to come in), a new horror strikes the page. One minute she is walking through a field, the next a white horse bursts through the trees carrying a saddle with a bloody boot still hooked in the stirrups. One minute she’s milking the cows, the next she enters a home drenched in blood from a family slaughter. Every sentence is agonizingly suspenseful, making the eagerness to turn the page both foreboding and exciting.

Bickle clearly worked hard to get Amish culture correct in this book. There are moments when Katie explains a tradition or a way of life, but it flows so smoothly with the story I hardly noticed the stopping time for Amish Culture Lessons. I am also extremely happy with the way Bickle portrayed vampires. These vampires are the real thing. These vampires are the ones Victorians feared, the kind that spread like disease, they destroyed rather than seduced, that hypnotized, that cannot enter homes or holy ground, that can only be destroyed with stakes, garlic, and a beheading. These are the very first vampires in folklore, and they are fearsome.

What’s fantastic is that Katie, and the Outsider Alex, rarely describes the vampires’ appearances. They are called “things” and “monsters” and “the Darkness.” Katie can see they were once human, but their movements, behavior, and red eyes show the most base, evil instinct of humanity: literal blood lust and desire to kill. She is awed, shocked, and frozen in fear, her mind incapable of looking at something that appears to be human and seeing such evil.

That is a true a proper gothic vampire and gothic reaction. I applaud Bickle. I applaud her for making me  afraid of the dark this week, for making me happy that I’m not living near cornfields now, and for bringing terrifying vampires back into young adult literature.

Book Review: “Carmilla” by Sheridan Le Fanu

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

A young Anglo-Austrian woman living at her father’s castle is the narrator of this novella. When a mysterious and beautiful stranger is stranded at the castle in odd circumstances and becomes a guest, the heroine quickly forms a close bond with her —but she subsequently discovers that her “friend” has a dark and lethal secret.

I read this in two hours, standing still in the kitchen as my housemates cooked and ate around me. Time did not seem to pass at all, I was so engrossed.

A classic vampire novella (and in recent light, a lesbian vampire novella apparently), this chilling, tale offers readers a whole new experience and conception of “vampire.” With the Twilight series, we’ve romanticized and de-villainized the vampire to a laughable degree. Anne Rice sexualized and humanized the vampire. Bram Stoker offered a classic capable of reworkings for every decade since – the fear of contagion, fear of AIDs, fear of homosexuality – that allows the reader to be awed and terrified of and attracted to the vampire ideal.

Carmilla contained several popular ideas of the modern idea of vampire – being staked, puncturing humans with the teeth, sleeping in coffins – while dismissing other notions such as bursting into flames in the sun; Carmilla was perfectly capable of walking in the daylight.

The history behind Carmilla’s character is haunting as well! The most intense image that is still seared into my brain is of her in her coffin, laying in a pool of blood several inches deep, eyes wide and skin healthy. So terrifying! Le Fanu wonderfully crafted thrilling images and suspenseful events in this short Gothic tale!

Rating: of 5

Goodreads: 3.79 of 5

Gothic Literature

This semester, in my final literature course, we’re focusing on the Gothic elements! My favorite genre. Here’s what we’re reading starting next week!

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White

Great Horror Stories, a compilation with Stoker, Poe, and Lovecraft; Sheridan Le Fanu’s In a Glass Darkly; and Classic Ghost Stories, another compilation that includes Dickens!

My Top 3 Books of 2011

I scrolled through my 50 Book Challenge list and, despite all the starred ones, three left a lasting impact on me during the year of reading. I’ve limited my list to three new books – plus two favorites I’d reread for 2011. These two books I reread nearly every year, I love them so much.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

By far one of the most chilling and haunting ghost stories I’ve ever read or heard. Today, we find horror films filled to the brim with blood and gore and massacres – so much so that we’ve become immune to the violence. Hill’s story, however, is literally spine-tingling. Set in Victorian England, a young lawyer travels to a manor to deal with the property left by an old woman. Immensely spooky things happen – the classic horrors of strange noises, faint visibility, the sensation of something touching you when you are in an empty room – which left me nervous at night an unable to sleep for a week.

 

 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I was skeptical to read the trilogy, at first, mostly due to people comparing it to the Harry Potter series (and, as a fan of that from the beginning, I find that untouchable). The summary description also makes it sound like a sci-fi novel, a genre I’m not particularly drawn to. One summer day, I gave it a chance – and I couldn’t put it down! The writing is meant for a younger audience, very simple and to the point, but the plot moves and the characters are fascinating and there are cliff-hangers everywhere. I’ve recommended this book to everyone I know. It truly is remarkable.

 

 

One Day by David Nicholls

I am an Emma. My closest friend is a Dexter. The trials these two go through, their friendship shrinking and growing with time, the different directions in life – it’s unbelievable how strong they are. They each have immense flaws, and that is what makes their bond so beautiful. It was as if I were looking into several of my friends’ friendships rolled into one. The things Dexter and Emma say to each other, to break the other down or to cheer the other up, is exactly what every person wants to say and needs to hear. Witty, charming, and heartbreaking, I highly recommend this book.

 

And now for the books I reread in 2011: two of my favorite classics!

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

While I love Pride & Prejudice to pieces, I find this short and sweet novel incredibly uplifting, cheerful, and entertaining. Mr. Darcy hardly holds a candle to Mr. Tilney – he talks to Catherine! Catherine’s imagination is wild and fun, spinning everything she observes into a horrifying Gothic mystery. My own fascination with Gothic literature is probably why I relate to Catherine on some level. Austen’s typical use of satire pokes fun at the concept of a Gothic novel and the silliness of Bath society. A quick and enjoyable read.

 

 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

My absolute all-time favorite book, and a real Gothic novel. Written like an autobiography, a memoir, and based partly on Brontë’s life, Jane Eyre moves me more than any other book has. I find myself running back to it every year when I need Jane to talk some sensibility into me, to reassure me. Some argue Jane is one of the first feminist characters, what with her self-respect and the independence she asserts to everyone she meets. She is a strong character, regardless of your stance in feminist literature. Beyond her, there’s the dark story behind Mr. Rochester, the hauntingly beautiful setting of Thornfield, and the creepy moans from the walls at night.

Happy New Year! Read many books!