ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

Gothic Fiction

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Dead Children” by Sabina Murray

    “The Dead Children” is a short-story from Sabina Murray’s excellent collection of Gothic/Horror tales entitled Muckross Abbey and Other Stories. Murray really understands Gothic. The contemporary writer I would most compare her to Susan Hill. She is that good. At a quiet Vermont college Professor Judith is stopped by a woman she initially doesn’t recognize. Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “The Girl Who Loved Graveyards”by P.D. James

    P.D. James (1920-2014) had to leave school at the age of 16 to take care of younger siblings and because her father did not believe that women needed higher education. Anyone who has ever read P.D. James knows that this early departure from formal education does not appear to have hampered her ability to become Read more

  • Gothic vs. Horror

    Trying to define the difference between Gothic and Horror is difficult. Ann Radcliffe once said, ‘Whereas terror is a feeling of dread that takes place before an event happens, horror is a feeling of revulsion or disgust after the event has happened.’ The usual way to look at the difference is that Horror seeks to provoke Read more