Beautiful People June 2014

Beautiful People is back! For those of you who maybe haven't come across this before, it's a neat exercise for writers. Basically you're given a list of questions, you choose a character from a story you're working on, and answer them for you character. It's a fun way to get to know your character better, and to see what kinds of people other writers are creating. Beautiful People can be found here.  



1) What is their full name and is there a story behind why they got it? 
Well, I guess I'll do Marfik, because he's interesting. His name is Marfik and I named him that because it means 'elbow' and I thought it was ironic. You see, Marfik is a Salamander (of the mythological variety, which really means he's a great big flaming lizard beast). He's a sort of spirit in an animistic, shintoish sense. He attaches to the arm of another character. Hence the name 'elbow.'

(Not going to lie, Marfik is the name of a star, and I totally named all my characters after stars. If J.K. Rowling can do it why can't I?)

2) How old are they, and when were they born? 
I have no idea. Really old? It's not really relevant to my story. He's a spiritual being and, while he's not immortal, his lifespan is many times longer than a human's. He has a humanish form and while he's in that he appears to be in his late twenties/ early thirties.

3) Describe their physical appearance. (Bonus questions: 1. What is their race/nationality/ethnicity? 2. Do you have a picture of them? If so, include it!) 
As I have said before, picture a salamander... but on fire. So kind of like a Dragon, but not a dragon. He's not gigantic, and he can't breathe fire. Also his tail is more flat and sqaushy. I picture flames kind of shooting out of his joints. I don't have a picture of that, but I do have one of him in his humanish form (that I will not post because 1. It's a super sketchy class pencil doodle, and 2. because I'd have to scan it in and I'm too lazy...). He's well over six feet, and can really only manage to get the upper half of his body into a human shape. He doesn't have any hair though. Instead of head hair he has fire on his head. He has no eyebrows or eyelashes. His skin is dark tan with a really strange yellow tint and his eyes are yellow. 

He looks something like this, but with bigger claws and more teeth

4) Describe your character's personality first in one word, and then elaborate with a few sentences. 
Beastly? He is not a human, so I've decided not really to humanize him. He doesn't really speak ever and he rarely takes a human form. He is a great big lizard monster, and while he does possess reason, it's not human reason. He's very stoic, I guess. He is also a spirit in an animistic sense, so I've also been giving him a sense of ferocious dignity. He's not a pet, he's very clever, and very strong, and he could eat you... if he wanted.

5) What theme song(s) fit their personality and story arc? 
I have no idea. I don't really associate music with my characters or stories.

6) Which one of the seven deadly sins describes your character? 
I'm torn between wrath and gluttony. I think I'll go with gluttony. In my story spirits can assume the strength and power of other spirits by eating them, and that's what he does. But I'm not sold on gluttony. I could be another one...

Like this, only prettier.

7) If they were an element (fire, water, earth, air), which one would they be? 
Easy, fire. Boom!

8) What is their favorite word? 
Verbal symbols tied to objects and concepts are for humans. He may be forced into a relationship with some currently, but don't think for one second that he enjoys it.

9) Who’s one person they really miss? (It could be someone who’s passed away, or someone they’re not close to anymore, or someone who’s moved away.)
He doesn't miss anyone, but he does miss the way things used to be before he was sealed in a scroll for 400 years. He doesn't really feel like the world has a place for him anymore. 

10) What sights, sounds, and smells remind them of that person state of affairs? 
Uh, everything? There's a spiritual void in the world that he feels very deeply.

Exam Review

Summary:
     Four men and four women file into a room to take the final exam that will secure one of them a position in the most prestigious company in the world. They sit at eight desks, and before them are eight pieces of paper. An Invigilator (exam proctor) and a security guard walk in. The Invigilator gives them a specific set of instruction. Before them is an exam, there is one question and one answer. They have 80 minutes to complete the exam. If they attempt to speak to him or to the security guard they will be disqualified. If they leave the room for any reason they will be disqualified. If they spoil their paper, accidentally or on purpose, they will be disqualified. Are there any questions? Begin. 

Spiritual Content:
     There isn't much overt spiritual content, but there are a whole lot of psychological and philosophical dilemmas. This movie doesn't sound like it would be very interesting, but boy is it ever. You see, (and I don't this counts as a spoiler) the exam paper has no visible question. Naturally the people taking the exam start to freak out. Is this some sort of joke? Is the question hidden somewhere? They then start to figure out the loop-holes in the Invigilators instructions, they figure out what they can and can't do to figure out the question and come up with the answer. They have a lot of freedom. The Invigilator tells them at the beginning of the exam" There are no rules in this room, except for our rules. There are no laws, except for our laws," and that certainly seems to be true. Exam asks a disturbing question - what do people become when they're placed in an isolated situation separated from the rules and laws of society. It's answer is both profound and disturbing. Human beings placed in that kind of a situation can only work together for so long before desperation and (in my opinion) their natural sinfulness cause them to make moral compromises. Humans, at bottom, are pretty horrible and this movie definitely makes that clear. The people who walked into that room were successful, intelligent, high achieving individuals - the best of us. At the end of the day, the best of us were broken. horrific caricatures of the people they pretended to be.

Other than that, for spiritual content, there was a character who wore a cross and quoted scripture some. He was not the worst person, but no one was really good all the time completely. 

Violence:
     Hahahahahaha. People are horrible, and these horrible people did horrible things to each other. It was disturbing, but this movie was a psychological thriller, so what did you expect? It started out with some punches. Then, a character is bound (deservingly) to a chair and gagged. Another character is tortured in a pretty disturbing scene. She is also tied to a chair while another character interrogates her for information. He uses a piece of paper to cut her legs, and then threatens to cut her eye if she doesn't tell him what he wants to know. One character is sick and has seizures. And, finally, someone gets shot. ***SPOILER*** This character doesn't die because he's shot with a magic medicine bullet that will cure all the world's problems. ***END SPOILER*** 

I think, though, that the most disturbing thing is not what these people did to each other, but what they didn't do. I mean, there was some feeble protesting when people were being hurt, but mostly people just let things happen. I think we all know the saying 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil if for good men to do nothing,' and that is certainly true in this movie.

Sexual Content:
     Some men throw innuendos at the girls, but other than that, nothing. 

Plot:
    This movie was both disturbing and really good. It built the tension up really well. These people did ridiculously horrible things, but the escalation was done really well. You were sort of like a horrified spectator. You wanted to stop the madness, but you couldn't. And then you wanted somebody else to stop the madness and they didn't, and it was infuriating. The ending was also infuriating, but it did a good job of making you understand why the company had allowed that freak show to go on. *** SPOILER*** Because the company had invented the magic cure for all diseases they needed an administrator who had both a good moral compass in a horrible situation and a good attention to detail (hence the really stupid exam). The person who won had these things, and she did her best considering that she was a girl in a room filled with psycho boys who could (and would) do horrible things to her. ***END SPOILER*** 

Character:
     Almost all of these people were varying degrees of horrible. Some were kind of ok. Others were absolute monsters, but that was the point. Most people, at bottom, are a bit ethically challenged. We know this from some kind of disturbing real-life psychological experiments we've done. If you take people out of heir normal social environment most of them will do horrible things to other people. And I appreciated that this movie talked about that. Even the character who won wasn't perfect. This movie wasn't meant to be an idealization of the human condition. It didn't say 'Yes, most people are bad, but deep down inside there's a shining spot of goodness that we can all bring out, and look at how principled our hero is in the face of adversity!' I literally had no idea who was going to win - in fact I thought that the worst one was going to win. That character didn't, and I was pleased with who won, but it was still a pretty sobering look at the human condition.

Overall Conclusion: 8/10
    I really liked this movie. It's probably not appropriate for all audiences, but it was surprisingly good. The story was suspenseful and engaging. The characters were a realistic depiction of the human condition, and the movie challenged me to think about 'what would I do.' It's always easy to believe that we could never be like that, but I think if we think about it - unless we actively practice virtue and make a continuing commitment to righteous living we would make compromises in that sort of scenario. Those people didn't wake up that day expecting themselves to do those things. Their actions were a reflection of their inner character, and the real point of the Exam was to make that abundantly clear. One of the characters says that the Exam shows you yourself, and that turns out to be true in the most heartbreaking and revolting way.

100th Post!

Hello all. I am pleased to announce that this is my 100th post on this blog! Whoo! I figured 100 posts is a good opportunity to look back at where I've been and where I want to go. I can honestly say that this blog has turned out nothing like what I originally planned for it to be. It was supposed to really be a place for for me to pretend to be a philosopher (you know, as practice for the real world), and to occasionally post reviews for books and stuff. It's really become a modge-podge of random different things, and that's ok!

I am so glad it's finally summer and I'll have time to devote to this thing now (No really, I know I complain after every semester, but this one was the worst. I have never been that close to getting a B in a class in my life. No more 19 hour semesters with two jobs, that was insane. Next semester will be better....). I do plan to focus this blog a bit more. This past year I've had to think a lot about where I am in life and what I want to do. I've made the huge decision that I don't actually want to be a professor - which is huge for me, since I thought that's what I've wanted to be for the past five or six years. I'm leaning more toward behind the scenes academic work. I want to write, I want to develop curriculum, I want to help teachers know what students actually need to know, and I want to do this all within the context of Christian Apologetics. How am I going to accomplish all this? That's an excellent question - one which I'm going to have to think and pray about this year (especially since this will be my last year in undergrad!). I've decided that this blog will be a help to me in practicing apologetics on a cultural level (not the scientific arguments, but more the analyzing culture and helping people think through worldviews in the arts).

That being said, I have some posts planned for this summer. I'll still be posting book.movie.T.V. reviews, but I'll also be doing some more intellectual posts. Among these I'll be posting on some controversial topics, so be warned (for example: I've been wanting to do a post for a long time on why it's ok for Christians to read books with magic in them). Also, since I'm going to Oxford this summer I'll be doing a series of posts on all the things I do there. One last thing I'll be doing - since I want to be an apologist, I figure I might as well extend that to things I love that I get judged for (my non-Christian apologetics), mostly referring to my love of all things foreign and strange. Like, I will step a toe outside the anime closet and tell you why you should at least give the style a shot (and I'll review shows too).

Anyways, all that just to say, this summer will be great. I'll actually post things. Woohoo 100 posts and all that jazz. Thanks for sticking with me so far. Here's to the next 100.  

Story Girl's Hidden Pearls Cover Reveal

Hayden Wand over at Story Girl has been working on her novel Hidden Pearls for a long time and is finally ready to reveal her cover! I know how hard it is to pour your soul into something like that, so it must feel great to finally be ready to reveal a super important aspect of a book. Please support her and give her some love!

And so, without further ado: The cover reveal of Hidden Pearls! 

Book Synopsis:

For the wealthy and privileged in Regency England, life is filled with balls, beaux, and tea- and that’s no exception for Constance Steele and her large, unusual family.  But when an unexpected letter sends her on a voyage across the Atlantic, her experiences affect more people than she ever could have realized. From the love lives of her sister Margaret and cousin Jack, to the family dynamics of the prestigious Breckenridge clan to a band of notorious pirates, no one could have guessed how her adventure would change them all…

Author Bio:

Hayden Wand is a Christian and homeschool graduate whose love of both Jane Austen and adventure stories inspired her to write Hidden Pearls. When she’s not writing, reading, or bribing her siblings to read the classics, you can find her baking, crafting  or watching her favorite shows on the BBC. She lives in South Carolina with her parents and four energetic younger siblings.   

Post-Lenten Update

So... I decided kind of last minute this year to give up social media for Lent, which is why I haven't really been hanging around here for the past 40 days! Yesterday was a wonderful Easter day, and also the great feast day where I got to (finally) break my social media 'fast'. Hooray! School has been pretty insane. I'll be happy with just surviving this semester. But, in other news, I've finally finished the cross stitch I've been working on for the past year and a half. I don't have a great picture of it, but loooooooook:

It's one of those Thomas Kinkade Disney ones (Cinderella, obviously). In real life it sparkles because instead of using French Knots (which hate me. I was doing the form perfectly and could not get those dang things to work) I used shiny beads, which are prettier than french knots anyways. Yay! Now I just have to frame it and find some place to stick it on my walls. Any ways, I have some post ideas, but I don't know when I'll get to them. Summer is coming up quickly, which really means papers and finals are coming up more quickly. So, we'll see. 

Literary Heroine Blog - Late

It's time once again for the Literary Heroines Blog Party! Actually, that's not quite true. It's over, but I'm posting my answers to the questions just the same. These are the same questions from last year, so some of my answers are the same, but I've updated most of them. The link to the original post and information can be found here. 

~ The Questions ~

Introduce yourself!  Divulge your life's vision, likes, dislikes, aspirations, or something completely random!

I am a third year college student at Houston Baptists University. I'm enrolled in the wonderful Honors College at my school. I have the best friends in the world. I'm taking a full course load this semester, working two jobs and commuting. I'm usually very tired, but I'm taking awesome classes this semester so it's ok. I love to read, I build worlds for fun, I paint and draw when I feel like it. I love books and I constantly buy more even though I have no place to put them. My goal in life is to find a job that pays me to read books and watch movies that I like. Failing that and all other plans my friend and I plan to pack up our lives and hitchhike to Florida where we will spend the rest of our lives operating rides and working for minimum wage at Disney World. And I hate fruit. 

What, to you, forms the essence of a true heroine?

A well educated, strong woman who is wise enough to acknowledge her natural limitations and is not too proud to accept help when she needs it. A girl who isn't dependent on a man’s affections to serve as an evaluation of her self-worth, but isn't afraid or disdainful of love when it comes to her. And a woman who stands up for what she believes in and shows strong internal character.

Share (up to) four heroines of literature that you most admire and relate to. 

Only four? Ok, um Sophie Hatter (Howl's Moving Castle), Hermione Granger (Harry Potter), Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), and Luthien (The Silmarillion).

Five of your favorite historical novels? 

Hm, weird how that one word was scratched out mysteriously. So, five of my favorite novels? Howl's Moving Castle for certain (that's not even a question), The Hobbit, The Silmarillion (because this is just the best thing ever), The Lord of the Rings (I feel like there's a theme here), and The Wind in the Willows. 

Out of those five books who is your favorite major character and why? 

My favorite major character would be Howell Jenkins because he's just hilarious. He's so vain and ridiculous, and there were several scenes in that book that almost made me cry I was laughing to hard.  

Out of those five books who is your favorite secondary character and why? 

I really love Thingol from The Silmarillion. Tolkien kind of left a lot of gaps with his character and I filled them with my own head-cannon. Like this guy is the king of the Sindar elves and no one ever asks for his opinion on anything. He gets pretty irritated about it and starts taking his frustrations out on everyone passive-aggressively.  'Oh, no one wanted to know what I though we should do about the orcs? Fine, no army for you.' 'No one wanted to know what I thought we should do about humans? Fine, but if they wander in my forest they will get lost and starve' 'Oh, you want to marry my daughter? Fine, bring me a Silmarill. lolz jk. If you bring me a silmarill, I'll just take it and still keep Luthien!' 

If you were to plan out your dream vacation, where would you travel to - and what would you plan to do there? 

I would go to Oxford for two weeks. During that two weeks I would visit C.S. Lewis' house, go to the Eagle and Child, and make several excursions into London. In London I would take a boat down the Thames, go see Shakespeare in the Globe, visit the British Museum, see the Crown Jewels, go to the Sherlock Holmes museum, visit King's Cross, and ride in the Eye. I would also take a train over to Cardiff Wales and go to the Doctor Who experience. Oh wait, this isn't a dream, I GET TO DO THIS IN FIVE MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

What is your favorite time period and culture to read about? 

I love the Medieval Era. The way that they thought about God and life were just stunningly beautiful. So much of what we have that's good comes from that time period. I love it.

You have been invited to perform at the local charity concert. Singing, comedy, recitation - what is your act comprised of? 

Easy, I would recite poetry. T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

Jellicle Cats come out to-night
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright -
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.



Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats are rather small;
Jellicle Cats are merry and bright,
And pleasant to hear when they caterwaul.
Jellicle Cats have cheerful faces,
Jellicle Cats have bright black eyes;
They like to practise their airs and graces
And wait for the Jellicle Moon to rise.



Jellicle Cats develop slowly,
Jellicle Cats are not too big;
Jellicle Cats are roly-poly,
They know how to dance a gavotte and a jig.
Until the Jellicle Moon appears
They make their toilette and take their repose:
Jellicle Cats wash behind their ears,
Jellicle dry between their toes.



Jellicle Cats are white and black,
Jellicle Cats are of moderate size;
Jellicle Cats jump like a jumping-jack,
Jellicle Cats have moonlit eyes.
They're quitet enough in the morning hours,
They're quitet enough in the afternoon,
Reserving their terpsichorean powers
To dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon.



Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats (as I said) are small;
If it happends to be a stormy night
They will practise a caper or two in the hall.
If it happens the sun is shining bright
You would say they had nothing to do at all:
They are resting and saving themselves to be right
For the Jellicle Moon and the Jellicle Ball.

If you were to attend a party where each guest was to portray a heroine of literature, who would you select to represent?

Sophie Hatter (from the movie) because I love her clothes.

What are your sentiments on the subject of chocolate? 

I’m in favor of all things chocolate and of those who produce such things. After all, who is it who makes the sun rise, and who sprinkles it with dew? The candy man. That sounds like a pretty important job to me.

Favorite author(s)? 

I'd have to go with J.R.R. Tolkien, Diana Wynn Jones, Bisco Hatori, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.
Besides essentials, what would you take on a visiting voyage to a foreign land? 

(Like England which I'm going to?) I'll bring books, for sure, and a camera. Honestly I'm way more excited about what I'll be able to bring home from a foreign land! 

In which century were most of the books you read written? 

Also easy. 19th century. Unless, of course, you count all the philosophy I read, then it's like 'what time period are most of the books you read from' Um, actually I can't really answer  that either. All of them. This semester alone I've moved from the 5th century BC to the 20th century AD.
In your opinion, the ultimate hero in literature is… 

Well clearly Batman is the ideal hero in any genre, but since there has been, nor will there ever be, a decent novel written about him I will have to go with someone like Bilbo Baggins or Howl Jenkins. Neither of them is what you would expect a hero to be like, but there’s more to them than meets the eye, and when there’s really trouble they put aside their fear and other a sundry of character flaws and do the right thing. That makes them both incredibly human, and easy to sympathize with, and also incredibly admirable, and allows them to serve as an ideal to strive towards.

Describe your ideal dwelling place. 

The front of the house will be ivy covered brick. It shall have a round front door and round windows. There will be flowers all over the front yard. The back will not be fenced in, but shall have tons of wide open space and a tree to read under. I also want a wrap around porch and a turret. Inside there will be books everywhere. You'll trip over them. And that's where I want to live.
Sum up your fashion style in a short sentence.

I'd have to care about clothing to have a fashion style. I wear clothes I like. What I like is largely random and arbitrary. I do like things that actually fit which is not a lot since I', 5'10" and really skinny.

Have you ever wanted to change a character’s name? 

I guess, maybe.
In your opinion, the most dastardly villain of all literature is... 

Well, last year I said Satan from Paradise Lost, so that's been done. This year I'll say Mephistopheles, the demon in Faust. Let's be real, demons are the most evilest. I guess I could say Satan from The Inferno, but that would be like cheating, so I'll stick with  Mephistopheles.

Three favorite Non-fiction books? 

The Confessions by St. Augustine, Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm, and Proslogion also by St. Anselm
Your duties met for the day, how would you choose to spend a carefree summer afternoon? 

If I'm being honest I would probably waste it by reading or watching things on netflix. 

Create a verbal sketch of your dream hat - in such a way as will best portray your true character. 

It has no brim and no cap, nor any adornments. It is made of neither straw, nor felt, nor of anything at all. It allows the wind to blow softly through my hair, which is bound up carelessly with a single ribbon. It allows the rain to fall on my head, making my hair clump in stiff wet locks, and will likely cause my head to chill which will likely be the cause of my catching consumption. I shall then grow gradually more pale and beautiful until I expire on a cruise ship, surrounded by a slew of male admirers,  laying on a bed of Rose petals at sunset.

Share the most significant event(s) that have marked your life in the past year. 

I found out that I'll be able to go to Oxford this summer. I entered the penultimate year of my undergraduate endeavors. I'm, pretty sure that's it. Oh, no wait. I was also confirmed in the Anglican Church this year, so there's that! :)
Share the Bible passage(s) that have been most inspiring to you recently.

1 Cor. 1-2

Book Recommendation: Dracula

     

     Really? You're recommending Dracula? The 'demonic' horror novel? The book that spawned so many horrifying and ridiculously seductive movies/t.v. shows?

     Yes - yes I am.

     Most people are familiar with Count Dracula, be it through movies, television, or Halloween specials, but most people, I find, have not read the book. I was with you, I hadn't read it, and didn't want to read it. For whatever reason vampires have scared the pants off me since I was a child. But, it was close to Halloween, I'd been listening to audio tapes on the drive to and from school, so I picked up the dreaded book. 'I'm an adult' I reasoned as I walked to the checkout counter. 'And really, at the very least it will just be like a cheap thrill novel - like the Goosebumps books I looked at but never actually dared to read'. So I got it, and I listened to it, and I loved it.

     It was absolutely nothing like what I thought it would be. All of those movies and things you've seen in the media - get that out of your head, because this book is nothing like that. Even the Keanau Reeves movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, which keeps almost all of the dialog from the book, manages to be nothing like it at all. The book was a little scary, but it was also Gothic Horror at its finest.

     The book is called Dracula, but actually the character of Dracula is barely in it. He's in the very first part of the novel, and then throughout the rest of the book, until more towards the end, he's mostly an implied presence - a shadow. You know what's going on, but none of the other characters really do. Instead the book follows the lives of his victims/ intended victims/ killers. It's mostly written in first person as a series of diary entries, letters, and recordings. I don't normally like first person point of view, but in this case it worked really well. The audience knew where this was all going, but the characters didn't. It served to heighten the suspense of the book to the point where you were like 'NO DON'T DO IT!!!11!1!!!! THERE'S A VAMPIRE TRYING TO EAT YOU DON'T YOU KNOW!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

     Which was the really great thing about the book - no, they didn't know, why would they know? This was nearing the turn of the century England in the throes of the Enlightenment. The last place their minds would go was to the thought of a scary supernatural being. And that was the whole point of the book. The Gothic Horror genre is part of the Romantic movement in literature which was a reaction against the Enlightenment. (For those of you who may be a bit rusty on those terms, the Enlightenment was a period of thought stemming from the works of the philosopher Rene Descartes. It emphasized the ability of human reason, or human senses, to discover absolute truth. It was obsessed with creating a unified system of knowledge that eliminated the need for God and set man up as the center of everything... this is actually a really bad definition, but shhhhhhh just accept the words that I'm saying. Anyways, needless to say Enlightenment thought kind of reduced human beings to tools that could be used to achieve the goals of lofty intellectual utopias, and the Romantics sought to fight against this by instilling a sense of dignity back into humans and into nature. Did they tend to be a little pantheistic? Sure, but you know... they made pretty things?). Sorry about that ridiculous parenthetical aside. If blogger would let you do footnotes I'd be all over that. So yes, Dracula is a horror novel and part of the Romantic movement. The really neat thing about this book was that it very consciously condemned Enlightenment thought and its rejection of the supernatural. However, despite the icky grossness of the count and its participation in the Romantic movement the book is, in fact, a Christian book.

     I know right!?! I was surprised too. The count is a symbol of violent lust and a sort of Nietzschian will to power blown up to supernatural proportions.  He's absolutely evil (there's no ambiguity about this, unlike in almost all of the film versions), he's incredibly clever, and eternally hungry. Mere human beings cannot overcome him. So we all know the stereotypes, you kill a vampire through a stake to the heart, he's allergic to garlic, he can't be in the sun, and he hates churches, holy water, and crucifixes. Most of those come from this book. And yes, now they're kind of cliche, but in the original they're incredibly powerful. What I loved most about this book is, it wasn't human beings who defeated the count. God did. Sure it was humans who stabbed him and whatever, but the power came from God. When one character held out a crucifix against the Count, he described a sensation of power that shot through his arm that was not from him. Holy communion is presented as a powerful symbol, and characters are constantly commending themselves to the protection of God, etc. Normally this wouldn't impress me so much, but in a book like this it really must be implicitly Christian to work. And it is, and it's wonderful, and Dr. Van Helsing is the best.

     I would recommend this book to everyone without reservation. I really didn't find it that scary, and there were several times I was listening to it while driving home alone in the dark, and it was (mostly) fine. The heroes are really great characters, the villain is wonderful, and Dr. Van Helsing is one of my favorite characters ever. He's the only one who's willing to consider that there might be a supernatural explanation to all the bad things that are happening (besides Jonathan Harker, but that's a completely different set of circumstances). He's the only one, at first, who's willing to humble himself to the point of admitting that the enlightenment worldview isn't big enough to hold the entire world, that there are forces bigger, older, and more powerful than man. I will say this about the women. It is a Gothic horror novel. All of the heroines are sweet and beautiful, and innocent, and sweet and innocent and beautiful and beautiful and innocent. All of those. Their function is to be a moral center in he plot, and stand as paragons of virtue for everyone to rally around. I have no problem with this, but it might irritate some people. (and to be fair, Mina is incredibly clever and capable in her own right - she just isn't a 'modern' heroine).

     So yes, go forth into the night and sink your teeth into this fantastic book (do you see what I did there?).