The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is the story of Nora Seed, a thirty-something English woman who attempts suicide and ends up in a library between life and death. Its shelves are filled to the brim with an infinite number of books, all holding a life she could have lived had she made different choices.…
“Dracula” by Bram Stoker: The Vampiric Perversion of Communion
While many are familiar with the story of Dracula, few have bothered to read Stoker’s classic epistolary novel. It follows, through letters and journal entries, the lives of Johnathan Harker─prisoner of the Count’s castle─and his cohorts who will stop at nothing to rid the world of vampiric evil. But it’s not all fangs and fright,…
Mindless Entertainment: The Curse of the Headless Horseman
This week I was going to write a post about Washington Irving’s famous tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I had planned an elaborate metaphor about how the headless horseman is representative of the modern evangelical church which has severed its body from the head of Christ, casting aside His lordship in favor of a…
“The Awakening”: Destructive Feminist Propaganda
Kate Chopin’s classic novel The Awakening caused an uproar when it was published in 1899. Edna Pontellier, the main character, shocked readers with her disdain for the traditional family life, preferring the pursuit of artistic endeavors and extramarital affairs. Today’s readers call it daring, even brave. You’ll find it on many a course syllabus, lauded…
“Where the Crawdads Sing”: Natural Does Not Equal Moral
"Where the Crawdads Sing" by wildlife scientist Delia Owens is marketed as an “ode to natural world,” but Owens takes the theme further than a simple celebration of nature and into the realm of morality. At the heart of the novel is this presupposition: what is natural is inherently moral. Owens’ story follows Kya Clark,…
Bone of Bones 