Book Review: Romeo & Juliet & Vampires - by Claudia Gabel

To be or not to be- that is the question I asked myself upon first observing the sudden proliferation of classic novels re-hashed and rearranged with added supernatural creatures. (Little Vampire Women? Pride & Prejudice & Zombies?) Romeo and Juliet and Vampires by Claudia Gabel is the second of these monster-tinged adaptions I have read, and as I opened the book I tried my best to allow my feelings about the original play to fade into the dangerous night time shadows, in order to soak up this story with new, blood red ringed eyes. 

Romeo & Juliet & Vampires is an enjoyable read. Following Shakespeare’s classic characters Romeo and Juliet from his most renowned tragedy of the same name, we watch Romeo fall madly in love with Juliet at first sight. He discovers her at a party held by her parents the Capulets; the powerful, rich vampire family with whom Romeo’s family the Montague’s have fought a grizzly war for many years, the vampires feasting on the flesh and blood of their enemies to sustain their vampiric powers. After the imprisonment of Vlad the Impaler, the infamous tyrannical prince of the Capulet family, a newcomer, Prince Radu assumes power over the families’ home of Transylvania, forcing a truce upon the warring clans. Becoming ever-weaker from the lack of human blood, the stern unfeeling Lord and Lady Capulet have a plan to win the Prince’s favour in order to overturn the peace treaty, using an unwilling Juliet as a gambling chip. 

As Juliet and Romeo fall evermore in love, their union becomes more and more unlikely. This is not helped by the upcoming event of Juliet’s sixteenth birthday, upon which she is to either take a human life by drinking every last drop of the victim’s blood to become a full-fledged vampire, or endure a ferocious hunger for blood… and starve to death. Featuring drama, theatrics and mournfully doomed passion aplenty, this novel stays true to William Shakespeare’s sense of outlandish tragedy and woe.

Grammatically the novel may disappoint if you are expecting an emulation and expansion of Shakespeare’s linguistic style. Far removed from the eccentric flamboyancy of his words, you may find yourself stumbling across phrases and expressions which certainly would not have been in use in Shakespearian literature, and admittedly, it does remove some of the charm and throw off the imagery slightly. After all, if you’re going to adapt a play written by the greatest writer in the English language into a supernatural tragedy, you should probably stick with certain admired aspects and idiosyncrasies of that writer in your language. A plus side however is that that, for anyone new to Shakespeare who wishes to immediately capture the essence of this famous play, the simpler language and lack of archaic lexis is not as intimidating or off-putting. This is a book you can read in bed at night or on the train home from work without having to worry too much about absorbing the more challenging linguistic style of classic Shakespeare.

Conclusively, if tales of forbidden love, death and romance with a little of the supernatural thrown in appeal to you, then this just might be the novel for you. It’s entertaining and gripping, and the surprising plot twists contrast the original in just the right subtle manner. If however you are a great fan of Shakespeare and wish to read Romeo and Juliet (with added vampires) in novel form, do not expect the same style of lexis and dialogue as that written by William Shakespeare himself. If you can overlook the modern twist on this classic tale, then Romeo and Juliet and Vampires is a definite competitor for your literary attentions.

Review: Corsets and Clockwork Steampunk Stories

Corsets and Clockwork, edited by Trisha Telep, is a collection of thirteen ‘steampunk romances’ over 400 pages in total length. A sizeable book boasting such versatility as to include ‘magical outcasts, kindred spirits, feisty heroines, inventors, war heroes and supernatural rituals’, this clockwork anthropology has a story for everyone, and generally does not disappoint.

The stories range in page count but are all lengthy enough to enjoy over a steaming cup of tea. While the first story rude mechanicals is a rather slow-paced piece packed full of cogs and gears, it comes to an abrupt (and in my opinion fairly anti-climactic) ending, yet Deadwood and The Clockwork Corset are packed with action, hastily-paced like a steam train trundling purposely through the countryside. This variety typically offers a reading experience that can be enjoyed by fans of both action and romance period novel genres. 

In several of the stories I surprisingly found myself questioning the steampunk aesthetic therein. While all the stories are clearly set in the Victorian period, certain tales within Corsets and Clockwork seemed to be missing the gears, cogs and eccentric gadgetry one associates as steampunk iconography, and seemed rather more at home in the reality of the Victorian era, instead of the ridiculous, sepia-hued world of steampunk. Fans of Steampunk however are inevitably also fans of Victoriana, so the stories are still likely to appeal on that level at least. 

This book should be on the to-buy list of anyone interested in the wacky world of steampunk. Generally good reading with that iconic wacky edge, most of the stories hit the mark and the ones that don’t still take one on an adventure into the past with frivolous manners, tea and ridiculous social norms aplenty.

Revamped Blog Introduction: why I am a feminist.

As in introduction to my newly revamped blog, I thought I’d write a piece about why I am a feminist. I like to hear people’s stories about how they initially got interested in various movements, though mine is quite a simple one…

MY OTHER BLOG, FOCUSING ON FEMINISM AND MY OTHER ARTICLES:

http://femmusings.blogspot.com

Blog revamp in progress.

I realize that I have not posted in a long time - certain current events going on in my life have pretty much made it impossible for me to put my mind to book reviews. However I will soon be returning with a completely revamped blog focused not only on book reviewing, but on promoting different articles I write for a variety of online 'zines, and to simply give me a platform to post my own thoughts and opinions on various points of the feminist/liberal/generally awesome spectrum. This is a work in progress but I hope to be back soon.

Blog vacation!

 PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Recently a lot of issues have prevented me from posting. Apart from the fact that I've had very little time to sit down and read lately I am mentally fatigued and feel I need a break from posting reviews, as I intended to, every other wednesday. I will aim to soon resume writing on this blog, but for now I'm going to be taking a short break. I have a lot of personal stuff happening now, including moving homes within the next month, so until then I won't be posting here. In the mean time, I have a facebook, deviantart and tumblr  (: <3

Book Review: Black Butler Book 1 by Yana Toboso

This weeks review is of Back Butler book 1 by Yana Toboso!

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. 

Black Butler, the cover emblazoned with a raven-haired effeminate butler pouring tea, was one of those manga series that had me intrigued from the get go. We follow one Ciel Phantomhive (head of the prestigious Phantomhive family after the tragic death of his parents) as he traverses life in Victorian England as the owner of the country’s most famous toy manufacturing company. Interestingly enough, the first book in the series does not focus on this particular fact, but sees Ciel getting into a spot of trouble with a rather unusual set of enemies and circumstances.

Considered ‘the Queen’s watchdog’, Ciel finds his duties to be surprisingly easy, but wouldn’t anyone with the help of his mysterious butler Sebastian? Sebastian seems rather like a miracle worker, comically displaying his many talents by conjuring up a successful dinner party at the last minute in place of the hilariously inept staff at the Phantomhive household, and later coming to the rescue of his master Ciel in a more serious situation with a gang of fairly stupid but vicious drug fiends. 

Proving to be both highly skilled at the culinary arts, and almost indestructible in combat situations; we ask what can’t this guy do? When people ask how he is capable of such acts, he merely replies that he is ‘no super-man…merely a butler”, but as the book continues (and we inevitably squint into the sly look in his eyes attempting to decipher the truth), one wonders what the prerequisites for such a position could be…  

The detail and style of artwork in this manga is nothing short of impressive; there are no backgrounds lazily filled in or unseemly blank spaces, and the character expressions are at times laugh-out-loud funny – You may find yourself chuckling when Ciel’s rather emotional fiancé comes for a visit. A combination plentiful shading and delightfully antique doodles of spider webs on the new chapter pages lend an air of gloom-shrouded atmosphere to the book, in keeping with the paradox of mystery and darkness underlying the light-hearted humour within. 

Black Butler is a diverse series, mixing up a delightful hybrid of humour and eeriness that contrasts into a well-balanced narrative. The plot is fast-paced and suspenseful and will engage even the most picky manga reader into its uniqueness of genre. A recommended read , particularly for those who love to delve into whimsical darkness over a cup of Earl Gray…

Book Review: Geisha of Goin by Mineko Iwasaki

This weeks [long winded] review is Mineko Iwasaki's Geisha of Gion...

Mineko Iwasaki’s autobiographical work Geisha of Gion has been on my to-read list for a long time. As those who are close to me know, many things about traditional –and indeed postmodern- Japanese culture have fascinated me from a young age, one of them being the magically secretive and unbelievably unique world of Geisha. I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to read it, and instantly sat down to read a book that would only strengthen my awe for these inspirational women.

Mineko Iwasaki is one of the most famous Geisha icons- even today, her life as a geisha inspires so many young Japanese women to dedicate their life to the profession; to declare themselves taken in by the all-encompassing nature of this mysterious world. Iwasaki does not use this book to mechanically list chronological events in her enchanting life, but uses her words to lead us on informative, yet never tedious or irrelevant mini-stories embedded in the main narrative that pull the reader deeper under the spell  of geisha. Her almost photographic accounts of events in her life, starting at the tender age of three, when the okasan of her future okiya (Madam Oima) came to visit her parents’ house spare no detail in introducing us to the willow and flower world that soon became all she knew. Leading us from her young life as a reclusive child with a tendency to hide in cupboards, Iwasaki provides an emotional commentary on the hardships all maiko and geiko face on the road to success. She describes in detail her transition from cleaning the okiya, to her debut as a maiko – or apprentice geisha- all the way to becoming a fully-fledged geiko and eventually managing the okiya herself. 

As a young child Iwasaki was selected by the manager of the okiya (a post referred to as ‘okasan’ or ‘mother’ in English) as an itotori. A very prestigious prospect indeed, an itotori is the girl who is lucky enough to be selected as the next manager of the okiya after the death of the current okasan; a job that many geiko aspire to one day take on. Iwasaki introduces us to the competitiveness of being a geisha, portraying how even her own sister Yaeko bitterly rejects her, and the girls at her local school ignore her, jealous of her natural talent in the performing arts. We feel a great empathy for Iwasaki as she learns to become independent, attending lessons and becoming adept in arts every geiko must master, including dance, tea ceremony, general conversation and etiquette. We understand how, as she rose to prominence, her health began to suffer due to the hardship of continuous work and on very little sleep. Her accounts of the hardships of keeping up with the geisha lifestyle can seem almost intolerable, snubbing the Western stereotype that geisha merely sit and serve tea, but attend classes during the day, get their hair done, get dressed and go to work at Japanese dinner parties, referred to as osashiki in the evening, before returning home in the early hours of the morning to only a few hours of sleep before starting the cycle again. The introduction to the elaborate and beautiful culture of traditional Japan further entices us into the book, describing everything from the beautiful patterns on Mineko’s silk kimonos to the religious purification of the okiya with the offering of salt. Iwasaki will have you embracing the cultural beauty of Japan as you travel through her enchanting life.

 We are introduced to a whimsical world of interesting characters, often described in a quirky way. One of the many attributes to greatness this book contains is the way in which Mineko Iwasaki herself reveals each character, both the likeable and the truly unappealing with a sense of emotion and immaculate detail that helps create a set of truly memorable people. And no, it’s not even a work of fiction. As she reports on her meetings with the Queen and Prince of England and Mr Gucci, we realize that being a geisha means entertaining some very famous people, opening doors that an ordinary Japanese woman would very unlikely have access to. To be a successful geisha, we see that the hard work equates to being very connected and entertaining those at the top of the societal hierarchy. Throughout the book we also experience many emotional entanglements that the majority find ourselves dealing with on a daily basis; loss, love, heartbreak and anger are related throughout the life of this extraordinary geisha, helping us, paradoxically after Iwasaki meets such famous faces, to find common ground through the many events the book. The diversity of this woman’s life becomes almost shockingly apparent, and the reader may find themselves pausing to reflect what their life would be like had it taken such estranged turns.

After the death of her Okasan Madam Oima in March of 1980, Iwasaki had a decision to make. After fifteen years serving as a geiko, she decided her career should come to a close. She announced her retirement from the world of Geisha four months later on the 23^rd July, and takes us briefly with her on a following journey into a new realm of work. Iwasaki answers our burning questions about other characters of interest and brings the book neatly to an end, stating her fears that the mysterious world of the geisha would decline over the years that passed.

This book is beautiful. Beautifully written, well thought-out, and truly spell-binding. For anyone with an interest in the secret and elegant world of the geisha, and finding out why the effortless beauty they portray takes real hard work, Mineko Iwasaki’s Geisha of Gion is a captivating must-read.

Next weeks review will be Black Butler: 1 by Yana Toboso