Literature of Horror, Fantasy & Sci-Fi

"The Hobbit" "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit..." The line that many J.R.R. Tolkien fans recognize--aside from "one ring to rule them all". When people hear the word "hobbit", they think of his stories of Middle Earth. I know I certainly do. I've been a fan of his works for as long as I can remember, but it's only thanks to the films that I knew of them. I have never actually read any of the books because I preferred to see the visualizations of the film adaptations.  While reading The Hobbit , I found myself nodding to things I recognized from the film: Bilbo and Gandalf's conversation at the beginning, the Dwarfs introducing themselves, the Misty Mountain hymn, and much more. It was certainly shorter than I thought it would be, but I suppose I'd prefer it this way rather than a 500 page read. After reading it I can see how Tolkien never intended to get this story published; it's in a format I am

"Akata Witch" "Akata Witch" was definitely a different witch story than what I was used to; while it does feature witches in the sense, not the stereotypical ones portrayed in modern film and literature. The subject of witches is far broader than people realize. It's not all pointy black hats and broomsticks. The three girls, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha go by "leopard people" instead of "witches", which helps reminds the reader this is taking place in Nigeria. They all have their own unique powers: Chichi has the memory of an elephant, and Sasha is the same, regarding they remember everything they read. Orlu's power is known as "juju", meaning she can undo awful things that happen.  One thing I like about this story is that the witches are portrayed as heroes in the story rather than the antagonist, since they help a character named Sunny try to catch a known serial killer who goes by "Black Hat Otokoto. People often

"ANNIHILATION" Annihilation is one of my top favorite sci-fi movies, along with Ex Machina and Interstellar . I hadn’t realized that the movie was based off a book until my second time around of watching it, so I was curious as to what the book itself was all about. Before reading, I did a bit of research on the book to see how much was different compared to the film adaptation; while the movie does branch off from the book, it’s not a bad thing. If anything, the visuals of the film help add to the story in a way the book couldn’t. One of the big differences between the book and the movie is that the research team all have names and backstories in the film, whereas in the book the only thing known about the others are their jobs—biologist, anthropologist, surveyor, psychologist. The only character we know much about is the protagonist, who is the biologist. I personally preferred the movie’s direction with this because it helps the audience build a connection

"A Wild Sheep Chase"  Reading "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami was quite...an odd turn of events. Even now I am still questioning what I just read! It was definitely a unique story, one I've never read before. Was it my favorite read? Not exactly, but it wasn't a jarring experience. But the more I read, I began to lose interest because of the story length. Plus, with all the mystery and fantasy elements, I was just eager to find out what the heck was really going on. The first thing that threw me in a loop was that there was no literal sheep--but a Sheep MAN. A guy in a sheep suit, but isn't even a guy--he's a freaking ghost or spirit! There's the mythological element of the story. Second thing that got my brain scrambled was finding out that Rat was actually dead, appeared as a ghost, and is ALSO THE SHEEP MAN IN A DIFFERENT FORM. Rat apparently died by hanging himself to escape the Sheep's hold because it affected him li