and Things that go Bump in the Night

Have you discovered the wonderfulness of watching “Being Human” yet? I have
spent many, many, hours immersed in the lives of a ghost, a vampire and a
werewolf who share a house and are trying to live normal lives. The drama,
and comedy, comes from watching Sally, Josh and Aiden try and navigate
living together, going to work, finding love, and controlling their
alternate natures. It’s a constant challenge for our supernatural characters
to keep it together and you know… Be Human.

Now, there is a huge amount of drama out there on the internet about the British version of the show, which is in its fourth season and the American version (which is oddly enough filmed in Canada), and is starting its second season. I started with the US series and when the first season was over I moved on over to the UK set.

Not to be wishy-washy but I really like both versions. In the UK set the vampire Mitchell, as played by Aidan Turner, is wonderfully conflicted about his past and future as a member of the undead. Turner is dark and brooding, ironically choosing to work in a hospital around all that delicious blood, and keep company with, and protect, a werewolf and a ghost rather than his own kind. As I work my way through this series I’m looking forward to seeing more of Mitchell and his back story that pushed him into being a “vegetarian vampire”.

As for the US version, George the werewolf, as played by Sam Huntington, is that lost, goofy, unintentionally funny guy in every scene. George’s life has been destroyed by the attack that left him a werewolf, and he has disappeared from his family and friends. Watching his misery at being alone, his struggle with the wolf, his discovery and reunion with his family are heartbreaking. George’s painful attempts at being an alpha male and finding love are curl your toes embarrassing and make me want to cover my eyes. Huntington’s facial expressions make every scene, he frequently just looks confused at it all and it makes me want to scoop him up for a hug and fix it! In just one short season George has become my favorite character, and I can’t wait to see more of him. As an aside the head vampire, Bishop, played by Mark Pellegrino is very cold and very scary, and I love him for that as well. The flashbacks that show him with a former lover, a nurse, are just frightening. He is able to turn off his emotions like a switch, just what I like in the undead in charge.

If you want to watch, or rewatch, season one of the US version of Being Human before season two starts on January 16th its available for check out at your local library, streaming on Netflix, or at Syfy.com, or failing that you could be a bad copyright infringer and search any number of social networking video sites. If you would like to get in on the UK version your local library is the best bet the Rock Springs Library has both season one and two right now.

Are you looking for a Christmas gift that keeps on giving for 2012? How about the gift of a new book series to sink your teeth into? For the 12 and up set both the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine and Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice books are excellent.

The Morganville Vampires series starts off with Glass Houses which introduces us to super brainy 16-year-old Claire Danvers who is starting college early at the local Texas Prairie University in Morganville. Things in Morganville are just a little bit off, and once on campus our young heroine is tormented by the popular girls (and by tormented I mean one tries to kill her by pushing her down a flight of stairs). Claire quickly leaves campus to rent a room at the Glass House where two cute teenage boys and a Goth girl are already living. It soon becomes very clear to Claire that Morganville is home to, and controlled by vampires. People have vampire protectors, pay their taxes at the blood bank, and don’t go out after dark. Naturally Miss Danvers and her new roommates and friends find themselves fighting their way through a myriad of situations in an effort to stay alive and Vampire control free.

The Morganville Vampires series does have its fair share of violence, it is after all about vampires, and unmarried people under 21 do have s-e-x, although not in graphic detail. However, the characters are well drawn, funny and flawed, and they grow up and change through the books. I love that while specific situations get resolved everything’s not hunky-dory at the end of every book. I’m still happily reading along and hope that there is lots more Vampire Awesomeness in the years to come.

Second up is Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series which starts off with The Spook’s Apprentice. Everything about this series is perfect. Our hero, Thomas Ward, is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. Thomas is, at only 12 years old, training to be a kind of exorcist, protecting the county from ghosts, demons, witches, and various boggarts and beasties. The Spook is a grumpy distant man who has trained many apprentices, some of whom have failed and a few who have died learning the trade. In this first book of the series Thomas meets several witches with pointy shoes and falls in love with one, is tricked into freeing the most evil witch in the County Mother Malkin, and discovers that things that he took for granted in the world around him are not what they always appeared to be.

The Last Apprentice series is incredibly well written, with Delaney drawing heavily from his hometown and the surrounding area for inspiration. The characters and setting are a seamless blend of British myths, legends, and local superstitions, with details from the author’s own life that provide some truly scary moments. The series is a mythology buffs dream and Delaney is fantastic at building the tension that Thomas, Alice the witch, and the Spook face in every book. I cannot wait for my boys to get old enough to enjoy this series; it hits all the right notes while still being appropriate for young teens.

So, speaking of Harry Potter, how do you feel about the franchise? Do you like the books and read them every year just to keep them fresh in your mind? Have them on your to read list or flat refuse to let them cross your threshold? How about the films, do they do the books justice in your opinion, or are they missing far too much to be of value? Are you one of the few, like my husband, who enjoys the films but refuses to read the books themselves or did the films move you to do some reading?

Personally, I can separate the books from the film and enjoy them both very much. I, along with many of my friends, can’t wait for our children to get old enough to read them a bit each night. I’m already in love with the idea of leaving them hanging every few nights so the anticipation can gnaw at them all day! The books are written in a way that begs to be read aloud, and I believe the characters grow and change is ways that will be a good jumping off point for conversations about life, love, and learning. I purposely have not reread the Harry Potter series so that my family can discover/rediscover them together. I’m interested to see if I will I be angry at the same characters and sad at the same twists and turns. I’m also curious to see if being able to read them all one right after the other will make the books more or less appealing for my kids. Will children who are just discovering Harry Potter books have the same drive as I did to read them just as fast as they can, or will they be able to set them down at will?

When it comes to the films, I did a little internet searching to see what bloggers and movie sites had to say about the films and it was mostly positive. There were lots of comments about how the movies could have been more faithful to the books, or have richer special effects, although overall posts and reviews were positive. Posts seemed to universally praise the acting skills of the main characters and comment favorable on their growth as they, and the series, matured.

Unfortunately, while searching I quickly got sidetracked with other websites. I have watched with fascination over the years as books have come out decrying Harry Potter’s depiction/glorification of witches, wizards, mystical and magical animals and scary situations. While the number of books I’ve seen about Hogwarts vs. a religious or political group has decreased it seems the dialogue is still going strong online. Websites proclaiming the horrors of Harry and the Gang abound, and it got me thinking, what about the pagan community? Is there a vocal group of practicing witches who don’t like the books? After much internet sleuthing I found…nothing. Apparently, lots of people who identify as something other than a Christian have nothing to say on the subject. I find this curious, how can an entire group of folks, not have at least one nasty blog post about Potter Mania? So I am forced to ask you, dear reader, is there any chance you happen to be of a non-Christian persuasion and have reason to dislike the series? We would love to hear from you.

Have a little cake and ice cream today in honor of the actor who brought Harry Potter to life on the big screen. Lucky for us on July 23, 1989 Daniel Radcliffe made his debut appearance in West London, England. Eleven years later Radcliffe made his debut as the boy wizard and the rest, as they say, is history.

John Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare

I have loved horror, science fiction, and fantasy since I first got my hands on the “grownup books” at the library. I was the kid who chose Anne McCaffrey over Anne of Green Gables, and while girls my age were reading Sweet Valley High books I was devouring Lois Duncan. D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths was my favorite companion until I found out there were more in the series, soon Norse, Chinese, Mayan, American Indian and African myths fed my imagination with gods and goddesses, shape shifters, heroes and crafty maidens. I clearly remember my parents getting looks, and sometimes comments, from complete strangers on the books that they let me pack around to read while I was a kid. It turns out that people would rather see a young lady immersed in a Judy Blume book rather than a Jules Verne novel. Thankfully they let me stay my course and by the time I was in High School my English teachers were being disappointed to receive book reports on The Lord of the Rings instead of the Lord of the Flies. Nowadays, although I force myself to read things that don’t involve vampires, ghosts, zombies, aliens and time warps I still find myself reaching for books with black covers. I would rather watch Buffy over Housewives, Hellboy over The Notebook, and Ghost Hunters instead of the local news. With this kind of a background it seems only appropriate that I host a blog on the books and movies that I, and many others judging by circulation statistics, are drawn to. Please join me in finding out about the darker side of literature “and Things that go Bump in the Night”.