I Am Legend part 1

Shocker!!!! I had no idea that this book was about vampires in the least bit.  I remember seeing the trailer for this movie and it was never made too clear that this was about vampires.  Without seeing the movie I had already had preconceived notions on this book just from the trailers and I didn't think it was going to be that interesting.  The book started out slow and it was almost like the writing was dancing around the topic.  Nothing was really blatant until Robert Neville started talking about the garlic.  And just like me I don't understand the siginficance of garlic to a vampire.  When the vampires were taunting him to come out of the house I found it to be the norm as far as vampire novels are concerned.  They want to lure you out in some fashion in order to obtain what they want.  The part of the book where Robert drives to Sears and makes a few other stops and killed vampires during the day was fascinating.  To think that an entire town has been taken over by the undead it is something that is hard to imagine yet a definite page turner.  The chapter in the book when Robert was hung over and wanted to get out of the house and he ended up driving to his wife's grave was thrilling to me.  The fact that his watch had stopped, he left the garage door open and he had no idea what time it was.  I literally couldn't read it fast enough because it was so exciting how the vampires were waiting for him and chasing him while he was in his car.  So far this novel has been sooooo good.

Dracula is dead?

Finishing the rest of this novel was very interesting.  I figured with Mina being vulnerable as well allowing her self to get to deep into the hunt for Dracula; that it was only a matter of time that she would start the transformation.  What I don't understand is why the transformation into a vampire takes so long.  It took Lucy days to become a vampire and when they set up the funeral she didn't look like she was actually dead.  I felt like it was a ploy of Mina's to want to accompany the gentlemen to find the boxes, because she had to know that if she could sense Dracula that the opposite would be true.  I was also taken back by the fact of the Communion wafers, I have never heard of this being used as a way to keep a vampire at bay.  I guess it makes sense, since anything godly will hurt or prevent vampires from doing any harm.  In comparison to the killing of Carmilla versus the killing of Lucy there was no burning of the body once the head was separated from the body and in this novel garlic became a presence by stuffing it into Lucy's mouth.  Since Dracula was the head vampire I liked how they made it apparent that once the head is dead that all other vampires are no longer vampires.  I also like the end I am always a sucker for the "where are they now" deal.

Dracula

For never picked up the book Dracula I found the first portion of our reading really interesting.  If I were to compare it to Carmilla from the last two weeks there are some definite differences.  It seems like in Dracula that everyone knows about Dracula and what he is and does.  Everyone seemed to have words of warning for Herr but actually never came right out and said anything.  Herr was under the impression that Dracula was to be his friend; he wrote him a letter got a room for him and sent a carriage to pick him up.  Herr seems to think that everyone else is crazy and wants to speak with Dracula about.  This reading is very different from Camilla where the idea of vampires was a hard concept to comprehend.  No one spoke of such nonsense yet girls kept dying by the same means and there was no logicial explanation.  It was like in Dracula that he had such control over the town that they may try to rescue Herr but never directly let him in on their little "secret".  Knowing where he is headed I find it really funny that he is looking at all the people in the town as strange.

Carmilla contd

This story really drew me in, it was definitely a page turner.  I felt bad for the General about his daughter and I found it exciting how the General had described what had happened to his daughter and how much it paralleled Laura's experience.  It makes me wonder though why didn't Laura die?  Is it because Carmilla didn't take enough blood which in turn turned Laura into a vampire as well.  The General's story was very compelling when he spoke about Mircalla, Countess Karnstein and what supposedly happened to her, when in actually nothing happened to her at all.  she still walks around the town and just changes the letters around in her name to "fool" people.  I wonder who was Madame la Comtesse, was she a vampire as well?  And if she was why was she always disappearing?  Why wasn't she feasting on the town's people?  I think the interaction between Carmilla and Madame la Comtesse is very odd.  The chapter where Carmilla comes and see's the General and how he lunges at her and we get to experience of how strong she really is.  I really disliked the conclusion chapter, I felt like at first the chapter wasn't making since and then you come to hear about how the Baron was in love with Mircalla and that he would do anything for her.  I think he is possibly hiding her and that he would only give out some information to protect even in the after life.  The ending was becoming so involved and then it just dropped off to me.  I really think that Laura is a vampire because of the fact that Carmilla comes to her again.

Carmilla

In the book In a Glass Darkly, the section named Carmilla was very intriguing.  The first chapter was a little hard to get into because I am not a big fan of overly descriptive material.  There is fine line between setting the atmosphere and describing every single detail of a room, a person or any of the such.  Once I was to get past all of that I became very intrigued in the vision that the narrator had experienced and how she went from not being afraid of things because she lived in such a bubble.  To having that experience and being completly afraid of the dark as well as the day at times.  I found the chapter in regard to meeting Carmilla really strange with the horse drawn carriage and the sense of royality.  It seemed like something was planned because of how fast they raced past the narrator and her father.  By the way the servants in the house seemed a little strange to me as well, I can't quite put my finger on it by I think they know something.  I liked how the author seemed to bring about Carmilla and the narrator describing how they have met before and how Carmilla down played it as a dream and the narrator knowing that it was real.  Carmilla is very secretive and has an aire about her that is off putting to me, that nothing is scared and that life is to be celebrated by death not mourned.  I liked how the author made Carmilla so beautiful and charming, very irresistable.  That is how vampires usually pull people in because they are beautiful to look at they appear to be worldly.  Yet they have no remorse or sorrow in the day to day life, almost as if they are better than their prey.  So far I have enjoyed the reading because its almost so obvious what is going on that it helps me to get pass the language and the wordiness of it.