Majanka Verstraete's Blog, page 21
May 17, 2018
TV Series Review: The Alienist
“The Alienist” is a mix of Jack The Ripper with Sherlock Holmes, and even has some remnants from Penny Dreadful. The atmosphere is gloomy and dark, as we expect from a show set at the end of the 1800s – the approach of the twentieth century, as the characters often describe their own time period in the series. Rather than set in London (which for some reason seems to be the setting of most of these period dramas), the setting is now New York.
The story starts out with a young boy’s murder. The boy, who worked as a boy-whore in one of the local brothels, is wearing a dress. He’s been cut up beyond recognition. His heart and one of his eyes are missing, his hand has been severed from his body. Although the murder is gruesome, the police is not that interested in further investigating considering the boy’s social status. That is, except for Theodore Roosevelt, the new police commissioner, who does want to investigate the case and even goes so far as to set up a seperate taskforce.
This taskforce is led by our main cast. The first is Dr. Kreizler, a pioneering ‘alienist’ – which we would nowadays call a psychologist – who wants to understand the minds of the criminally insane. Dr. Kreizler runs an institute for children with mental troubles. He seems to have some dark secrets in his past as well. His friend John Moore, illustrator for the New York Times, is drawn into the case through his friendship with Dr. Kreizler. Just like his friend, Moore has a few demons of his own, such as his alcoholism and his penchant for going to brothels.
Sara Howard, the female lead, is not only a friend of Moore’s, but also the first female to work at the police office in New York, albeit as a secretary rather than a police detective. Sara too has her own share of demons, and it’s these dark habits, dark traits that make the trio so intriguing.
As the story unfolds, and the trio starts chasing the killer, tracing his steps, searching through his mind, the bodies keep on falling and the situation becomes more and more dire. If they wish to understand their killer and how they will be able to catch him, they must face their own demons and vanquish them first. In this interplay between personal relations, demons and haunted pasts, and the present happenings, there’s a cold and dark parallel drawn between the main characters – in particular Sara and Dr. Kreizler – and the murderer, who is also haunted by his own demons.
The side cast varies from intriguing to rather bland (some characters, like Cyrus or Stevie, could be interesting but barely get any background story). The contrast between rich and poor is striking, especially in scenes shown side by side, when the screen switches from people living with dozens in small, overrun, cramped houses, to the gigantic mansion of a finance-expert who is bathing in riches. The scenes of poverty are dull, grey, sad, and the scenes that show the rich and powerful have dozens of colors, grandiosity, and bathe in light. A stark contrast, and one that is emphasized often throughout the show.
All in all, for fans of Penny Dreadful, Sherlock Holmes, Ripper Street, and a slew of other late murder mysteries shows set at the end of the nineteenth century, “The Alienist” is definitely worth watching. The setting is eerie and atmospheric, the murderer is not easily caught, the mind games and politician’s bribes add more depth to the show, and the interactions between the three main characters form the heart of the series. I, for one, hope there’s a second season soon.
May 15, 2018
Real Haunted Houses: Bliss Mansion
The Bliss Mansion can be found on 710 West Robinson Street in Carson City, Nevada. The house looks quite peaceful from the outside – but on the inside, the place is supposedly pretty haunted.
The History
A three-story house completed in 1879, the Bliss Mansion was built by millionaire Duane L. Bliss. With fifteen rooms and built in an “Italianate style”, it was the biggest house in Nevada at the time. Duane had some experience building houses as a contractor, so when it was time to build his own home, he knew exactly what he wanted.
Duane Bliss and his family lived in the house for many years. It was eventually sold to people who wanted to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Due to it being a B&B, the house was renovated multiple times over the years, and is still in pristine condition.
Nowadays, the house has five guest suites with private bathrooms, and it’s a cozy, lovely home.
The Hauntings
Apparently, when Duane Bliss bought the home, a cemetery was located on its ground. The bodies were exhumed and moved to another cemetery, so that Bliss could build his dream mansion. Not all the spirits were too happy about this, though, and some of these spirits still haunt the Bliss Mansion to this day.
Apart from the cemetery ghosts, of course Duane Bliss had to stick around too. As in love as he was with his home, he’s probably still keeping an eye out on the new owners and what they are doing to the property.
Haunted or not, the house is definitely worth a stay and looks like a romantic place for a retreat. And even if you run into the spirit of Duane Bliss, say a friendly ‘hello’ to your host.
May 14, 2018
Cover Reveal: The Sign of the Serpent
Today is cover reveal time for The Sign of the Serpent, the second book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes Series.
I love this cover! I already liked the first cover in the series, but I love the second one even more. The snake looks awesome.
So, tell me, do you like it? Want to read it? If so, you can already add it to Goodreads, or even preorder your copy on Amazon.
Meet Marisol Holmes: High School Student, jaguar shifter, and great granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes. She’s solved countless supernatural cases, but her next one’s the hardest yet. Why?
Marisol is about to lose her heart.
Two days ago, terrible events shattered the very foundation of the Conclave.
Now, Marisol Holmes swears she’ll stop at nothing to destroy the man she once loved: her arch nemesis, Mannix.
But when a cryptic clue left by Mannix leads Marisol to a secret room that once belonged to her father, she realizes that hunting down Mannix won’t be that easy. If she wants to catch him, she’ll have to retrace the steps of her own past and discovers secrets that might have been best left buried.
When the hunt for Mannix brings Marisol to London, she teams up again with Roan and Wyatt on a quest for the truth that leads her through the dark alleys of London, to shady shifter pubs, to libraries cloaked in magic, and eventually to an abandoned castle in Scotland that once belonged to her family.
But Mannix is as sadistic as he’s smart. At every turn, Marisol and her friends face harsh truths and deadly puzzles, and risk their lives to uncover a past that should stay buried. With the stakes getting higher and Marisol’s attraction to Roan growing, can Marisol deny what she truly wants, even if it puts her new love on a collision course with her villainous ex?
May 10, 2018
Movie Review: Winchester
Winchester is a movie supposedly-based on real events. In the plot of the movie, Sarah Winchester, heiress of the Winchester rifle business, has built her own mystery mansion, the Winchester House, with over a hundred rooms. Each day, she keeps on adding to the mansion, and a building crew is busy working on it non-stop, adding rooms and then tearing them down again, with staircases that end up going nowhere, doors not leading to any rooms, and so on.
As for the movie, Sarah is doing this because she’s haunted by the spirits killed by Winchester rifles. These spirits are out for revenge because of the way they died. Sarah constructs rooms based on the spirit’s specifications, and once in those rooms, the spirits can finally find peace and move on to the afterlife. Some spirits can’t move on though, and for those, she locks them into their rooms with thirteen nails.
Now, Sarah and her family are haunted by a spirit worse than any she’s ever encountered, a truly malicious fiend. This happens right at the time when psychiatrist Eric Price comes to investigate Sarah’s sanity.
The movie isn’t really scary. There are some jump scares at the start that any horror buff will be able to recognize from miles away, but even the monsters don’t look that scary – more like ridiculous.
Despite that, and despite how corny the story sometimes it, it’s a genuinely atmospheric movie. The mysterious house, the constant noises of things being built in the background, the performance of lead actress Heelen Mirren, it all adds to bring an atmospheric, albeit not very spooky or original.
The supposed ‘true’ events behind the story are far from true either. Yes, the Winchester House is real, and yes, it’s a gargantuan house with over a hundred rooms and some staircases do end up going nowhere. But there’s a reason for that. The 1906 earthquake, which is also mentioned in the movie, destroyed part of the house and Sarah Winchester decided not to rebuild the top three floors, essentially cutting off some staircases halfway.
While not particularly scary, the fil mis still intriguing and atmospheric enough that horror buffs should watch it at least once. And if you’ve ever been interested in the Winchester Mystery House, it’s a must-see as well since some scenes were actually filmed inside the house.
May 8, 2018
Real Haunted Houses: Winchester Mystery House
Considering I just watched a movie about the Winchester Mystery House, aptly named Winchester, I decided I had no choice but to write about this house this week. I’ve been avoiding the Winchester Mystery House for a while because it’s just so well-known, and I’d like to focus on less well-known ghost stories for my haunted mansions series. Either way, time to dive inot the history of the Winchester Mystery House.
The History
Located at 525 South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California, the Winchester Mystery House is gigantic by all standards, at one time, it was supposedly even bigger. Construction of the house began in 1884. The property owner was Sarah Winchester, the wealthy widow of William Wirt Winchester, the owner of Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Upon yhis death, Sarah inherited more than $20 million and a share in his company, which also gave her a large daily income.
Sarah poured most of her income into constructing the house. This was, based on tabloids of the time, because a medium supposedly told her, after the death of her daughter and husband, that she should travel to the West and build a home there but not just for herself. No, she also had to build a home for all the spirits of people shot by Winchester rifles.
True or gossip, Sarah did purchase an unfinished farmhouse in 1884 and began her thirty-plus-years building saga, without any reason or logic. The building didn’t really have a plan, she rather added to the house in a more haphazard fashion. The house was at one point seven stories high, but after an earthquake in 1906, Sarah kept it at four stories, never rebuilding the upper tree – which could explain some of the house’s oddities, such as that some stairs went nowhere.
Rumors had it that Sarah Winchester slept in another room every night to trick the spirits from chasing after her. However, with 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms, and a total of about 161 rooms, chances were she might just want a change of scenery.
Sarah Winchester passed away in 1922.
Visits and Tours
After Sarah Winchester’s death, the house was sold to John and Mayme Brown, who promptly opened it up for tours. This was when the claims of hauntings really started, which casts some suspicion on whether the hauntings already happened while Sarah Winchester was still alive, or if they were used as a ploy to get more guests for the tours. Either way, whether Sarah Winchester was an eccentric woman who loved architecture and had more than enough money to spend building the home of her dreams, or whether she was actually haunted, the house is still worth visiting. If not for its many secret rooms, also for its architecture.
Even as late as in 2016, another room was found in the house – an attic space with an organ, couch, sewing machine and paintings. So the house is, as it names suggests, still a “Mystery House”.
Now, the Winchester Mystery House has a new tour, the first new tour in over twenty years, called the “Explore More Tour”. More information about tours and the house can be found on the official website.
The Hauntings
The new movie, “Winchester”, which released this year about the Winchester Mystery House claims a great deal. It claims the house is haunted by the spirits of everyone who was killed with a Winchester rifle, because Sarah’s late husband owned the Winchester company. While someone who was shot to death would, rather than haunt the person who shot them, haunt the person who made the gun that eventually killed them, is more than a little odd – it’s a good story, and it makes for a fun movie plot, but it’s probably not true.
Visitors to the mansion often claim to feel Sarah’s energy. A good, positive energy. There’s also mention of the ‘wheelbarrow ghost”, a ghost pushing a wheelbarrow. Perhaps one of the servants, who was looking out ofr the place, even in the afterlife. Visitors also often feel energy on the third-floor hallways, which is where the servants lived.
While these ghosts may be present, the thought that every spirit of everyone ever killed with this type of rifle would be haunting the place, is too over the top to be true.
If you want to find out if the house is haunted or not, check it out for yourself. It’s definitely worth visiting either way.
May 5, 2018
Win a charm bracelet to celebrate the cover reveal of The Sign Of The Serpent!
On May 15, we’re celebrating the cover reveal for the second book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes series, The Sign of The Serpent.
If you’re a blogger and want to participate in the reveal, please sign up here.
To celebrate the cover reveal, you can now win this amazing Nancy Drew detective bracelet! There are also some other cool items in the giveaway, such as some gorgeous earrings, a speaker, decal sticker and an eBook copy of “Moonlight and Midtown” by Christina Bauer!
Monthly Goals May 2018
Time for some new monthly goals! I didn’t do very well on my goals during the last few months, but I’m determined to make more progress this month.
Anyway, here’s a rundown of my goals for May.
Write two blog posts on my blog per week. Total: 0/8.
Rewrite / Revise Allegro Academy #1, the first book in the Allegro Academy series. Progress: 0/14 chapters.
Schedule all posts for this month on the Monster House Books Blog.
Finish writing my reviews for Ind’Tale Magazine (Total: 0/3).
Write first draft of The Sign of the Serpent , the second book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes Series.
Keep on marketing Ghost Slayer this month.
Prepare for the cover reveal for A Study in Shfiters , the first book in The Adventures of Marisol Holmes Series.
Do at least 6 newsletter exchanges.
Schedule my bi-weekly newsletters and send them out. Total: 0/2.
Write ten reviews for on my book review blog. Total: 0/10.
What are your goals for this month?
April 24, 2018
Real Haunted Houses: Los Feliz Murder Mansion
At 2475 Glendower Place, Los Angeles, California, resides the so-called “Los Feliz Murder Mansion”. With a name as gloomy as that one, you would think people would steer away from the property, and that is exactly what happened for five decades after the murders that made this home infamous.
The Murder-Suicide
On the night of December 6, 1959, Dr. Harold Perelson bludgeoned his wife to death with a hammer, severely beat his 18-year-old daugher, leaving her on the brink of death, and then ended his own life with a concoction of water, acid and tranquilizer pills.
Why Perelson decided to do this, is still up to debate. Perelson was an assistant head of cardiology for the school of medicine at USC, and was on several surgical teams for cardiology.
Some investigators claimed a car accident and following law suit was what pushed Perelson over the edge. Other claims pointed to Perelson perhaps struggling with money issues.
Whatever it was, he killed his wife, tried to kill his daughter (who thankfully survived) and eventually killed himself, all on one fateful night.
After The Murder-Suicide
A year after the horrific murder-suicide, a couple named Emily and Julian Enriquez purchased the mansion but only ever used it as storage, rather curiously. They never stayed overnight.
In 1994, the couple’s son, Rudy Enriquez, inherited the mansion but never stayed the night there either. The mansion soon began to resemble a capsule into time: with no one ever having changed the Perelson’s old decor.
Curious neighbours and visitors peering through the windows can still see a 1950s-style television set, and a Christmas tree, covered in thick layers of dust but eerily still exactly the same as that fateful night over 50 years ago.
Rudy Enriquez died in 2015. In 2016, the house was subsequently sold and the creepy remnants of the past finally removed.
Ghosts
While there isn’t exactly blood dripping down the walls of the “murder mansion”, people who visit there (or tresspass there…) often feel deep unease, dread, the feeling that they need to leave, or the feeling they’re being followed.
With no official investigations having been run, it’s hard to say if the house is haunted or not – it certainly is creepy.
Ghost Slayer Release Day!
Ghost Slayer is now available for $0.99!
Amazon: https://goo.gl/xxkTLs
Kobo: https://goo.gl/88yUwK
Nook: https://goo.gl/xUMZzn
Add to Goodreads: https://goo.gl/ETFPj5
Twenty-one-year-old Kaelyn has spent half her life hunting ghosts and killing them. But she’s not like the other ghost hunters who have to rely on spells and curses to banish ghosts back to where they came from, hoping that they don’t come back. When Kaelyn kills a ghost, they stay dead.
But in Mortimer Hall, a behemoth of a house, Kaelyn is about to face the most powerful and life-threatening ghost she ever met, and what she doesn’t know is that the ghost has been waiting just for her…
And to celebrate the release, I’m giving away a paperback copy of Ghost Slayer (International). Fill in the form below to participate.
April 20, 2018
Book Spotlight Blast: Daughter of the Sun
About the Book
Title: Daughter of the Sun (Cult of the Cat series, Book 1)
Author: Zoe Kalo
Genre: YA contemporary Egyptian mythological fantasy/paranormal
Word count: 93,000 words / 330 pages
DOWNLOAD FREE at www.ZoeKalo.com
Mystery, adventure, a hint of romance, and the delicious sweep of magic…
16-year-old Trinity leads a quiet life until fate takes her to the Island of Cats.
As Trinity tries to solve the mystery of an ancient papyrus, she’s pulled into a vortex of bloody sacrifices, evil curses, and a prophecy that points to a horrifying destiny.
The author is giving away the first book in the series for FREE to readers who sign up for her mailing list on her website at www.ZoeKalo.com
Praise
“This was an amazing story!” –Hot Off the Shelves
“Wow- this book was a stunning, magnificent adventure!” –The Recipe Fairy
“If you are looking for a Young Adult Fantasy book that is different from the norm, then look no further. Daughter of the Sun is full of Egyptian mythology, with layer upon layer of mystery just waiting to be uncovered.” –Archaeolibrarian
About Zoe
Storyteller at heart…
A certified bookworm and ailurophile, Zoe Kalo has always been obsessed with books and reading. The pleasure of writing and sharing her fantasy worlds has remained. Today, Zoe passes her stories to you with lots of mystery, adventure, a hint of romance, and the delicious sweep of magic.
Currently, she balances writing with spending time with her family, taking care of her clowder of cats, and searching for the perfect bottle of pinot noir.
Connect with Zoe Kalo on the web: www.ZoeKalo.com / Facebook / Twitter
