Genre Character of the Week: Magda Cuza

Last week, following my continued work through the book Horror the 100 best books, I checked out The Keep by F. Paul Wilson.  The novel is a horror novel involving a monster set in Romania during WWII, and the main character, also our genre character of the week, is a young woman named Magda Cuza.

For starters, a quick review of the book - it is a lot of fun, the atmosphere is very creepy and if like me, you are a fan of Hellboy, this book will totally be up your alley.

The premise follows a group of Nazi soldiers during World War II who are ordered to take up position in an abandoned keep in Romania.  Soon after their arrival men start dying and it quickly becomes obvious that something is killing the men.

Eventually a Jewish doctor and his daughter, Magda are sent for, as he is an expert in both Romanian folklore and this keep in particular.  Once the doctor and his daughter figure out what is going on the novel moves into high gear.

What I like about Magda is that she is both incredibly smart and also devoted to her dad (as a dad myself, this is a nice trait, although she does carry it too far).

The novel is a lot of fun and if it is not available through your local library, it is definitely worth a purchase.

Things I've Noticed: Horror fans are everywhere

So I’m sitting in my class last night (LIS 598 Managing Financial Resources) and Meghan, one of my fellow students leans over and asks me what I’m reading (and no, class hasn’t started yet, so I’m perfectly within my rights to read whatever I like), so I pass her the book The Keep, by F. Paul Wilson (1981 – review will be up next week), and when she sees the premise, wherein some-thing is killing Nazis in a strange Romanian Keep (small castle) in 1941, she asks me if I’ve seen the 2009 Norwegian film Dead Snow (Zombie Nazis attack vacationers) and although I haven’t seen it yet (just added it to my library hold list), I felt pretty great since my love of horror seems to be something I share with a smaller and smaller group of friends (and you, dear readers).

Years back I created an account on LIbrarything (I’m pretty easy to find – just click the book to the left or go to librarything.com and look up bookmonkey) and in one thread I started about classic horror novels I think everyone should read I had a response that suggested I should calm down on my love of horror as it’s pretty much a phase everyone goes through in their teen years…

I was 33 when I received this comment.

Anyway, I’m mostly just happy to see that my love of all things strange and monstrous isn’t just me and a bunch of Saw-crazed teens (and yes, chances are really great that this October will be the year I take in that franchise).

So thanks fellow student, you brightened my day!