The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone by Will Storr

For long, I believed that the brave fought the war till the end, even if they knew that it was a losing one and one not really worth winning. Then I realised, it needed greater courage to realise that you are fighting a losing war or a war not worth it and walk out of it. Killian had been victim all his life, abused at home and bullied outside. When his dream of working with his idol celebrated chef Max Mann comes true, it is not long before he realises that he is working in a nightmare kitchen. Max doesn't shout, no doesn't shout at all. He just makes the lives of his kitchen staff miserable. Why didn't somebody tell Killian it is okay not to be a victim and walk out of the whole thing? Killian is the underdog, 'turnspit dog' as he calls himself, we all root for. We want him to walk out of it, we also want him to teach Max Mann a lesson. 

While reading the book I was thinking, this can't be, Max Mann is a celebrated chef why would he do such a thing. These guys are adults, this is not the way adults behave. Then this is not really that impossible, we do hear horror stories of bullying all the time especially when one has unlimited power over his/her domain. Kitchen is Max's domain, he does what he wants with his staff. Nobody can fight against it, if they do, they are finished.

The successful could be mean or bad-mannered, but we give them the respect they deserve as long as they made it through hard work. We don't really like people who take shortcuts to success, all those who make it big with no hardwork or long hours. When Killian tries a shortcut to success, we don't grudge him, we want him to prove to the Max Mann's of the world that it is not okay to torture others. They are your apprentices, not somebody you can 'feed shit', (that's exactly what Max does). But from the beginning we realise that Killian is messed up and there will be no happy ending. We are like Mr.Mayle, Killian's teacher and Mentor, who wants the talented often victimized Killian to prove to the world that he can do it. But at moments like when he insults Mr. Mayle in the Kitchen when he presents the Saucier Award to him, we realise that Killian will not turn out to be the hero we would look up to. The herbs the Killian uses are just a way to change the balance of scales to show us what Killian is capable of.

This is a horror story with magical herbs in a hidden garden, with a touch of supernatural with a fly hovering over most of the book and the kind of things we see in the climax of a horror movie. But this is also the story of horror of how ambition makes a talented and nice man into a monster, how somebody who fights for the oppressed becomes the oppressor. A gripping story of horror kitchens!

Disclaimer: I received a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Whatever I was expecting this wasn't it! I have never seen a Dracula movie from start to finish, maybe caught some bits while it was played on TV the million times. I wasn't in awe of the Dracula, or even afraid of him. I had no feeling for him until I read the book.

It is so atmospheric. I couldn't help seeing the Dracula Castle in Transylvania, Romania, couldn't help seeing him climb away from a window.

"What I saw was the Count's head coming out from the window. ...
But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. "

I couldn't help having nightmares.

"How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams."

I am just happy that I didn't dream where I could see with my eyes closed and found those two women.

"I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. "

"I lay still and endured, that was all. I closed my eyes, but could still see through my eyelids. (It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.) "

"I must be careful of such dreams, for they would unseat one's reason if there were too much of them. "

"Doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted"

I couldn't help seeing myself in a hallway with lots of closed doors. Okay that is my house.

Jonathan Harker's story totally gripped me. I suppose I should have expected many things that happened. But I couldn't guess. Everything was a surprise to me from what finally happened to Lucy and use of garlic and stake. I really thought garlic, stake and Undead are something from the spoofs.

"There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part. "

What is about garlic putting off the Undead? What is this Undead?

"Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain. "


I visited the Tynemouth ruins in 2007 and this was the place I was seeing all the things happening.

"Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of "Marmion," where the girl was built up in the wall. It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits. There is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows."

Night time is a wrong time to read these books.

"All men are mad in some way or the other, and inasmuch as you deal discreetly with your madmen, so deal with God's madmen too, the rest of the world. "

"I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait waistcoats."

I do think that the story is a bit long and almost rushed through the final pages and reread the last few pages again later. Now I understand why Dracula published in 1897 is a Classic. I read an ebook downloaded from Gutenberg.