Book summary:
The House on Blackstone Moor is a tale of vampirism,
madness, obsession and devil worship as Rose Baines, only survivor of her
family’s carnage, tells her story. Fragile, damaged by the tragedy, fate sends
her to a desolate house on the haunted moors where demons dwell. The house and
the moors have hideous secrets, yet there is love too; deep, abiding, eternal,
but it comes with a price.
My thoughts...
At the beginning you’ll probably be surprised by this book.
It’s placed in past so the writing style will probably remaind you of some
classics. This is really unusual story about the vampires. Different, because
it’s not set in modern time and it’s not typical „girls fell in love with
vampire“ story.
You’ll meet Rose, or better said she will tell you her
story. Her story is dark and because of
that the whole book is somehow dark and gothic. The story begins when one day
she comes home and finds that her family has been killed and that the murderer was
her father who killed himself at the end. She hasn’t got where to go so they
place her in mental institution where she meets Dr Banninon. He finds her a job
at House on BlackStone Moor and then things start to change.
I believe that people who enjoy gothic and dark stories will
like this book more than me. After all I’m still lover of YA books.
About the author
Guest post
Here is also guest post by Carole Gill! Enjoy.
About the author
I wrote my first story at age 8. It was sci-fi but as both
my parents were sci-fi fanatics it wasn’t a surprise.
I continued to write however life got in the way as it often
does, and it wasn’t until 2000 that I turned back to writing. I joined a local
writer’s workshop and was greatly encouraged to keep up with my writing and to
send things out.
Shortly afterwards, I was selected by Northwest Playwrights
of England for further development but found I preferred fiction writing.
Widely published in horror and sci-fi anthologies, The House
on Blackstone Moor is my first novel. It is a tale of vampirism, madness,
obsession and devil worship.
Set in 19th Century Yorkshire, its locales include Victorian
madhouses as well as barren, wind-swept Yorkshire moors. The story is a
marriage of horror and gothic romance. I think it can best be described as
being gothic paranormal romantic horror.
I suppose you could say I want to put the Goth back into
Gothic.
Living in the area the novel is set in, was very beneficial.
Also, as a great admirer of the Brontes and frequent visitor to the Bronte
Parsonage in Haworth, I found myself nearly obsessed with recreating the gothic
romantic narrative.
Having been employed in a hospital which had been
historically a workhouse and asylum in Victorian times, I was able to add great
realism to the depiction of the asylums as described in my novel.
The sequel, Unholy Testament, is the confession of a demon
to the woman he loves. It is nearing the end of its first draft and will be
released shortly.
Guest post
Here is also guest post by Carole Gill! Enjoy.
10 Favorite Books and Why
by Carole Gill
Dracula
Dracula
has not been out of print since it was first published in 1897. That says a
lot. The structure of the novel is terribly interesting. The story is told from
journal reports, letters and various papers.
I love
that because the first person narrative (a favorite of mine for long fiction to
read and to write) creates intimacy. It makes it all quite real as well.
I look to
it for inspiration and always shall. This novel decided me on choosing my point
of view for my novel, The House on Blackstone Moor and frankly it further
decided me on how to write the sequel, Unholy Testament.
I think
every author, of whatever genre, should study the technique used here because
it is brilliant.
Interview with a Vampire
This to
me, is as ground breaking a novel as Dracula was. It is a brilliantly told tale
but it is written for the modern reader.
Here we
find that vampires are not all the same. They feel and remember their living
lives.
Rice
shows us that vampires are more complex than any other monstrous fictional
creations. That is why the genre will go on, adapting itself continually for
each generation of reader.
Jane Eyre
This
novel is the best representation of just how harsh English society was in the
middle part of the 19th Century. It was class based. Whatever class you were
born into, you remained in as did your children.
Jane
Eyre, one of society’s unfortunates is determined to survive and be loved at
all cost. This alone makes the character remarkable. She wants love in a
loveless society.
I love
the dark romance in the novel as well as the beautiful narrative.
I often
joke that The House on Blackstone Moor is Jane Eyre with vampires, in a way it
is! Read it and you’ll see what I mean!
Wuthering Heights
This is a
far darker and more controversial story than Jane Eyre. When it was released it
was perceived as such.
Just what
is Heathcliff and Cathy’s relationship, are they related or not?
Their
love is doomed as they are because of this irresolution.
This is a
dark, beautifully told story. And really, for me, the test of what makes a
novel great is whether we remember it. This is another one to remember.
Rebecca
This is
the first gothic romance novel I read. There is a dark mystery at the heart of
the story which I find very intriguing. Just why does the housekeeper hate the
second Mrs. DeWinter as much as she does?
The
questions abound as the mystery deepens. There are surprising twists that will
shock and delight. I loved it.
My Cousin Rachel
This is
told in the first person narrative. A young man tells this story of doomed
love, of dark desires and deeply felt romance. There is a ponderous question at
the center or it. Is Cousin Rachel good or bad? Was Philip’s beloved uncle
poisoned or not by her?
The truth
comes out and it will haunt Philip for the rest of his life as well as those
who read the tale!
The Portrait of Dorian Grey
This is a
gothic masterpiece. It is positively Faustian in that young, handsome Dorian
Gray in a careless moment, stares at his reflection and offers his soul in
order to remain as he is.
It is an
allegory for all of us, in whatever century we live in. It is the reason we
seek Botox treatments and face lifts. And the key question is, if we could
offer our souls to remain young as Dorian did, would we?
A Tale of Two Cities
If I had
to choose a novel that had everything in it a novel should have, it would be
this one.
There is
love, romance, bigotry, madness and hatred—told against the backdrop of the
French Revolution.
This is
Dickens’ masterpiece. For it depicts the greatest gift one human being can give
another: their own life sacrificed in the name of love.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Two
beings in one body—a just man and a monster: Jekyll and Hyde. This is one of
the most remarkable pieces of fiction ever written.
Hyde
looks like what he is, a monster. Jekyll ostensibly wished to see if he could
make himself evil.
Of course
we could ask ourselves was this a noble scientific experiment or did he wish to
know ‘how the evil half lived?’
He could
then give into whatever dark desires he might have! If that is in any way the
case, it puts a whole different light on this amazing story.
The Woman in Black
The most
superbly satisfying ghost story ever written in my opinion, this is the mother
of all haunted tales.
I love it
because it is well written and plausible. Hatred has survived death and that
hatred, in the person of the Woman in Black, seeks revenge. Revenge that is as
terrifying as it is brutally unfair.
The giveaway
For giveaway today we're offering a ebook copy of The House on Blackstone Moor! Rules are listened in Rafflecopter, but it's simple. It's open for everybody and easy to enter! :)
*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading
Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author.
Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no
payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation
to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may
not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or
readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade
Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and
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