Dana McNamara

I felt like this novel dealt a lot with the concept of self, identity, and the changing of such. There's a great deal of fantastical, supernatural, and metaphorical imagery in this novel, and although like A Wild Sheep Chase, this novel liked to ride a bit on the ambiguous and weird, unlike AWSC, Bourne also focused a lot on the emotional relationships and changes between the characters. Change seems very prevalent in this novel, which takes place in an ecologically barren futuristic city that is terrorized by a giant flying bear named Mord. When the protagonist Rachel first discovers Bourne in Mords fur, she takes on a role liken to motherhood, wanting to care for Bourne and keep him safe, and Bourne seems to have the mentality close to that of a child, not seeing death as a bad thing, and at first existing in a very black and white mentality as he begins to learn. Its through Bournes learning and changing, which eventually becomes literal as he learns to shapeshift into Rachel an...

Something I found so interesting about the whole of this novel, was the sense of vague ambiguity. So much of the novel is left very open-ended and without resolve, the protagonist is nameless, and the characters that are given names are given names that seem intentionally broad- "The Rat", "The Boss", and even the woman he meets and sleeps with multiple times is left nameless, more identified by her habits. This kind of open ended ambiguity seems to be more prevalent in Eastern horror genres, and definitely holds a different weight. Very little is known about the protagonist as a person, and the reader isn't given a lot of insight as to the complex emotions of them, whereas in western horror or mystery, often a great deal of the story is focused around how the protagonist feels and how they react to their situation and what choices they make as a result. A Wild Sheep Chase seems more focused on the situation itself. Something I found interesting as well, was the...

One of the major themes I found that kept reoccurring in this book was the concept of power and manipulation. A majority of the book focuses heavily on the relationship between Louis and Lestat, one that is clearly not healthy. Lestat finds Louis when he is at a very low point emotionally, after the death of his younger brother, whom he feels responsible for. Lestat takes advantage of Louis' vulnerable emotional state, and turns him into a vampire, using Louis' compromised mental state to give the illusion of choice, and thus trapping Louis with his new dependance on Lestat. Louis is forced to stay with and listen to Lestat, his only insight on the world of being a vampire. Louis soon finds himself hating Lestat, realizing what he has resigned himself to by becoming a vampire, and detesting how much pleasure Lestat takes in killing. Lestat clearly tries to alienate Louis, attempting to murder a young woman he grows fond of, trying to keep him as isolated as possible. Its only w...

Even though I read Frankenstein a good long time ago when I was in grade school, it was very refreshing to revisit it and analyze it from a different perspective. Being likely the first piece of media that falls into the science fiction genre, it was so fascinating to see just how many common horror tropes and messages it seemed to coin. There's such a tragic and almost romanticized feeling to the whole of the novel as the reader learns more about the creature and sees him interact with the world. I really loved the complexity of the novel thats so often lost in modern adaptations, with Frankenstein himself searching for knowledge and scientific achievement, but it ultimately so unprepared for the results of his intellectual arrogance, and completely abandons the creature that he has given life, selfishly leaving it to fend for itself in an unforgiving world. The creature himself grows and learns about the people and world around him, soon learning that people could be cruel and se...