Malevolent, malignant, malicious. A purposeful play on words? Maledicus by Charles F. French is about the horrendous and spiteful acts an evil spirit commits upon an aunt-niece duo. This paranormal story employs thematic elements of mystery, suspense, horror, gore, and to one’s surprise – including mine – love.

And no, I’m not talking about love as in the romance novels which have a beautiful woman and shirtless, muscular man on the front cover of the book. I’m talking about platonic, sacrificial love – a love so powerful that it can defeat even the most evil beings to exist.

The novel follows the story of three elderly men, Roosevelt, Sam, and Jeremy, who are members of their own group called the Investigative Paranormal Society (IPS). Together, the team responds to calls regarding “unusual activity” – whether it be squirrels in the attic; a grumpy, senile spirit; or a joke played on them by a fraternity. The IPS’s work is small and simple – until they get a call from Helen Murray. Helen and her niece, Helena, are bothered by a spirit which young Helena often sees. Eventually, Helena falls severely ill due to Maledicus’s heinous doings. As the story progresses, the reader follows the work of the IPS in identifying and battling this unknown spirit.

Beneath the gruesome and gory scenes, the dense and substantial suspense, and the strange and peculiar mystery, Maledicus is filled with the underlying theme of love. While reading the book, one may overlook this simple, yet powerful force. It is a force so strong, so real, so raw, that it can defeat and overpower even the darkest darkness. Love is what drives the characters, the plot, and the hence the story.

One scene in Maledicus particular made me remember a similar scene in Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. In Hosseini’s novel, a woman named Mariam kills Rasheed with a shovel. Rasheed had beaten Laila, his wife, to near-death, thus Mariam saves Laila by killing Rasheed. Keep in mind that both Afghani women are living in territory under Taliban rule at the time. If Mariam’s act were discovered, she would certainly be killed for killing a man, regardless of how abhorrent the man was. In this scene, Mariam demonstrated the most powerful love in the universe – an act of sacrificial love. Mariam had risked her freedom, and essentially her life, for the protection and love of her friend, Laila. The three old men in Maledicus demonstrate the same act of sacrificial love when they make the commitment to fight Maledicus to save the ill and fragile Helena. Sure, the men were old, but despite that fact, they still made the promise to fight and protect a little girl they had never met before. The three men were willing to sacrifice their lives because of the overflowing love and compassion they had.

I am not a super-duper religious person, but growing up Roman Catholic, the same scene in Maledicus reminded me of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made. Jesus had sacrificed himself for the forgiveness of sins of the people of the world. His actions were not for attention, nor for admiration, rather, he gave up himself in a simple, humble act of sacrificial love. You don’t have to believe in religion to at least agree that the symbolism behind Jesus Christ’s act is that of sacrificial love. He gave up his life for others. The actions of the men in Maledicus are somewhat comparable to the act that Jesus Christ had made. Both demonstrated the act of sacrificial love – the most powerful form of love.

Maledicus is a superb and stellar novel. The novel touches on a spectrum of elements including action! I got through the book rather fast, as every end of each chapter made me inclined to read more. And yes, although my English professor wrote this book, I write this blog post with no bias whatsoever. I truly enjoyed the book and recommend it as a nice, leisure read. Oh and ooh, I do plan to purchase and read the sequel to this book, Gallows Hill. I am currently running low on funds, but I shall make a blog post upon reading it! Until then!

P.S. Stay safe and stay healthy during this pandemic! We are all in this together!

So not too long ago, my English 011 class was required to read a classic gothic novel. After hours of barreling through Mary Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein, I must be “frank” on my opinion on the book. See what I did there? Haha!

To cut right into the meat and potatoes, I loved the book. I absolutely enjoyed the story, the symbolism, and the many societal issues that are touched upon in the book. The average viewer would see “the creature” as a malicious evil that treaded upon the Earth. However, I see “the creature” as a product of neglect, discrimination, and pure hate which ultimately contributed to its characteristics.

“The creature”, since the beginning of its formation, had been denied and neglected by his father, his creator – his god. Since the beginning, the creature had been cast into a toxic, hateful environment. There was no room to grow, to learn, and thus to love. Why? Because of the way he looked. Not from its innocence or actions, but because of its demeanor and facial features. The scene in which the creature is made is symbolic to the idea that society often rejects those who look different, who come from different backgrounds, or who have different stories. Society rejects “the different”. I believe that this problem is still prevalent in our society today. We spend much of our time trying to look the best we can be. We try to get the most “likes” on Instagram. We force ourselves to conform as we are afraid to be different and hence to be judged. This novel perfectly exemplifies this very common and prominent issue that exists until now.

After being abandoned by his creator, the creature ventures into the cold, ruthless world. While traversing through the countryside and villages, he was only encountered with disgust, disapproval, and hate. Again, the only reason the people feared the creature was because of his look. Simply, he was discriminated by strangers for how different he looked, not the way he acted. In one instance, he staked out at an abandoned hovel and tracked a group of villagers nearby. The villagers comprised of an old, blind man, and a man and a woman that took care of their cottage. Noticing the arduous work the man and woman were putting in, the creature decided to help them out by secretly completing some of their chores (like fetching wood, or cleaning the garden). After some time, the creature decided to reveal itself to the tenants of the cottage. However, upon meeting them – although the blind man could not see – the man and woman flipped out in terror upon seeing the creature. Little did they know that the creature had helped them in their chores. In another instance, after saving a child from drowning in a river, a man – in fear – shoots the creature for no absolutely reason. These events are a perfect demonstration of discrimination and that regardless of the creature’s good actions, it was only met with hate, fear, and terror.

All in all, the novel outlined the impact of hate and its prevalence in society. Although describing the sublime and beauty of nature, it was often contrasted with the evil and ugly nature of humans and our ability to judge and easily cast hate upon each other. Yes, the creature killed some people, but that was only a symptom to the environment it had lived in. I believe that his owner, the townspeople, and the villagers are the real evil in this story. These characters killed the very soul and nature of what could’ve been a good, beautiful being. Even the creature gave life many chances. When given the opportunity to be evil, the creature often rejected it. The creature was brought into the world in pure innocence, and man had corrupted such being. It’s as if humans were the ones who murdered an innocent being, like murdering an innocent baby.

Frankenstein is a beautiful novel. And finally, after many years of not being exposed to such a fantastic read, I am happy and ecstatic to say that I have finally read it. On top of that, I am joyous to have read and learned from it. There’s much more to the Hollywood remake of a book, and there’s much more purpose to a book than it just being any other English assignment. The novel touched upon societal issues, while being written as a story that keeps the reader hooked and guessing. So, if I have to be “frank”. Frankenstein was “franktastic”!

Hey! My name is Sergio Butron and I am currently a first-year student at Lehigh University located in Bethlehem, PA. I aim to major in chemical engineering and possibly? Maybe? Minor in environmental sciences.

Just a little more about me. My birthday is on April 22nd, 2001 (which is Earth Day! Woo! Go green, go Earth!). I was born in Queens, NY and moved to the Poconos (located in Pennsylvania and about an hour and a half west of NYC) when I was young. Like really, really young.

Just some of interests. I love gardening (and my birthday is on Earth Day too??? What a coincidence, am I right?), playing the piano, gaming, traveling, reading, eating, sleeping, and predicting the weather (I currently cover 8 school districts in northeast PA!). I also love meeting new people, making new friends, volunteering, and helping others!

Through blogging, I hope it will help me improve my writing skills as well as help me be able to organize and spill my thoughts. I hope you enjoy reading what I think, the things I encounter, and the stuff I may analyze. See you soon!