Maledicus by Charles French, is a story that follows the journey of Roosevelt, Jeremy and Sam, three life-long friends apart of the IPS, or the investigative paranormal society. The modern story of the IPS is a counterpart to the story of Maledicus, advisor to the emperor, Caligula, and a sadistic murderer who is executed in his time. Through a seemingly lost stream of character backstories, the two plots emerge, connecting the spirit of a dead and malicious Maledicus to the jobs of the IPS. Maledicus becomes a vengeful spirit, chased by the IPS. The beauty of the ending scenes, where Father Bruno tries to exorcise Maledicus, releasing a storm on the room, and the scene where Patrick and his brother sing a marine corps anthem to gain strength to defeat Maledicus, are powerful and moving. The attention to detail of the literature used to describe the scenes are very well done, and the ending, where the IPS overcome Maledicus, is an action-packed ending to a great book.

For my last essay, I wrote an essay on the elements of gothic literature present in the movie Shutter Island, by Martin Scorsese. I knew that the movie was confusing when I had first watched it, but didn’t realize the genius of Scorsese until I wrote this essay and analyzed the quotes/directorial decisions of Scorsese. Before I continue, to anyone that has yet to see Shutter Island, I would highly recommend the jam-packed, thriller to anyone that loves a good mystery. I want to talk about my third watch of the movie, the first time I looked for hints and themes throughout the movie. To someone that has already watched the movie, I encourage a second watch through but with a few things to watch out for (Spoiler alert, if you haven’t watched the movie, go watch it, and come back to read the rest of this report later): look at the behavior of guards around Teddy and Chuck. Also, look out for the role of fire and water in the play. Through my first watch through, I was never quite sure whether or not Teddy Daniels was actually an inmate on the island, but after rewatching the movie, Scorsese hints at the truth behind Teddy Daniels throughout the entire movie, for everyone to see.

Hi! My name is Luca Milletti and I am a freshman at Lehigh University, exploring the depths of literature via blog posts in my English class. I am originally from San Francisco, California. Although I am an engineer, I have always had a hidden love for reading and writing because my high school pushed writing and reading skills on its students so much; on the other hand, I have been out of touch with literature for so long and I am looking to rekindle that love for genres I used to enjoy reading so much. Out of all of the literature I have read, I enjoy reading horror, fiction and realistic fiction the most, and my favorite series of books have been the Harry Potter series and, when I was younger, the Percy Jackson series. I am looking forward to posting more on this site and I am hoping to push my boundaries of interaction with the texts I read via this blog post.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton