Lit. of Horror, Fantasy, Science -> Colson Engelberger

Neil Gaiman, as a writer, very much enjoys taking classic tales and folklore, and translating them into the modern era. The general public has seen it before in his work,with such novels as “American Gods” and “Good Omens”, catching on and finding a very large audience. However, it is his novel, “Anansi Boys” that is debatably his most successful at reinventing the myth for the modern era. Gaiman realizes that in order for his story filled with iconic figures in folklore to make tangible sense, he would need to adapt and mold the archetypes of folklore to fit within the modern world. This becomes a fine line however, in that he could not warp the story beats past recognition, otherwise the audience would have no idea what he was going for. Due to this, everything that makes a classic story is there. Despite all the fantastical situations our hero, Charles, encounters in this strange new world of gods and fables, the story at its core is still a classic “chosen one” narrative structu

Often times in high fantasy and in fairytales, complex moral situations are presented to the protagonist to figure out on their own terms. Usually, these moral conundrums come to the young protagonists as a result of outside or familial drama that proves to be out of their control. They are not the root causes of these problems, however they must deal with and resolve the issue nonetheless. The demons of parental or authority figures are left to the new generation to deal with. This scenario can be seen in classic pieces of work such as Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” , however, can also be observed in contemporary pieces of literature, such as “Harry Potter” and, more recently, Erin Morgenstern’s 2011 novel, “The Night Circus” .  “The Night Circus” follows two young Magicians, named Marco and Celia, who are unknowingly thrust into a dangerous game of life and death by their mentors. Celia is involved by her own biological father, Hector Bowen, a very practiced magician who mak