Monster Island

After finishing Monster Island, I was really surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it. The story was very gripping, and I found that I just didn't want to stop reading at the end of each chapter. I felt the fear of the characters, the fighting/running sequences were all very exciting. I was especially pleased with Gary the worlds smartest zombie. I'd often wondered why zombies did what they did, how was it that they were able to function, how and why was it they ONLY attacked the living, and never themselves or anything else. If I ever bothered to watch something to do with zombies (because again, I'm not a horror fan) no one ever gave an explanation to these questions. I felt that the character of Gary did a superb job of giving us a reasonable insite into the mind of a zombie. My only complaint was that it really didn't give us a chance to grow fond of many of the characters (with the exception of Dekalb and Gary) so that when there was a death, I only shrugged and thought "hm....shame" as opposed to a real heartfelt dissapointment at the loss (with the exception of the ending).

Frankenstein

I'd grown up always knowing who Frankenstein and his monster were. I knew that the story was about a scientist who had created a big dumb monster made out of sewn together body parts. When I first began to read the story, I was expecting the version that I had always known. I was extremely surprised at how different the book really was. I kind of have mixed feelings about it, mostly leaning towards negative, though that may be just because I'm not a huge fan of horror in general. I found myself getting annoyed with Dr. Frankenstein more often than not. I felt that his personality, moods, and thoughts sometimes swung a bit too quickly, especially in the instance where he was creating his monster. At first, he had been so full of pride and excitement, and as soon as the monster was alive, he immediately fell into the character of "woe is me". A gradual change of his feelings might have made that a little less annoying.
I was pleasantly surprised at the Frankenstein monster. The fact that he was intelligent and sympathetic yet dangerous helped to create a very memorable character. Which, I figure, is obviously why the story is so famous.

Horror

Horror films

Corpses being used and/or coming to life
Secret passages
Mysterious noises/visions that make the main characters go off in search of its cause
moving paintings
Storms
murder/death
Darkness
fog
objects appearing or moving mysteriously from one place to another
animals give off weird reactions
mobs
insanity
curses
a walk through the graveyard
hooded robes and masks
castles
cobwebs