Spooktober Discussions: Jekyll and Hyde

Hey guuys, happy Saturday! 

I know you're all probably really confused right now because I NEVER post on Saturdays. Ever. But I had to this week because SO many blog posts to squeeze in to Spooktober and so little time. So here we are! 

Today I wanted to talk with you guys about Jekyll and Hyde! I just read it for the first time, if you haven't read it....it's 74 pages. It took me under an hour to read it. You can read it pretty fast, so if you want to read a classic for Halloween but you're not up for a load of pages of...well...classic, then The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is definitely the one for you! 

Because this book is so freaking short, this discussion post isn't going to be the complete monster that Frankenstein was! I actually found myself quite pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to read the book, at times Frankenstein was a bit of a mission, but Jekyll and Hyde was a breeze and it was fast paced. Although I was really surprised in the beginning because I was like...wait....where's Jekyll? I was expecting it to be narrated by him, to add a creep factor when he transforms and either doesn't remember or does or whatever I thought was going to happen! But no, we have Jekyll's lawyer and friend telling us all about what happened and Jekyll at the end for one chapter. One. 

I loved the London of the book, it had a foggy atmosphere that fit with the story, and the story is definitely a psychological one and I don't know about you guys, but it made me think a little bit. I knew the basics of the story about him wanting to split off the "bad" half of him (it's explained way better in the book okay, I'm just paraphrasing and mind blanking at the same time) and that's pretty much all I knew. I've seen the stage show (that was totally a thing, in case anyone else remembers or saw it, I totally have the soundtrack and I have no idea why) and obviously Hyde has come out to play in Once Upon a Time and they gave it a nice little twist. 

I have to be honest. When I watched OUAT and I saw Jekyll and Hyde I was like the dude that looks like Lurch is totally Hyde because he looked like what I pictured Hyde to look like. I've always pictured like a pale, Victorian version of the hulk but like..without the green. Now I've read the book I see how wrong I am. He looks nothing like Hyde and OUAT's twist is kind of less surprising now. I've not actually watched any of the movie versions but I think I might have to, just out of curiosity because I've heard tell that the movies took that "hairy hand" bit and ran with it and went full werewolf. So that should be interesting. 

I loved the writing, like I said it was easy to understand it was straight to the point with it's message and no slogging was necessary. There where some brilliant sentences in the book, and I'll put some of them down in the quotes section! The strange thing was, I can imagine reading this at the time when it just came out, and not knowing what was going on with Jekyll and it being a huge surprise and I imagine that added more of a scare factor to the book, but reading it now, in this day and age, when everyone and their dog knows what the deal is with Jekyll and Hyde it kind of took the shock reveal away from it. So it wasn't as scary and gruesome as I thought it was going to be, but it had a nice dark atmosphere to it. Plus the whole "the monsters taking over" kinda thing. But as I was reading I was like "Wow, okay. So if you don't already know what happens Stevenson's done a good job of keeping you guessing" I kinda wanted to do the Men in Black mind wipe thing to get the full "OMG" factor. 

I really enjoyed this book...or should I call it a novella? Either way, I enjoyed reading it despite the fact that it's a book that's pretty much been spoiled for everyone, ever. It's fun to see how Stevenson wrote the story to hide what was going on, so you don't lose too much enjoyment of it. The last thing I have to say is that I loved the ending. I don't know what it is about the ending and the final sentence but I just loved how Stevenson finished it off! There's something about that final sentence and if it wasn't kinda late at night and I wasn't so tired, I'd probably be able to be semi-intelligent about it! 

So what did you guys think of Jekyll and Hyde? 

Favourite Quotes: 

"O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend" 

"In the gloom of his spirits, he seemed to read a menace in the flickering of the firelight on the polished cabinets and the uneasy starting of the shadow on the roof."

"Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end." 

"If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also."

“With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to the truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”