Race blindness in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is disturbing and dangerous
Series 3 of the once-groundbreaking show marginalises the diversity it claims to champion.
The Departed: dirty rats and the ‘double’ theory
This deep-dive essay explains how the Oscar-winning film (and its ending) work.
The Body Snatchers is a study in paranoia
Published in 1955, Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers captures a community – and country – gripped by fear and mistrust.
4 lessons for writers in The World According to Garp
John Irving’s novel, The World According to Garp, is about a writer. As such, it contains and reflects the reality of writing for a living.
The Stepford Wives nailed ‘feminist dystopia’ a decade before The Handmaid’s Tale
In The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin imagines a creepy, claustrophobic world in which women are man-made, and feminism doesn't exist.
Feel like you don’t belong? Here are 6 books you can relate to
Literature loves a misfit. Here are 6 books which explore themes of isolation, alienation, fitting in - and doing your own thing.
Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata
Convenience Store Woman sticks two fingers up to fitting in. This is a book for misfits (and anyone with a taste for modern Japanese fiction).
Jaws: 10 reasons why the book is very different from the film
They may start and end similarly, but the bulk of Peter Benchley's 1974 novel Jaws is almost unrecognisable from Spielberg's 1975 film adaptation.
The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
How far would you go to better yourself? For ambitious Tom Ripley, murder may be the answer.
Psycho, by Robert Bloch
With Hitchcock's film adaptation of Psycho having become the stuff of legend, how does Robert Bloch's source novel compare?