,
Anna Biller

year in books

Anna Biller’s Followers (785)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
Henry A...
1,784 books | 3,307 friends

Jon Zel...
561 books | 304 friends

Arden
1,601 books | 179 friends

Harold
288 books | 66 friends

Linguana
4,707 books | 243 friends

Stuart
2,439 books | 133 friends

Paul Mirek
1,521 books | 86 friends

Lucy
83 books | 11 friends

More friends…

Anna Biller

Goodreads Author


Website

Twitter

Genre

Member Since
September 2020

URL


Director of The Love Witch and Viva, and a new ghost movie set in medieval England called The Face of Horror. Praise for debut novel Bluebeard's Castle:

Telegraph, Best Fiction Books of the Year
"A stylised retelling of the old fable that mixes self-reference and gaudy excess...the sex, death and pricy cognac are of a wildly enjoyable piece."

Times Literary Supplement
"Both a fantasy and a nightmare ... [Biller] casts a chilling light on the kinds of real-world fairy tales we are all still so often encouraged to believe."

Shelf Awareness
"Anna Biller's writing is full and luminous, mirroring the classic fiction of Mary Shelley and Charlotte Brontë—but with a modern bite that keeps readers going back for more."
...more

To ask Anna Biller questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Anna Biller No. The cover references vintage Gothic romance covers that have gained a certain reputation for being campy, but the designation of the book itself a…moreNo. The cover references vintage Gothic romance covers that have gained a certain reputation for being campy, but the designation of the book itself as camp by some readers is because of its mix of humor, melodrama, and feminine excess. (In my view, femininity is not camp, but an important part of many people's lives, and as such worthy of respect in a democratic society!) In any case, I believe that the things that happen to the heroine within the book are deadly serious, and that a retelling of "Bluebeard," possibly the grisliest and most lurid fairy tale in existence, is also a serious matter. However, it's not a didactic book, and I strived to make it pleasurable and entertaining in the spirit of folk and fairy tales, 18th century romances, and vintage crime thrillers.(less)
Anna Biller Spending all my time with my cats.
Average rating: 3.11 · 2,365 ratings · 654 reviews · 3 distinct worksSimilar authors
Bluebeard's Castle

3.10 avg rating — 2,334 ratings — published 2023 — 5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Love Witch: screenplay

4.45 avg rating — 22 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
Viva: screenplay

3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Post Factum Introduction to Bluebeard's Castle



I was inspired to write this post factum introduction to Bluebeard's Castle after reading the one penned by Vladimir Nabokov's for his novel Bend Sinister. On a first read that clever tragedy had seemed like an opaque and arcane puzzle, but on a second read I was seized by how the introduction clarified points that had been widely misunderstood by readers, and struck by how the novel s

Read more of this blog post »
10 likes ·   •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on August 18, 2024 13:38
Sliver
Anna Biller is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
The Captive: Marc...
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Film Music: A Neg...
Rate this book
Clear rating

 

Anna’s Recent Updates

Anna Biller is starting Sliver: Not really enjoying this so far. I've loved everything else I've read by Ira Levin, but despite its close parallels with Rosemary's Baby, Sliver has even stronger parallels to gross '90s thrillers. What used to seem edgy now just seems sexist. Maybe it gets better though...
Sliver by Ira Levin
Sliver
by Ira Levin
progress: 
 
Rate this book
Clear rating
Anna Biller is currently reading
Sliver by Ira Levin
Rate this book
Clear rating
Anna Biller rated a book it was amazing
A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin
Rate this book
Clear rating
Wow, how scary and well-told! Bravo once again. Mr. Levin.
Anna Biller rated a book it was amazing
Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith
Rate this book
Clear rating
This was a strange one. Haunting. A man, Ray, and his father-in-law, Ed, play a cat and mouse game through the streets of Venice, each dealing with the grief of losing a wife/daughter through suicide. Ed wants to kill Ray, and he makes several attemp ...more
Anna Biller rated a book really liked it
Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith
Rate this book
Clear rating
An odd, vicious little book of very short stories about various types of women. We get The Prude, the Perfectionist, The Mobile Bed-Object, etc. Each story portrays a different girl or woman in a very bad light. I found this collection refreshing, as ...more
Anna Biller did not finish
Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes
Rate this book
Clear rating
Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes
Dread Journey
by Dorothy B. Hughes
progress: 
 
Rate this book
Clear rating
Anna Biller rated a book really liked it
Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith
Rate this book
Clear rating
An odd, vicious little book of very short stories about various types of women. We get The Prude, the Perfectionist, The Mobile Bed-Object, etc. Each story portrays a different girl or woman in a very bad light. I found this collection refreshing, as ...more
Anna Biller rated a book it was amazing
Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith
Rate this book
Clear rating
This was a strange one. Haunting. A man, Ray, and his father-in-law, Ed, play a cat and mouse game through the streets of Venice, each dealing with the grief of losing a wife/daughter through suicide. Ed wants to kill Ray, and he makes several attemp ...more
Anna Biller rated a book it was amazing
The Thing Beyond Reason / Echo of a Careless Voice / Blotted Out by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
Rate this book
Clear rating
How this woman can plot! The first one, "The Thing Beyond Reason," is especially good, but I can imagine them all very clearly as great 1930s movie thrillers—the actors and actresses, the gowns, everything. But they're mainly astonishing as vehicles ...more
More of Anna's books…
Quotes by Anna Biller  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“She stared into the flames, resigning herself to her fate. She now knew that she had fallen victim to a sociopath, and yet she didn’t care. No man is perfect; all men have their flaws, and you have to accept the bad with the good. Some men expect you to mother them, or make you into their maid. Others ignore you, or lecture you, or misunderstand everything you say, or are fussy about trivial things. A bad man can kill you with a knife, but a good man can kill you by boring you to death!”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

“He hoisted her up in his strong arms, and she opened her eyes and looked up at him adoringly. She thought that the image must have carried a certain eerie romantic charm, like Dracula carrying off his victim.”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

“For the first time in her life she wanted to be merged with another, to be carried away by voluptuousness, to be inside of the sublime. She looked into his eyes, and his irises were blank projection screens into which she poured all of her longing.”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Crazy Challenge C...: Anything new? 18 71 Apr 09, 2024 03:56PM  
“She stared into the flames, resigning herself to her fate. She now knew that she had fallen victim to a sociopath, and yet she didn’t care. No man is perfect; all men have their flaws, and you have to accept the bad with the good. Some men expect you to mother them, or make you into their maid. Others ignore you, or lecture you, or misunderstand everything you say, or are fussy about trivial things. A bad man can kill you with a knife, but a good man can kill you by boring you to death!”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

“For the first time in her life she wanted to be merged with another, to be carried away by voluptuousness, to be inside of the sublime. She looked into his eyes, and his irises were blank projection screens into which she poured all of her longing.”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

“He hoisted her up in his strong arms, and she opened her eyes and looked up at him adoringly. She thought that the image must have carried a certain eerie romantic charm, like Dracula carrying off his victim.”
Anna Biller, Bluebeard's Castle

“There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly. ”
Boris Vian

“One may cover over secret actions, but to be silent on what all the world knows, and things which have had effects which are public and of so much consequence is an inexcusable defect.”
Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

139622 500 Great Books By Women — 1615 members — last activity Sep 01, 2025 05:18AM
500 Great Books By Women A Reader's Guide to the Worlds of Women's Writing Be sure to check out the bookshelf and see if you've reviewed any of the ...more
220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 331679 members — last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
1433 Literature & Film — 274 members — last activity Aug 23, 2016 03:11PM
For those with a love/hate relationship to seeing their favorite books on film.
38206 Gothicked (Gothic Novel Lovers) — 485 members — last activity Feb 03, 2022 10:03AM
If you are interested in Gothic Novels (esp. Gothic Romance novels from the 60s and 70s) this group is for you. I do blog reviews of novels by Barbara ...more
77869 Classic Trash — 461 members — last activity Jul 16, 2026 05:33PM
Want to read the classics in mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasy, westerns, thrillers, sensation, and maybe even romance? You have found your pe ...more
More of Anna’s groups…
No comments have been added yet.