On October 6, at 7pm, a nearly-week long marathon of The Walking Dead began with the pilot episode of the series; Episode 1, Season 1. It was gearing up viewers for the premiere of Season 5. On Sunday, October 12, we began the new season and new beginnings for many.

From the get-go of the episode, there is anxiety as we see gore and horror in the brutal murders by the cannibalistic leaders of the death-zone Terminus. We see a carefully crafted escape from Terminus by the core group with help from a former ally, none other than Carol. Carol’s presence has been felt since the beginning of the series, and through her secret assistance to the group, loyalty, and bravery despite being exiled last season for killing sick members of the group, we can feel a true sense of her care for them. According to Yahoo and Forbes magazines reports on the episode, they also believe that Carol’s act of bravery and defiance to help her friends and companions is her way of redeeming herself to them. Despite her evident mistakes, Carol still has goodness instilled in her.

For viewers who were Carol fans all along, it appears that they “were lovers of Carol before it was cool,” upon her crossing serious boundaries to save the group in the premiere. Forbes article called what Carol did a “refreshing” act by a character, and during the premiere it wasn’t surprising to see jaws drop as Carol smeared herself in walker blood and guts, set off an explosion inside Terminus, and sauntered through flames to help her friends. During a scene of violence, action, and high-anxiety, this could almost be interpreted as a heart-warming moment to see her act of bravery for her group. After the escape of Terminus, we see the reunion between Carol and Daryl, which truly makes one smile, as well as Rick accept her with open arms. Here we understand that what Carol did may have been out of her own want to assist them, but it did indeed redeem herself in the their eyes as well. We see a passionate reunion between family as well with Rick, Judith, and Carl. In addition to Carol’s act of bravery, we also see such from Tyreese as he acts on behalf of Judith and puts up quite the fight when he is sentenced outside among the walkers with no form of defense. The episode has a lot of familial and friendship reunions and brings most of the group back together (except for Beth, whose whereabouts are still a mystery), pleasing a lot of fans who enjoy that aspect of the show; on the contrary we also see a good amount of action and violence to satisfy that part of the show as well.

By the end, although, not all questions are answered. Where is Beth? What is happening in the cattle car at the end of the episode? Could Beth possibly be in there? What truly will happen or may have happened to the leaders of Terminus? Will we see them again? Those are the questions we anticipate to be answered as the season rolls on, of course.

I have been hooked on American Horror Story since the very first episode of season one. The unconventional series, which tells a unique story in a new setting each year, often with the same cast of actors, spooked me in the Murder House, scarred me for life in the Asylum, and amused me in the Coven. For its fourth season, which premiered Oct. 8, we are taken to a circus Freak Show, the likes of which we haven’t seen on the boardwalk or beside the big top in decades. The trailers released before the premiere promised a terrifying, creepy and, to borrow from the show’s title, freakish experience. That’s saying something given the horror-riddled basement of season 1 and the mutated monsters of season 2. The premiere episode did not disappoint. If you have not watched the episode, be warned that there are SPOILERS ahead.

It’s Florida in the 1950s, and a freak show is trying to stay afloat while others across the country have fallen out of fashion. Some of the performers try to blend in with regular society, hoping to be treated as ordinary people and not the monsters they appear to be. That’s not easy for people like conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler, played by series regular Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates’ Bearded Lady or the flipper-handed Jimmy Darling, played by Evan Peters, another fan favorite. According to the show’s creator, the theme of the season will be the “freaks” in conflict with the “evil forces” that don’t understand them.

Entitled “Monsters Among Us,” the premiere introduced us the Tattler sisters, who are discovered hidden in a farmhouse after their mother’s murder. When Elsa Mars, the German immigrant running the freak show, hears about them, she tries to convince them to join her troupe. The “Siamese” sisters have very different reactions to the idea, played convincingly by Paulson with the help of some voiceover, diary entries and, I’ve read, long grueling days of filming. But they are convinced to join when other freaks defend them from a sheriff who blames them (rightly so, it turns out) for their mother’s death.

As the freak show fights for its survival, a psycho clown nicknamed Twisty is terrorizing the community where they’ve set up camp. Played by character actor John Carroll Lynch, Twisty is absolutely terrifying from his slipshod makeup to the way he dramatically pulls juggling pins from a bag –before using them to bludgeon a couple he finds canoodling in a field. When he makes a balloon animal for two children he’s holding captive, I wanted to scream too. What the fluffernutter? Who is this guy? What has driven him to this madness? And, later, when we see him watching from a distance as the freak show performers chop up the ill-fated sheriff, I wondered : what is this guy’s end game? What is his plan? It’s going to be fun to find out, if my heart doesn’t stop along the way.

As she has in the three previous seasons, Jessica Lange shines in her role as Elsa, a frustrated starlet who dreams of a shot at fame and, in a scene near the end of the episode, reveals that her connection with the freaks goes beyond seeing them as a money-making venture.  Viewers will want to savor every moment that she’s on screen, for it’s no secret that she has decided to move on after this season ends. Creators of the show have promised to give her an over-the-top sendoff.

The other performers in the freak show are an interesting bunch. Peters, as Jimmy Darling, longs for dignity and life beyond being a sideshow attraction. But he also has no trouble using his freakishness when it benefits him. His mother, Ethel, is the bearded lady and fiercely loyal to Elsa and the life the show has provided. The cast includes several performers who have dealt with the “freak” label in real life: Matt Fraser, who portrays Paul the Illustrated Seal, has malformed limbs as a result of phocomelia. Rose Siggins, who plays Legless Suzi, had her legs amputated when she was 2. Jyoti Amge, who plays Ma Petite, is in reality the world’s smallest living woman. These actors bring realism to a show filled with the absurd, and make it easy to empathize with their view that it’s not their deformities, but outsiders’ reaction to them, that is truly monstrous.

That seems to be a perfect segue into talking about Dandy Mott and his mother Gloria, the show’s only spectators one night who offer large sums to buy the Tattler sisters. They seem normal, if very dysfunctional, but their fascination with the freaks as objects to own is unnerving. I’m worried about the role they will play, especially given the teaser for coming episodes.

The premiere built in me a sense of dread, but also anticipation, of what will happen next. I can’t wait to learn the back stories of more of the characters, especially Elsa and Twisty. I’m also eager to see how other cast members such as Emma Roberts, Angela Bassett, Patti LaBelle and, it’s rumored, Neil Patrick Harris will factor into the story.

American Horror Story: Freak Show airs Wednesdays at 10 pm on FX. It is recommended for mature audiences.

It is the dead of winter in Russia, at the height of the Nazi siege of the city of Leningrad during World War II. As German forces surrounded the city for 900 days, they choked off supplies to the point where 17-year-old Lev Beniov and friends eat “library candy” made from book bindings and bread made mostly from sawdust. They walk on the south side of the street because it’s safer during Nazi bombing raids. Schools and markets are closed, and life as they previously knew it is at a standstill. Lev’s mother and sister have fled to the countryside, where they thought they’d be safer, but Lev has dreams of being a wartime hero.

When Lev and his friends loot the corpse of a German paratrooper who falls near their apartment building, he is arrested and thrown into prison expecting to face the firing squad in the morning. (With the military overwhelmed and the police ranks decimated, there is no time for due process in Leningrad). Lev and his cellmate, Kolya, a handsome soldier who deserted his unit, are spared death for a very absurd mission: find a dozen eggs to make a wedding cake for the daughter of a Russian colonel, whose family thrives while the city around him starves.

The mission takes Lev and Kolya all over the city, where they encounter black marketeers and a couple whose hunger has driven them to extremely gruesome measures. Eventually, they head outside the city into German-held territory, and the quest for eggs becomes entwined with a life and death struggle against the enemy. Lev and Kolya join forces with Russian partisans intent on killing the leader of a Nazi death squad which has burned villages, turned teenage girls into prostitutes and murdered hundreds of innocent men, women and children. The climactic confrontation is tense and thrilling.

City of Thieves, by David Benioff, is historical fiction that gives readers a look into what life was like during the siege of Leningrad, one of the most famous conflicts of WWII. While following Lev and Kolya on their search for eggs, you will learn about Russian military tactics, the barbarity of the German invaders and the callousness of soldiers on both sides of the conflict. You will witness the inhumanity of war.

The novel is also a coming-of-age story as Lev wages an inner battle between courage and fear, a desire to live and an inability to face any more heartache. Lev also struggles between patriotism and disdain for Russia, a country in which his poet father was killed as an enemy of the state by tyrannical leader Stalin. His relationship with Kolya, who is just a few years older but ages more experienced in life, is both serious and darkly comical as they talk about literature, women and bodily functions.

I found the book interesting for the look into history, but I also enjoyed the adventures (or misadventures) of Lev and Kolya. They had the same love-hate rapport of many duos in books, TV and movies such as “21 Jump Street” or “The Other Guys” — albeit in much darker circumstances. Even though the book only covers about a week in their lives, I became very invested in them, cheering for them in dire situations, groaning over their missteps, and mourning their devastating losses. The ending is bittersweet, not quite happy but not entirely tragic either.

City of Thieves is 258 pages. I recommend the book for readers interested in history (especially World War II or Russia), as well as for anyone who likes adventure stories.