The Rovers Return: The Official Coronation Street Companion

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This was my first Richard Lange read, but it most certainly won’t be my last. From the cover to the words to the ending! It all added up to one badass read. The second perspective is that of Charles, a man consumed with grief over his son’s murder—his throat was slashed and his body was drained of blood. The authorities were never able to find the perpetrator, so Charles left home and hit the road, determined to find the murderer on his own and bring justice to his son. One day Charles is approached by a man who claims that his wife was killed in the exact same way, and he offers Charles a chance for revenge. Charles’ chapters are a long letter he’s writing home to his wife about his adventures on the road (a nod to Dracula, perhaps?)

Fans of the ITV soap will have seen the large 'For Sale' attached to the iconic pub during Wednesday night's episode. Lange has a neat and visually descriptive writing style, which for me made this feel quite cinematic. Rovers reads like a Tarantino film looks and unfolds. Stylishly gritty, populated by archetype characters simultaneously larger than life and accurately reflective of reality, punctuated and ultimately defined by outrageous yet deftly framed violence.

The use of four different perspectives on the events that we see unfold add additional and distinct textural layers to this simple complex story. We learn what each character most desires, and see how that brings them to their ultimate place at the end, but are left to contemplate whether each truly got what they wanted.

The newsletter will land in your inbox on a Friday and bring you the highlights of everything we've written about Weatherfield that week. The final showdown takes place in Las Vegas, and setting it there in 1976, was a stroke of genius. In 1976 Sin City hadn't begun to cater to families yet. It was dark and seedy, Dirty and scary. Exactly the setting where a vampire showdown should take place! It was ironic that these vamps chose to travel throughout the parts of America with the longest days, harshest sunlight and grimiest underbelly.There's little worse to the speculative fiction reader than a literary fiction writer who takes on the genre in an attempt to somehow "elevate" it. Conversely, magic happens when a literary fiction writer slides seamlessly into the genre not to prove something, but because that's where the story lies. The vampire trope has hardly been 'overdone,' any more than Victorian romance or stories about armchair detectives and serial killers. This one is unique, IMO.

But as viewers know, the Rovers has been put on the market after Johnny Connor decided to sell up - after Jenny confessed to a one night stand with B&B lodger Ronnie Bailey.Some Coronation Street viewers are eager to snap up the Rovers Return after it was put up for sale. Light and dark have to hold hands to show their true natures. Same goes for people. These characters wrestle with the little devil in all our souls. Come see if anyone survives to live—truly live--another day or night. For me, vampire tales teach the break out of the self-imposed boxes we tend to put ourselves in lesson oh-so perfectly. We’re not dead yet. Or are we? The characters are all very three dimensional, and with few exceptions, solicit pity from the reader. Funny enough, the one human point of view we get got the least sympathy from me, since he has spent his life (after the murder of his son) on the road searching for his killers. This guy abandons his grieving wife, has no money or prospects and no hope of anything other than the vilest of revenge. I can't get behind that.

The nitty-gritty: A unique take on vampires, Rovers is an outstanding blood-soaked, tragic tale of revenge and redemption. Iain MacLeod, Coronation Street series producer, said last month that viewers seeing a real sign outside the pub will make the story 'relatable'. When Jesse and Johona inadvertently interrupt the Fiends’ job, they find themselves running for their lives. As the Bicentennial—July 4th, 1976—approaches, these three groups will converge in Las Vegas for a violent and bloody showdown. A patch of sunlight lay on the empty bed like a brilliant quilt. Another spilled off the table onto the floor. The bright spots only made the rest of the room darker. I had to squint to penetrate the gloom.” What made my heart happy was the writing. I loved the relentless pace and bite of the words. Some of my favorite passages were the ones that played with light. Like “leaf shadows flitting across a patch of warm grass”. Or this beauty…

It will include the latest action both on and off the cobbles, what you thought about the soap's top storylines and what the stars are up to away from the set. Plus much more! The brothers depicted, lone vamps called Jesse and Edgar, were my favorites/ Edgar is mentally handicapped, never chose to be a vamp, and has a really hard time with the "nomad in the dark" lifestyle they live by necessity. When Jesse meets a woman he falls in...not love, but nostalgia with, my sympathy for him grew and grew. Life that feels unbearable can be lived because it won't always be this way. For vamps, it will. Always. For hundreds of years. So now all eyes are on who will be the next owner's of Weatherfield's finest establishment - and adding their name to a list of memorable landlord's and ladies. Read More Related Articles We’re looking forward to getting it ‘sold’ like we do for thousands of homes across the country every year."