Lee
If like me, you were expecting some cool horror/thriller twist based on how the book markets itself, avoid this. In a Dark Dark Wood is one of the most basic books I've read in a while, and the protagonist is one of the most idiotic. Really?!? 10 years from a teenage relationship, in addition to answering this decade old long cut off friendship invite?? Really? What are you thinking, and move the hell on.
Imagine the first act of a zombie apocalypse movie, but replace the undead hordes with waves of carnivorous spiders. As the first book of its series, it sure felt a little exhausting setting up the slew of underdeveloped characters and various settings due to its globetrotting nature bouncing around. I'm hoping the sequel is far more action/horror oriented, as the best parts of Hatching were the descriptive segments detailing the spiders hatching within living bodies and eating their way out.
Nothing like a little incest and cannibalism, am I right lol. Brother has been on my list for a while—alongside many other hyped up Ania Ahlborn books—but with all the word of mouth, I had expected it to be far grosser and much more depraved. Maybe I've just been desensitised from most shocks of the world, but there wasn't anything that made my jaw drop or eyes widen here. Don't get me wrong, still a fun read with some solid pacing and great character dynamics, but I wanted to get deeper into the juicy meat of it. Brother is far more predictable, but I will say that this did itch some of the scratches I had wanted from Donald Ray Pollock's The Devil All the Time. I do look forward to reading more of Ahlborn's works, and I do still recommend Brother, especially if you're a fan of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Natural Born Killers, The Devil All the Time, Deliverance, and the Southern Bastards comic.
Adaptation Fancast:
- Michael: Jack Dylan Grazer
- Ray/Rebel: Rudy Pankow -JJ from obx
- Misty: Joey King
- Alice: Kiernan Shipka
- Claudine/Mama: Jennifer Jason Leigh
- Wade/Pa: Timothy Olyphant
- Lucy: Maya Hawke
- Laura-Lynn: Lio Tipton?
Like me, the vibrant book cover with what looks like a dark doodle done during detention and graffiti don't more than likely caught your eye. For me, this and The Beast in Aisle 34 were instant pickups on the basis of cover alone, as I perused the horror selects shelf of a quaint local bookstore. And Then I Work Up is a pensively deceiving novella that lures you in with the unreliable narrator's promise of a zombie apocalypse with a reality bending twist.
Without getting deep into spoiler territory, I'll just say that this brisk read paints an interesting tale of just how powerful storytelling can truly be. How do you know what's real if this infection distorts your ability to differentiate between reality and monstrous nightmare. Subtle jabs at news media outlets, propaganda, social media, overwhelming technology, pop culture consumption, political allegories to Trump's unfortunate and eye-opening stint as president of the United States, and even some COVID crossover. Author Malcolm Devlin connects the shaping of narrative directly to the causation and cure of his unique widespread flesh tearing infected. It's the type of story that will have you thinking about its themes throughout your day, as what can be more relatable and prevalent throughout our days than stories and how we each perceive them through our own lenses and biases.
Frankly, it was quite tedious to get through given the very annoying and at times cringe characters. It does benefit you to have some knowledge of Japanese folklore, but even with that aside, the horror and suspense take so long to arise that by the time it shows up, it's extremely underwhelming and done far too quickly. At least it's a quick read.
Felt like a poor man's Annihilation in scifi-ish/thriller tone, except with less developed and forgettable characters. Reports of body horror were grossly over exaggerated.
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is at least a 4/5, but I was not particularly a fan of the other three stories. And as shocking as this will sound, The Body (Stand by Me film), was quite underwhelming after all the good I heard about it for years.
Reads and feels like an anthology horror mini-series, where each episode just taps into a completely random thriller, supernatural, and/or body horror tale. Frankly, they're not all winners, but the ones that are linger with you after you close the book. Nothing is all out horrific and mind bending, but Doyle describes with such intrigue and even comic sentiment that you never struggle to mentally pit yourself in the scene.
FAVE SHORTS:
+ Head
+ Barney Hester
+ Ha-Ha, Shirt
+ Tugboat to Traverse City
The Golden age of scifi writers really did predict so much with devastating accurately.
Heart of Darkness meets The Lost World, with a subtle splash of Annihilation. I'd like to see this turned into a limited series.
[3.5/5]
Certainly overrated based on its seemingly impenetrable word of mouth, but not without its moments of self-reflective thought and existential relatability. I much more enjoyed the first half than the closing sections, but hey, that mirrors life.
Not as Don Quixote as I was led to believe, but Ignatius J. Riley is certainly an eccentric personality to follow. It's a shame this seems to be a cursed production in regards to adapting it to screen, as I really think it'd do well in the right hands. The likes of Belushi, Divine, John Goodman, Will Ferrell, and Zach Galifinakis have all been linked, yet each production seems to fall apart.
Take a shot for each time Ignatius says “Oh my god,” and when Jones says, “woah!”
Stories Ranked:
- Everything's Eventual
- The Man in the Black Suit
- 1408
- Autopsy Room Four
- The Road Virus Heads North
- Lunch at the Gotham Cafe
- That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French
- Lucky Quarter
- LT's Theory of Pets
- All That You Love Will Be Carried away
- In the Death Room
- The Death of Jack Hamilton
- The Little Sisters of Eluria
Joe Goldberg from You, you are not. Very slow pacing with minimal payoff, but I did enjoy the inclusion of day to day mundane minutia and attention to the 9-5 work cycle. But having worked for public and state libraries as well as currently being a university librarian, I did enjoy all the librarian jargon and environment.
A great thriller debut by Clémence Michallon that would be right up the alley for fellow fans of “airport novel thrillers” such as Gone Girl and The Girl on a Train. A small sleepy town crime thriller with elements of psychological drama, Focusing the multi-narrative structure on the victims was an interesting touch, but one you need to settle into when you first begin reading. Giving the women a voice and female gaze against the male antagonist certainly brings different layers to the unraveling tension and plot, but I do feel like the story runs out of steam halfway through. The Quiet Tenant plays out similarly to a season of You, but if it were with a female lead (and not a likable psycho like Love lol). Definitely a solid recommendation for fans of the genre and any of the titles I mentioned within my blurb.
FANCAST:
Director: Jane Campion/David Fincher
Aiden Thomas: Jake Gyllenhaal/Oliver Jackson Cohen/Chris Abbott/Lee Pace
Emily: Daisy Edgar Jones
“Rachel”: Elizabeth Olsen/Riley Keough
Cecilia Thomas: Ariana Greenblatt/Violet McGraw
Mayor: Jonathan Banks/Clark Peters
Too focused on convoluted world building that it drowns its own forgettable characters. It is nothing like it's self-marketed Joseph Conrad comparisons. Apparently Djuna intended this to be a sci-fi film initially, and it really shows. What we have is a rare occasion where it should have never been a book to begin with, and should have jumped straight to the screen for better results.
My initiation to the legendary Clive Barker's books—I'm well versed in his films—and easily one of my new fave collection of horror shorts. There are six stories within this titular Books of Blood—averaging about 30-50 pages per—and I'd rank them from best to least liked as follows:
- The Midnight Meat Train (terrific film adaptation)
- Pig Blood Blues (Stephen King-esque prison setting)
- Sex, Death, and Starshine (pseudo Agatha Christie with a supernatural twist and a dash of raunch)
- The Yattering and Jack (comedic locked-room Christmas vibe thriller)
- The Book of Blood (Poe with less prose; the film adaptation is okay)
- In the Hills, the Cities (Lovecraftian but a bit convoluted)
I look forward to diving more into his written works, as I really dig the manner in which Barker details the intricacies of his horror, backed by some good old fashioned wit. As countless others before him and after him, I'm certain that Barker was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe and HP Lovecraft among others, as there is a solid gothic cosmic blend to many of his shorts. I'd love to see Pig Blood Blues and get film/show adaptations, as my fave of the lot here, Midnight Meat Train already has a great more expansive scope film starring a young pre-fame Bradley Cooper. I think a Love + Death + Robots animated anthology collection would work wonders with Barker's short stories!
Extremely basic by the numbers trauma horror trying to disguise itself with some cryptid/supernatural thriller. I don't think Christina Henry's style is for me, as this is the second book of hers I did not enjoy. Granted I DNFd Horseman earlier this year, but of the first few chapters I read, I was not having a good time. The same can be said with Near the Bone, as by chapter 6, I was strongly considering putting it down. None of the characters are likable, the prose and style is extremely formulaic, mundane, and predictable to the point where the fake twist can be called out very very early. You're better off with The Shuddering, or The Butcher and the Wren—despite me not strongly liking either of those as well.
If GoodReads allowed half stars, this would be a 3.5. It definitely scratched part of the itch I've been having since beating the phenomenal game, Control. A glimpse of the unknown made real before your eyes, but creating even more additional questions than long dreamt answers given.
Pretty lacklustre and minimal in character development given such a small crew and being on an isolated setting. I'm still intrigued in checking out the mini-series, as that was my primary intention of reading this initially.
So much cursing and use of a particular “f word,” to the point you could make a drinking game out of it. Moshfegh's worst so far, and one I don't recommend unfortunately.
[4.5/5]
A contemporary classic that lives up to all the positive word of mouth. It's not often that I add a book to my all-time faves, but I knew this one was going to fit right in about halfway through reading. The unique and very memorable eye-catching title is not a witty inside joke you learn along the pages within, but more so quite the literal phrasing of what our very psychologically relatable narrator desires. I strongly recommend this to my fellow depressed readers and comrades in “I wish I could just disappear for a while to reset” arms. This is ripe to be adapted into an A24 film—for people to adopt new fictional personas—ideally by either the Safdie Brothers or Sofia Coppola. My Year of... also brought to mind the German book and film adaptation, Wetlands by Charlotte Roche, but more subdued and not quite as raunchy “gross-out” attempts inclined.
FANCAST:
- Narrator: Sydney Sweeney/Maika Monroe
- Reva: Rachel Sennott/Zoey Deutch
- Dr. Tuttle: Kathryn Hahn/Gwendoline Christie
- Trevor: Dacre Montgomery/Timmy C
- Natasha: Simone Kessell/Gemma Chan
- Narrator's mother: Cate Blanchett/Kristen Dunst
- Narrator's father: Shea Whigham/Jesse Plemons
- Ping Xi: Bowen Yang
Underwhelming; but perhaps that's how the end of the world will be, contrary to the myriad depictions of it in art.
Judging as a whole, I much preferred Shirley's Dark Tales collection more. The middle section of this one was a bit of a drag.
Ranked:
The Daemon Lover
The Lottery
The Witch
The Renegade
Like Mother Used to Make
The Tooth
Pillars of Salt
Men with Their Big Shoes
The Villager
My Life with R. H. Macy
Trial by Combat
The Intoxicated
After You My Dear Alphonse
Flower Garden
Seven Kinds of Ambiguity
Charles
Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors
Afternoon in Linen
The Dummy
Of Course
Elizabeth
Colloquy
Got a Letter from Jimmy
A Fine ol Firm
Epilogue