Bronwyn Knox

“It's so easy to be nothing. It requires very little thought or afterthought, you can always find people to drink with you, hang out with you, everybody needs a little nothing in their life, right?”
― Kathe Koja, The Cipher

This is Weird Fiction with body horror. The story revolves around some repulsive hipster artists/poets who are drawn to the weird and the ugly. Ex-lovers Nicholas and Nakota discover a supernatural black hole, a “funhole.” Angry, aggressive Nakota is obsessed with the phenomenon. But it all seems to revolve around Nicholas, who is passive, apologetic, and submissive. As he voluntarily spends more time around it, he mutates. The pair draw followers, other failed artists who become fascinated with the hole and see it as some kind of “movement.”

This tale takes a long time to build and does not really satisfy. We spend a lot of time with the characters obsessing over the hole (and a video taken inside the hole) but not really doing anything. The cheap, sad, squalor increases as the story goes on. These frustrated characters make no attempt to be productive or find some type of fulfillment. We see the story from Nicholas' point of view, and though it is hard to like him as such, he does make humorous observations and is sympathetic in his way.

I'm assuming the funhole is supposed to have some deeper meaning, not just be a “monster” in this horror book. Possibly, the hole symbolizes some emptiness in Nicholas and in everyone? Or maybe his destructive, one-sided attachment to Nakota? Or possibly the frustration of all these characters who are searching for some greater meaning in their art but not finding anything. A Picture of Dorian Gray for the Gen-Xer set? These were interesting ideas to think about, and I'm glad to have read the book but something is missing for me, some connection or excitement I would expect from a horror story.

This is a decent collection of novellas, two of which were excellent and will stay with me for a long time.

“Snapshot” was good up to a point, with its subtle emotional resonance about dealing with aging loved ones afflicted with Altzeimers. It should have ended about 20 pages sooner than it did. Hill dragged out various epilogues, for what?

“Loaded” was more of an agenda than entertaining story, made obvious by portraying the protagonist, Kellaway, as an absurd caricature. (The secondary definition of “loaded” is “weighted or biased toward a particular outcome.”)

“Aloft” was excellent and convinced me that Hill can indeed be a good storyteller. A little cosmic horror, a little personal growth. Fantastic imagination and imagery. Rock solid for a story about a cloud.

“Rain” was my favorite, bizarre apocalyptic road story with an oddball cast of characters. The answer to where the rain originated was far-fetched, yet, since the story is flavored with tongue-in-cheek humor and outrageous incidents, the resolution suits the tone.

I nearly gave up on this after the second novella but the last two saved the collection for me.

Very complicated, dense, and challenging. If that's what you're looking for in a science fiction book, you'll enjoy this a bunch. There are stories within stories, characters within characters, plots within plots, and so on.

It reminded me of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson in theme and concept, only they never really made me work so hard for it.

The big picture is the dangers of giving up freedom and privacy for safety and security. In Gnomon, a Big Brother-type security system provides protection, appearing more benevolent than good old Big Brother. I view this as trading adulthood for permanent childhood.

There were bits I liked; the individual character stories were compelling. Seeing how they tied together was clever and made me feel smart, which is always fun.

Harkaway loves to use a lot of detail. I enjoyed this in his previous books as it added a lot of color and humor, as well as an emotional payoff as backstory and character developed. Here, it weighed down an already heavy book. Gnomon was more of an intellectual exercise, and even at that, not the most dynamic one.

Different from the book I was imagining in my head. I was thinking of a book where he talked about favorite films in detail and how they influenced his life and creativity. This is a sort of memoir about trying to make it in entertainment (stand-up comedy, acting) while at the same time obsessively consuming lots of it. He details a period of his life where he put other things aside to watch films, including his personal life and the one thing he actually hoped watching the films would help him do, make his own film.

This book might be interesting to people who can relate to his particular situation, not something I would recommend broadly. Not even to film fans as I don't get a feel for what appealed to him about certain directors, filmmaking techniques, and storytelling. He speaks of his heavy film watching years like a drug addiction that he beats when he has certain epiphanies. It's good advice for artists, living life and actually making art is more important than consuming art.

The best part of the book, that is to say the most intellectually and emotionally moving, was the “first epilogue” “Whistling in the Dark.” The story behind the chapter title is watching Casablanca in a theater when the film broke before a big moment. As they were waiting for the projectionist to fix it, the audience all started whistling “As Time Goes By.” One of those rare moments when a group creates a fun and positive moment together. The other worthwhile bit of the chapter is this:

“...I'm a stone-cold atheist who's grateful religion exists. All religions. I look at them as a testament to the human race's imagination, to our ability to invent stories that explain away—or at least make manageable—the nameless terrors, horrific randomness, and utter, galactic meaninglessness of the universe. Is there anything more defiant and beautiful than, when faced with a roaring void, to say “I know a story that fits this quite nicely. And I'm going to use it, pitiless universe, to give meaning and poetry and hope to my days inside this maelstrom into which I've, in Joseph Conrad's words, ‘blundered unbidden'”?

Then the chapter goes on to list some film projects that directors wanted to make but never got to make, sort of a dream library.

This could be a good book for hardcore film buffs or those who relate to Oswalt's situation.

Big, glorious coffee-table book full of color pictures of the book covers from a bygone era. I was just an impressionable kid in the 70s-80s, but I remember looking up at the shiny, weird book covers that I wasn't old enough to read and wondering about the dark mysteries contained within. Hendrix gives the full scoop on these books with humor, sarcasm, criticism, admiration and affection. He also gives details about a lot of the artists responsible for creating these flashy, fun, and cheesy covers.

Hendrix breaks down the history of the 70s-80s boom, beginning in the 60s when horror was considered a kids genre. Adult spooky stories were marketed as “weird” or eerie but not horror. Three books from the late sixties/early seventies changed all this because they were marketed to and popular with adults. According to Hendrix, these are: Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin), The Other (Thomas Tryon), and The Exorcist (William Blatty).

Suddenly, it became a marketable adult genre. Hendrix organized the book into chapters by topics like satanic/demonic, creepy kids, haunted houses, gothic and romantic, scary animals, weird science, and so on.

This shows the development of the genre as well as how the authors and publishers latched onto various trends. These books were transparently put out to make money. Authors didn't pretend to write “literature,” but all were writing sensational, and most importantly, entertaining stories.

Some of Hendrix' descriptions of the plots are absolutely hilarious. Just knowing books like this were written and read is a mind-blower. Just open nearly any page in this book and find something like:

“In Barney Parrish's The Closed Circle thinly veiled versions of Robert Redford, Elizabeth Taylor, Ann-Margaret, and Jackie Gleason pick up hitchhikers and murder them to praise Satan and stay famous. And they would have gotten away with it, too, if not for a darn psychic pursuing a “university-level” course in weaving who can tune into their telepathic wavelength.”

The haunted house trend also covered “urban nightmares” and “country paranoia,” as he put it. These reflect fear of crime in the city and people who had enough money to move out into the country to get away from it. ( Fort Privilege by Kit Reed) The country paranoia stories were about a living hell for the city folk who dared to invade. (Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon.)

Also keeping with the times were the stories about technology from the 1980s. Lots of stuff with computers possessing people or taking over their lives. (Little Brother by John McNeil) Exploiting the fear that technology controls the people who invented it, in this case by melding with some supernatural element.

The books I personally remember best were the gothic books, VC Andrews and Anne Rice. I especially remember the shiny foil Andrews covers with dye cuts that opened to another picture underneath. I also have a fond memory of the kids line of Dark Forces horror books.

According to Hendrix, the 70s-80s boom of horror ended in the early 90s with Silence of the Lambs and thrillers becoming the hot item instead. Suddenly horror books had to be literary and blended with true crime instead of the supernatural.

A few remnants of the time were horror marketed to kids and short story anthologies still sold well. He also mentioned the Abyss line of horror books that sprung up in the 90s with new writers who wrote psychological horror and horror that crossed genres with Sci-Fi.

As a horror fan, this book brings home the message that the genre is dead. The books covered here had the freedom to use lots of imagination, too much gore, and prioritize telling a scary story over social and political messaging, even while they exploited concerns and trends of the times.

Howard is such a good storyteller that I'm up for checking out whatever he's got to offer.

Like others, I came here after reading the Johannes Cabal series, and other than the horror/modern fantasy elements, these Carter & Lovecraft books aren't quite that. They don't have the same sense of humor and larger-than-life characters.

There is some humor, but a bit more subtle.

What they do have going for them is Howard's intelligence, well-structured stories, well-defined characters (even the minor characters have moments where we sympathize with their POV), compelling action sequences, and a blend of horror/sci-fi that is a little bit of The Man in the High Castle and a whole lotta Lovecraft.

If I have a complaint, it's that a lot is left unresolved. It seems as though this was intended to continue on as a series but so far it has not. It feels like a television show that didn't know the networks were planning to cancel.

I have a couple of nagging questions, like just what the heck is Mr. Weston and when is Emily going to use her fabulous string art.

I'm hoping the series will continue at some point.

Ready Player One features a plot that borrows heavily from [b:Charlie and the Chocolate Factory|6310|Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1)|Roald Dahl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309211401l/6310.SY75.jpg|2765786] and [b:Snow Crash|40651883|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1589842551l/40651883.SX50.jpg|493634], wrapped around multiple laundry lists of '80s pop-culture references.

I was an '80s kids, so the pop culture element was fun, but that's all there is to it.

I will give it this, it was better than the movie!

Not the fault of the book, but this wasn't what I was looking for.

If you were looking for a music appreciation class in classical music, this might work.

Classic haunted mansion story, similar to The Haunting of Hill House, only less psychological, more visceral. The titular house belonged to the infamous Emeric Belasco, who hosted depraved parties that led to orgies, cannibalism, torture, murder for sport– any blasphemy or perversion you can imagine. Belasco lured guests in with sex, drugs, exotic food (?) and slowly kept them hooked into staying until they fell bestial level. After Emeric's death, the house is considered “the most haunted in the world.” Every form of spiritual activity known to man has occurred there. Scientists and mediums explored the house to investigate and record the phenomena and perhaps purge it of the evil energy that abides. All of these investigations failed and most of those involved didn't survive.

The main story concerns an investigation made by four people: Dr. Lionel Barrett, scientist, and his wife Edith; Florence Tanner, spiritualist and mental medium; and Benjamin Fisher, physical medium. Who knew there were different types of mediums? Certainly not me. I was most intrigued by the conflict between Dr. Barrett and Florence. Barrett is convinced the explanation of the haunting is scientific and treatable with his invention. Florence is convinced the haunting is spiritual and that love will save the day. To me, Barrett's explanation was just as illogical as the notion of spirits. Barrett seemed to believe that any physical manifestations and creepy atmosphere in the house are all created by the mental energy of the people who lived and died in the house, but not any ghostly presence.

Edith and Fischer, two characters not involved in the debate, had their personal issues challenged by the Belasco (Hell House). Fischer had been part of a previous investigation that failed to solve the mystery/purge the haunting and was the only survivor. He never worked as a medium again and suffered a crisis of confidence. Edith is dealing with sexual longings that the nature of the house brings out of her. Their issues were more internal and psychological and brought them into conflict with Florence and Barrett and made them equally vulnerable to the influence of Belasco.

This was not a perfect scary story experience for me; some of the scenes of haunting were a bit silly. I admit I've read too many of these books; I'm probably jaded. The scene with the dining room furniture and dishes flying all over, while the investigators hid under the table, had me laughing, and I doubt that was the intended effect. Also, the resolution to getting rid of Emeric Belasco's influence came down to calling him a little bastard, if you strip away all the drama and emotion. This also seems unintentionally funny.

I preferred this to The Haunting of Hill House since the ending of that one seemed anticlimactic. Despite the unintentional humor, I'd consider Hell House a standard for haunted house stories. It may be a bit dated fifty years out but it was still a fun read for a gloomy day.

I gave this three stars after I read it; I think I was being generous. At one time I thought Irving was the greatest and surely he couldn't write a boring book, right?

Well, this book was quite boring with flat, uninteresting characters.

The point of it is for Irving to repeat “abortion should be legal, abortion should be legal, abortion should be legal.” Everything that happens in the book is in support of that.

I completely agree with this view but that won't make this a good read.

I appreciate the way all the plots tied together as the story wrapped up but it was a let down after the previous book. I thought we were headed for a more thoughtful Dresden after the beautifully constructed and by comparison more thoughtfulGhost Story.

Butcher went back to throwing Dresden into one action scene after another and completely failing to enthrall me. If something is constant, you start to tune it out.

I suppose if only every other book in this series is good, that's still notable given how long it has continued.

Much to my surprise, this ended up being my favorite of the Rincewind subseries of Discworld.

First of all, it's funny. Yes, Discworld always contains a lot of humor, but with The Last Continent there were times I had to stop to calm down and wipe the tears out of my eyes before I could even think about continuing to read.

The main plot admittedly wasn't spectacular; no real conflict other than the usual universe forcing Rincewind, our favorite beleaguered wizard, to solve its problems. There was no particular villain other than drought or nature itself. But Pratchett explores ideas like evolution and causality in an entertaining way. This is all against the background of wacky time travel and goofy deity hijinks.

The b-plot with the Unseen University Wizards was very engaging. Ponder is the central focus and he has to put his youth and curiosity against the experience and obstinacy of the older wizards as they travel through a weirdly and swiftly evolving island. I always love scenes of absurd Wizard dialogue.

Ponder sighed. “I wasn't questioning your authority, Archchancellor, “ he said. “I just feel that if a huge monster evolves into a chicken right in front of you, the considered response should not be to eat the chicken.”The Archchancellor licked his fingers. “What would you have done, then?” he said. “Well...studied it,” said Ponder. “So did we. Postmortem examination,” said the Dean.

Due to some temporary temporal mix up, young Ponder experiences old age and the old wizards become young. The empathy they experience toward their opposite age “demographic” doesn't last very long, but it is there for a moment.

This is the most time the series has spent on Ponder, and it was enjoyable. More competent than any other wizard, he's one of my favorite secondary characters in all of Discworld. Sure, he's one of those guys that corrects people all the time but his thoughts and frustrations are highly relatable.

Ponder Stibbons was one of those unfortunate people cursed with the belief that if only he found out enough things about the universe it would all, somehow, make sense.

This is not a book about Australia. No, it's about somewhere entirely different which happens to be, here and there, a bit... Australian. Still... no worries, right?

I have to confess, I do sometimes judge a book by its cover. I'm not a Western reader; this is a first for me and it was the cover that attracted me. It's a really cool image. The inside pages also have a striking graphic style, so that was really fun.

Fortunately the content lived up to the appearance. This was an offbeat, dark comedy, a Tarantino-style western. Two brothers, who are killers for hire. We see the story through the younger brother, Eli, who is full of conflicts: sympathetic, romantic, violent, bad-tempered, immature, thoughtful, and impulsive. Eli has a lot of doubts about their line of work. He and his brother Charlie are familiar but not close, and Charlie is as much of an antagonist to Eli as he is an ally.

The story has a lot of humor and many twists and turns with an unexpected but satisfying ending. I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it, in fact this was one of my best surprises of the year. This is not my usual genre of choice, but a good story is a good story.

Short and sharp sci-fi thriller. The main selling point is the subtly funny and misanthropic title character.

Sci-fi fans and Asimov Robot series fans should certainly get a kick out of this. It would make a good streaming show as well (if it's not already).

This is a great start to this book series, and I'm looking forward to learning more about the Murderbot.

Like other previous reviewers, I was hoping this would be as good as [b:White Oleander 32234 White Oleander Janet Fitch https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501159524l/32234.SY75.jpg 1223333] but, unfortunately it was not the case. Paint it Black was a depressing, and at times tedious story, about a young woman grieving over her boyfriend who committed suicide. She spends the entire book feeling sorry for herself, making it really difficult for me to feel sorry for her. It's not as deep and rich as White Oleander. It felt like the writer was trying to pretend it was more meaningful than it was. Still, it's far from unreadable. I enjoyed the “punk” setting, the bits where she was acting in the independent film (an interest of mine), and her slowly unraveling the mystery of all the things she didn't know about her boyfriend and his mother. It shares a theme with WO of getting out from under overbearing parents. If I'd read this when I was a teenager, my younger self would have related to Josie and been all caught up in the emotion and the drama.

Well-written and well-organized biography about one of my all time favorite entertainers. The Author goes from childhood and education of Henson to his first job on television and in the advertising world before going onto what he was most known for, and then covering his films and other post Muppet Show projects. He made some experimental films that I had not previously heard of.

The book points out the things that I liked best about him, such as the philosophy that, “When done right, it's possible to be silly and subversive at the same time.” He was also a strong believer that entertainment should work for adults and kids at the same time. (Something today's entertainers would do well to look into.) He was never didactic.

This bio doesn't pretend that Hensen was perfect. Certainly he was a massive workaholic (but blessed to love his work so much), not the greatest husband, and very stubborn. But overall this is a wonderful and informative celebration of an amazing man's life and career.

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

The quote above says it all as far as the theme of this story. The events center around WWII but I think the idea could work in any time period. What strikes most about this book is the idea that we all fool ourselves into believing we're heroes in our own story.

As the main character and narrator of this story, Campbell doesn't do that. An American spy/Nazi propaganda writer, he knows he's done both good things and bad things and he can hold the contradiction in his mind. (He can't actually live with it, but that's a different problem.) This is in defiance of the other characters in the story who eliminate the thoughts from their mind that don't fit in with their goals, their life philosophy.

There is for example, O'Hare, the former soldier who captured “war criminal” Campbell the first time and who thinks all the troubles in his life will be solved if he just captures him again. There is also the white supremacist dentist, Jones, who truly believes in his hateful cause. Not coincidentally, Campbell thinks of this kind of “totalitarian madness” as tearing a tooth out of your head. The missing teeth “are simple, obvious truths, truths available and comprehensible even to ten-year-olds, in most cases.”

I enjoy Vonnegut's writing style. He has a dry sense of humor, the story moves along nicely, he doesn't overwrite, and yet the characters and scenes are vivid. The dialogue is entertaining and believable. The themes of the story are heavy and even dark, but Vonnegut tackles them with a clear and direct writing style.

A genuinely scary horror story, set in rural Alaska which gave it an even more unsettling edge. There was a bit of a psychological component with the “twins” subplot.

It could have moved a little faster. There were many scenes where the author has the protagonist think he sees something and it turns out to be...nothing!

Once or twice can add a creepy vibe but repeating the trick decreases the effect.

Still, it's worth a try if you're in the mood for a scary book.

I enjoyed this character-driven thriller so much.

The mystery itself was nothing special; crooks being crooks to each other.

But Lionel Essog's narration, watching him work things out, tell us his story, and struggle with his condition very compelling.

It was something to see the way other characters reacted to his moments, his quirks and outburst. Most people are annoyed or repulsed. It was odd how few people had any empathy. I know Brooklyn's a tough place, but damn, I do live in Queens. His issues in participating in the accepted way in most social interactions caused other people to underestimate.

He was a very intelligent and thoughtful character.

There were two things about this short novel that took me by surprise. First, I didn't realize how much humor there would be. Wells added a lot of slapstick and dry wit, revolving around the various citizens of a small town chasing and being terrorized by the title character. I always thought of Wells as deadly serious, so this book was more entertaining than I was expecting.

The second thing was my preconceived idea that this was going to be a book about a “misunderstood monster. I was thinking this would be an Incredible Hulk-type story where a scientist's experiments go horribly wrong and ruin his life. You felt bad for him because it was an accident and now he had to deal with the struggles of his humanity. He would travel from place to place and people would hate and fear him, while he tried desperately to restore himself to normal.

But instead of all that, this Invisible Man is a jerk. You can't feel bad for him. He made himself invisible on purpose, thinking how superior he would be to everyone else. He never considered the implications of his discovery for the future of science and certainly doesn't want to share it. He robs people without remorse and scares the hell out of them on purpose. He's also selfish, bad tempered, and violent.

His brilliance in figuring out how to render himself invisible is cancelled out by his lack of consideration of the consequences. His thoughts are, “great, I can rob people!” and “oh crap, I can't eat in restaurants.” Not to mention all the times he's nearly run down or crushed because people can't see him. It's not easy being invisible. Being a genius doesn't guarantee that you're very sharp.

The Invisible Man's obnoxious nature takes a more serious nature later on in the book, when he decides a “reign of terror” and revenge on his old friend are in the works. Then, the book gets less funny but more exciting. Fund and quick read for a rainy afternoon.

Piccirilli creates a steamy, noir-ish, gothic atmosphere with this story of one young man (Thomas) struggling with his very strange hometown of Kingdom Come. He has to contend with his unusual family and their dirty little secrets plus acting as a sort of employer/protector and frequent scapegoat/nemesis of every supporting character in Kingdom Come. I read this first a few years ago and it really blew me away with the imagery, intensity, and the strangeness of it all. The writing style really moved me, poetic and lyrical as other reviewers have said. It also has a lot of tension and edge.

It's not quite a perfect experience. I realize upon re-reading it how much time is spent with supporting characters “warning” Thomas of what's to come instead of the story just getting on with it. Also, mythically bizarre, but occasionally I found myself asking if there was some sort of symbolic connection to the subplots that I wasn't getting.

Choir of Ill Children is my kind of thing: a mix of genres among horror, thriller, weird fiction, transgressive etc. It's VC Andrews with a boost of testosterone and humor. Also a bit like a 90's canceled-too-soon tv show called American Gothic. I think it's very much worth reading and re-reading.

I was fooled by the appearance of this book. Given the cover and the description, I was expecting a little more.

It's a mildly entertaining time travel adventure and that's about all.

I was expecting something edgier, creepier, a bit more chilling. The pictures were a cool idea but the book never lived up to the weirdness they promised.

I know it's for young adults but there are young adult books out there that offer more depth.

One of the best horror books I've read in awhile. The real-life fears of bullying, alcoholism, pedophilia, loneliness, and poverty juxtaposed with the supernatural terror of vampirism.

It is genuinely chilling and emotionally moving.

I was invested in all of the characters, including feeling empathy for the “villains.”

The ending was amazing, a little bit open-ended but also satisfying.

I wanted to like this. The setup of the two old magicians getting two proteges to compete to the death, all to prove their particular philosophy of magic had such promise. The descriptions of the circus itself were fantastic. I loved the parts with the three kids, the twins and their friend Bailey.

Unfortunately, I wound up disappointed with the execution of the contest and the story. As much as I appreciated the idea of the circus, having the two young competitors, Marco and Celia passively challenging each other with their creations from afar does not make for great conflict. Their romance feels forced and lacks chemistry.
In the end, despite their love story, Celia and Marco should have been compelled to fight to the death. These were the guidelines set up by the writer, but she doesn't follow through. The contest is settled by a third party who intervenes and Celia and Marco never have to make a real decision to either fight for their own life or to spare the other. They just drift off into a spirit world, happily ever after.

I was hoping for some tension and emotional/psychological stakes from this story. Certainly, the two older magicians, A.H. and Prospero could have faced some real consequences for putting these two young people in this position. There was a such a big build up that amounted to very little.

Flora is a Mary Poppins without the magic, an Emma in the 1930's, a strong willed and confident 19-year-old who finds herself orphaned and without cash.

She's not the type to worry or grieve. Homeless, she invites herself to the farm of some relations known as the Starkadders. They're all stuck in a rut, a bit dark and gloomy, led by the intimidating and incoherent presence of Aunt Ada. “Busybody” Flora gets to work and changes the Starkadders narrow lives for the better.

Flora maneuvers her relatives into doing what she thinks they would be best at and plays matchmaker for the younger set. Not so much because she cares for her relatives, but because she just can't leave things alone and, in her mind, they're not capable of doing the right thing without her!

It's a fast and funny novel, nothing too complex. I was really in the mood for some humor and this did the trick. Flora is amusingly vain and superior; she's tart, not sweet. There's some cynical lines like these that keep the book from being too cute for its own good:

“Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.”

“Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?”

“That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.”

This was written nearly 90 years ago, but I do think it has a timeless appeal.