Grey Noise

Another paperback I’ve had for a while that I wanted to ensure got read for my October TBR. The spooky reads are in full swing.

This novella is an ode to the nostalgic Friday nights of old. Getting out of school and getting your mom to drive you to the local video store, to Blockbuster. Browsing the aisles of those cardboard movie poster-ended racks of VHS tapes until you found the perfect one.

It also has the feel of playing into the nostalgia of old horror movies. The two page staticky play screen reminding me of the design in Shortwave Media’s Killer VHS series, and the endless references brought the entire story to life for me. If you can recall those nights, that feeling of picking the right watch, then you’ll understand why Evan Grey opened Rewind Video. To chase not only that feeling, but his dream.

It is also, an incredibly bleak examination of survival in a capitalist world. Ever growing rent, car payments, even medicine. The desire to just survive while the changing world only exacerbates the problem. Evan has sank his funds, his savings, into chasing his dream with this store. But when Evan finds an old tube tv on the sign of the road marked ‘free,’ he feels as if his opening day is off to a really good start. He grabs the tv, figuring he can get an old VHS machine running, playing movies all day long for the browsing shoppers, but things begin to spiral.

After a disastrous opening day, with next to no customers, an argument with his best friend and employee, and a weirdo stalking the back curtained area, all Evan can hear is the static from the tube tv. And the further he slips into the void, voices. He has always hated his step father, who has never been proud of him, but is that really enough here?

The ending is a bit of a revenge story mixed with Groundhog Day, and a bit of a Saw-esque new lease on life. It’s brutal in its descent, and awfully bloody. This was an enjoyable one that mixed some unique ideas!

I came to this book with very high expectations, all of the algorithms have been telling me that this book was my perfect match and when I finally gave in and downloaded it the TikTok algorithm saw fit to put on my FYP a video of the author saying that he likes reviewers and I knew that I wouldn't know peace until I gave the algorithms what they wanted so dearly, my opinion on this book, so here I am (the irony of this considering the conclusion of this book is not entirely lost on me).

I can see why this book came up on all of my recommendation feeds, from the aesthetics of the cover to the sense of liminality that buzzes around the edges of the page and the disillusioned look at nostalgia culture so many aspects of this book seem like they could have been tailored to fit my sensibilities (I am a millennial cliché after all).

Long story short, I enjoyed the book, found the main character to be pretty relatable (at least on the being driven up the wall by a noise) aside from a couple of things I took exception to regarding pacing it was a solid read.

4.5 rounded up.