The Cipher

Straight up one of my new favorite books ever.

Surreal speculative horror with a nearly indeCipherable (heh) allegory at its core, but at the same time makes perfect sense on an instinctive level? Gorgeous prose that makes my skin crawl and my heart hurt? This is exactly what I want out of a book.

She'll never love you
being useful is enough
but won't fill the hole.

Not for me

I probably just didn't get it but basically nothing happens in this story. It's a lot of repetition and build up to.... not much at all.

This is a tough book to review, for a myriad of reasons, but I promise to do my best. See, The Cipher is something completely different from most of the horror novels that I have read in the past few years. There's something raw, dangerous and downright uncomfortable about this story. Kathe Koja doesn't write about Nicholas and Nakota's experience with the Funhole, she drags the reader into that terrifying space with them. I still have goosebumps, and my thoughts are all over the place.

Let's start with what I liked about this story. First off, I actually appreciated the fact that Nicholas and Nakota feel so realistic. I had a few friends tell me before I started this story that they didn't like how unlikable these two are. For me, it was kind of a breath of fresh air. Koja doesn't care whether you like Nicholas and Nakota. What matters is that they are people. Real, gritty, possibly unlovable, people. As the story twisted and turned, I found myself caring less about how much I liked them and more about the fact that their decisions were leading them closer and closer to certain doom. The feeling of their descent is visceral. It claws at you and, whether you like them or not, you'll end up following them down.

Another aspect of this book that I appreciated was the way that Koja never really gives away the ending. I won't spoil it for any other readers either. Still, I can guarantee that you might think you know what you're headed into but you're probably wrong. The story takes moments that seem cut from any other horror novel, and manipulates them into something even darker. There were portions of this that I had to read twice over, just to even understand what was unfolding. Poor Nicholas.

So what made me ultimately give this book a three star rating? Quite honestly, it was was the writing style from the middle onwards. As Nicholas becomes consumed with the Funhole, the book becomes almost a rambling stream of consciousness. While I understood the intent, he repeats himself constantly and it grated on my nerves after a while. This book already had an odd punctuation style, which I took at face value since it benefitted the feel of the story inside. However at Nicholas' worst points it became something that was almost unreadable. I was a little frustrated at how slowly I had to read, to fully understand what was happening.

Do I think that The Cipher is a story that others should read? Absolutely. Provided that you are okay with some gore, a lot of darkness, and the kind of uncomfortable dread that follows you for days after you flip the last page. This is a horror story on a whole new level. I'm still not sure if I'll ever forget it.

The Cipher has an interesting premise, but is marred by an unlikable cast of characters and thousands of words of meandering in search of the plot. I found the book boring. I must confess that although I am generally an audiobook enthusiast I do wonder if I might have enjoyed this book more in in a print or ebook edition. Sadly at the time of writing this review the Kindle edition is noted for containing typos and the book is out of print (although a new printing is scheduled for release soon). I found the conversational prose to be difficult to follow in the audio format. I don't want to give the impression that it was the narrator's fault since I usually have no trouble following Bishop and Skippy (Expeditionary Force as read by the incredible RC Bray) or Atticus and Oberon (Iron Druid Chronicles as read by the marvelous Luke Daniels), but rather because I simply found myself alienated from the book by the complete lack of fcks I had to give about these characters. They're nineties grunge losers who drink and fck and blah blah blah GET ON WITH THE SUPERNATURAL HOLE IN YOUR EFFING BASEMENT ALREADY! New characters were introduced, and I didn't care. Overall this book could have been a novella and I might have found it more enjoyable. The only reason I didn't DNF it was because it seems to have such a following in the horror community and I wanted to understand why. I wish I had DNF'd it though, as I think the mystery and allure of The Cipher might have been greater than that of the fun hole itself, once revealed. Snooze fest. Do not recommend. Personally wondering if it went out of print for a reason.

Once a print edition is out, I might, against my better judgement, pick up a copy to try this book again in a different format. Maybe I'll follow it better and understand all the hullabaloo.

“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.

Body horror at its best

Are we just the sum of our physicality? Are we more? And is that physical barrier between what is me and the rest of the world breachable? Should it be?

A bizarre and haunting story of a failed poet who discovers an eerie hole in the storage room of the sleazy apartment building in which he lives. Not scary so much as creepy and sometimes morbidly funny.