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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
What a labyrinth of a book. All of darnielle’s prose is enamoring. I definitely agree with one of the other reviewers, I didn’t quite understand what was happening at some points but I couldn’t stop reading. This reads much like and episode of twin peaks and in the end was very good. It’s short so if you don’t care for it you won’t loose much time. Less clarity than Wolf in white van but just as beautiful.
I’m sure if the author is reading any reviews he’ll feel misunderstood, which while justified, you wrote a book that isn’t easily understood to a general audience. It’s structured in the same way that a person who’s spent their entire life in a small town talks, weaving and bobbing around the main point, gingerly walking around the hard dreadful themes and changing the central cast like one would talk about the dynamics of families that live across the street from them. This could make for a phenomenal short film if written with more mercy for impatient publishers but that would take off too much of the meat of the story. It’s a risk to write in a way that intentionally meanders but I feel like I have no one to blame but myself for picking up a book set in 1990s Iowa.
This book was wild. I greatly enjoyed it but I would have a hard time recommending it to anyone, it felt like 3 different books in one, there was no point, it was all point, all of these statements feel. I was expecting a more straightforward horror novel, and it definitely had that vibe in the beginning, for about the first 1/4 of the book. After that the plot goes in another direction entirely, and the book does this acrobatic routine a few times before the end. The tangents are all related to the main thrust of the story but almost feel like they're from different books. Ultimately the story I was being told was so well done I didn't mind the odd, meandering pace at all.
Started fabulously well, shades of Pattern Recognition winning me over easily. Then it got weird, which is OK, I like weird. But there were too many self-referential literary stylings that didn't quite land. I love a fourth wall break more than most, but do it with charm, not with a 'look, I'm breaking the fourth wall again' smug grin...
Meh. Could have been pretty great. Wasn't. I'm going to re-read Pattern Recognition again.
Meh. Could have been pretty great. Wasn't. I'm going to re-read Pattern Recognition again.
The writing is good, but the story is disjointed and confusing.
The prose is good, which is a shame because it is the only element of the story I found enjoyable. The story and plot are obfuscated to the point I had to re-read several passages. This seems the sort of book written to be studied just to parse out its meaning. Purposefully obscure. I don't know. I donated it immediately, but have regrets over whether that was a kindness on whoever receives it.
If Darnielle writes another book and gives closer care to plot and story, I think he could put out a fantastic book, because the writing is excellent.
If Darnielle writes another book and gives closer care to plot and story, I think he could put out a fantastic book, because the writing is excellent.
This was one of the strangest 3-star ratings I’ve ever given. I love this book, but I’m not sure I understood it. Calling it horror definitely doesn’t feel right, despite the melancholic and creepy vibe Darnielle strikes. He has clearly found a voice that works for him; The prose is magnificent, especially when describing the abstract. A feeling of longing, a passing curiosity, all turn into half-pages of poetry, and the book is better for it. At the same time, the meandering pace makes the plot difficult to follow, and can pull readers so far out of the story at hand that interest can wane. This is the first book of his I’ve read, so I could be wrong, but I suspect a more focused plot, maybe even fewer pages to work with, would reign in that meandering.
Supposed horror story that started about a video store(!) and should have stuck to that. It started out so well but dried up in part two and three. Blah, I had to replay the last third again and again because I would zone out or sleep during the audio. The nostalgia of video cassettes in the beginning made their mysterious "glitches" chilling and then Idk what happened. Might revisit with a better review. Meep. Loved the narration by the author though.
The quiet, sad, stagnant connectedness between the characters and their stories was nicely woven. It was subtle, unnerving, a little hard to decipher until the end. So I would say it did a good job at conveying the ideas and emotions it wanted to show, I just had little interest in the characters.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No