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kates_cupcakes's review against another edition
It’s very hard to follow and honestly I wasn’t getting any depth out of the stories. “ cold little bird” was a good story and honestly the best that I heard. The rest of the book is hard to follow and is honestly confusing
ilnadurn's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed Cold Little Bird and The Boys, but the rest didn't really do it for me. I was a bit disappointed with this one. I love an eerie short story, but the main characters were all so empty - which was the point - but they all just seemed to blend into one another because of it.
kassiopeija's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
stephen_reads's review
3.0
A collection of short stories connected by tone and theme. Some are fairly straight forward and others are absurd verging on the avant-garde.
dillarhonda's review against another edition
Ben Marcus’ language creates a sense of the uncanny. The individual words are familiar, but the phrases are just strange enough to make you read slowly. The characters in the stories of his latest collection, Notes from the Fog, are all similarly estranged; from language, from each other, from themselves. There is a coldness that pervades the collection, a deep unease that is more than the fact that some of his characters are evil people. There’s a meanness here. The standouts in this volume are “Stay Down and Take It” published this May in The New Yorker, “Critique,” a fabulous riff on viewing the whole world as an art installation, and “A Suicide of Trees,” in which a description of a missing father grows more and more sinister. Though lacking in warmth and hope for human connection, Notes from the Fog is a head-scratchingly eerie and linguistically delighting journey.
lovepjonson's review against another edition
4.0
Creepy-@$$ short stories. I would freakin’ love to be in AP English again annotating and (psycho)analyzing, drawing out the strings that link one to the next.
mwana's review against another edition
5.0
...he grabbed Lester, and Lester squealed with delight, squirming in his father's arms. Do you see how this used to work? Martin wanted to say to Jonah. This was you once, this was us.
Cold Little Bird is about a young man who decides that he hates his father. At 10 years old, Jonah is suddenly too mature for his parents' bed time stories, their hugs, their kisses, their tickles.
It was so jarring to see. The father, Martin, was at his wit's end when he saw how independent his eldest son was getting. And not that charming kind of independence you see in kids when they finally learn to put their dishes back in the sink or when they can go to the shops without needing to come back home three times to be reminded what they're going to buy [don't judge me]. Jonah was eerily independent. He was also polite, courteous, distant. Like a fully functional psychopath. He would feed his little brother. Take care of him. Even scold him when he was throwing a tantrum.
Martin was thrown by all of this. He was losing his son right before his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it. His wife, Rachel wasn't helping matters anyway. She believed Martin was just helicopter parenting. Desperately hovering over their son trying to hold onto the remnants of his childhood only for them to get blown away.
Jonah requested his parents not to touch him. Or treat him like a little boy. But Martin can't accept this. His little bird only just broke out of his shell? Is he supposed to just sit there and watch him fly away? Martin snaps and crosses a line. And Jonah responds with a coldness I have only ever seen when recommending brain matter with a nice chianti.
This story was chilling. It made me see what parents go through as they watch their children grow. What they feel when they see their little boys and girls pick out their first novels. For most folks, this is usually a battle. The kids want to spend endless days on the computer or iPad. For other parents, it's a delight when the little one is so engrossed in a Goosebumps or Harry Potter novel that they forget to do their homework. But for Martin, it was a period of worry.
He found his son reading James Fetzer's 9/11 conspiracy bullshit.
On the cover, instead of a boy dashing beneath a bolt of lightning, were the good old Twin Towers. The title, “Lies,” was glazed in blood, which dripped down the towers themselves.
Oh, motherfucking hell.
“What’s this?” Martin asked. “What are you reading there?”
“A book about 9/11. Who caused it.”
Martin grabbed it, thumbed the pages. “Where’d you get it?”
“From Amazon. With my birthday gift card.”
“Hmm. Do you believe it?”
“What do you mean? It’s true.”
“What’s true?”
“That the Jews caused 9/11 and they all stayed home that day so they wouldn’t get killed.”
What do you do when your son is turning into a pleasant-faced nightmare? How do you wake up from such a dream? Is he just misguided or turning into a nutjob? Is he psycho or sarcastic and too smart for you to handle?
These are the questions Martin is left dealing with throughout this story.
I don't have kids. But if Jonah was my son, I'd have put him in a box and shipped him back to sender. Bitch was coooooold. I can not.
You can read the story HERE.
Cold Little Bird is about a young man who decides that he hates his father. At 10 years old, Jonah is suddenly too mature for his parents' bed time stories, their hugs, their kisses, their tickles.
It was so jarring to see. The father, Martin, was at his wit's end when he saw how independent his eldest son was getting. And not that charming kind of independence you see in kids when they finally learn to put their dishes back in the sink or when they can go to the shops without needing to come back home three times to be reminded what they're going to buy [don't judge me]. Jonah was eerily independent. He was also polite, courteous, distant. Like a fully functional psychopath. He would feed his little brother. Take care of him. Even scold him when he was throwing a tantrum.
Martin was thrown by all of this. He was losing his son right before his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it. His wife, Rachel wasn't helping matters anyway. She believed Martin was just helicopter parenting. Desperately hovering over their son trying to hold onto the remnants of his childhood only for them to get blown away.
Jonah requested his parents not to touch him. Or treat him like a little boy. But Martin can't accept this. His little bird only just broke out of his shell? Is he supposed to just sit there and watch him fly away? Martin snaps and crosses a line. And Jonah responds with a coldness I have only ever seen when recommending brain matter with a nice chianti.
This story was chilling. It made me see what parents go through as they watch their children grow. What they feel when they see their little boys and girls pick out their first novels. For most folks, this is usually a battle. The kids want to spend endless days on the computer or iPad. For other parents, it's a delight when the little one is so engrossed in a Goosebumps or Harry Potter novel that they forget to do their homework. But for Martin, it was a period of worry.
He found his son reading James Fetzer's 9/11 conspiracy bullshit.
On the cover, instead of a boy dashing beneath a bolt of lightning, were the good old Twin Towers. The title, “Lies,” was glazed in blood, which dripped down the towers themselves.
Oh, motherfucking hell.
“What’s this?” Martin asked. “What are you reading there?”
“A book about 9/11. Who caused it.”
Martin grabbed it, thumbed the pages. “Where’d you get it?”
“From Amazon. With my birthday gift card.”
“Hmm. Do you believe it?”
“What do you mean? It’s true.”
“What’s true?”
“That the Jews caused 9/11 and they all stayed home that day so they wouldn’t get killed.”
What do you do when your son is turning into a pleasant-faced nightmare? How do you wake up from such a dream? Is he just misguided or turning into a nutjob? Is he psycho or sarcastic and too smart for you to handle?
These are the questions Martin is left dealing with throughout this story.
I don't have kids. But if Jonah was my son, I'd have put him in a box and shipped him back to sender. Bitch was coooooold. I can not.
You can read the story HERE.
books4gram's review against another edition
4.0
This is SUCH an incredible collection of short stories! The literary equivalent to 'Black Mirror'. I discovered the author by chance, when I happened to read a short story of his in The New Yorker and was hooked. There is a running theme of dysfunctional relationships, the atrophy of family life and love, laced with dry humour. The first story "Cold Little Bird" (about two parents struggling to connect to their child who suddenly decides he doesn't want their love or affection) was extremely unnerving and is a perfect example of Marcus's insane ability to creep in on you and make you feel things you never thought you could feel.
One of the other stories I loved was "Stay Down and Take It", as there's a very uncharacteristic sense of hope in the ending though the story was classic Marcus all the way.
I wouldn't recommend this book for the usual reader, but if you're a fan of seeking the surreal in the mundane, then by all means read every word this man has written.
One of the other stories I loved was "Stay Down and Take It", as there's a very uncharacteristic sense of hope in the ending though the story was classic Marcus all the way.
I wouldn't recommend this book for the usual reader, but if you're a fan of seeking the surreal in the mundane, then by all means read every word this man has written.