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sleepingnerd's review against another edition
1.0
1.5
I’m not gonna say this book was completely terrible: the writing was good, for one, it was fairly quick to read, and Flossie is a ray of sunshine in the middle of all this gray. I also can see other people liking this if they’re interested in Lovecraft and for some of the clever narrative devices used.
But y’all, I was so bored. All the time. I just didn’t care about the characters or what they were doing. Arthor was an asshole and I didn’t even feel pity for him, and Lovecraft is worse than the dirty beneath my shoe, so there’s that. I just genuinely didn’t care about a single thing that was going on in this book, and that obviously ruins the whole experience. The ending was confusing and left me with a bunch of questions I didn’t even really bother to see answered. All in all, very yikes.
Book club pick for December.
I’m not gonna say this book was completely terrible: the writing was good, for one, it was fairly quick to read, and Flossie is a ray of sunshine in the middle of all this gray. I also can see other people liking this if they’re interested in Lovecraft and for some of the clever narrative devices used.
But y’all, I was so bored. All the time. I just didn’t care about the characters or what they were doing. Arthor was an asshole and I didn’t even feel pity for him, and Lovecraft is worse than the dirty beneath my shoe, so there’s that. I just genuinely didn’t care about a single thing that was going on in this book, and that obviously ruins the whole experience. The ending was confusing and left me with a bunch of questions I didn’t even really bother to see answered. All in all, very yikes.
Book club pick for December.
gemarky's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
dantastic's review against another edition
2.0
When Arthor Crandle is down on his luck, he gets a job as a personal assistant to a reclusive Providence author whose initials are H.P. While getting increasingly vexed by his absent employer, Crandle is haunted by the ghost of a little girl...
I had my eye on this one for a while but the ebook was ridiculously expensive. Fortunately, it went on sale a couple weeks ago. Frankly, I wouldn't mind having my $2.99 back.
Basically, this is both a haunted house story and a story of congenital insanity. Is Crandle losing his mind? Is the house really haunted? Will H.P. Lovecraft ever make an appearance? How much do I actually care about any of this?
Okay, so it has some creepy parts but I have to do some griping about this book. What the hell is the point about a horror story involving H.P. Lovecraft if you aren't going to include any elements from the Cthulhu mythos? It's really misleading. The author character could have been a fictitious author and the story would have had the same impact. Not only that, there would be at least one reader that wouldn't have felt mislead by what was probably a cash grab.
Anyway, nothing much happens. There are a few moments of horror but it's mostly tedium. The big twist was telegraphed and could be predicted by anyone who's ever seen an episode of the Twilight Zone or any movie by M. Night Shamalama-ding-dong.
Two out of five stars, only because I didn't actually hate it and it was well-written. Too bad not much actually happened.
I had my eye on this one for a while but the ebook was ridiculously expensive. Fortunately, it went on sale a couple weeks ago. Frankly, I wouldn't mind having my $2.99 back.
Basically, this is both a haunted house story and a story of congenital insanity. Is Crandle losing his mind? Is the house really haunted? Will H.P. Lovecraft ever make an appearance? How much do I actually care about any of this?
Okay, so it has some creepy parts but I have to do some griping about this book. What the hell is the point about a horror story involving H.P. Lovecraft if you aren't going to include any elements from the Cthulhu mythos? It's really misleading. The author character could have been a fictitious author and the story would have had the same impact. Not only that, there would be at least one reader that wouldn't have felt mislead by what was probably a cash grab.
Anyway, nothing much happens. There are a few moments of horror but it's mostly tedium. The big twist was telegraphed and could be predicted by anyone who's ever seen an episode of the Twilight Zone or any movie by M. Night Shamalama-ding-dong.
Two out of five stars, only because I didn't actually hate it and it was well-written. Too bad not much actually happened.
herbstlillie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
raforall's review against another edition
4.0
Review appeared on Booklist Online on 3/3/16 and here: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2016/03/what-im-reading-broken-hours.html
directorpurry's review against another edition
3.0
Read for the "Read the States" Challenge for: Rhode Island
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
This book is not what you are expecting to read. Do not come into this with any amount of presupposition or you may be disappointed.
This is not a Lovecraft mythos story; it's a Gothic ghost story.
The good: The writing is amazing. I just loved the way the words fell on the page, the right balance of description and thought to form, if not a scary story, a very atmospheric, thoughtful novel.
The bad: I have no idea what the purpose of Flossie Kush was to this story, but it was not achieved.
Flossie is a young, Jewish actress who sublets an apartment in the same building as HP Lovecraft. But, because she and Lovecraft never interact, there's no discourse on his racial prejudices or antisemitism. Not only is her religion tangental at best to the story, she a.) openly compares something to Christmas and b.) brushes on the thought of Hitler in 1936, the year this story takes place.
While I cannot say for certain what Baker does or does not know, American Jews were highly aware of the ghettoization of European Jews well before 1936, and I cannot see how Flossie would be so general or flippant about it.
The ???: Like I mentioned, there was no interaction between the Jewish character and Lovecraft, but there was also no commentary on Lovecraft's general extreme racism and xenophobia. Which honestly doesn't make any sense - in this day, I genuinely don't understand how you can interact with Lovecraft without commenting on his stance on these issues.
It was honestly kind of bizarre reading and waiting for it to come up - but it never did.
All that being said, while the general stance of the book was a bit innocuous, I really do recommend reading this for the writing alone - I found it quite lovely and captivating.
Just, you know, maybe get it from the library or something like I did.
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
This book is not what you are expecting to read. Do not come into this with any amount of presupposition or you may be disappointed.
This is not a Lovecraft mythos story; it's a Gothic ghost story.
The good: The writing is amazing. I just loved the way the words fell on the page, the right balance of description and thought to form, if not a scary story, a very atmospheric, thoughtful novel.
The bad: I have no idea what the purpose of Flossie Kush was to this story, but it was not achieved.
Flossie is a young, Jewish actress who sublets an apartment in the same building as HP Lovecraft. But, because she and Lovecraft never interact, there's no discourse on his racial prejudices or antisemitism. Not only is her religion tangental at best to the story, she a.) openly compares something to Christmas and b.) brushes on the thought of Hitler in 1936, the year this story takes place.
While I cannot say for certain what Baker does or does not know, American Jews were highly aware of the ghettoization of European Jews well before 1936, and I cannot see how Flossie would be so general or flippant about it.
The ???: Like I mentioned, there was no interaction between the Jewish character and Lovecraft, but there was also no commentary on Lovecraft's general extreme racism and xenophobia. Which honestly doesn't make any sense - in this day, I genuinely don't understand how you can interact with Lovecraft without commenting on his stance on these issues.
It was honestly kind of bizarre reading and waiting for it to come up - but it never did.
All that being said, while the general stance of the book was a bit innocuous, I really do recommend reading this for the writing alone - I found it quite lovely and captivating.
Just, you know, maybe get it from the library or something like I did.
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
I guess it was only a matter of time before Lovecraft himself started winding his proverbial tentacles into the New Weird as a character, but here we are with The Broken Hours, a quiet, creepy affair.
The story is mainly about a man who takes an assistant position in an old house in Providence. He never meets the man he works for, communicating only in letters. The house is believed to be haunted, there is unexplained phenomena throughout, and the book follows these reveals slowly throughout.
The most frustrating part of reading this book is that Jacqueline Baker makes a conscious decision to place all quotes within italics instead, which is something I never got used to and really drew me out of the story instead of perhaps drawing me inward as intended. The result is that the narrative itself, while an interesting, slow burn, feels more than a little stilted as one tries to get back into the tale. Other readers might not have the same issue, though.
There's not a lot of obvious mythos here, and the payoff isn't what I personally expected, but this is still a fun read. Things are just uneasy and creepy enough to keep the reader engaged, and the Providence of this book feels appropriately Lovecraftian (even though people aren't fornicating with the sea monsters as far as we can tell), so there's a lot to love here for those interested in weird fiction or Lovecraft in general. There's just too much here that doesn't quite work that keeps The Broken Hours from being great instead of the very good that it is.
The story is mainly about a man who takes an assistant position in an old house in Providence. He never meets the man he works for, communicating only in letters. The house is believed to be haunted, there is unexplained phenomena throughout, and the book follows these reveals slowly throughout.
The most frustrating part of reading this book is that Jacqueline Baker makes a conscious decision to place all quotes within italics instead, which is something I never got used to and really drew me out of the story instead of perhaps drawing me inward as intended. The result is that the narrative itself, while an interesting, slow burn, feels more than a little stilted as one tries to get back into the tale. Other readers might not have the same issue, though.
There's not a lot of obvious mythos here, and the payoff isn't what I personally expected, but this is still a fun read. Things are just uneasy and creepy enough to keep the reader engaged, and the Providence of this book feels appropriately Lovecraftian (even though people aren't fornicating with the sea monsters as far as we can tell), so there's a lot to love here for those interested in weird fiction or Lovecraft in general. There's just too much here that doesn't quite work that keeps The Broken Hours from being great instead of the very good that it is.
aksel_dadswell's review against another edition
4.0
I had mixed feelings about The Broken Hours. The book was not at all what I expected, in good and bad ways.
The writing itself was spectacular, scalpel-precise but never too simple or sparse. Every word felt like it was exactly where it was supposed to be. There was a beauty and intensity - and more than a little melancholy - that cut right into my perception and continued its work deep into my brain matter. Lines like the "coldly muscled coursing of the river" provided perfect, delicious moments of imagery so vivid in both what they evoked and the sheer genius of that particular combination of words that I often found myself re-reading them over and over again under my breath until the rhythm became familiar with my tongue.
The story, which was not exactly plot-heavy, opting instead for a gloomy slow-burn character study, was engaging in terms of psychology and atmosphere, but confounded my initial expectations of the cover's promise that this was "a novel of H.P. Lovecraft." I kept expecting - hoping - some eldritch horror would come squirming from the shadows, and was inevitably disappointed when this [SPOILERS] didn't happen. But to judge a book by something it is not - and something that it isn't trying to be, more specifically - is somewhat unfair.
The real problem I had with The Broken Hours was the at once implausibility and predictability of what constitutes the book's major climactic twist. Although the mystery is underplayed quite well at times, to fantastic emotional effect (a particular flashback is brilliantly executed in terms of what it specifically doesn't mention), it became one of those "I really hope they don't go in that direction" contrivances. Ultimately, the author did go in that direction, and although by no means a failure, the reveal fell flat for me. A quiet novel with a quiet ending, all of it laced with melancholy and loss, but with something missing that could have brought some of the disparate elements together and elevated it to great piece of literature.
I'd still definitely recommend the book though; I devoured it quickly and urged myself to read one more chapter, one more chapter with every sitting. Jacqueline Baker writes with a deep sort of Gothic poetry that really gets under your skin and stays there, worming its way into you. Despite my misgivings, its scenes and characters and tangible atmospherics still turn slowly in my head.
The writing itself was spectacular, scalpel-precise but never too simple or sparse. Every word felt like it was exactly where it was supposed to be. There was a beauty and intensity - and more than a little melancholy - that cut right into my perception and continued its work deep into my brain matter. Lines like the "coldly muscled coursing of the river" provided perfect, delicious moments of imagery so vivid in both what they evoked and the sheer genius of that particular combination of words that I often found myself re-reading them over and over again under my breath until the rhythm became familiar with my tongue.
The story, which was not exactly plot-heavy, opting instead for a gloomy slow-burn character study, was engaging in terms of psychology and atmosphere, but confounded my initial expectations of the cover's promise that this was "a novel of H.P. Lovecraft." I kept expecting - hoping - some eldritch horror would come squirming from the shadows, and was inevitably disappointed when this [SPOILERS] didn't happen. But to judge a book by something it is not - and something that it isn't trying to be, more specifically - is somewhat unfair.
The real problem I had with The Broken Hours was the at once implausibility and predictability of what constitutes the book's major climactic twist. Although the mystery is underplayed quite well at times, to fantastic emotional effect (a particular flashback is brilliantly executed in terms of what it specifically doesn't mention), it became one of those "I really hope they don't go in that direction" contrivances. Ultimately, the author did go in that direction, and although by no means a failure, the reveal fell flat for me. A quiet novel with a quiet ending, all of it laced with melancholy and loss, but with something missing that could have brought some of the disparate elements together and elevated it to great piece of literature.
I'd still definitely recommend the book though; I devoured it quickly and urged myself to read one more chapter, one more chapter with every sitting. Jacqueline Baker writes with a deep sort of Gothic poetry that really gets under your skin and stays there, worming its way into you. Despite my misgivings, its scenes and characters and tangible atmospherics still turn slowly in my head.
claben's review against another edition
3.0
An extremely quick read, capable of keeping this reader engaged even though ultimately the final twist managed to be predictable and at the same time not very psychologically plausible. Not a classic for the ages but good entertainment for the train.
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