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adamchalmers's review
4.0
A beautiful little story of human and cosmic horror. Two exiles discover each other years after fleeing their South American home to escape the junta. Of course, unhuman forces lure them back. One of the most gorgeous horror novels I've read. Aligning the Lovecraft-style monsters with the human monsters behind genocide makes the book much more emotionally satisfying. The end came about a bit quickly and suddenly for my liking.
tekt's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
jefffrane's review
5.0
A quietly powerful story that begins with a young professor who teaches Latin American literature and slowly trails through the mundane world offering glimpses of Otherness. Eventually she becomes a somewhat reluctant warrior, fiercely loyal and determined, and comes to face Lovecraftian horrors enmeshed in symbiosis with human monsters. She is in every way not a Lovecraftian protagonist but rather brave and intelligent and, well, difficult to imagine Howard Phillips acknowledging a powerful woman. To date, I have read two of Jacobs' trilogies, neither of which have anything in common with the other or with anything else I've read. The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is yet another change up. All any of them have in common is the grace of John Hornor Jacobs' writing.
softblackstars's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
tfrohock's review
5.0
It's rare that I give any book five stars, but The Sea Dreams it is the Sky is the best horror novella that I've read since I burned through Stephen King's 1922 several years ago.
Isabel meets a fellow ex-pat, who is simply known as the Eye. When the Eye receives a mysterious note, he returns to their homeland and leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she finds that the Eye is none other than the reviled poet, Rafael Avendaño.
As Isabel reads the manuscripts the poet has left behind, the reader is immersed into a creeping sense of dread that intensifies with every page. Like Isabel, we are drawn into the terror of Avendaño's life during a military coup that left him maimed in body and soul. And behind the coup, seen only by Avendaño, is an ancient horror that Jacobs reveals to us by stripping away one layer of reality after another before our eyes.
Equal turns poetic and hypnotic, Jacobs resurrects the surreal imagery of Jorge Louis Borges and couples it with visceral prose that cuts to the bone.
Christ, it gave me nightmares.
Don't miss it.
Isabel meets a fellow ex-pat, who is simply known as the Eye. When the Eye receives a mysterious note, he returns to their homeland and leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she finds that the Eye is none other than the reviled poet, Rafael Avendaño.
As Isabel reads the manuscripts the poet has left behind, the reader is immersed into a creeping sense of dread that intensifies with every page. Like Isabel, we are drawn into the terror of Avendaño's life during a military coup that left him maimed in body and soul. And behind the coup, seen only by Avendaño, is an ancient horror that Jacobs reveals to us by stripping away one layer of reality after another before our eyes.
Equal turns poetic and hypnotic, Jacobs resurrects the surreal imagery of Jorge Louis Borges and couples it with visceral prose that cuts to the bone.
Christ, it gave me nightmares.
Don't miss it.
haversam's review
4.0
The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is an extremely good novella. I really liked the gentle pull of the plot that guided you until you are in a cosmic horror story without even realizing it. The prose was at times dark and disturbing and other times languid and rich, which gave depth to the two main characters, Isabel and the Eye.
aweichenlaub's review
5.0
This book is an incredible piece of cosmic horror. Jacobs has a mastery of the language that is astounding and the imagery of this book is going to stick with me for a very long time. For better or worse.
loganmoluccan's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Genocide and Child death