Reviews

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub

afeezorrn's review

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

jeanbigurra's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.25

shelleys_shelf's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

desdemonarose's review

3.0

Very strange and not something to audiobook if you are easily distracted. The story is short, so it moves quickly.

Straub tries to be creepy, sexy, and weird. If you want something akin to horror smut, then you might enjoy this. It's very typical, "privileged white people," though.

pestocks's review

2.0

A quick read at only about 70 pages in my reader. Peter Straub does HP Lovecraft. You get the Old Ones and WE. Some strange maim characters that seemed to be motivated by pain and pleasure, and yes, it seems to be in that order. Now I like Lovecraft, but just because another author references him in a story does not make it automatically good. I could find no connection with these two characters. I found them cold and unlikable. Not recommended.

gerhard's review

4.0

This is a nasty little shocker that reminds one just how masterful Straub is at evoking the ineffable. I am not entirely sure that what I read here made sense; except to say that, on a deeply visceral level, the truly disturbing images he evokes will flicker in my mind’s eye for a long time to come, like a strobe light in hell. “If you were experiencing a little difficulty with a dragon, Ballard was the man for you.” One could very well say the exact same thing about Straub.

rsurban's review

3.0

One of Straub's enigmatic trifles, though not nearly as compelling as The Bounty Hunter or Mrs. God, this 90-page novella has a cinematic edge and enough foreboding and sinister trappings to keep you entertained. Nevertheless, when it is all over, there's not a lot of there there, and I suspect this is Straub merely walking his wits, either knocking off a story to fulfill a promise to a small press, or practicing his gift at tone poetry in prose form. Though impeccably written, as always, this reads as the literary equivalent of one of those elliptical Twilight Zone episodes where the whole point is that the characters end up where they started, but none the wiser; there is a sense of satisfaction at recognizing the structure when it comes into view, but also the realization that it is all form and no content.

alexctelander's review

2.0

In this new and short release from bestselling author Peter Straub, it’s a story that seems ordinary and tame at first, as the reader gets introduced and interested in two unique characters, but eventually becomes dark and scary and despairing. By the end of the 96 pages of The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, it is quite a different tale that the reader may want to hide away somewhere.

The story of these two lovers, Ballard and Sandrine, takes place over a period of 25 years, as the reader learns of their relationship at different points in time from chapter to chapter, which takes place in the same setting: a trip by riverboat down the exotic Amazon. While there is a large gap in age between the main characters — they apparently fell in love when Ballard, in his twenties, saw Sandrine, when she was fifteen, for the first time — they are besotted with each other and get up to lots of fun on these boat trips. But then the dark side begins to creep in, with a story of blood and murder.

Overall, the story is somewhat disappointing, as Straub plays a little too much on the “exotic” nature of the Amazon and the natives, while the horror aspects of the story come as kind of surprise. A longer novella or even novel might’ve allowed for more development in these areas, nevertheless The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine is an interesting experiment in what Straub was trying to do.

Originally written on December 18, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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nigellicus's review

5.0

Exquisitely disturbing and ultimately horrible tale about an unconventional couple on a journey down the Amazon that seems to recur across time. Brilliantly written, entirely unsettling and grotesquely distasteful. Messes with your head and your stomach.