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nataliesnotinit's review
4.0
Leave it to John Darnielle to take an already engrossing premise for digging into the enduring appeal of a defining early metal album and turn it into a Trojan Horse for a bifurcated novella with a devastating structural twist that acts as an active condemnation of how the psychiatric system fails mentally ill youth and leaves them to helplessly fend for themselves once they become adults. Was not expecting this to nearly move me to tears. Possibly Darnielle's best work in the written word, maybe the most significant to supplementing his career-long artistic legacy in profound empathy.
car22oline's review
4.75
fictionalized album review genius now im a black sabbath fan somehow and an even bigger mountain goats fan
itacuz's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
If you’re picking up a 33 ⅓ book, you’re probably a fan of the album or band it features, the author themselves, or you like the series in general and want to expand your musical knowledge. Very rarely would you be looking for a fictional novella, but John Darnielle is not one to do things the way you’re supposed to. If you’re thinking “John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats?” you’d be right, but also John Darnielle of Wolf in White Van, Universal Harvester, and Devil House. Master of Reality was the first book Darnielle had ever written, and whether it influenced him to write his other books, or was simply the beginning of his authorial journey, is up to the man himself. Master of Reality was my first experience listening to a Black Sabbath album all the way through, and hearing it play while reading the book brought a clarity to every one of the rants scrawled in the notebook that narrates this book.
There were times when Master of Reality became more about the story being told than the album it was centering. Black Sabbath was ever present in the book, as it was in Roger’s life, but rather than learning about the band. you would be learning about what pushed Roger’s family to send him off to a hospital that felt more prison than healthcare. After you’d hear a heart wrenching, all-too-familiar story, he would launch into the importance of this album against one of Sabbath’s others, or break down why the order of songs matters so much. More than a book about the band, this was a book about being a fan of the album, about being in community with other people through music. Outside of the music, Darnielle wrote about understanding your mental health better than anyone with a medical degree, because you can prescribe albums to calm you down in ways pills never could.
The book jumps halfway through, right when the teenage dirtbag narrative gets tiring, and Roger introduces himself as an adult. His life is different, but his relationship with the music of Black Sabbath has stayed the same. He picks up where he left off in describing the importance of the album, while updating the audience of his entries about his life post-institution. Darnielle could have written a static stand-in for the listener/reader, he could have written a non-fiction entry in the series about what the music scene was like when this album came out. What makes this story so unique is Darnielle’s ability to create a complicated character who goes through the gauntlet of life and still has scars to show for it.
Darnielle is so clearly a fan of the music he’s writing about. I know from being a fan of his that his personal history is similar to that of his narrator. Making it still more impressive that he didn’t just write a pretentious tirade in support of his favorite album, while tearing apart the cultural institutions that resulted in the setting of Master of Reality for so many teenagers during that era. You don’t have to like his music to be a fan of his writing, just as you don’t have to enjoy Black Sabbath to get something out of this edition of 33 ⅓.
timothyotte's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-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
zoonewrevues's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
phlakey's review against another edition
4.0
"But what I need in my life is to be liberated into feeling bad. Not sad. What I need in my life is a place where I can spray anger in sparks like a gnarled piece of electrical cable. Just be mad at stuff and soak in the helplessness."
This is the first 33 1/3 book I've read and I loved it! I love this album and once I saw what the book was about I had to read it! As someone who has worked at a psychiatric hospital and a person who has lived with recurrent depression and anxiety I can promise you that this work of fiction reads like nonfiction to me.
This is the first 33 1/3 book I've read and I loved it! I love this album and once I saw what the book was about I had to read it! As someone who has worked at a psychiatric hospital and a person who has lived with recurrent depression and anxiety I can promise you that this work of fiction reads like nonfiction to me.
bradwg's review
1.0
This was disappointing. I've likes Mountain Goats for year, and I love Sabbath. I never had any interest in the 33 1/3 series, but hearing that John Darnielle wrote one about Master of Reality in the form of a novel got me interested. Songwriting doesn't neccesarily translate to writing writing I guess. When people talk about hating Catcher in the Rye, I guess this is how Holden Caulfield reads to them.
halfpastsix's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
4.5
Maybe that younger person died when he became this older person, and now when I think I'm feeling his emotions and sharing his rage, I'm really just mourning his death. If that's true, I don't know how I can stand it. I'm 26, but I'm not ready for my 16-year-old-self to be dead.
My heart has been broken by John Darnielle once again.