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billymac1962's review against another edition
4.0
I finished this novel Sunday morning. Saturday and Sunday mornings are
my favorite reading times, so as soon as I was finished this one I
immediately went to my Goodreads list to decide what to read next.
Most, okay, pretty much all of my reading preferences fall on the darker side of fiction. But Children of Chaos did something that not many novels do: it bleaked me out.
I didn't realize it was happening at the time, but after I finished it, the whole thing began to settle in on me. The despair, the bleakness of it, made a lot of my to-read books unappealing.
So I came back downstairs and whined to my girlfriend that I needed something a little less dark for a change. After some pacing around, I went back upstairs, came back down to my Kindle and started reading.
"So you decided on something lighter?"
"Yeah"
"What is it?"
"Uh...Eight Million Ways to Die"
and she laughs...
"It's more of a mystery, though"
still she laughs...
Anyways, that snippet of Bill's Sunday aside, I just have to say that this is one of those stories that for some reason hooked into my head and stayed with me long after I finished it. I'm still thinking about it...
Greg Gifune has the goods. He's a very good storyteller, and although there was a point in the middle of this story where I felt it could have moved on a little quicker (and this is more of a testament to a good story begging resolution, not on his writing style), looking back on the novel as a whole afterwords is where the impact is felt.
I read an interview with him recently, and he didn't even mention this one as the novel he's most proud of. Wow, good news for me. Next on the slate is Say Uncle, but I will save that for a time when I'm ready to return to the dark side.
Children of Chaos ranked a 4 as I was reading it, and then rose above that as it formented through the day. So a 4.5, really.
my favorite reading times, so as soon as I was finished this one I
immediately went to my Goodreads list to decide what to read next.
Most, okay, pretty much all of my reading preferences fall on the darker side of fiction. But Children of Chaos did something that not many novels do: it bleaked me out.
I didn't realize it was happening at the time, but after I finished it, the whole thing began to settle in on me. The despair, the bleakness of it, made a lot of my to-read books unappealing.
So I came back downstairs and whined to my girlfriend that I needed something a little less dark for a change. After some pacing around, I went back upstairs, came back down to my Kindle and started reading.
"So you decided on something lighter?"
"Yeah"
"What is it?"
"Uh...Eight Million Ways to Die"
and she laughs...
"It's more of a mystery, though"
still she laughs...
Anyways, that snippet of Bill's Sunday aside, I just have to say that this is one of those stories that for some reason hooked into my head and stayed with me long after I finished it. I'm still thinking about it...
Greg Gifune has the goods. He's a very good storyteller, and although there was a point in the middle of this story where I felt it could have moved on a little quicker (and this is more of a testament to a good story begging resolution, not on his writing style), looking back on the novel as a whole afterwords is where the impact is felt.
I read an interview with him recently, and he didn't even mention this one as the novel he's most proud of. Wow, good news for me. Next on the slate is Say Uncle, but I will save that for a time when I'm ready to return to the dark side.
Children of Chaos ranked a 4 as I was reading it, and then rose above that as it formented through the day. So a 4.5, really.
rsonet's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
2.75
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
I don’t say the word masterpiece lightly, this novel is pretty close to a perfect horror novel. It has a brilliant concept and it was enough to make buy immediately. Over the years I heard things about this author but it was the concept that really intrigued me. Basically this novel is a modern re-telling of the Joseph Conrad classic “The Heart of Darkness” set in north Mexico in the dessert outside of Tijuana.
Cool concept for a novel. The prologue reminded me of Clive Barker and Ray Bardbury, the set up three boys involved in the murder of a strange magical seeing man hide the bizarre looking book that the strange man is holding. As adults thirty years later the main character Phillip is hired by his childhood friend’s mother to track down him down in Mexico. He is not just hangin down in Mexico he has started a cult and has followers.
You see where this is going. Gifune has created a chilling brutal and dark horror epic that follows Phillip on his journey to discover the awful truth. The novel is creepy, action filled and operates slickly on every level. What impressed me was how vivid the story was and I could really feel the characters terror.
If I were to look for weakness or holes I can only think of two minor ones. There are times I wish the novel was not written in first person, but I am rarely a fan of first person. The only real problem I have with Children of Chaos is the Phillip being an author. To me it doesn’t serve the story and I feel if we are going to have a writer character there should be a good reason for it at this point.
These are minor problems; this is one of the strongest horror novels I have read so far this year. That is saying a lot. This year I have already read new releases like Lisa Morton’s Castle of Los Angeles and Cody Goodfellow’s Perfect Union. Those were prime examples of new generation of strong horror writers hitting their stride. This novel like those others I mentioned proves that our generation of writers still has vital and important works to add to the genre. I am excited to explore Gifune’s work further.
Cool concept for a novel. The prologue reminded me of Clive Barker and Ray Bardbury, the set up three boys involved in the murder of a strange magical seeing man hide the bizarre looking book that the strange man is holding. As adults thirty years later the main character Phillip is hired by his childhood friend’s mother to track down him down in Mexico. He is not just hangin down in Mexico he has started a cult and has followers.
You see where this is going. Gifune has created a chilling brutal and dark horror epic that follows Phillip on his journey to discover the awful truth. The novel is creepy, action filled and operates slickly on every level. What impressed me was how vivid the story was and I could really feel the characters terror.
If I were to look for weakness or holes I can only think of two minor ones. There are times I wish the novel was not written in first person, but I am rarely a fan of first person. The only real problem I have with Children of Chaos is the Phillip being an author. To me it doesn’t serve the story and I feel if we are going to have a writer character there should be a good reason for it at this point.
These are minor problems; this is one of the strongest horror novels I have read so far this year. That is saying a lot. This year I have already read new releases like Lisa Morton’s Castle of Los Angeles and Cody Goodfellow’s Perfect Union. Those were prime examples of new generation of strong horror writers hitting their stride. This novel like those others I mentioned proves that our generation of writers still has vital and important works to add to the genre. I am excited to explore Gifune’s work further.
kermit_the_wrong's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Gore, Death, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Pregnancy, Suicide, Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Drug use, Gun violence, and Self harm
needfulreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
md0's review
2.0
Idea is not terrible, but the over all book, is. It's a whole book made of stolen scenes and characters from movies... And not even the right ones. Chunks of apocalypse now a mexico that sounds a lot like the Havana in old noire movies and a tsunami of cliches.
paperbackstash's review against another edition
5.0
4.5
“I’ve spent my entire life looking over my shoulder. It ruined us, that night. It destroyed all three of us.”
Children of Chaos was my introduction to Greg Gifune's writing. After this book, I'm already ready for more of the author's work. With a writing style that is poetic and haunting, I loved how the backward glances to the past mixed in so effortlessly with the disaster of the present. The flashbacks to what happened on ""that night"" that changed their lives forever was powerful and perfectly composed.
Rich in despair, Children of Chaos is a bleak example of lives truly destroyed. The depressing ambience is relentless, but instead of just fogging me down unnecessarily, it enriched the colorful story-line that is both surreal and unique. It can be a refresher to be in the main character's head when they're a mess, particularly when it's not angsty or silly just for the sake of cheesy emotional manipulation.. There's genuine pain coating these pages.
The flawed characters aren't necessarily nice guys, but Gifune managed to make me genuinely care. I gasped in dismay at the death of two, as awful as those deaths were, and it sunk me. Applause to the author for making me get so emotionally tied to the characters that came alive so forcefully. In fact, some of character deaths affected me so strongly that it slightly weakened my enjoyment of the book.
Going from a seedy apartment in America to a dangerous area of Mexico added oomph to the story, but ultimately it was in the heart of the desert that the claustrophobic pressure increased. Gifune doesn't dig into the destination quickly, instead going through the motions at a semi-sedate pace, but it never grew dull. The ending is a twisted, sick finale that truly disturbed. Excellent, but seriously dark story.
“I’ve spent my entire life looking over my shoulder. It ruined us, that night. It destroyed all three of us.”
Children of Chaos was my introduction to Greg Gifune's writing. After this book, I'm already ready for more of the author's work. With a writing style that is poetic and haunting, I loved how the backward glances to the past mixed in so effortlessly with the disaster of the present. The flashbacks to what happened on ""that night"" that changed their lives forever was powerful and perfectly composed.
Rich in despair, Children of Chaos is a bleak example of lives truly destroyed. The depressing ambience is relentless, but instead of just fogging me down unnecessarily, it enriched the colorful story-line that is both surreal and unique. It can be a refresher to be in the main character's head when they're a mess, particularly when it's not angsty or silly just for the sake of cheesy emotional manipulation.. There's genuine pain coating these pages.
The flawed characters aren't necessarily nice guys, but Gifune managed to make me genuinely care. I gasped in dismay at the death of two, as awful as those deaths were, and it sunk me. Applause to the author for making me get so emotionally tied to the characters that came alive so forcefully. In fact, some of character deaths affected me so strongly that it slightly weakened my enjoyment of the book.
Going from a seedy apartment in America to a dangerous area of Mexico added oomph to the story, but ultimately it was in the heart of the desert that the claustrophobic pressure increased. Gifune doesn't dig into the destination quickly, instead going through the motions at a semi-sedate pace, but it never grew dull. The ending is a twisted, sick finale that truly disturbed. Excellent, but seriously dark story.
loram's review
4.0
The prologue alone sets a disturbing tone. A man with all over body burns is in the vicinity of a carnival in town and encounters some local boys, who assume he must be responsible for a little girl's murder that happened that day. It all goes downhill for them fast from there.
Then the first chapter jumps in time and the boys have grown up and gone separate ways, each affected in their own ways by the events of the beginning. Phillip, the protagonist is probably the least screwed up, but his past comes back to haunt him when the mother of one of the other boys asks for his help.
The author admits in his notes that part of this story was inspired by Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I can see the correlations, though the writing is riveting and most of it original. I'll admit that I didn't think the end measured up to the journey. I'd like to have seen something more original and unpredictable, though it served the story well enough to enjoy the read.
The horrific elements were pretty strong in places and the tension almost exhausting at times. The setting was depicted very effectively so that I felt I was there and the characters fit in well, each of them very unique. Although I didn't much like the ending, I can see why this author is becoming very popular with those who enjoy a good Horror novel. I have another of his that I'll look forward to reading soon.
Then the first chapter jumps in time and the boys have grown up and gone separate ways, each affected in their own ways by the events of the beginning. Phillip, the protagonist is probably the least screwed up, but his past comes back to haunt him when the mother of one of the other boys asks for his help.
The author admits in his notes that part of this story was inspired by Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I can see the correlations, though the writing is riveting and most of it original. I'll admit that I didn't think the end measured up to the journey. I'd like to have seen something more original and unpredictable, though it served the story well enough to enjoy the read.
The horrific elements were pretty strong in places and the tension almost exhausting at times. The setting was depicted very effectively so that I felt I was there and the characters fit in well, each of them very unique. Although I didn't much like the ending, I can see why this author is becoming very popular with those who enjoy a good Horror novel. I have another of his that I'll look forward to reading soon.
dachi25's review
3.0
It was pretty meh and it left lots of things unresolved (I mean I get it is a horror book) but personally i like a neat ending. I thought I was gonna like it, and the cult parts were kind of intresting but the rest was pretty average. And the final twist made the whole thing hillarious.
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