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madarauchiha's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.25
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️
This book makes you regret reading. Makes you not want to pick up another book after finishing. Makes you wonder hey, how about that video subscription service, I should go watch stuff instead of reading now.
I read the summary and was expecting a lil mystery oriented around a strange deceased man and his haunted house. I did get a mystery. The haunting part was quite minor. The horror? Not exactly. I'd call it more historical than horror. Definitely fantasy, maybe hints of sci fi. More contemporary? Maybe?
Anyways. At times it feels like the author is just sprinkling 10 dollar words just to make the MC look witty and clever and smart. Like Artemis Fowl except irritating because he's not a child, he's an adult. The plot is about solving a few ciphers, carrying out a dead man's last will and testament, and how he died. Ghosts and horror is not involved in the least. Not even the unusual formatting of letters, telegrams, video and audio transcriptions can offer anything to distract me from how boring this mystery was. It was slow and then overly rushed and woops, it's over now.
WHOEVER SAID THIS WAS SIMILAR OR LIKE HOUSE OF LEAVES BY DANIELEWSKI. FUCK OFF. NO IT'S NOT. LIAR. LYING LIAR.
Horror.
Not a bit of this was scary, tense, or horrifying. No, not even the ending, wherein an off screen massacre and the gun violence-ing of the MCs. There were descriptions of gore and abuse, but those were fairly infrequent and posed as dreams. Dreams, being the wonderfully intangible thought creatures, are not tangible enough to be scary. Now, if there was a recurring phantasm or presence, that would be creepy. But it's not, so... Don't look at this book for horror.
Fucking weird age gap pedophilia relationship
“Name: ############# Sex: Male DOB: 6/25/1972 DOE: 11/21/1995 (23 years old “
The age of male mc
“ He lives now with an “intimate friend” or “associate” (female, about 17, Irish, mute, acquired condition ”
The age of female mc.
"I could also allow her to buy a computer—she’s been collecting pamphlets for some time."
The power imbalance this??? relationship??? is gross bad and weird. Why the fuck is this 23 old man who is sexually attracted to his 17 yo disabled child who he is supposed to be caring for? Why the fuck is the 17 yo child supposed to be the caretaker for this adult??
"What—no, I’m not, Niamh; I’m being objective; you are, uh … worth checking out. I just try not to act too Nabokov about it. [On the phone.] Oh, yeah, Mr. Brodie? "
The age gap and pedophilia is fucking disgusting. And the author is joking about it. Shithead. And he's making her the sexual aggressor in the relationship too, victim blaming all the way. Ugh.
Side note. The other weird sex thing is that the 23 yo male mc is horny for a mysterious sex dream lingerie wearing lady, and it turns out it's his aunt? Or someone posed as his aunt? So cool ok weird incest shit too. What the fuck is that for? Being horny for a child is pretty much the male mc's only personality trait.
Ableism.
So you're telling me that the 17 yo girl child is supposed to be the caretaker and servant to the 23 yo man? Really? How the fuck did they travel from wherever in europe to the usa? The misogyny of her character was also disgusting. Jesus christ.
“Niamh greeted him too, then excused herself, gesturing that she had to put something in the oven, or give someone a ride in a rickshaw. “
I really do hate that the one female character doesn't speak literally, and is pretty much the servant / Watson character. i think that falls into ableism and misogyny.
Conclusion and epiloque was out of no where?
Was this telegraphed? I forget, the book is so slow paced you tend to forget where you've wandered. But no seriously someone tell me what a 'Watcher' is and what the fuck? Is there some sort of additional secret society that's grooming children into super secret spies for infiltrating other secret societies? What the fuck was that ending? And I don't mean that in a good way. I'm left wondering if I missed something or my ereader glitched over a chapter. Listen I love thinking and having thoughts. I don't need shit explained to me. I love a good telegraphing, a foreshadowing of checkovs gun, the silhouette of a monster. But this book was none of that.
Pacing.
God it was slow. Maybe I'm a filth mililnial but reading letters was the equivalent of reading someone else's chatlogs. I DO NOT CARE. Shit starts kicking in at chapter twelve and honestly thats fine for me. its spent its time fleshing out the mystery, characters, world, and it was time well spent. I feel connected to the characters. Unfortunately the kicking does not last long.
Random non fiction articles of cryptography and ghost science.
These were interesting but easily skippable. Maybe someone else can appreciate it but after the first one I didn't care for it in the least. The ghost science portions were neat, and I was hoping they'd build up into something relevant to the main characters, or what was happening in the present day.
Side note. There are dream journal entries done by the male MC. You should skip these. Largely irrelevant after a while as they do repeat. Yawn.
Transmisogyny / homophobia?
“One evening the coach got mad at us for some reason, maybe because he’d waved me across the field and I’d waved back while we were supposed to be defending. They had us running around the premises for hours. And I’m pretty sure he slowed down for me. So, anyway, when we got to the locker room, everybody else was gone. And … it’d been raining, so we were wet. So we took our clothes off. And … we watched each other. And I remember the sound of the rain. And the silence of the lambs. I do remember those lambs. “
Is this a silence of the lambs joke? idgi. So the male mc is in a therapy session and he's there because the therapist used to have his dead uncle as a patient. And he's soliloquoy-ing this to his 17 assistant / caretaker. They're pretending to be therapist and patient, while waiting for the actual therapist to show up. That's the context so like what the fuck is this? Gay joke? Transmisogynistic silence of the lambs book jokes??
Racism
"Niamh is a Catholic, and I went to a Baptist church with her last Sunday and stood through the service like Livingstone might attend a ceremonial rite in Africa: amused by the exotica, and somehow honored to be accepted, but spiritually untouched. I’m actually so atheist that I’m reluctant to use the word spiritual. "
Weird analogy. Why would you say a white character is like David Livingstone, a christian missionary who participated in the cultural genocide and Rape Of Africa? Is that funny to you, Cantero?
Semi related. The Rwandan Genocide comes up in this book a fair amount. To use this genocide as a quirky Clue game mystery to find and solve in this book... repulsive.
Oh, and “Of course, if the Eye chose an Eskimo, a Cherokee, or an Aborigine, to Muslim pilgrims in the temple of Amr it must have...“
Indigenous slurs. Ok.
“I feigned shock and leaned forward to show how Japanesemonsterly interested I was. “Please continue.” “
????? what the fuck is Japanesemonsterly ?
Antisemitism
“Electricity seemed an elegant solution: a form of energy, impalpable and ephemeral, just like thoughts. Konrad Bergemaier (b. Mainz 1899 , one of the earliest advocates of this school, seemed to be on the right track when, in 1927, he managed to transmit the sensations of cold and warmth between two individuals. Unfortunately, the oversimplification of this principle in the hands of Nazi scientists led into the dead alley of wire-based telepathy, culminating with the human experiments in the forties that brought shame to the discipline. And still, Dr. Eva Ruff’s work on prisoners in Dachau shows how a wrong theory may lead to atrocious accomplishments. “
Was this addition to the book really necessary? Me, a goy, says no. I don't trust this author in the least to be including this respectfully.
Dog character.
Yes there's a dog character. Click this spoiler to see if they live or die. they die, semi on screen, in an explicit manner.
Content warnings
minor suicide, death, slavery, Black slavery, alcohol use, excrement, lovecraft mention, cancer, parental death, religion, colonization, slavery, indigenous slavery, indigenous racism, death, cancer,
medium suicide, child abuse, incest, cannibalism, child death, murder, child abuse, medical content, medical experimentation, nazism, antisemitism, medical abuse, torture, concentration camp, bone fractures, injuries,
major dogs, torture, medical content, medical trauma, sexual content, unreality?, slavery, minor ableist r slur, ableism, eugenics, sexual abuse, antiblack racism, Black slavery, child abuse, Rwandan genocide, genocide, murder, medical content, drug use smoking tobacco, suicide ideation, gun violence, torture, animal death, murder, ableism, child abuse, gore,
This book makes you regret reading. Makes you not want to pick up another book after finishing. Makes you wonder hey, how about that video subscription service, I should go watch stuff instead of reading now.
I read the summary and was expecting a lil mystery oriented around a strange deceased man and his haunted house. I did get a mystery. The haunting part was quite minor. The horror? Not exactly. I'd call it more historical than horror. Definitely fantasy, maybe hints of sci fi. More contemporary? Maybe?
Anyways. At times it feels like the author is just sprinkling 10 dollar words just to make the MC look witty and clever and smart. Like Artemis Fowl except irritating because he's not a child, he's an adult. The plot is about solving a few ciphers, carrying out a dead man's last will and testament, and how he died. Ghosts and horror is not involved in the least. Not even the unusual formatting of letters, telegrams, video and audio transcriptions can offer anything to distract me from how boring this mystery was. It was slow and then overly rushed and woops, it's over now.
WHOEVER SAID THIS WAS SIMILAR OR LIKE HOUSE OF LEAVES BY DANIELEWSKI. FUCK OFF. NO IT'S NOT. LIAR. LYING LIAR.
Horror.
Not a bit of this was scary, tense, or horrifying. No, not even the ending, wherein
Fucking weird age gap pedophilia relationship
“Name: ############# Sex: Male DOB: 6/25/1972 DOE: 11/21/1995 (23 years old “
The age of male mc
“ He lives now with an “intimate friend” or “associate” (female, about 17, Irish, mute, acquired condition ”
The age of female mc.
"I could also allow her to buy a computer—she’s been collecting pamphlets for some time."
The power imbalance this??? relationship??? is gross bad and weird. Why the fuck is this 23 old man who is sexually attracted to his 17 yo disabled child who he is supposed to be caring for? Why the fuck is the 17 yo child supposed to be the caretaker for this adult??
"What—no, I’m not, Niamh; I’m being objective; you are, uh … worth checking out. I just try not to act too Nabokov about it. [On the phone.] Oh, yeah, Mr. Brodie? "
The age gap and pedophilia is fucking disgusting. And the author is joking about it. Shithead. And he's making her the sexual aggressor in the relationship too, victim blaming all the way. Ugh.
Side note. The other weird sex thing is that the 23 yo male mc is horny for a mysterious
Ableism.
So you're telling me that the 17 yo girl child is supposed to be the caretaker and servant to the 23 yo man? Really? How the fuck did they travel from wherever in europe to the usa? The misogyny of her character was also disgusting. Jesus christ.
“Niamh greeted him too, then excused herself, gesturing that she had to put something in the oven, or give someone a ride in a rickshaw. “
I really do hate that the one female character doesn't speak literally, and is pretty much the servant / Watson character. i think that falls into ableism and misogyny.
Conclusion and epiloque was out of no where?
Was this telegraphed? I forget, the book is so slow paced you tend to forget where you've wandered. But no seriously someone tell me what a
Pacing.
God it was slow. Maybe I'm a filth mililnial but reading letters was the equivalent of reading someone else's chatlogs. I DO NOT CARE. Shit starts kicking in at chapter twelve and honestly thats fine for me. its spent its time fleshing out the mystery, characters, world, and it was time well spent. I feel connected to the characters. Unfortunately the kicking does not last long.
Random non fiction articles of cryptography and ghost science.
These were interesting but easily skippable. Maybe someone else can appreciate it but after the first one I didn't care for it in the least. The ghost science portions were neat, and I was hoping they'd build up into something relevant to the main characters, or what was happening in the present day.
Side note. There are dream journal entries done by the male MC. You should skip these. Largely irrelevant after a while as they do repeat. Yawn.
Transmisogyny / homophobia?
Is this a silence of the lambs joke? idgi. So the male mc is in a
Racism
Weird analogy. Why would you say a white character is like David Livingstone, a christian missionary who participated in the cultural genocide and Rape Of Africa? Is that funny to you, Cantero?
Semi related. The Rwandan Genocide comes up in this book a fair amount. To use this genocide as a quirky Clue game mystery to find and solve in this book... repulsive.
Oh, and “Of course, if the Eye chose an Eskimo, a Cherokee, or an Aborigine, to Muslim pilgrims in the temple of Amr it must have...“
Indigenous slurs. Ok.
“I feigned shock and leaned forward to show how Japanesemonsterly interested I was. “Please continue.” “
????? what the fuck is Japanesemonsterly ?
Antisemitism
“Electricity seemed an elegant solution: a form of energy, impalpable and ephemeral, just like thoughts. Konrad Bergemaier (b. Mainz 1899 , one of the earliest advocates of this school, seemed to be on the right track when, in 1927, he managed to transmit the sensations of cold and warmth between two individuals. Unfortunately, the oversimplification of this principle in the hands of Nazi scientists led into the dead alley of wire-based telepathy, culminating with the human experiments in the forties that brought shame to the discipline. And still, Dr. Eva Ruff’s work on prisoners in Dachau shows how a wrong theory may lead to atrocious accomplishments. “
Was this addition to the book really necessary? Me, a goy, says no. I don't trust this author in the least to be including this respectfully.
Dog character.
Yes there's a dog character. Click this spoiler to see if they live or die.
Content warnings
minor suicide, death, slavery, Black slavery, alcohol use, excrement, lovecraft mention, cancer, parental death, religion, colonization, slavery, indigenous slavery, indigenous racism, death, cancer,
medium suicide, child abuse, incest, cannibalism, child death, murder, child abuse, medical content, medical experimentation, nazism, antisemitism, medical abuse, torture, concentration camp, bone fractures, injuries,
major dogs, torture, medical content, medical trauma, sexual content, unreality?, slavery, minor ableist r slur, ableism, eugenics, sexual abuse, antiblack racism, Black slavery, child abuse, Rwandan genocide, genocide, murder, medical content, drug use smoking tobacco, suicide ideation, gun violence, torture, animal death, murder, ableism, child abuse, gore,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Slavery, Ableism, Sexual assault, Racism, Child abuse, Genocide, Murder, Drug use, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Animal death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide, Death, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Antisemitism, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death, Suicide, Alcohol, Excrement, Cancer, Death of parent, Colonisation, Slavery, and Racism
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