Reviews

Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler

guiltyoftsundoku's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

This is the book version of that wannabe goth kid at your high school. The one who stuck safety pins through the top layer of his skin to freak people out.

It’s like the author put a bunch of horror tropes in a jar then picked them randomly to write about. It’s hard to feel anything for the characters because there are no characters. Just body horror happening to random people. How am I supposed to feel afraid for people I have no connection to? They’re not even people. The author introduces them by the body horror they’re experiencing.

I find it to be a bad representation of how people deal with traumatic events - anyone who has even a cursory understanding history can see that’s not how people act. Are the characters supposed to be mentally ill? I’m confused.

I’d also understood that the book encourages you to destroy it as you read it. Am I supposed to be so disgusted with the book that I destroy it?

How did this even get published?

flelix's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

apatofuture's review against another edition

Go to review page

Too bleak 🙃

cjm1701's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book was a bit of a strain to get through, there were parts that were incredibly uncomfortable and gruesome, but I absolutely loved it. Don’t read it

bdonelan120's review against another edition

Go to review page

I'm gonna not and say I did...

I don't mind grotesque stuff, but man even I have my limits. 

bhirts's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I read this book a lot at work and, I think just once but maybe more, I, completely unselfconsciously, kissed the book and perhaps "squealed in delight".

Full Disclosure: I AINT NO BITCH

djflippy's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Absolutely beautiful, brilliant, and unbearably bleak; this book makes Cthulhu look like a nursery rhyme. I loved it, but there are honestly very few people I could recommend it to, in good conscious. Reading Scorch Atlas is like chewing your own child's face off..

saraupsidedown's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Grotesque but beautiful prose. Lots of decomposing corpses

saintsuture's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

staciesbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

139/373 phone pgs

Nothing wrong with it, reading slump strikes again