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charshorrorcorner's review
3.0
I was asked by my good friend Nikki, over at Ravenous Reads, if I could help her out with a short bizarro read. I said sure, so here I am!
Now, let me just say that bizarro really isn't my thing. To be honest, I've not read any bizarro of substance-this is my first one. It really wasn't bad.
From what I gathered, our protagonist is some type of cyborg/ machine (Lancelot or Junk, depending on who is addressing him), who's trying to save Lana, a girl with paintbrushes for hair. I very much enjoyed the concept of Lana.
This mission of his/it takes place on an island called The Installation. This is all that's left of humanity and land after huge floods and tidal waves have ruined everything else. The island itself is made from humanity's garbage.
This Installation is populated with some of the craziest shit I've ever read about. And I do mean crazy! Huge totems made of people, people with their arms up the anuses of animals...like I said crazy.
But for all that, there were some very well written passages that came through to me, even in spite all this weirdness. A few of these paragraphs were almost lyrical while others seemed to be trying a little too hard. Sometimes, less is better.
Overall, I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. I'm impressed with the imagination and creativity at work in the story, and also the language used. However, I did find the story to jump around a lot, at times making it hard to follow. I think the tale could have been told in more of a cohesive way, holding the story together a bit more tightly. I might have enjoyed that a little more.
Recommended to fans of bizarro horror and dense prose!
This review is also posted at http://ravenousreads.blogspot.com/2014/01/book-review-all-art-is-junk-by-r-harris.html
Now, let me just say that bizarro really isn't my thing. To be honest, I've not read any bizarro of substance-this is my first one. It really wasn't bad.
From what I gathered, our protagonist is some type of cyborg/ machine (Lancelot or Junk, depending on who is addressing him), who's trying to save Lana, a girl with paintbrushes for hair. I very much enjoyed the concept of Lana.
This mission of his/it takes place on an island called The Installation. This is all that's left of humanity and land after huge floods and tidal waves have ruined everything else. The island itself is made from humanity's garbage.
This Installation is populated with some of the craziest shit I've ever read about. And I do mean crazy! Huge totems made of people, people with their arms up the anuses of animals...like I said crazy.
But for all that, there were some very well written passages that came through to me, even in spite all this weirdness. A few of these paragraphs were almost lyrical while others seemed to be trying a little too hard. Sometimes, less is better.
Overall, I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. I'm impressed with the imagination and creativity at work in the story, and also the language used. However, I did find the story to jump around a lot, at times making it hard to follow. I think the tale could have been told in more of a cohesive way, holding the story together a bit more tightly. I might have enjoyed that a little more.
Recommended to fans of bizarro horror and dense prose!
This review is also posted at http://ravenousreads.blogspot.com/2014/01/book-review-all-art-is-junk-by-r-harris.html
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