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sweetpavement's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating book, with an interesting premise. I wasn't entirely sure I understood the end, but I might read it again some day to see if I can get a better handle on it.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
4.0
The other day somebody told me about a woman with a kink for fences. It wasn't clear whether this included any old fence, or if she had a predilection for wooden fences, or barbed-wire ones, or perhaps it was chain-link fences. Anyway, this prompted me to do some research (by which I mean Googling) and apparently there are some 500 paraphilias listed, love of fences not included. (Oh, and paraphilia, for those of you not knowledgeable about sexual deviations, means getting off on weird stuff.) Another bad Googling decision as it turns out. Due to my bad cold, I now see mucophiles and emetophiles lurking behind every tree (seriously, don't google that).
In comparison, I suppose Nickle's 'Geisters aren't that much weirder as far as perverts go. They are, however, vicious and abusive. I'll avoid spoilers and just say that this is a novel about sex and terror (terror as defined by Stephen King) in a very unpleasant combination. I've no idea what else to say that might be helpful to anyone considering reading this. The writing is great, the concept original, the characters interesting. It's good enough for me. The perversions and sexual abuse were a little hard to digest, but that could be due to my reading environment (in the countryside, by a lake, with puppy dogs swimming in it). It would be an understatement to say I'm curious to see what Nickle writes next.
In comparison, I suppose Nickle's 'Geisters aren't that much weirder as far as perverts go. They are, however, vicious and abusive. I'll avoid spoilers and just say that this is a novel about sex and terror (terror as defined by Stephen King) in a very unpleasant combination. I've no idea what else to say that might be helpful to anyone considering reading this. The writing is great, the concept original, the characters interesting. It's good enough for me. The perversions and sexual abuse were a little hard to digest, but that could be due to my reading environment (in the countryside, by a lake, with puppy dogs swimming in it). It would be an understatement to say I'm curious to see what Nickle writes next.
rachxedge's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lolajoan's review against another edition
4.0
A review I read said "I feel Stephen King in the gut, Lovecraft in my soul and Clive Barker in my dreams. But David Nickle, I feel him in my mind." This is the kind of horror that makes me think, rather than dread. I expected to get the heebyjeebies reading this at night, or to be squicked out reading it in public, and I didn't get any of that - there's no part of me that can even entertain believing in poltergeists, so that aspect didn't get under my skin at all. Instead I'm left contemplating just how reprehensible humanity can be that this evilness in this book seems actually plausible. I'll leave it at that since I don't want to spoil anything. This book is really well written - vividly descriptive, with well-rounded characters and a good pace. I noticed a couple of editing errors which always bug me (little things like she put both the wine glasses on the table and then the other person immediately dropped her wine glass, which she should no longer have been holding...) but on the whole I'd definitely recommend this to fans of cerebral horror.
verkisto's review against another edition
2.0
"Was it terror, or was it love? It would be a long time before Ann LeSage could decide. For most of her life, the two feelings were so similar as to be indistinguishable.
"It was easy to mix them up."
These are the first two paragraphs of this novel. These are also two paragraphs that are often quoted in reviews of this book. These two paragraphs sum up all that is yet to come in this strange, eerie novel of ghosts and growing up.
The novel follows Ann, a woman who is entering an odd marriage of convenience, who also harbors a secret. She has a poltergeist, which she calls the Insect, that manifests itself when she gets under a great amount of stress. The story follows this predicament not just up to and through her marriage, but also back to when she was younger and it affected her life in horrible, terrible ways. As an adult, she seems to find controlling the Insect much harder, and what starts out as a simple revealing of her history turns into something much darker and much more sinister than she ever could have expected.
The start of the novel is a bit slow-going, but once the reader manages to sort out what’s happening with Ann and the rest of the cast of characters, it begins to speed along. Parts of the narrative are clunky, but not because the author doesn't know what he's doing; there's a passage where Ann is on a flight with major turbulence where I dare anyone to willfully stop and put the book down. You won't be able to do it. As the novel reaches its conclusion, though, things start to get muddy again, to the point where I had trouble simply following what was happening. I had the gist of where events were going, but sometimes I had trouble just tracking the details. I'm not sure why it broke down near the end, especially when Nickle did such a good job following the action during the flight.
The problem might be in my expectations. I had heard that this was an effectively creepy ghost story, and while it is, I was expecting it to be more like a genre ghost story, and not a literary ghost story. There's certainly a plot to follow here, but it takes a second place to the theme of the novel. I’m an adamant advocate for function over form, so when a story starts to suffer because it's trying to be more than just the story, I tend to lose focus. Books can be both — Perfect Circle and Tender Morsels were two books that managed to maintain the form and function at the same time — but here I just seemed to get lost in the lofty premise of the conclusion.
The 'Geisters does succeed in being another literary ghost story where the ghosts aren't what makes the story so horrible, and where the theme is much deeper than your average horror story, but I wish that the storytelling itself had been more up to what I was expecting. As it is, I admire it for its theme and for being genuinely creepy, but it's hard to appreciate it for the story.
"It was easy to mix them up."
These are the first two paragraphs of this novel. These are also two paragraphs that are often quoted in reviews of this book. These two paragraphs sum up all that is yet to come in this strange, eerie novel of ghosts and growing up.
The novel follows Ann, a woman who is entering an odd marriage of convenience, who also harbors a secret. She has a poltergeist, which she calls the Insect, that manifests itself when she gets under a great amount of stress. The story follows this predicament not just up to and through her marriage, but also back to when she was younger and it affected her life in horrible, terrible ways. As an adult, she seems to find controlling the Insect much harder, and what starts out as a simple revealing of her history turns into something much darker and much more sinister than she ever could have expected.
The start of the novel is a bit slow-going, but once the reader manages to sort out what’s happening with Ann and the rest of the cast of characters, it begins to speed along. Parts of the narrative are clunky, but not because the author doesn't know what he's doing; there's a passage where Ann is on a flight with major turbulence where I dare anyone to willfully stop and put the book down. You won't be able to do it. As the novel reaches its conclusion, though, things start to get muddy again, to the point where I had trouble simply following what was happening. I had the gist of where events were going, but sometimes I had trouble just tracking the details. I'm not sure why it broke down near the end, especially when Nickle did such a good job following the action during the flight.
The problem might be in my expectations. I had heard that this was an effectively creepy ghost story, and while it is, I was expecting it to be more like a genre ghost story, and not a literary ghost story. There's certainly a plot to follow here, but it takes a second place to the theme of the novel. I’m an adamant advocate for function over form, so when a story starts to suffer because it's trying to be more than just the story, I tend to lose focus. Books can be both — Perfect Circle and Tender Morsels were two books that managed to maintain the form and function at the same time — but here I just seemed to get lost in the lofty premise of the conclusion.
The 'Geisters does succeed in being another literary ghost story where the ghosts aren't what makes the story so horrible, and where the theme is much deeper than your average horror story, but I wish that the storytelling itself had been more up to what I was expecting. As it is, I admire it for its theme and for being genuinely creepy, but it's hard to appreciate it for the story.
jbamlove's review against another edition
4.0
One of the weirdest books I've come across, I really never knew what was going to happen next.
will_sargent's review
4.0
Was it terror, or was it love? It would be a long time before Ann LeSage could decide. For most of her life, the two feelings were so similar as to be indistinguishable. It was easy to mix them up.
That's the thesis of The Geisters, and for most of the book, it slides a razor's edge between the two. On one side, there's Ann -- alone, confused and racked with guilt after an accident that resulted in her brother's crippling and her parents death. About to get married to a man, for love. And then there's the Insect, an invisible force that has followed and tormented Ann for as long as she can remember.
The 'Geisters is a conventional book in some ways -- it doesn't use fancy language, it doesn't confuse. At the same time, it's an alien experience. David Nickle is very good at framing her experience in the form of available options, and the options that Ann thinks she has are... well, Ann tries very hard to control her thoughts and how she thinks about things.
The larger issue for me is the Insect.
But in spite of that -- it doesn't have to make sense. It's a great book, and a good horror story, and worth reading.
grimoiregrove's review
3.0
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
3.5 stars out of 5
In The 'Geisters we follow Ann LeSage, a young woman who has grown up with a poltergeist. This book is not everyone's cup of tea and I honestly do not know how I feel about. David Nickle is a talented writer but as for the story line....well, like I said before...not everyone's cup of tea. When I first started reading the book I had a hard time starting it because I found it slow and uninteresting but about halfway through the book it sparked my interest when it took a turn that I can honestly say I would have never expected. Once I finished the book I was left speechless because I did not know what to think. All in all it was a well written book but I would not say that I was a big fan of the story personally.
3.5 stars out of 5
In The 'Geisters we follow Ann LeSage, a young woman who has grown up with a poltergeist. This book is not everyone's cup of tea and I honestly do not know how I feel about. David Nickle is a talented writer but as for the story line....well, like I said before...not everyone's cup of tea. When I first started reading the book I had a hard time starting it because I found it slow and uninteresting but about halfway through the book it sparked my interest when it took a turn that I can honestly say I would have never expected. Once I finished the book I was left speechless because I did not know what to think. All in all it was a well written book but I would not say that I was a big fan of the story personally.
tundragirl's review
3.0
I liked this one more than Rasputin's Bastards, but without spoiling anything, the main drawback of this novel is that the *how* of the central conflict is never explained. It makes no damn sense.