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kidclamp's review
4.0
I am a big fan of Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos, so I was probably pretty inclined to like this book already, but I definitely found this an enjoyable, if somewhat uncomfortable read.
Starting with an undercover agent investigating a new street drug and a string of homicides, the story moves into an alien sex cult. It does not shy from the sex in this cult either.
The book is graphic and disturbing, but the core idea was really interesting, in my opinion at least. The thing I liked most was the details of the world, drawn into the backgrounds are details that hint at a separate history and a changed future and ground the characters in this strange reality. The one thing I didn't like about this was that it did feel like a world that had more stories than this, and I could have easily had another 50 pages of this story plus more of the world.
A solid Alan Moore book and a world I hope he might return to someday.
Starting with an undercover agent investigating a new street drug and a string of homicides, the story moves into an alien sex cult. It does not shy from the sex in this cult either.
The book is graphic and disturbing, but the core idea was really interesting, in my opinion at least. The thing I liked most was the details of the world, drawn into the backgrounds are details that hint at a separate history and a changed future and ground the characters in this strange reality. The one thing I didn't like about this was that it did feel like a world that had more stories than this, and I could have easily had another 50 pages of this story plus more of the world.
A solid Alan Moore book and a world I hope he might return to someday.
adamskiboy528491's review against another edition
3.0
Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows continues the narrative of his 1994 short story The Courtyard, which was converted into a comic in 2003.
The comic tells the story of FBI agents Brears and Lamper, who are sent to continue the investigation of the occult murders that had been happening in The Courtyard. They uncover everything that previously happened exceptionally quickly. Then things take a turn for the worse. In another interview, Moore stated that he intended to do the exact opposite of Lovecraft's usual “fear of the unknown” trope by showing everything (in the most graphic detail possible) regarding the "nameless rituals" and "blasphemous rites" that the author only ever alluded to. As such, the comic contains numerous explicit (some might say pornographic) sex scenes, nearly all of which involve inter-species rape.
While the series doesn't shy away from discussing Lovecraft's infamous racial hang-ups, as is often the case with Lovecraft adaptations, the Deep One's design has been altered to conform to modern sensibilities. While the originals were described as flabby-lipped and bulgy-eyed, invoking comparisons to golliwog caricatures, the Deep One here is drawn with a lipless, sunken-eyed visage, looking like nothing so much as a humanoid coelacanth. The story takes the works of H.P Lovecraft to some very dark places that even Lovecraft himself danced around or demurred from going to. Let that sink in for a moment.
The comic tells the story of FBI agents Brears and Lamper, who are sent to continue the investigation of the occult murders that had been happening in The Courtyard. They uncover everything that previously happened exceptionally quickly. Then things take a turn for the worse. In another interview, Moore stated that he intended to do the exact opposite of Lovecraft's usual “fear of the unknown” trope by showing everything (in the most graphic detail possible) regarding the "nameless rituals" and "blasphemous rites" that the author only ever alluded to. As such, the comic contains numerous explicit (some might say pornographic) sex scenes, nearly all of which involve inter-species rape.
While the series doesn't shy away from discussing Lovecraft's infamous racial hang-ups, as is often the case with Lovecraft adaptations, the Deep One's design has been altered to conform to modern sensibilities. While the originals were described as flabby-lipped and bulgy-eyed, invoking comparisons to golliwog caricatures, the Deep One here is drawn with a lipless, sunken-eyed visage, looking like nothing so much as a humanoid coelacanth. The story takes the works of H.P Lovecraft to some very dark places that even Lovecraft himself danced around or demurred from going to. Let that sink in for a moment.
mattycakesbooks's review
3.0
Not too bad... not what I expect from Moore, but it definitely did some cool stuff with the Lovecraft universe. There IS a pretty strong undercurrent of repressed sexual tension in Lovecraft's books, and the man IS obsessed with genealogy and things like "tainted blood," so this is the natural extension of that, but it's pretty sexually graphic, and as such, is pretty shocking. I loved the artists depiction of the Deep One, but in short, I wanted to see more from it. I was hoping for a bit more Cthulhu, or maybe some Elder Things or a Shoggoth. But oh well, he may do more with it in the future.
misha_ali's review
4.0
This was... interesting, and I mean that in the very best of ways.
This edition compiles two books. The Courtyard is a standalone story that works as a prequel to the main story Neonomicon. I really enjoyed the first and lopped off a star for the second.
You'll see a lot of mixed reviews here, suspiciously polarized opinions when we're talking about Alan Moore taking on a tribute to Lovecraft. I think most of the negative reviews are because people are uncomfortable with the last third of the book, which features uncomfortably extended rape and other sexual violence. I didn't find it gratuitous because it serves an important part of the story and I think the device used to reveal some aspects of this part of the story and hide others () is quite well done.
I would recommend this for people who are not easily offended by sexual violence in fiction.
This edition compiles two books. The Courtyard is a standalone story that works as a prequel to the main story Neonomicon. I really enjoyed the first and lopped off a star for the second.
You'll see a lot of mixed reviews here, suspiciously polarized opinions when we're talking about Alan Moore taking on a tribute to Lovecraft. I think most of the negative reviews are because people are uncomfortable with the last third of the book, which features uncomfortably extended rape and other sexual violence. I didn't find it gratuitous because it serves an important part of the story and I think the device used to reveal some aspects of this part of the story and hide others (
Spoiler
the female lead must remove her contact lenses and is therefore unable to see what's happening to her unless we shift to the omniscient POVI would recommend this for people who are not easily offended by sexual violence in fiction.
geve_'s review
1.0
(zero stars, or like, negative stars)
I DEFINITELY should have read some reviews before borrowing this comic.
I love horror comics and I've really been wanting to read some new ones, so I checked out a few top 10 lists and found this one on several, and seeing the author was Alan Moore, I was thinking: Watchmen, V for vendetta, The killing joke etc etc etc, and figured it couldn't be too bad, right? RIGHT?
Wrongo.
Okay, few MAJOR issues here: extreme tw ahead, honestly don't even bother reading this review, just don't read this comic, it's fucking terrible, that's the review.
1: Wow there was like, a ton of very graphic rape in this. Main character is a super sexy FBI agent who also suffers from sex addiction, because of fucking course she does (is this to make the rape seem less bad? cause sluts shouldn't be able to say no? I can't even tell). Guess what will finally help her get over her crippling self esteem issues, getting raped a bunch, like trapped in a dungeon and raped over like a whole week, by a monster. And then she just like, gets over it, cause you know, magic or whatever. Even during the week she is just kind of like, annoyed with getting raped.
I get that after she was raped she was essentially possessed by the elder god who she was pregnant with (who I assume was cthulhu since her womb was the waters of r'yleh), and it was affecting her mind, but jfc bro. I am not saying rape has absolutely NO place in literature/stories whatever, but it has a very limited purpose and this one was really extremely gross/horrible/insane/over the top. And the fact that the people involved in trapping her are mixed sex, and honestly kinda driven by a women is really fucking lame, like the male author has a woman heading up this rape fest, sure ok. And having it drawn out, like, actual rapes, multiple rapes, drawn out in comic form was really just, I don't even know what to say, oof. It's like when you watch a movie and realize the director is getting off to the rape scene. Absolutely not.
2: And I can't even believe I'm going to say anything else about this comic after that, but here it is. How fucking tedious to read yet another story where a women serves only to become pregnant. Literally. Come the fuck on. She gets raped, then pregnant, and that's it, that's the fucking story. Her whole fate, her whole existence was to get knocked up by a rape monster and give birth to an elder god. Like they unfold the fucking cosmos, travel through time, fucking warp through space, but they just gotta rape a bitch in order to manifest. Fucking snore. This is maybe the most tired trope in the history of the world, guys, stop telling this dumbass story. whatever. negative 10000000000 stars. This shit is dumb. IDGAF how many fucking lovecraft references you can stick in here, fuck you.
And the black guy gets killed like, immediately, but don't worry guys, it's cause LOVECRAFT WAS RACIST hur dur, guess we just gotta go with it.
Ok, one last thought. The fact that she gets suddenly like normal after the rape/pregnancy and seems happy and content kinda gives me the "she finally found her purpose, being a mommy" vibe, so just when I thought it wouldn't get worse.
Oh also, the writing is extremely clunky and bad. Also this story felt like it took place in 1990, but I guess it was published in 2011?
Maybe I should view this through a truly Lovecraftian lens. I am willing to look passed some of Lovecrafts lesser works (the real racist shit) and appreciate that he was a wildly original and talented author. Should I look at the good points in this comic and say "Hey man, your rape porn fantasy is fine because that freaky opening chapter (the one with no rape) was pretty cool."
Nah.
DO NOT READ THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT EVEN AS LIKE A HATE READ
tw again and only semi related to this comic so probably don't bother reading the below rant:
I DEFINITELY should have read some reviews before borrowing this comic.
I love horror comics and I've really been wanting to read some new ones, so I checked out a few top 10 lists and found this one on several, and seeing the author was Alan Moore, I was thinking: Watchmen, V for vendetta, The killing joke etc etc etc, and figured it couldn't be too bad, right? RIGHT?
Wrongo.
Okay, few MAJOR issues here: extreme tw ahead, honestly don't even bother reading this review, just don't read this comic, it's fucking terrible, that's the review.
Spoiler
1: Wow there was like, a ton of very graphic rape in this. Main character is a super sexy FBI agent who also suffers from sex addiction, because of fucking course she does (is this to make the rape seem less bad? cause sluts shouldn't be able to say no? I can't even tell). Guess what will finally help her get over her crippling self esteem issues, getting raped a bunch, like trapped in a dungeon and raped over like a whole week, by a monster. And then she just like, gets over it, cause you know, magic or whatever. Even during the week she is just kind of like, annoyed with getting raped.
I get that after she was raped she was essentially possessed by the elder god who she was pregnant with (who I assume was cthulhu since her womb was the waters of r'yleh), and it was affecting her mind, but jfc bro. I am not saying rape has absolutely NO place in literature/stories whatever, but it has a very limited purpose and this one was really extremely gross/horrible/insane/over the top. And the fact that the people involved in trapping her are mixed sex, and honestly kinda driven by a women is really fucking lame, like the male author has a woman heading up this rape fest, sure ok. And having it drawn out, like, actual rapes, multiple rapes, drawn out in comic form was really just, I don't even know what to say, oof. It's like when you watch a movie and realize the director is getting off to the rape scene. Absolutely not.
2: And I can't even believe I'm going to say anything else about this comic after that, but here it is. How fucking tedious to read yet another story where a women serves only to become pregnant. Literally. Come the fuck on. She gets raped, then pregnant, and that's it, that's the fucking story. Her whole fate, her whole existence was to get knocked up by a rape monster and give birth to an elder god. Like they unfold the fucking cosmos, travel through time, fucking warp through space, but they just gotta rape a bitch in order to manifest. Fucking snore. This is maybe the most tired trope in the history of the world, guys, stop telling this dumbass story. whatever. negative 10000000000 stars. This shit is dumb. IDGAF how many fucking lovecraft references you can stick in here, fuck you.
And the black guy gets killed like, immediately, but don't worry guys, it's cause LOVECRAFT WAS RACIST hur dur, guess we just gotta go with it.
Ok, one last thought. The fact that she gets suddenly like normal after the rape/pregnancy and seems happy and content kinda gives me the "she finally found her purpose, being a mommy" vibe, so just when I thought it wouldn't get worse.
Oh also, the writing is extremely clunky and bad. Also this story felt like it took place in 1990, but I guess it was published in 2011?
Maybe I should view this through a truly Lovecraftian lens. I am willing to look passed some of Lovecrafts lesser works (the real racist shit) and appreciate that he was a wildly original and talented author. Should I look at the good points in this comic and say "Hey man, your rape porn fantasy is fine because that freaky opening chapter (the one with no rape) was pretty cool."
Nah.
DO NOT READ THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, NOT EVEN AS LIKE A HATE READ
tw again and only semi related to this comic so probably don't bother reading the below rant:
Spoiler
you ever notice how often people make these rape and pregnancy horror stories? Like, a lot. It seems like everyone recognizes how fucking horrific forced pregnancy is, like it's one of the worst things in horror stories, the total powerlessness of having the body taken over against a person's will. And yet, irl rape is extraordinarily common and birth control and abortion are difficult/impossible to get in much of the world and where it is possible to get it is often extremely shameful to use openly. you guys ever like, think about that.ninj's review
5.0
I really got caught up in this tale, with all its hooks into Lovecraftian references, and the artwork worked really well too.
jessireadsya's review
1.0
This was just not it. I am maintaining that I needed to read this for class and that is that. It started off okay, an occult murder mystery. What I was not here for was how the main character who is a sex addict and she was raped for almost 1/3 of the graphic novel... I just don't even want to waste my typing on this... Yikes.
jhouses's review
3.0
Debe leerse a continuación de [b:Alan Moore's the Courtyard|59708|Alan Moore's the Courtyard|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1262715424s/59708.jpg|1900167] y antes que [b:Providence Act 3|34849267|Providence Act 3|Alan Moore|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1492697087s/34849267.jpg|56086099] para que las piezas encajen. Por lo demás es una correcta interpretación actual de los mitos de Cthulhu. Si te gustó La forma del agua...
neon_capricorn's review
1.0
I really wanted to like this book because it had, what I thought were, good things going for it, but the ending was handled so carelessly that it just left a bad taste in my mouth.