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ogotha's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
kitten_nuisance's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was doing a thing. As I began reading it, comp authors that came to mind included Cormac McCarthy, Kristi Demeester, Brian Evenson, William Faulkner. . . however, I just didn't feel like this book arrived anywhere. Sometimes a book is just vibes, and that can be fine, but maybe this book was just not vibes for me in particular. I felt like it became repetitive (on top of vague, which is not a good combination here), and didn't become anything greater than its many descriptions of rot and ruin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Animal death
getradified's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
2.0
Less a collection of short stories than a litany of vignettes and lists (that's right, a litany of lists) of things crumbling, rotting, molding, falling from the sky, drowning, vomiting, dripping, disintegrating, breaking down, melting, bubbling, decaying, putrefying, stinking, degenerating, deteriorating, and dissolving. This physical decrepitude (of humans, animals, buildings, Earth, everything) is mirrored in all of these stories by familial breakdowns between parents and sons (there's a kind-of daughter in one story, but the father is the protagonist in that one) or siblings, which is a nice technique, but when it's the only technique present in every single story...
The language, furthermore, veers wildly between lofty and poetic and oddly pedestrian. This might be a conscious choice, but if it is, I hate it.
With a lot of editing and condensing and combining, these 13 mediocre-or-worse stories could have been condensed down to like 2-3 really great ones ("The Ruined Child" being, I think, the closest to a great work here as is). There was a lot of potential under the grime and shit and mess of this book, but Butler got too caught up in... well, the grime and shit and mess of this book, and never polished anything enough to really deliver on that potential.
The language, furthermore, veers wildly between lofty and poetic and oddly pedestrian. This might be a conscious choice, but if it is, I hate it.
With a lot of editing and condensing and combining, these 13 mediocre-or-worse stories could have been condensed down to like 2-3 really great ones ("The Ruined Child" being, I think, the closest to a great work here as is). There was a lot of potential under the grime and shit and mess of this book, but Butler got too caught up in... well, the grime and shit and mess of this book, and never polished anything enough to really deliver on that potential.
foolishpsychopomp's review against another edition
I think the concept has potential but it was just incredibly boring and repetitive with really awkward writing.
laurarosessupposes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Really interesting concept. The work is somewhat experimental and ergodic, reflective of nightmares, especially when the book is destroyed as suggested.
fluidstatic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Sprawling alliterative streams of madness, filth, pestilence, surreality, and inexplicable numbness. Plagues of gravel, ink, smoke, blood, mold, glass, endless grinning sun that drinks the sea. I can only describe this book of almost-stories as an onslaught. Grabs you on the first page, hypnotizes you with florishes of alliteration and subtle meter. It then drags you along, as you grow increasingly numb to the hideous grime of its imagery, to a complete lack of satisfying conclusion. This thing reads like David Lynch directing an A24 art house film about the death of humanity; not just the population, but the concept. Cruel, murky, gritty. Eventually you just want it to stop, but you can't put it down - like being emotionally exhausted by a 24 hour news cycle, but it's delivered by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and no matter how numb you are to the violence and rot and emptiness, they're the only thing on TV. Truly an exercise in florid, unrelentingly bleak imagery as blunt instrument. Not a fun read, but certainly a vivid and unique experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Terminal illness
sasha_fletcher's review against another edition
5.0
generally it is safe to say i stay away from the grotesque. from the things that seem to consume blake butler and say gary lutz. they tell me "In modern English, grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, fantastic, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or bizarre." blake butler i don't feel safe when i read your writing all of the time. but like with lutz, and sometimes more so because of how tightly wound lutz's words are, but what it is is that i am dragged, sentence by sentence, inch by inch, into your worlds and every moment inside of them bristles with this strange magic i don't feel in any way comfortable around, and because of these words, the ones you picked from your head and put on the page, all i can do is awe at it. at this strange and bristling and wonderful terror.
thesidecar's review against another edition
2.0
I appreciate the originality, and a good post-apocalyptic story is always appreciated, but this wasn't about characters or story; this was about being grotesque and shocking. The only two stories I remember were longer and included the most minute characterizations where I could at least BEGIN to give a crap about what happened. Otherwise, I was grossed out, or worse, bored.
mpho3's review against another edition
3.0
I have wanted to read this for such a long time, but now that I have, I hardly know what to say or how to feel about it. Some of it is exquisite. Much of it is deeply troubling. Parts of it I read feeling like someone was droning in one of my ears while the words rapidly escaped out the other, however, I will remember some of it for a long time. What I will remember is Butler's love of words and his deeply dark imagination, which reflects where we are and we may one day be.
Sometimes I look at art work that causes me to feel sorry for the artist - sorry for the fact that such images are in their head. Usually this is art that I consider pretty bad and typically hung in cafes and diners. I think I would not like what's in Butler's head to take up residence in mine, but what differentiates him from the "cafe artists'" is that their unappealing images ironically lack "real" imagination, which is compounded by a lack of skill or talent. Butler does not strike me as unskilled, but I hope the things that happen in this book never come to pass. 3.5 stars
Sometimes I look at art work that causes me to feel sorry for the artist - sorry for the fact that such images are in their head. Usually this is art that I consider pretty bad and typically hung in cafes and diners. I think I would not like what's in Butler's head to take up residence in mine, but what differentiates him from the "cafe artists'" is that their unappealing images ironically lack "real" imagination, which is compounded by a lack of skill or talent. Butler does not strike me as unskilled, but I hope the things that happen in this book never come to pass. 3.5 stars