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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
This book is bonkers. This book is *bananas*. WTF did I just read? The dark humor bites as savagely as some of the creatures in the tale, surprised laughs out of me when I least expected. This wild fever dream somehow manages to also be a solemn meditation on the relationships between mothers and their daughters, loss, and grief. And it's creepy af. This is a weird, little (only 165 pages!), horror/comedy story that doesn't give a hoot about pulling punches and sparing your sensibilities-- the squeamish should read something else. Seriously. But if you're brave enough to give this a go, it's totally worth it. (And keep an eye out for Easter eggs.)
I can't believe I'm dnfing a book that's 80 pages long in the first place but it's so boring I can't continue anymore
I re-read this book today~ It is a short book but I like it a ton!
Honestly more of an overly long short story than it is a novel, this is a fun and fast story that hooks you quickly and doesn’t let go until the end. I did wish the ending events were a bit longer, but that’s my only gripe.
What a weird, morbidly funny, neat book. I love it.
I finished this very quickly but spent so long deliberating on how much I liked or disliked it and it is decidedly mid.
I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, which albeit a little muddled at times, was a good way to split up the sections of the book.
what I didn't really like was. ana? yeah just ana's whole thing but glad that she and her family got along at the end of it all :)
I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, which albeit a little muddled at times, was a good way to split up the sections of the book.
what I didn't really like was. ana? yeah just ana's whole thing but glad that she and her family got along at the end of it all :)
I received a copy of this book directly from the publisher (ECW Press) thanks to me being a member of their "Shelf Monkey" team. These are people that the publisher sends books to asking them to review them and post them everywhere. In case you were wondering, the name came from the novel of the same name by Corey Redekop, which was published by ECW Press.
From the Publishers Weekly review via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown:
I felt this worked better as a description, being much shorter then the other option on Amazon. However, this one leaves out a storyline, that of Charlie, an older man, his aging, short-on-intelligence dog Mitchie, and the headless ghost that silently and continuously confronts them.
I think that the last line of the above review sums it up best. The only issue is that I didn't see this as a horror novel going in. What I came out from it was a very well written novel that had many elements, including horror, humor, and a real warmth for the characters within.
Even with the quick chapters, and staccato pacing as mentioned, it is easy to develop a bond with the characters. Even when Ann is doing something you know is just wrong, so very wrong, you understand why and sympathize with her dilemma.
I am on the fence about the length of the book, though it's a good thing where I am at. The book is short. Rather short. There are quite a few chapters that are only a couple of paragraphs long, and the following page is blank. So to read through 168 pages feels more like 100. And even though we find great depth for such a short book, in both characters and story, it could have easily been longer. But that also might have ruined the pleasure that this quick read did bring along. Lengthening the story though could have helped the ending. Not that it was bad, but there are things that might have been answered. It seemed a bit rushed to me. Not that there was "deus ex machina" or some quick solution to a problem. It just ended where things could have been developed further. Again, this is good and bad, but mostly still good.
I hope that Comeau pursues more writing, as I would like to read what he would come up with next.
From the Publishers Weekly review via Amazon.Com, here is a rundown:
Canadian author Joey Comeau, best known for his darkly surreal web comic, A Softer World, turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. Jackie is infatuated with her best friend, Ann, but hides her feelings rather than risk rejection. Ann has more dramatic problems: her mother, an increasingly ravenous and highly infectious supernatural creature, demands that Ann supply her with live prey. Distracted by their personal obsessions, Ann and Jackie very nearly occupy different novels despite their frequent physical proximity; Jackie wanders through a tale of teen lesbian romance, while Ann struggles to survive the dark horror of monstrous transformation. A staccato structure allows for surprising intricacy in so few pages, and the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth.
I felt this worked better as a description, being much shorter then the other option on Amazon. However, this one leaves out a storyline, that of Charlie, an older man, his aging, short-on-intelligence dog Mitchie, and the headless ghost that silently and continuously confronts them.
I think that the last line of the above review sums it up best. The only issue is that I didn't see this as a horror novel going in. What I came out from it was a very well written novel that had many elements, including horror, humor, and a real warmth for the characters within.
Even with the quick chapters, and staccato pacing as mentioned, it is easy to develop a bond with the characters. Even when Ann is doing something you know is just wrong, so very wrong, you understand why and sympathize with her dilemma.
I am on the fence about the length of the book, though it's a good thing where I am at. The book is short. Rather short. There are quite a few chapters that are only a couple of paragraphs long, and the following page is blank. So to read through 168 pages feels more like 100. And even though we find great depth for such a short book, in both characters and story, it could have easily been longer. But that also might have ruined the pleasure that this quick read did bring along. Lengthening the story though could have helped the ending. Not that it was bad, but there are things that might have been answered. It seemed a bit rushed to me. Not that there was "deus ex machina" or some quick solution to a problem. It just ended where things could have been developed further. Again, this is good and bad, but mostly still good.
I hope that Comeau pursues more writing, as I would like to read what he would come up with next.
This had so much potential in the beginning. And I think it falls apart during part three.
An inventive story that lives up to its title. Another review called it "underdone," and that's apt; there's a certain amount of refinement and deepening that could have been done here without losing edginess.