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angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
2.0
A mixed bag. It was interesting enough to keep on plodding along, but the story was honestly stupid as hell. Gratuitous gross outs that weren’t so much gross as just dumb. An unbelievably ridiculous narrator and supporting characters. Shock value merely for shock value sake comes across as idiotic. And a huge thumbs down for the publisher; not for publishing something so moronic, but rather for atrocious editing. This novel was filthy with typos, wrong words inserted here and there, and poor grammar. Unfortunately this is the first of a series. Fortunately I have no interest in continuing on.
glenvisceration's review against another edition
4.0
Another brilliantly gross... Comedic extreme shock horror(?) from Edward Lee that I couldn't possibly recommend to anyone in good conscience.
skullheadface's review
4.0
☠️☠️☠️☠️
Another awesome tale by Mr. Lee. A little bit of everything in this one, easter eggs abound, touching on all kinds of things drawn from Mr. Lee’s “mythos”. A splatter-salad if you will. I thought it was great. I love the “Howard” storyline.
4/5 Skulls
☠️☠️☠️☠️
Another awesome tale by Mr. Lee. A little bit of everything in this one, easter eggs abound, touching on all kinds of things drawn from Mr. Lee’s “mythos”. A splatter-salad if you will. I thought it was great. I love the “Howard” storyline.
4/5 Skulls
☠️☠️☠️☠️
thomasgoddard's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't have a clue about this one. I searched for audiobooks with a run time of 8 hours. I needed that length because I had a stocktake at work and when you account for increasing playback speed it would sit snug within that shift. It was billed as extreme horror. I liked the cover art.
Wow. I was not at all prepared.
Only last week I was complaining to my boss at work that there wasn't enough extremely disturbing writing going on... How wrong I was!
I think, when you work in a bookshop, you can easily get wrapped up in the publishing industry as a sanitised vehicle for celebrity memoir, fiction about thin white girls with either a) an older lover interest b) a crippling ennui and an age appropriate boyfriend c) fairy powers and sword skills... and the obligatory Booker nominated work about racism and/or a developing country, naturally.
I'm being reductionist, but it is pretty standard. Now and then you get something written extremely well, but it's usually by a writer with a career spanning into the decades.
Enter the indie publishing world... The wild west of publishing. Where men still roam the halls and huff paint thinner while desperately tugging their ego towards an inky climax...
There's no possible chance works like this could find a wide public fanbase... (although, I know they would and should!)... But my god, I've not read a book as funny and self-aware and yet gross and disturbing in a long time!
It follows a writer with amnesia trying to trace his own past... To find a road towards knowing himself... And while on that road, in the deep south, he encounters a solid but insane bunch of reprobates.
Don't even look at this book unless you love horror and have a strong disposition!
Wow. I was not at all prepared.
Only last week I was complaining to my boss at work that there wasn't enough extremely disturbing writing going on... How wrong I was!
I think, when you work in a bookshop, you can easily get wrapped up in the publishing industry as a sanitised vehicle for celebrity memoir, fiction about thin white girls with either a) an older lover interest b) a crippling ennui and an age appropriate boyfriend c) fairy powers and sword skills... and the obligatory Booker nominated work about racism and/or a developing country, naturally.
I'm being reductionist, but it is pretty standard. Now and then you get something written extremely well, but it's usually by a writer with a career spanning into the decades.
Enter the indie publishing world... The wild west of publishing. Where men still roam the halls and huff paint thinner while desperately tugging their ego towards an inky climax...
There's no possible chance works like this could find a wide public fanbase... (although, I know they would and should!)... But my god, I've not read a book as funny and self-aware and yet gross and disturbing in a long time!
It follows a writer with amnesia trying to trace his own past... To find a road towards knowing himself... And while on that road, in the deep south, he encounters a solid but insane bunch of reprobates.
Don't even look at this book unless you love horror and have a strong disposition!
whogivesabook's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't have a clue about this one. I searched for audiobooks with a run time of 8 hours. I needed that length because I had a stocktake at work and when you account for increasing playback speed it would sit snug within that shift. It was billed as extreme horror. I liked the cover art.
Wow. I was not at all prepared.
Only last week I was complaining to my boss at work that there wasn't enough extremely disturbing writing going on... How wrong I was!
I think, when you work in a bookshop, you can easily get wrapped up in the publishing industry as a sanitised vehicle for celebrity memoir, fiction about thin white girls with either a) an older lover interest b) a crippling ennui and an age appropriate boyfriend c) fairy powers and sword skills... and the obligatory Booker nominated work about racism and/or a developing country, naturally.
I'm being reductionist, but it is pretty standard. Now and then you get something written extremely well, but it's usually by a writer with a career spanning into the decades.
Enter the indie publishing world... The wild west of publishing. Where men still roam the halls and huff paint thinner while desperately tugging their ego towards an inky climax...
There's no possible chance works like this could find a wide public fanbase... (although, I know they would and should!)... But my god, I've not read a book as funny and self-aware and yet gross and disturbing in a long time!
It follows a writer with amnesia trying to trace his own past... To find a road towards knowing himself... And while on that road, in the deep south, he encounters a solid but insane bunch of reprobates.
Don't even look at this book unless you love horror and have a strong disposition!
Wow. I was not at all prepared.
Only last week I was complaining to my boss at work that there wasn't enough extremely disturbing writing going on... How wrong I was!
I think, when you work in a bookshop, you can easily get wrapped up in the publishing industry as a sanitised vehicle for celebrity memoir, fiction about thin white girls with either a) an older lover interest b) a crippling ennui and an age appropriate boyfriend c) fairy powers and sword skills... and the obligatory Booker nominated work about racism and/or a developing country, naturally.
I'm being reductionist, but it is pretty standard. Now and then you get something written extremely well, but it's usually by a writer with a career spanning into the decades.
Enter the indie publishing world... The wild west of publishing. Where men still roam the halls and huff paint thinner while desperately tugging their ego towards an inky climax...
There's no possible chance works like this could find a wide public fanbase... (although, I know they would and should!)... But my god, I've not read a book as funny and self-aware and yet gross and disturbing in a long time!
It follows a writer with amnesia trying to trace his own past... To find a road towards knowing himself... And while on that road, in the deep south, he encounters a solid but insane bunch of reprobates.
Don't even look at this book unless you love horror and have a strong disposition!
michaellouisdixon's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
rachel_jozie's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
*I'm not going to give you the 'what this book is about' blurb - you can read that elsewhere.
1. I'm glad I decided to read The Bighead before diving into this one. It really set the scene for what I was walking into both story-wise and style-wise. I think some familiarity was important, especially given how this book starts off. I'll admit I didn't love the first few chapters, but given my rating, you can see that changed as I read on!
2. Lee is obviously incredibly intelligent, which is evident in the style he writes as well as the references he makes, but is also hilarious based on the backwoods idiotic characters in this book. I love a good juxtaposition, though, and this book is full of scenarios where the contrast is evident.
3. The MC is a pretentious dick and is the perfect dichotomy to the rest of the characters and plot. He does loosen as time goes on and becomes a much more tolerable character, although I'd never call him particularly likable.
4. I love the way Lee writes certain parallels between you as the reader/he as the writer and what is happening to the writer in the book. It sort of brings the plot out of the book and into your actual life, deeply absorbing you.
5. I'm so glad this is a 'saga' or trilogy because by the end I was feeling all 'WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING?!' So I simply picked up book 2 in order to find out...
1. I'm glad I decided to read The Bighead before diving into this one. It really set the scene for what I was walking into both story-wise and style-wise. I think some familiarity was important, especially given how this book starts off. I'll admit I didn't love the first few chapters, but given my rating, you can see that changed as I read on!
2. Lee is obviously incredibly intelligent, which is evident in the style he writes as well as the references he makes, but is also hilarious based on the backwoods idiotic characters in this book. I love a good juxtaposition, though, and this book is full of scenarios where the contrast is evident.
3. The MC is a pretentious dick and is the perfect dichotomy to the rest of the characters and plot. He does loosen as time goes on and becomes a much more tolerable character, although I'd never call him particularly likable.
4. I love the way Lee writes certain parallels between you as the reader/he as the writer and what is happening to the writer in the book. It sort of brings the plot out of the book and into your actual life, deeply absorbing you.
5. I'm so glad this is a 'saga' or trilogy because by the end I was feeling all 'WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING?!' So I simply picked up book 2 in order to find out...
scottneumann's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Drug abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Incest, Torture, Vomit, Gore, Blood, Death, Violence, Body shaming, Murder, and Emotional abuse
chramies's review against another edition
5.0
Luntville, twinned with Brentford? Or Yoknatawpha County? "White Trash Gothic" is in many ways a recap of Edward Lee's earlier novels set in his appalling Appalachian township of Luntville and environs. The writer (not the Writer, who is a character here) warns that it would be advisable to have read some of his earlier books before reading this - particularly "The Bighead" and "The Minotauress". The protagonists of "Gast" also wander through before the story starts (nice couple. God-botherers, but nice) and of course Headers get mentioned - though not much. Amiable Snowie is quite happy to drug our protagonist and get him to have sex with a deceased woman, and to talk about long-neckings and dead-dickings, but when the Writer asks,
"What's a Header?"
she clams up and says, You don't want to know. You really don't want to know.
I'd say she goes pale but she can't really as Snowie is an albino with a face like Calvin Coolidge - and despite her occasional strange behaviour (such as 'cranking up' a certain large individual from an earlier Lee novel), one of the most good-hearted characters in the Lee canon. She and her lover / best girl friend provide some laughs but also the key to the story.
The Writer, who has lost his memory of events though not of things, finds himself drawn to out-in-the-sticks Luntville and things get weird even before he gets off the bus (and given what he actually sees - in a lot of detail considering he isn't that close - I'm surprised he didn't just stay on the bus, but then there'd be no story).
Despite being a man in his fifties and gone to fat, the Writer is required to do heroic deeds, such as starting a long-abandoned car whose starting (a bit Arthurian this) will lift the curse on the waste land. This put me in mind of "The Horn-Cranker" where the lad-about-town has moved to the city and been tamed, but throws off the shackles of civilisation and returns. This is a Lee favourite, the outsider who is all book-learning and no earthiness, finding their way to the boondocks and confronting what is to be found there. Another fave is the face-body disconnect, visible here in Snowie and her family - and finding out the reason for that, in her case, is one of the threads of this story, though it doesn't go any further ... for now.
Thing is though, as soon as all the pieces are in place, the story ends ... to be continued. The threat or promise of all hell letting loose - the presence in town of a villianous preacher - the Mafiosi nosing about - all is set up and it is still just a murmur of war. We await the sequel(s).
"What's a Header?"
she clams up and says, You don't want to know. You really don't want to know.
I'd say she goes pale but she can't really as Snowie is an albino with a face like Calvin Coolidge - and despite her occasional strange behaviour (such as 'cranking up' a certain large individual from an earlier Lee novel), one of the most good-hearted characters in the Lee canon. She and her lover / best girl friend provide some laughs but also the key to the story.
The Writer, who has lost his memory of events though not of things, finds himself drawn to out-in-the-sticks Luntville and things get weird even before he gets off the bus (and given what he actually sees - in a lot of detail considering he isn't that close - I'm surprised he didn't just stay on the bus, but then there'd be no story).
Despite being a man in his fifties and gone to fat, the Writer is required to do heroic deeds, such as starting a long-abandoned car whose starting (a bit Arthurian this) will lift the curse on the waste land. This put me in mind of "The Horn-Cranker" where the lad-about-town has moved to the city and been tamed, but throws off the shackles of civilisation and returns. This is a Lee favourite, the outsider who is all book-learning and no earthiness, finding their way to the boondocks and confronting what is to be found there. Another fave is the face-body disconnect, visible here in Snowie and her family - and finding out the reason for that, in her case, is one of the threads of this story, though it doesn't go any further ... for now.
Thing is though, as soon as all the pieces are in place, the story ends ... to be continued. The threat or promise of all hell letting loose - the presence in town of a villianous preacher - the Mafiosi nosing about - all is set up and it is still just a murmur of war. We await the sequel(s).
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