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amjorg75's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
It's different but I was intrigued by the story and the cause of the noise.
literarylover37's review against another edition
4.0
3.5
Not as good as Bird Box but still interesting. Definitely had the creepy factor.
Not as good as Bird Box but still interesting. Definitely had the creepy factor.
loser127's review
2.0
This book was confusing. I liked the concept, and the writing is still good, but I guess I just don’t get it. 2 out of 5.
mllocy's review
3.0
This book was absolutely creepy. The mysterious noise that is certainly dangerous and mostly unknowable is a great hook. Throw in some mad scientists (obvi), a military conspiracy (also obvi), and some partying musicians (not obvi) and you've got a back cover that's bound to draw me in.
But, try as this book might, it doesn't really gel. I understand that the horror is more horrifying if the monster stays out of sight, but, this monster is never really even audible. The sound distorts reality, so, maybe it's not really knowable at all. That is, essentially, what I walked away from the book thinking: That sound is weird and bad. It is incomprehensible. It can kill you, but also, transport you across time and space, but also disarm nuclear weapons? (Why there were even nuclear weapons nearby for this sound to disarm will never be answered. That threat is teased, but, Chekov's nuclear bomb remains above the mantle.)
The book is separated into two parts, Phil Tonka & Co. looking for the noise, and Tonka recovering from what the noise did to him.
Tonka in search of the noise is accompanied by his band, an historian, a former US army general, and a photographer. Literally no one has anything to do but Philip and the historian, Greer. Basically all the historian gets to do is be an exposition machine, though, he doesn't even get screen time. Most of his exposition comes in the form of the memories Phil has of Greer. Since they met, in the book, like 2 days ago, let's just say, Greer talks a lot off-stage. And his understanding of the how the noise works and what it is doing is very specific and the only thing we ever really learn about the noise. But the sound is super incomprehensible, the book wants you to think that, goes out of it's way to make the noise scenes hallucinatory. So it strains credulity to think Greer has it figured out, and his remarkable insight will never be explained.
It's because of this that Greer seems flat, and the other characters are cardboard. We only get reaction shots of them being affected by the noise, and then their thoughts into how an evil sound is metaphysically changing the world. Nothing about who they are that might have shaped how they came to their conclusions.
The parallel plot, taking place 6 months after discovering the noise in the Namibian desert is tied together more tightly, but the motivations of the crazy military doctors is still pretty loose. Phil is now recovering from the noise that broke every bone in his body at once (it is so unknowable!). A mad doctor (Frankenstein came to mind many times), literally muahahaha's around the hospital and experiments on Phil.
Ellen, the nurse who comes to care for Phil, has almost no reason to try to save him, let alone love him, and those reasons quickly dry up when Frankenstein's monster escapes.
Phil is, at first, a believable character in a bad situation, but eventually becomes a malevolent force of nature as well. It's not unexpected, evil sounds and evil people can drive the best of us to murder.
Still, I didn't close the book because the story was tense and the horror was good enough to keep me going. But, in a book where everything revolves around an inscrutable and malevolent noise, you want the characters to anchor the story to something relatable. And the characters just aren't strong enough for that.
But, try as this book might, it doesn't really gel. I understand that the horror is more horrifying if the monster stays out of sight, but, this monster is never really even audible. The sound distorts reality, so, maybe it's not really knowable at all. That is, essentially, what I walked away from the book thinking: That sound is weird and bad. It is incomprehensible. It can kill you, but also, transport you across time and space, but also disarm nuclear weapons? (Why there were even nuclear weapons nearby for this sound to disarm will never be answered. That threat is teased, but, Chekov's nuclear bomb remains above the mantle.)
The book is separated into two parts, Phil Tonka & Co. looking for the noise, and Tonka recovering from what the noise did to him.
Tonka in search of the noise is accompanied by his band, an historian, a former US army general, and a photographer. Literally no one has anything to do but Philip and the historian, Greer. Basically all the historian gets to do is be an exposition machine, though, he doesn't even get screen time. Most of his exposition comes in the form of the memories Phil has of Greer. Since they met, in the book, like 2 days ago, let's just say, Greer talks a lot off-stage. And his understanding of the how the noise works and what it is doing is very specific and the only thing we ever really learn about the noise. But the sound is super incomprehensible, the book wants you to think that, goes out of it's way to make the noise scenes hallucinatory. So it strains credulity to think Greer has it figured out, and his remarkable insight will never be explained.
It's because of this that Greer seems flat, and the other characters are cardboard. We only get reaction shots of them being affected by the noise, and then their thoughts into how an evil sound is metaphysically changing the world. Nothing about who they are that might have shaped how they came to their conclusions.
The parallel plot, taking place 6 months after discovering the noise in the Namibian desert is tied together more tightly, but the motivations of the crazy military doctors is still pretty loose. Phil is now recovering from the noise that broke every bone in his body at once (it is so unknowable!). A mad doctor (Frankenstein came to mind many times), literally muahahaha's around the hospital and experiments on Phil.
Ellen, the nurse who comes to care for Phil, has almost no reason to try to save him, let alone love him, and those reasons quickly dry up when Frankenstein's monster escapes.
Phil is, at first, a believable character in a bad situation, but eventually becomes a malevolent force of nature as well. It's not unexpected, evil sounds and evil people can drive the best of us to murder.
Still, I didn't close the book because the story was tense and the horror was good enough to keep me going. But, in a book where everything revolves around an inscrutable and malevolent noise, you want the characters to anchor the story to something relatable. And the characters just aren't strong enough for that.
bmg20's review
2.0
“The question is not what you found… but what found you?”
When Philip Tonka wakes in an Iowa hospital, he can’t remember how he got there or what happened to him, but his doctor informs him that he’s been in a coma for six months after breaking every single bone in his body. Prior to this, Philip and the rest of his bandmates, from the 1950s band called the Danes, are approached by government officials to investigate a peculiar sound emanating from the Namib Desert in Africa. The sound has been reported to make people sick when hearing it but most importantly has been the reason why a nuclear warhead was disarmed. Whether or not that sound is the reason for Philip’s injuries remains a mystery since he can’t remember if the source of the sound was ever actually found. Through alternating chapters told in past and present, it’s slowly revealed just what kind of bizarre answers Philip and his friends found in that desert.
After adoring Malerman’s debut novel Bird Box, he quickly became an “I’m reading anything and everything” author for me. I went on to read his short story [b:Ghastle and Yule|23485467|Ghastle and Yule|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436788175s/23485467.jpg|43076155] (I didn’t even finish those 54 pages), his novella [b:A House at the Bottom of a Lake|32712167|A House at the Bottom of a Lake|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476968473s/32712167.jpg|53291954] (2 stars), and now I’ve finished his second full-length novel and damn but I’m full of disappointment. Mysterious sounds in the middle of a desert, government conspiracies, memory loss, injuries that shouldn’t even be possible… it sounded like one badass episode of The Twilight Zone and I was all onboard.
I first tried to read this on my Kindle but Black Mad Wheel has quite the slow, meandering pace that made it difficult to stay invested. I opted to try it on audiobook before officially calling it quits and even if I didn’t end up loving the story as much as I had hoped, Robertson Dean thoroughly sold me on his narrative skills and I will definitely be seeking out more books narrated by him in the future. His various accents used for the different characters did wonders in helping to differentiate them because just from text alone, they all tended to blur together a bit. Once the pieces of the puzzle started coming together though, the story took a decidedly philosophical turn and while I loved the inclusion regarding the true power of music, it all just ultimately lost me in the end with Malerman opting instead to give only a vague hint at any concrete answers the reader may have been hoping for in the end.
“I wonder, soldier, if it’s our mind playing tricks. I wonder if we cannot comprehend a sound with no source and so we invent one. Each our own way to stave off the feelings of futility for having tracked a sourceless sound.”
When Philip Tonka wakes in an Iowa hospital, he can’t remember how he got there or what happened to him, but his doctor informs him that he’s been in a coma for six months after breaking every single bone in his body. Prior to this, Philip and the rest of his bandmates, from the 1950s band called the Danes, are approached by government officials to investigate a peculiar sound emanating from the Namib Desert in Africa. The sound has been reported to make people sick when hearing it but most importantly has been the reason why a nuclear warhead was disarmed. Whether or not that sound is the reason for Philip’s injuries remains a mystery since he can’t remember if the source of the sound was ever actually found. Through alternating chapters told in past and present, it’s slowly revealed just what kind of bizarre answers Philip and his friends found in that desert.
After adoring Malerman’s debut novel Bird Box, he quickly became an “I’m reading anything and everything” author for me. I went on to read his short story [b:Ghastle and Yule|23485467|Ghastle and Yule|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436788175s/23485467.jpg|43076155] (I didn’t even finish those 54 pages), his novella [b:A House at the Bottom of a Lake|32712167|A House at the Bottom of a Lake|Josh Malerman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476968473s/32712167.jpg|53291954] (2 stars), and now I’ve finished his second full-length novel and damn but I’m full of disappointment. Mysterious sounds in the middle of a desert, government conspiracies, memory loss, injuries that shouldn’t even be possible… it sounded like one badass episode of The Twilight Zone and I was all onboard.
I first tried to read this on my Kindle but Black Mad Wheel has quite the slow, meandering pace that made it difficult to stay invested. I opted to try it on audiobook before officially calling it quits and even if I didn’t end up loving the story as much as I had hoped, Robertson Dean thoroughly sold me on his narrative skills and I will definitely be seeking out more books narrated by him in the future. His various accents used for the different characters did wonders in helping to differentiate them because just from text alone, they all tended to blur together a bit. Once the pieces of the puzzle started coming together though, the story took a decidedly philosophical turn and while I loved the inclusion regarding the true power of music, it all just ultimately lost me in the end with Malerman opting instead to give only a vague hint at any concrete answers the reader may have been hoping for in the end.
“I wonder, soldier, if it’s our mind playing tricks. I wonder if we cannot comprehend a sound with no source and so we invent one. Each our own way to stave off the feelings of futility for having tracked a sourceless sound.”
colorfulleo92's review
2.0
I loved birdbox and was excited to read more by Josh Malerman. Unfortunately I didn't end up enjoying it. It had some intruging elements but did nothing to get me invested in the audiobook
rebeshelton's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a little longer to get into this one than it did for Bird Box. I wasn't instantly hooked but I'm glad I kept going.
Things I enjoyed:
1. Another Josh Malerman book about a different sense. Amazing.
2. We actually got some answers in this one about who/what was making the sound.
3. The writing was excellent. Phillip as a main character wasn't too developed but somehow it worked really well.
Things I didn't enjoy:
1. The insta-romance at the end. I feel like it wasn't developed at all. Predictable? Yes, but it didn't enhance the story at all and felt rushed and honestly kind of strange.
2.
Things I enjoyed:
1. Another Josh Malerman book about a different sense. Amazing.
2. We actually got some answers in this one about who/what was making the sound.
3. The writing was excellent. Phillip as a main character wasn't too developed but somehow it worked really well.
Things I didn't enjoy:
1. The insta-romance at the end. I feel like it wasn't developed at all. Predictable? Yes, but it didn't enhance the story at all and felt rushed and honestly kind of strange.
2.
Spoiler
Phillip's mental break at the end. I understand killing Szands and maybe Francine, but everyone? That's harsh.pwbalto's review
3.0
This book would have gotten a higher rating from me if we didn't have to hear about Dwayne the drummer's dark skin literally almost every single time he was mentioned.
Otherwise, ehhh? Tremendously spiritual and abstract scary book about war and history that somehow turns into, like Vertigo by the end. Complete with lovestruck couple and mysterious murder.
Otherwise, ehhh? Tremendously spiritual and abstract scary book about war and history that somehow turns into, like Vertigo by the end. Complete with lovestruck couple and mysterious murder.