Reviews

Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler

bhirts's review against another edition

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5.0

I read this book a lot at work and, I think just once but maybe more, I, completely unselfconsciously, kissed the book and perhaps "squealed in delight".

Full Disclosure: I AINT NO BITCH

djflippy's review against another edition

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4.0

Absolutely beautiful, brilliant, and unbearably bleak; this book makes Cthulhu look like a nursery rhyme. I loved it, but there are honestly very few people I could recommend it to, in good conscious. Reading Scorch Atlas is like chewing your own child's face off..

saraupsidedown's review against another edition

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3.0

Grotesque but beautiful prose. Lots of decomposing corpses

saintsuture's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-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? No

1.5

staciesbooks's review

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139/373 phone pgs

Nothing wrong with it, reading slump strikes again 

cryo_guy's review against another edition

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4.0

I picked this up because of Shane Jones' Light Boxes (which is awesome!). Through the first few stories it began to feel monotonous, but then by the time I was halfway through I got wrapped up in this post-apocalyptic world that is crumbling apart in every way imaginable.

Butler's descriptions are great and the combination of the natural world slowly and swiftly decrepifying juxtaposed with the ruin of each character (and their families and their connections to the world) makes the experience worthwhile.

In many of the stories, someone, as equally dilapidated as their landscape, has become lost in this new world of ruin, but proceeds to strike out for what they remembered from their past as a means of survival. And most of the time, they are given what the world had also been given: an apathetic sense of recurrence.

I like that.

hasseltkoffie's review against another edition

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WTF did I just read???

nexadon's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Quite a lovely little book if you can get your hands on a copy. Extremely grotesque very yucky, prose is digested best when you just meet it where it is and you will get pissed off if you try to tease out the meaning of every sentence. Wish there was less pregnancy horror, could have been better if it didnt lean on that trope so heavily

solflo's review against another edition

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dark sad

5.0

ogotha's review against another edition

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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