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twilight12's review against another edition
2.0
The subject matter (haha) was great but it was just so droll.
I really wanted to know what happened in the field but the climax wasn't what I was expecting.
I'm going to give Straub another chance because I've heard good things about him and this was the first book I've read from him. So, I think I just picked up a dud.
I will be giving this book away though.
I really wanted to know what happened in the field but the climax wasn't what I was expecting.
I'm going to give Straub another chance because I've heard good things about him and this was the first book I've read from him. So, I think I just picked up a dud.
I will be giving this book away though.
phronk's review against another edition
I'm trying a new thing where I don't force myself to finish every book I start. A Dark Matter was the first casualty of this mindset. The first quarter was a dull, rambling mess that didn't hook me enough to keep reading. More like Peter STOP boring me, am I right?
beardedandbookulent's review against another edition
1.0
Hated it. Was a complete waste of time. Maybe it was just above me, but I had a really hard time keeping up...hard time staying interested....hard time making myself read it. Typically, I"ll give a book up to page 100 before I give up on it, but I really wanted to like this one. It just never happened.
skateanddonate's review against another edition
1.0
Did not finish. Only got to page 85. Loved the beautiful, lyrical prose, but the story didn't hook me. I set it aside the middle of last month and haven't gone back to it...so back to the library it went.
hgatfield's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.0
okenwillow's review against another edition
1.0
J’avais raté l’info de la sortie d’un nouveau Peter Straub, je me suis donc jetée dessus lorsqu’elle a fini par m’arriver aux oreilles. Malheureusement, il se passe un truc pas net avec ce roman. Dès le départ la narration est confuse, quelques pages suffisent pour s’en rendre compte, et cela ne va qu’en empirant. La traduction est également assez pénible, [...]
[La suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
[La suite sur mon blog, merci :)]
ghostroom217's review against another edition
2.0
Goes good for the first three-quarters then, with a few brief respites, turns into a slog. Like listening to someone describe a dream in tedious detail and tacking it on at the end of a book by way of explanation. Very unsatisfactory, but some really gorgeous prose along the way. I love most of the stuff Mr. Straub writes, but something went very wrong here.
nickjonesreadsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Lee Harwell is a writer with writer's block and a detective's need to uncover just what happened to his wife and her friends in a meadow in the 1960's. There was a guru, a ritual, and, at the end of the night, a dismembered body. Harwell's wife, Lee Truax, has been obstinately silent about the events of that night. Thus, the story is the unraveling of these mysterious events as Harwell contacts the other people who were in the meadow that fateful night.
Many of the disappointed reviews I saw were from Straub fans. Perhaps I liked it more than I would have if I had certain expectations going in. I found the ending to be fairly satisfactory. There are areas I'm fuzzy about...but just enough to keep me guessing. The characters are developed well. The mystery was intriguing. The running discussion about the nature of evil was interesting--if somewhat flawed. But in the end I felt that it was a bit lacking. I got to the climax and didn't feel that it lived up to the build up. Quite. At the same time, he still has me thinking about what it all meant, so maybe I'll figure out the missing pieces soon and bring it all together.
It's obvious that Peter Straub is a gifted storyteller. I'll make sure to check out some of his other stuff at a later point.
Many of the disappointed reviews I saw were from Straub fans. Perhaps I liked it more than I would have if I had certain expectations going in. I found the ending to be fairly satisfactory. There are areas I'm fuzzy about...but just enough to keep me guessing. The characters are developed well. The mystery was intriguing. The running discussion about the nature of evil was interesting--if somewhat flawed. But in the end I felt that it was a bit lacking. I got to the climax and didn't feel that it lived up to the build up. Quite. At the same time, he still has me thinking about what it all meant, so maybe I'll figure out the missing pieces soon and bring it all together.
It's obvious that Peter Straub is a gifted storyteller. I'll make sure to check out some of his other stuff at a later point.