Reviews - The Cipher | The StoryGraph

526 reviews for:

There has been more poorly written sex and talking about getting within the first half of the book then literally anything else. It’s a stream of consciousness type of writing that genuinely is hard to parse through at best and at worst it’s incomprehensible. You made me read the words tentpole dick and nothing scary or interesting has happened within the first half of the book? You deserve jail time for that. It’s not scary, the main character is a pompous, unfunny assbag and I do not care if he dies because I am SICK of his “not like other girls” attitude. I have finished some terrible books but even I’m not willing to finish this.

chelseaquynn's review against another edition

1.5

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rogue_raven's review

3.0

challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

shrewdbard's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Disgusting and fascinating tale of a crust punk poet turned lovecraftian Christ figure. I said in an earlier update I desperately want A24 to hire Panos Cosmatos or Jane Schoenbrun to direct this, but TBH a classic Chronenberg adaptation would work just as well. Just please make it while Ayo Edebiri is young enough to play Vanese, please!

Content Warnings

missflyer's review against another edition

3.0

   In a storage closet in the apartment building, something strange is going on. There's a hole that's not a hole, and Nicholas finds his sometimes-lover Nakota is inexplicably, obsessively drawn towards it. With each new experiment, each new encounter with what they have dubbed the "Funhole", the pull of the Funhole grows stronger. Nicholas can no longer keep Nakota away from it. Even as it infects him, pulls him even closer to it with a lover's embrace, as close as Nakota wants to be. But it doesn't work without him. How far will the Funhole pull him and Nakota in? Can they escape its lure, or will it suck their very lives down it?
   Admittedly, the first bit was so weird, and with some animal abuse (bugs, a mouse), and with Nakota so off the wall and Nicholas so...passive and focused on sex with Nakota - I didn't think I'd get very far. But then things got weirder and weirder, and Nicholas if still along for the ride started showing some initiative (however unsuccessful at times). And somehow, I was halfway done, then three-quarters, then done? Looks like the Funhole caught me in its pull in the end, too. Definitely a wild, careening ride.
   This crossed my radar because a member of my book club suggested it, and by spin of the wheel, it became our October 2022 read. If you can get past the first chapter or two with Nakota's cruel then gross experiments, then that's probably the hardest to get past. Maybe? Also, trigger warning for a considered/almost-attempted suicide. Then there is quite a bit of body horror going on in addition to some really "crazy shit" as Randy and Vanese say, especially towards the end, and none of it voluntary or desired, just forced upon the character - exactly how I define body horror for my Goodreads tags. An inescapable pull towards the Funhole and the changes it enacts for its process...whatever process that might be, towards whatever goal it has, if indeed it even has one.
   The voice, Nicholas' voice, is quite distinct and strong throughout the whole book, even as he doesn't understand what's going on and still tries to narrate and make some sense of it. Or rather, just relate what he's experiencing and maybe someone else will understand it, because goodness knows no one in the book actually seems to understand what's going on, and that feeling is pervasive even as some assert they understand things.
   But the ones who assert they understand things are far from reliable. Nakota is crazy, and so is Malcolm and their cultish crew with their blind devotion and bizarre art creation as they rewatch the video of the inside of the Funhole over and over. Randy and Vanese, the first other than Nicholas and Nakota to learn about the Funhole, to be introduced to it, are solid breaths of reality and steadiness in this craziness. They're both involved in, but apart from, the events around the Funhole. And they end up being far better friends towards Nicholas, who they've just met, than anyone else. They're the only ones with their heads on straight through all this, sympathy and support and defense. They're the only sane ones, too.
   So would I read this again? I don't think so. Was it an interesting read? Yes. Was it a satisfying read? Mostly - a little open-ended, but completely understandable that it went that way. Was the writing/voice solid? Most definitely. Was it engaging and an interesting read? Yes, but oooo boy was it messed up. Was it gross and disturbing? Quite frequently. Did it make sense? As much as anything this weird can make sense.