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mamimitanaka's review against another edition
3.0
This was a tantalizingly grotesque novel that I often felt conflicted on while reading, but at the same time these weren't necessarily flaws with the book itself. Koja's prose is good but often feels a bit convoluted and difficult to follow in a way that wasn't an enjoyable confusion, but the narrative itself supports the writing style; Nicholas is a failed twenty-something poet, so it makes perfect sense his narration would be chock full of counterintuitive sentences and phraseology. And there were times when I felt the book really dragged, but once again isn't that the life of a deadbeat alcoholic underachiever? The meandering also helps serve the nauseating claustrophobia of Nicholas' daily life; the setting very rarely deviates from his flat or the storage room, stuck in one place with nowhere to go and nowhere to escape from a suffocatingly toxic relationship. The characters' lives may deviate slightly at points, but the soot-blackened core of the novel remains crushingly unchanging throughout. And Nicholas himself is a well-drawn narrator, his own self-pity and continued debasement of everything that matters in his life making him as equal parts despicable as genuinely sympathetic, and likewise Nakota is one of the most realistically and chillingly portrayed depictions of an emotional abuser I've ever seen in genre fiction. And while this is an American novel, I would be surprised if Koja didn't take inspiration from Eastern horror here, particularly cinema; it has the same grimy, transgressive heart of a lot of J-horror films, with its fixations on body horror, gore, analog-inspired horror [with video tapes playing a big role here], and its combination of all of these to inform an inward-looking psychological narrative. And while this isn't a laugh riot I was surprised by how funny the book is at points too, with Nicholas' self-eviscerating inner monologue sometimes translating into a bitter wit reflecting his own poetic disposition. Not up there with my favorite horror novels, but it does a lot of things right.
"But what she failed to notice, or maybe had and didn't care, was that no rules also translates into, and past, no safety, to the chilly land where no one's in charge and that most specifically means you. Or in this case, me. Maybe she'd thought about that, too, and just didn't give a queenly shit. I did; not enough to stop, obviously, but enough to wonder, what would it be like to pass all at once and finally into that daunting atmosphere, that place where the rug stays permanently pulled out from under you, where the murderous tilt is the lay of the land? How would it feel?"
"But what she failed to notice, or maybe had and didn't care, was that no rules also translates into, and past, no safety, to the chilly land where no one's in charge and that most specifically means you. Or in this case, me. Maybe she'd thought about that, too, and just didn't give a queenly shit. I did; not enough to stop, obviously, but enough to wonder, what would it be like to pass all at once and finally into that daunting atmosphere, that place where the rug stays permanently pulled out from under you, where the murderous tilt is the lay of the land? How would it feel?"
siannifer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
First part of the book was fantastic. Loved the concept, the setting, the writing. Then it draaaagged to the end with a lot of protagonist whining. Shame since it started out so strong!
jennystout21's review against another edition
3.0
Grotesque and visceral, but overly long and a bit repetitive.
a_r_e_l_i_c's review against another edition
4.0
04 tangible, liquidy smell
09 stored-cooler scent
17 hot, stale-cigarette breath
21 mold
29 humid shower smells
32 wet dog
35 Tabu perfume
36 juicy dog farts
37 frail scent of blood
40 foul, giant’s rot
43 angular scent of those secret bones
46 money paid & customer’s fingers
58 gas-station washroom soap
75 incense {spice smell}
78 garbage-rank
159 baking bread
164 lushly astringent outside cold
165 beer & grease
219 dirt & soil & ground
256 alcohol & smoke
257 fudgy smell of her perfume
281 an ether smell
285 like roses {drenched & bewitching}
292 corrosion & waste
295 piss
336 meat roasting
351 burned cotton candy
09 stored-cooler scent
17 hot, stale-cigarette breath
21 mold
29 humid shower smells
32 wet dog
35 Tabu perfume
36 juicy dog farts
37 frail scent of blood
40 foul, giant’s rot
43 angular scent of those secret bones
46 money paid & customer’s fingers
58 gas-station washroom soap
75 incense {spice smell}
78 garbage-rank
159 baking bread
164 lushly astringent outside cold
165 beer & grease
219 dirt & soil & ground
256 alcohol & smoke
257 fudgy smell of her perfume
281 an ether smell
285 like roses {drenched & bewitching}
292 corrosion & waste
295 piss
336 meat roasting
351 burned cotton candy
kyrajanson's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
5.0
What the fuck.. but like in an entertaining way
kurumipanda's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Gore, Mental illness, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Excrement
Moderate: Grief, Blood, Drug use, and Vomit
Minor: Confinement
kvltprincess's review against another edition
5.0
Behold the Funhole.
I picked up The Cipher because I had read that it was super scary cosmic/body horror, and that is right up my proverbial alley. It took a while, because the thing is out of print, but Amazon fortunately had it for about $5 on Kindle, so I read it there (there are a few typographical issues in the Kindle version, but they don't make it unreadable). Apparently it gets a reprint next year (?), Hooray!
Here are my thoughts: The Cipher is a good book. It is not a fun book. It is gross, and disturbing, and upsetting, and there are very few redeemable characters. But I went for it because I wanted to be disturbed and upset, and the grossness added onto that, and if the characters on the whole weren't such horrible people the problem of the Funhole undoubtedly would not have spiraled out of control like it did. I'm going to have a hard time recommending this one to too many people unless icky body horror is their thing, and I can't see myself returning to it for a leisure read anytime soon, but The Cipher delivered all of the horror that I was promised, and I'm glad I went to the trouble to track it down.
I picked up The Cipher because I had read that it was super scary cosmic/body horror, and that is right up my proverbial alley. It took a while, because the thing is out of print, but Amazon fortunately had it for about $5 on Kindle, so I read it there (there are a few typographical issues in the Kindle version, but they don't make it unreadable). Apparently it gets a reprint next year (?), Hooray!
Here are my thoughts: The Cipher is a good book. It is not a fun book. It is gross, and disturbing, and upsetting, and there are very few redeemable characters. But I went for it because I wanted to be disturbed and upset, and the grossness added onto that, and if the characters on the whole weren't such horrible people the problem of the Funhole undoubtedly would not have spiraled out of control like it did. I'm going to have a hard time recommending this one to too many people unless icky body horror is their thing, and I can't see myself returning to it for a leisure read anytime soon, but The Cipher delivered all of the horror that I was promised, and I'm glad I went to the trouble to track it down.
mattwiley's review against another edition
3.0
Definitely a good read. But it felt guilty of a lot of the pretentiousness it tried to occasionally put down. Equal parts creepy, horrifying, and funny, but a little too existential for my tastes. A cosmic, body horror that felt a little like a therapy session.
aglaia0001's review against another edition
1.0
I very rarely give one-star book ratings, and I’m surprised I am to this book. The Cipher (or The Funhole) by Kathe Koja was a book I fully expected to enjoy. As an award winning novel and with content that sounded both edgy and thoughtful, this seemed like a near perfect match for me. Unfortunately, I found myself bogged down in characters that, aside from being only vaguely likable, really seemed more like caricatures of extremes. Nicholas, the main character and narrator, is ostensibly an Everyman navigating the monotony of his daily work and his one-sided and destructive love for his sometimes-girlfriend, Nakota. Nakota is the poster girl for a self-hating, self-destructive addict who will do anything and destroy anyone for her next fix. They are joined by a small cast of other characters including inflated artists and intellectual-wannabe groupies. The only reasonable characters are Randy, a tow truck driver with aspirations of artistic greatness, and his girlfriend Vanese who stands in as the nurturer.
These characters converge on a strange phenomenon in Nicholas’s apartment building that marks Nicholas with an ever-growing hole in his hand. Slowly, this hole dominates his life and thoughts as events spiral into destructive encounters. Nakota sees the “funhole” as a metamorphosis, an opportunity to be transformed. And indeed, by halfway through this book, I really felt like I was reading a modern retelling of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.”
Ultimately, I found myself skimming portions of this book. While I appreciate the effort to comment on the dangers of all-consuming love (a risk that includes destroying the beloved even) and of self-alienation in the pursuit of living, I found little new or challenging in the book despite its overall “edginess” in tone (with crude behaviors described in blunt terms, demystification of sex, and general griminess of setting). Perhaps at its publication in the late 80s when fears of postmodernism and deconstruction were firmly taking hold, this novel would have had more impact. Unfortunately, for me, in 2022, I just did not find it terribly insightful.
These characters converge on a strange phenomenon in Nicholas’s apartment building that marks Nicholas with an ever-growing hole in his hand. Slowly, this hole dominates his life and thoughts as events spiral into destructive encounters. Nakota sees the “funhole” as a metamorphosis, an opportunity to be transformed. And indeed, by halfway through this book, I really felt like I was reading a modern retelling of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.”
Ultimately, I found myself skimming portions of this book. While I appreciate the effort to comment on the dangers of all-consuming love (a risk that includes destroying the beloved even) and of self-alienation in the pursuit of living, I found little new or challenging in the book despite its overall “edginess” in tone (with crude behaviors described in blunt terms, demystification of sex, and general griminess of setting). Perhaps at its publication in the late 80s when fears of postmodernism and deconstruction were firmly taking hold, this novel would have had more impact. Unfortunately, for me, in 2022, I just did not find it terribly insightful.