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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
The story was compelling enough to read, but the writing was unpleasant and messy. I think part of it was whatever shitty way it was turned into a Kindle book, but I don’t think I would have loved it either way. I will probably avoid reading another book by this author.
I'm surprised this book doesn't have a more widely celebrated cult status than it does now. Imagine "Slacker" adapted by David Cronenberg, with touches of "My Year Of Rest And Relaxation", and you're somewhere in the vicinity of Kathe Koja's grimy pre-internet fever dream. It centers on a terrifying enigma: a black hole of nothingness located in the back of a storage room in a fleabag apartment building, and christened the "Funhole" by its co-discoverers Nakota and Nicholas (the latter of whom provides the book's marvelous narration). The Funhole is in a long line of inexplicable objects in fiction and cinema, like the monolith in "2001" or the box in "Mulholland Drive". It distorts anything that passes into it, emits a variety of odors, and produces hums and whispers - but only if Nicholas is around.
When Nakota tells others about the storage closet, Nicholas's apartment becomes a site of pilgrimage for a motley band of misguided avant-garde artists and their hangers-on. And it's section of the book, about 3/4 of the way through, where the narrative becomes repetitious and overlong (no book has ever contained so many permutations of "shut the f*** up"). But it comes back in the end with a climax equally gruesome and tender. Decidedly more dread-and-revulsion scary than don't-read-alone-at-night scary, "The Cipher" is a funny, disgusting, claustrophobic and lyrical fable that seems extracted directly from the subconscious.
When Nakota tells others about the storage closet, Nicholas's apartment becomes a site of pilgrimage for a motley band of misguided avant-garde artists and their hangers-on. And it's section of the book, about 3/4 of the way through, where the narrative becomes repetitious and overlong (no book has ever contained so many permutations of "shut the f*** up"). But it comes back in the end with a climax equally gruesome and tender. Decidedly more dread-and-revulsion scary than don't-read-alone-at-night scary, "The Cipher" is a funny, disgusting, claustrophobic and lyrical fable that seems extracted directly from the subconscious.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If "Tam Lin" by Pamela Dean is a decent description of how the good parts of my college years felt, "The Cipher" is a decent description of how the bad parts felt. Scraping by, living in crappy houses that were only made worse by our incapacity to take care of ourselves, chasing Art-with-a-capital-A and finding mostly pretense, trying to force wonder, being unable to extricate oneself from the poisonous people in one's life, being screamed at for approaching capital-A-Art in the wrong way, peeling back all the ugly things, all at once. Always short of time, energy, money, compassion. Strangely, beyond this there was adulthood.
Poetic, and I couldn't stop turning pages. Maybe not for everybody, but I found it poignant.
Poetic, and I couldn't stop turning pages. Maybe not for everybody, but I found it poignant.
I just can’t do stream-of-consciousness. I could not follow the story at all.
Plowed through this in record time. Reminded me a lot of early Cronenberg; The Fly meets Videodrome meets Bug (the William Friedkin movie). Gross and bleak and not the kind of thing I'm generally prone to reading, but damn, I couldn't put it down. Scarcely a likeable character in the lot, although that didn't bother mer. The author has some of the best sensory details I've read in a long time, and cuts to the heart of her characters' psychology. A nice, creepy October read.
Amazing book! The characters are all too real, pitiful and distasteful, simple and complex. The monotonous but safe daily grind meeting the unknowing sheer terror that is a void.
Honestly if you break down the book, and I feel this is where I struggled with it at times... Is that you are the main character, and boy howdy does Nicholas think. He's not usually a man of action, but he can run circles around the drain swirl of his descent into his own contemplations.
Its not a bitch, he's made real by his vices, his loves and his inability to turn that shit off when he wants to. I can absolutely sympathize with him on so many levels that it's easy to see myself in his shoes... Terrifying as a realization as that is given that most people would shelve this book under horror or cosmic-horror.
One of the things I loved most about the writing here is usually what I despise about this writing style which is very similar to Stephen King's if you ask me (and you didn't), is where I am maddened by King's full length novels for Peter Pan flights into meandering minutia... Koja's held my attention throughout. Even Koja's characters got annoyed by the small talk and beating around the bush.
I absolutely adored this book!
Honestly if you break down the book, and I feel this is where I struggled with it at times... Is that you are the main character, and boy howdy does Nicholas think. He's not usually a man of action, but he can run circles around the drain swirl of his descent into his own contemplations.
Its not a bitch, he's made real by his vices, his loves and his inability to turn that shit off when he wants to. I can absolutely sympathize with him on so many levels that it's easy to see myself in his shoes... Terrifying as a realization as that is given that most people would shelve this book under horror or cosmic-horror.
One of the things I loved most about the writing here is usually what I despise about this writing style which is very similar to Stephen King's if you ask me (and you didn't), is where I am maddened by King's full length novels for Peter Pan flights into meandering minutia... Koja's held my attention throughout. Even Koja's characters got annoyed by the small talk and beating around the bush.
I absolutely adored this book!
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this strange mediation on obsession and creation. The beauty of The Cipher is its commitment to displaying the ugly side of being an artist. Squalor. Talentless sycophants. Grievous bodily harm. Its all there. Koja's text oozes dread in a dark, poetic haze. A must read for creatives.
Kathe Koja is that special kind of author that makes me ask, where have you been all my life?
Her writing has a hectic momentum that launches you, screaming, to the hard concrete of The Cipher's conclusion. There is a methhead flair to the imagery in this book that I crave, yet can rarely find. It's poetry of the most twisted, irreverent bent. The premise is great, and where the plot leads us is even better.
If you haven't read this yet, what're you doing?
Her writing has a hectic momentum that launches you, screaming, to the hard concrete of The Cipher's conclusion. There is a methhead flair to the imagery in this book that I crave, yet can rarely find. It's poetry of the most twisted, irreverent bent. The premise is great, and where the plot leads us is even better.
If you haven't read this yet, what're you doing?
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes