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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
For me, books like these (cosmic horror) usually fall into two camps: dense and hard to get into or those that suck you in and bury you under dread as you progress (either dread from the plot or dread of eventually reaching story's end).
This was definitely in the latter camp. I think I've read other stories by this author but I can't be sure. In any case, it was a brilliant couple of stories and he is definitely a master of the new cosmic horror. I enjoyed HP Lovecraft in my earlier reading years but this was way better and I'm glad he's out there.
This was definitely in the latter camp. I think I've read other stories by this author but I can't be sure. In any case, it was a brilliant couple of stories and he is definitely a master of the new cosmic horror. I enjoyed HP Lovecraft in my earlier reading years but this was way better and I'm glad he's out there.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky is beautiful and horrifying in equal measure, and I really enjoyed it.
Isabel and Avendaño are very lovable characters, despite the latter being kind of an ass. I suppose seeing him through her eyes is what made me like him.
The ending was abrupt and confusing—I'm not sure if she simply escaped like Avendaño did or if she somehow took all the miasma into her eye and then escaped. Was the dictator imprisoned because she took away Cleave's power? Or was it just the natural course of history? I have no way of knowing, and that annoys me. 4.25 ☆
My Heart Struck Sorrow is an interesting read, if a bit long. But I feel like it's one of those cases of a story within a story where it doesn't particularly matter who is the protagonist uncovering it—swap Cromwell with anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference (although maybe I'm biased, seeing as I hated that guy from chapter one).
I liked the premise and the journals, and for that I give this 3.85 ☆.
Isabel and Avendaño are very lovable characters, despite the latter being kind of an ass. I suppose seeing him through her eyes is what made me like him.
The ending was abrupt and confusing—
My Heart Struck Sorrow is an interesting read, if a bit long. But I feel like it's one of those cases of a story within a story where it doesn't particularly matter who is the protagonist uncovering it—swap Cromwell with anyone else and it wouldn't make a difference (although maybe I'm biased, seeing as I hated that guy from chapter one).
I liked the premise and the journals, and for that I give this 3.85 ☆.
This book comprises of two stories, the first being “The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky”, and the second being “My Heart Struck Sorrow”.
In Sea Dreams, the vibes were impeccable from the start, and I was immediately gripped by the story. I absolutely loved the descriptive, poetic prose, and among other things, Jacobs nailed describing mania from the POV of a manic person. Here are some excerpts I particularly liked:
Meanwhile, the mystery and increasingly macabre nature of the story was built up well. I kept waiting for a demonic deal to be struck, or for someone to be dragged off to Hell (as both title and blurb suggested), excited to see where the clues left behind would lead…
…and then the story ended.
I was stunned by just how nothing the ending was. Forgetting the book was supposed to be two novellas, I thought there’d been a mistake and another book had replaced the ending of this one.
I wasn’t nearly as invested in Heart Struck, and had to restart it several times due to putting it down and then forgetting what had happened previously. I will commend the author for playing with different writing styles, but the dryness of a personal journal didn’t grip me the way the poetic prose of the first story did. It did however share the same issue of ending without a sense of conclusion, and with very little in the way of hellish occurrences. I agree with what other reviewers have said about the book being miscategorised or falsely advertised. This wasn’t cosmic horror and the presence of the devil was hugely exaggerated.
All in all, I would recommend the first story for its prose, and will definitely check out the Jacobs’ other works. But it was frustrating to see both of these stories go nowhere.
In Sea Dreams, the vibes were impeccable from the start, and I was immediately gripped by the story. I absolutely loved the descriptive, poetic prose, and among other things, Jacobs nailed describing mania from the POV of a manic person. Here are some excerpts I particularly liked:
“When you are sunless and less than human, time changes - it expands, it contracts. It passes and you understand its passage, but with only an animal understanding, the tug of the moon on the sea of the body, the fall of temperature indicating night. You exist outside of time, in near-time. A stilled fermata. The moment when the wave crashes, but frozen. The point the sparrow falls, floating. All moments now singular. Collapsed upon each other. And pain is the door to near-time.”
“We are animals and much of communication is just soothing vocalisations, soft glottals and plosives, that indicate to other animals we do not intend harm, we consider them part of our tribe. Any meaning layered on top of that is just… *extra*. I found I could not make those animal sounds.”
“I do not know if it was because of my deep thrall to the collapsed-time of torture, but he terrified me. I feared Sepúlvelda [his warden]. But in this man, I could feel my end. I could feel *all* ends. I could not tell if it was his accent, or the lack of it. He spoke Spanish in a cultured, easy voice. His resonant tones and perfect pronunciation seemed out of sync with the visual information I could glean from him - each was separate from the other - possibly an effect of the torture, perhaps my ears along with my eye had been injured. I was becoming a haphazard collection of sensorial injuries. His voice seemed to be coming from everywhere, behind me, below. Coming from beyond. I could not apprehend it, and for me - where language was everything - that was frightening.”
Meanwhile, the mystery and increasingly macabre nature of the story was built up well. I kept waiting for a demonic deal to be struck, or for someone to be dragged off to Hell (as both title and blurb suggested), excited to see where the clues left behind would lead…
…and then the story ended.
I was stunned by just how nothing the ending was. Forgetting the book was supposed to be two novellas, I thought there’d been a mistake and another book had replaced the ending of this one.
I wasn’t nearly as invested in Heart Struck, and had to restart it several times due to putting it down and then forgetting what had happened previously. I will commend the author for playing with different writing styles, but the dryness of a personal journal didn’t grip me the way the poetic prose of the first story did. It did however share the same issue of ending without a sense of conclusion, and with very little in the way of hellish occurrences. I agree with what other reviewers have said about the book being miscategorised or falsely advertised. This wasn’t cosmic horror and the presence of the devil was hugely exaggerated.
All in all, I would recommend the first story for its prose, and will definitely check out the Jacobs’ other works. But it was frustrating to see both of these stories go nowhere.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
'A Lush and Seething Hell' is probably one of the best books I've read in a while. John Hornor Jacobs has gone and stretched what most of us think of as cosmic horror. This is not the gooey tentacles of HP Lovecraft. Instead, we are grounded in a very human world, with just enough of the unknown creeping in at the edges. I agree with Chuck Wendig's introduction: it makes a writer want to give up.
I had an entire review typed, but sadly an errant slip of the finger deleted the entire thing. I'll try to recreate it as best I can.
The first of the two novellas, 'The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky,' is placed in a context most of us can relate to, something we read about daily in the newspaper. Isabel, an academic and refugee, meets Avendaño, a famous poet from her home country. Both fled when a dictator took over and began committing atrocities. However, when Avendaño returns home, he leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she discovers photographs of an ancient manuscript, one she, like Avendaño, can't help but begin to translate.
'Sea' deals mostly with very human types of horror. War, genocide, the terror of "disappearances"... these are all things humans can do to one another. There is something there, lurking just out of sight, but maybe it's not causing these things to happen. Maybe it's just taking advantage.
The second novella, 'My Heart Struck Sorrow,' is my favorite of the two. It travels in time, with Cromwell, a librarian for the Library of Congress, traveling to Louisiana to catalogue the estate of a woman who recently died, leaving her estate to the LoC. There, they discover a secret room containing strange recordings and the journal of a man, Parker, who had made them. Cromwell, recovering from a devastating tragedy of his own, pours himself into sorting out these records, containing music from folk musicians. But there might be something more on the records as well. One of the songs holds a horrifying secret.
I love music. I love folk music. And I absolutely love the idea of recording variations on songs, a kind of oral history. This one really stuck with me.
Some people may find these novellas frustrating. They don't give easy answers at the end. There are unanswered questions, and no easy "Cthulhu wuz here" written on the wall. They make one think. And they are beautiful and interesting, and I'm immensely glad to have read them.
I had an entire review typed, but sadly an errant slip of the finger deleted the entire thing. I'll try to recreate it as best I can.
The first of the two novellas, 'The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky,' is placed in a context most of us can relate to, something we read about daily in the newspaper. Isabel, an academic and refugee, meets Avendaño, a famous poet from her home country. Both fled when a dictator took over and began committing atrocities. However, when Avendaño returns home, he leaves Isabel in charge of his apartment. There, she discovers photographs of an ancient manuscript, one she, like Avendaño, can't help but begin to translate.
'Sea' deals mostly with very human types of horror. War, genocide, the terror of "disappearances"... these are all things humans can do to one another. There is something there, lurking just out of sight, but maybe it's not causing these things to happen. Maybe it's just taking advantage.
The second novella, 'My Heart Struck Sorrow,' is my favorite of the two. It travels in time, with Cromwell, a librarian for the Library of Congress, traveling to Louisiana to catalogue the estate of a woman who recently died, leaving her estate to the LoC. There, they discover a secret room containing strange recordings and the journal of a man, Parker, who had made them. Cromwell, recovering from a devastating tragedy of his own, pours himself into sorting out these records, containing music from folk musicians. But there might be something more on the records as well. One of the songs holds a horrifying secret.
I love music. I love folk music. And I absolutely love the idea of recording variations on songs, a kind of oral history. This one really stuck with me.
Some people may find these novellas frustrating. They don't give easy answers at the end. There are unanswered questions, and no easy "Cthulhu wuz here" written on the wall. They make one think. And they are beautiful and interesting, and I'm immensely glad to have read them.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 stars. I really enjoyed both stories. I couldn’t put the book down. Would recommend to anyone who reads horror.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated