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fluidstatic's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Sprawling alliterative streams of madness, filth, pestilence, surreality, and inexplicable numbness. Plagues of gravel, ink, smoke, blood, mold, glass, endless grinning sun that drinks the sea. I can only describe this book of almost-stories as an onslaught. Grabs you on the first page, hypnotizes you with florishes of alliteration and subtle meter. It then drags you along, as you grow increasingly numb to the hideous grime of its imagery, to a complete lack of satisfying conclusion. This thing reads like David Lynch directing an A24 art house film about the death of humanity; not just the population, but the concept. Cruel, murky, gritty. Eventually you just want it to stop, but you can't put it down - like being emotionally exhausted by a 24 hour news cycle, but it's delivered by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and no matter how numb you are to the violence and rot and emptiness, they're the only thing on TV. Truly an exercise in florid, unrelentingly bleak imagery as blunt instrument. Not a fun read, but certainly a vivid and unique experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Terminal illness
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