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tjlcody's review
1.0
This is listed as horror.
I legitimately have no idea why, because there's not a single thing about it that's scary.
If you're looking for horror, something that will actually unsettle or scare you, I honestly wouldn't bother.
I legitimately have no idea why, because there's not a single thing about it that's scary.
If you're looking for horror, something that will actually unsettle or scare you, I honestly wouldn't bother.
charlesdarwin's review
5.0
More than just a love letter to Trenton, Ontario (actually the original “Hollywood North”), this book is a combination coming-of-age, mystery, slightly fantastical kind of tale.
The chapters are short, making it a good pick-up-and-go-back-to kind of novel. The story moves quickly, and the characters are all believable and a little bit broken. The antagonists are the right kind of scary and creepy, and remind me how strange adults seemed to me when I was a kid.
It’s difficult to describe the plot too much without ruining it. Leo (also known as Gus) is your classic bullied kid living in a small town. Strange things happen to him, and his town of Trenton. We follow him, and his friends Jack and Annie, as they try to solve a mystery. It’s not clear what the mystery is, but the reader discovers things right along with the kids. There are a number of unexpected twists and turns, and though it is resolved in the end, this book took did not end up where I had expected it to go. That’s a sign of a good mystery, right?
The chapters are short, making it a good pick-up-and-go-back-to kind of novel. The story moves quickly, and the characters are all believable and a little bit broken. The antagonists are the right kind of scary and creepy, and remind me how strange adults seemed to me when I was a kid.
It’s difficult to describe the plot too much without ruining it. Leo (also known as Gus) is your classic bullied kid living in a small town. Strange things happen to him, and his town of Trenton. We follow him, and his friends Jack and Annie, as they try to solve a mystery. It’s not clear what the mystery is, but the reader discovers things right along with the kids. There are a number of unexpected twists and turns, and though it is resolved in the end, this book took did not end up where I had expected it to go. That’s a sign of a good mystery, right?
shunn's review against another edition
5.0
As a rabid fan of Michael Libling’s short stories, I could not wait to get my grubby mitts on a copy of Hollywood North, his long-awaited first novel. I was not disappointed. Once I started, I could not put it down.
Libling has a keen memory for the insights and obsessions of boys growing up oddballs in an era of widespread conformity. He writes of their triumphs, terrors, and heartbreaks with an enviable breeziness. But, like a cherry-red hot rod idling in the street at midnight, that slick surface hides a throbbing pulsebeat of dread you feel deep in your chest. When you hop aboard, you’re in for a thrilling ride, but there’s no guarantee you’ll come back in one piece. Or at all.
Hollywood North is the most heartbreaking and chilling novel I’ve read in a very long time. Gus and Jack would file this find under X, for Excellent.
Libling has a keen memory for the insights and obsessions of boys growing up oddballs in an era of widespread conformity. He writes of their triumphs, terrors, and heartbreaks with an enviable breeziness. But, like a cherry-red hot rod idling in the street at midnight, that slick surface hides a throbbing pulsebeat of dread you feel deep in your chest. When you hop aboard, you’re in for a thrilling ride, but there’s no guarantee you’ll come back in one piece. Or at all.
Hollywood North is the most heartbreaking and chilling novel I’ve read in a very long time. Gus and Jack would file this find under X, for Excellent.
claben's review against another edition
5.0
A Christmas Story meets the works of Edgar Allan Poe in a well-paced tale of small town corruption, childhood fear, and a world bounded by secrets and ambiguity.
claben's review
5.0
A Christmas Story meets the works of Edgar Allan Poe in a well-paced tale of small town corruption, childhood fear, and a world bounded by secrets and ambiguity.
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