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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My ratings are based on an inconsistent mishmash of my emotional reaction to books and my opinion of the technical skill it took to actually pull them off. In this case, I'm at about a two-star rating for "enjoyability of feels invoked" and a four star rating for "wow this dude has skills," so three stars it is.
If you were a weird, lonely teenager who fled daily life into escapism and occasionally had uncomfortable and destructive impulses, this novel will probably speak to you. You should consider whether you want to listen.
If you were a weird, lonely teenager who fled daily life into escapism and occasionally had uncomfortable and destructive impulses, this novel will probably speak to you. You should consider whether you want to listen.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
so dense and overlapping it demands another read. it empties your heart in such a specific way. i feel sick with pain.
There's something about this book that I wanted to like, but it just ended up leaving me empty, and not by design.
dark
tense
medium-paced
The moment I decided this was a well-written book was when, exactly half way through (page 103 of 206) the main character reflects on the Satanic Panic phenomena of rock songs being played backwards to reveal devilish secret meanings. For a book whose plot is revealed in reverse, this was a genuinely genius device.
While I didn't enjoy this quite as much as John Darnielle's more recent "Devil House" -- this is closer to a 3.5/5 whereas "Devil House" was a solid 4/5 -- it was good. I found the prose somewhat juvenile at times, but in a way that felt like a true reflection of the protagonist's inner world, and so this isn't really a complaint.
Oddly, my library marked this book as sci-fi, which it really wasn't. Although the idea of a game played through the mail was so out-of-this-world to me that it felt almost sci-fi -- just because I can't remember the last time I actually used the post.
Anyway, this was quite a good, short read. By far it's strongest element being the way the style and themes worked in tandem.
While I didn't enjoy this quite as much as John Darnielle's more recent "Devil House" -- this is closer to a 3.5/5 whereas "Devil House" was a solid 4/5 -- it was good. I found the prose somewhat juvenile at times, but in a way that felt like a true reflection of the protagonist's inner world, and so this isn't really a complaint.
Oddly, my library marked this book as sci-fi, which it really wasn't. Although the idea of a game played through the mail was so out-of-this-world to me that it felt almost sci-fi -- just because I can't remember the last time I actually used the post.
Anyway, this was quite a good, short read. By far it's strongest element being the way the style and themes worked in tandem.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
This felt slow and small and indistinct, especially compared to John Darnielle's other books which I liked a lot more, but by the end I felt pretty satisfied. It's probably longer than it needs to be but it isn't long in general and the things that stand out when it collapses down in my memory leave me feeling that I read a book I liked a lot more than I know I was actually feeling while reading it.
dark
reflective
slow-paced