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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Absolutely FANTASTIC! You know its good writing when the they make it clear the horrors of jim crow era are/were more terrifying than lovecraftian beasts. I do wish I had read more lovecraft before reading this - I think it would add just a layer more of enjoyment. This book reminded me of the Flanagans Fall of the House of Usher and did for Lovecraft what that did for Poe.
Quite a good read, though with flaws. I'm vacillating between giving this 4 and 5 stars for a review. It's good fiction, quite good Cosmic fiction too, and some sections are so fucking good that they, alone, are warrant of 5 stars (in particular a section devoted to Montrose Turner toward the end of the book). There are a mixed amount of tones in this novel. Some comedic, some tense and on edge, and some that are quite brutal and horrific. I think the tonal whiplash in some of these, though, honestly is why I'm bringing it to a 4. It's not that the tone shifts in the first place, it's where the tonal shifts occur that are giving me some of the problems really. Matt Ruff makes super sympathetic characters and, at times, intriguing antagonists too. It's not a complex read and in some cases, goes against type for Cosmic horror narratives. At the same time, it makes it a bit more melancholic knowing where history will lead for these characters considering the story ends in the 50's. All the same, it's a good read. Matt Ruff, for a white author, handles it with as much sensitivity that may be possible but I am not an authority that needs to be making those claims but as far as actual reads go, it's a smooth and fun one that is, more all intents and purposes, quite enjoyable.
The historical aspects and character development were really interesting. The science-fiction was a bit handwavey, and I don't think it really worked.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
The origins as a TV treatment show a: this is a "serial novel" where each story is self-contained but pieces together into the whole. Coming up for air at each break keeps this from being the trademark Matt Ruff experience of reading the entire back half in one sitting. It also means the PoV character rotates frequently, so the reader has to be on their toes tracking apparently minor characters. There's definitely a point to the story; I had it figured out about halfway in but it's made explicit at the end (in a way that works well, not insert-the-moral-here). I'm going to go looking for reviews and see how many people think that the Jim Crow stuff is all hyperbole. It's woven in really well and, knowing Ruff's work, I presume it's well researched. It managed to get across a different sense for me of the daily lived experience of racism. I'm uncomfortably aware that's a perspective from fiction by by a white author and I do wish he'd taken the opportunity to put in a list of references (some may be implicit in the acknowledgement names.)
Despite the jacket synopsis, this isn’t much of a pulp horror novel, but rather a frightening commentary on racism in America. Though it’s set in the 1950s, the themes resonate today, with white police threatening black motorists, black boys having no voice, white women given every benefit while black women are belittled, and unfair housing policies. And in that regard, the novel is really good. The author conveys the terrors felt by his black protagonists viscerally, both the everyday threats and the supernatural ones. The only drawback is that it’s told as a series of related vignettes, and each one is rather anticlimactic and shallow. It takes several vignettes to understand the underlying plot; on their own they’re well written but not very satisfying. Perhaps if it had been written as interwoven chapters it might have made the supernatural plot feel more substantive. But regardless, as a treatise on racism, this novel is excellent.