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baghead's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
finalgirlfall's review against another edition
4.0
intriguing! i wasn't sure what to make of the ending, though.
ginimeh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
chillcox15's review against another edition
4.0
Destroy All Monsters really gets at the feeling of being a lifer in the music scene, someone who can't imagine not going to dozens of concerts a year (or hell, a month). It literalizes the feeling of being at a concert, which to a certain extent, is a contract for your own destruction. Your ears ring, your body is beaten by the rowdy crowd, your eyes assailed with lights; in Destroy All Monsters, going to a concert means you might end up all the way dead at once, and not slowly, over time.
The A Side, B Side structure is interesting enough to work, even if it disproves its own thesis of the B Side being the more interesting, secretive of the two.
The closest thing to this novel that I can think of is the movie Green Room, which also has a depressed, depleted feeling about it, and is about continuing on in music, because it's the only thing that really seems to make sense, even when it seems to be the escapable path to one's own destruction.
If you've ever slogged through a day at work, looking forward to a cramped house show with shitty noise punk music, this book is for you!
The A Side, B Side structure is interesting enough to work, even if it disproves its own thesis of the B Side being the more interesting, secretive of the two.
The closest thing to this novel that I can think of is the movie Green Room, which also has a depressed, depleted feeling about it, and is about continuing on in music, because it's the only thing that really seems to make sense, even when it seems to be the escapable path to one's own destruction.
If you've ever slogged through a day at work, looking forward to a cramped house show with shitty noise punk music, this book is for you!
curlyratgirl's review against another edition
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
3.0
ericfheiman's review against another edition
3.0
(3.5 stars)
There’s a monster amount of ambition and energy in this book. It has a rare visceral kick and is compulsively readable from start to finish. If I’d gotten to it in the throes of my music-crazy-dance-party-DJ-indie-record-store-clerk-passable-rock-drummer twenties—a time when also too many friends died way too young—it might have become a shibboleth text.
Now, as an equally music-crazy but wiser-and-more-modulated middle-ager, the book illuminates how rock music truly is for the young people—and all the emotional roller coaster trimmings that come with being that age. And with that, Monsters highlights how hard it is to write about the experience of playing, loving, living rock music and not have it sound, well, juvenile, unless you’re equally juvenile yourself. I mean that as a compliment to the author and as a lament for all the older, wiser people reading this book who can only admire these conceits from the distance of lived (rather than liv-ing) experience.
But there’s also a larger conceptual conceit here that makes the book more than just a inventively fractured snapshot of a small-town music scene and all the expected collateral damage you'd expect to come with it. Jackson presents a fascinating and unsettling connection between musicians and killers. That they share a competitive, almost diametrically opposed desire for attention and the performative aspects that drives that desire. That’s what makes Monsters a much harder book to dismiss.
There’s a monster amount of ambition and energy in this book. It has a rare visceral kick and is compulsively readable from start to finish. If I’d gotten to it in the throes of my music-crazy-dance-party-DJ-indie-record-store-clerk-passable-rock-drummer twenties—a time when also too many friends died way too young—it might have become a shibboleth text.
Now, as an equally music-crazy but wiser-and-more-modulated middle-ager, the book illuminates how rock music truly is for the young people—and all the emotional roller coaster trimmings that come with being that age. And with that, Monsters highlights how hard it is to write about the experience of playing, loving, living rock music and not have it sound, well, juvenile, unless you’re equally juvenile yourself. I mean that as a compliment to the author and as a lament for all the older, wiser people reading this book who can only admire these conceits from the distance of lived (rather than liv-ing) experience.
But there’s also a larger conceptual conceit here that makes the book more than just a inventively fractured snapshot of a small-town music scene and all the expected collateral damage you'd expect to come with it. Jackson presents a fascinating and unsettling connection between musicians and killers. That they share a competitive, almost diametrically opposed desire for attention and the performative aspects that drives that desire. That’s what makes Monsters a much harder book to dismiss.
cheye13's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
My disappointment with this one is strongly tied to the high (and specific?) expectations I had going in. From the cover/synopses I was promised a horror/thriller in an experimental format tied directly to music. Instead it turned out to be an overwritten grimdark rumination of suicide and grief with vague allusions to the music scene.
To paraphrase a goodreads review I glimpsed: it's overwritten on a microlevel and underwritten on a macro level. The majority of the book is a series of poetic vignettes, often describing the same scene or emotion numerous times in different ways, which could be effective if used more sparingly. Instead, it eats up page count leaving room for only one or two actual events to occur in the entirety of the story.
Ultimately, I found nothing to cling to. Beyond unlikeable, the characters are too incomplete to resonate with. The setting is too nebulous and inconcrete to ground anything or provide a reference point; even if the intended setting is "music," there's no decisiveness in what "music" means in the context of the work (in a non-aural art form). The only emotion successfully conveyed is fear/anxiety, which gets exhausting & burns out in a full-length book. I don't mind a no-plot-all-vibes book, but without any other reference point, it just becomes another non-entity.
The cherry on top is that the cover & marketing loudly proclaim one can read Sides A & B in whichever order, and I fully disagree. Side B is noticeably shorter because it's the same tale from a different angle and elides much of what Side A includes.
To paraphrase a goodreads review I glimpsed: it's overwritten on a microlevel and underwritten on a macro level. The majority of the book is a series of poetic vignettes, often describing the same scene or emotion numerous times in different ways, which could be effective if used more sparingly. Instead, it eats up page count leaving room for only one or two actual events to occur in the entirety of the story.
Ultimately, I found nothing to cling to. Beyond unlikeable, the characters are too incomplete to resonate with. The setting is too nebulous and inconcrete to ground anything or provide a reference point; even if the intended setting is "music," there's no decisiveness in what "music" means in the context of the work (in a non-aural art form). The only emotion successfully conveyed is fear/anxiety, which gets exhausting & burns out in a full-length book. I don't mind a no-plot-all-vibes book, but without any other reference point, it just becomes another non-entity.
The cherry on top is that the cover & marketing loudly proclaim one can read Sides A & B in whichever order, and I fully disagree. Side B is noticeably shorter because it's the same tale from a different angle and elides much of what Side A includes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Cursing, and Gore
Minor: Drug use, Vomit, Self harm, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury
kphipps's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
jennymills21's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Plucking your eyelashes is not some “quirky cute” affectation it’s just fucking dumb. This is very clearly a book with a female protagonist, who is written by a man, because no matter how disgusting or lol ”broken” she is every man wants to fuck her.
mobymaize's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Destroy All Monsters, like many deluxe LPs, offers the main tracks seen in Side A: My Dark Ages and the demo tracks in Side B: Kill City.
A terrifying romp through local music scenes and the incredible hunger & desire of people. Despite my dislike of the majority of the characters, I really enjoyed this last rock novel.
A terrifying romp through local music scenes and the incredible hunger & desire of people. Despite my dislike of the majority of the characters, I really enjoyed this last rock novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Violence, Cursing, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Alcohol, Mass/school shootings, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Rape and Schizophrenia/Psychosis