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zombehdoll 's review for:
This is Not a Horror Story
by J.D. Keown
*CONTENT WARNING: This review refers to disturbing sexual content in this book*
The very kind editor gave me the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this anthology of short horror stories. He was super friendly, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I was expecting to love it, and I really wanted to love it, but unfortunately that was not my experience. I wish I could write a more positive review, because other readers seemed to really enjoy it, but this book is definitely not for everyone, and unfortunately it was not for me. Your mileage may vary, but I'm sharing my honest review in the hope that it helps other readers make an informed decision about whether to read this book.
Some of the stories were pretty good - fairly well written, interesting plot, probably a 3 star read. I enjoyed them. Some of them started out promising but kind of fell flat, and left me wishing the author had developed the plot or elements of the story a little bit more, so a 2 star read for me. Some of them had an ok story idea but the telling of it was unsatisfying and not enjoyable to read, so only 1 star. And one in particular was simply vile, and I had to stop reading only 2 paragraphs into Studies After The Human Figure. I understand these stories are marketed as "transgressive", but some of the content goes way beyond that in my opinion, and left me feeling physically ill. It was at this point that I had to DNF the book, because I didn't want to risk encountering more content like this. If you are at all squeamish about necrophilia/bestiality imagery, consider yourself forewarned. I wish i could un-see what I read.
I don’t believe it would be fair to assign a numeric rating to the entire book when I could not finish it, so my rating only applies to the 60-ish percent that I did read. The first 9 or so stories range from pretty good (3 stars) to mediocre (2 stars) to disappointing (1 star) to absolutely disgusting (to quote Kung Fu Panda, "there is now a level zero"). I think some writers confuse the shock value of really depraved content with interesting writing, but in my opinion this is a lazy narrative device to attempt to compensate for weak storytelling. I can't rate the rest of the book, or even the rest of that story for that matter, because they lost me at the dead dog masturbation fantasy. (That's not a sentence I ever, ever, ever imagined myself writing!)
I think this book requires strong and specific content warnings, because it's simply way beyond my comfort level, and I think other readers might feel the same. A reader with a stronger stomach might have an easier time taking such content in stride, but in my opinion none of the stories I read were especially great, and certainly not good enough to compensate for the ones that try too hard to be edgy. The editor seems like a genuinely nice person, and I wish him success, but I think his upcoming YA horror anthology will be a better fit for me, as I don't think I'm the right audience for this one.
The very kind editor gave me the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this anthology of short horror stories. He was super friendly, and I was really looking forward to reading this book. I was expecting to love it, and I really wanted to love it, but unfortunately that was not my experience. I wish I could write a more positive review, because other readers seemed to really enjoy it, but this book is definitely not for everyone, and unfortunately it was not for me. Your mileage may vary, but I'm sharing my honest review in the hope that it helps other readers make an informed decision about whether to read this book.
Some of the stories were pretty good - fairly well written, interesting plot, probably a 3 star read. I enjoyed them. Some of them started out promising but kind of fell flat, and left me wishing the author had developed the plot or elements of the story a little bit more, so a 2 star read for me. Some of them had an ok story idea but the telling of it was unsatisfying and not enjoyable to read, so only 1 star. And one in particular was simply vile, and I had to stop reading only 2 paragraphs into Studies After The Human Figure. I understand these stories are marketed as "transgressive", but some of the content goes way beyond that in my opinion, and left me feeling physically ill. It was at this point that I had to DNF the book, because I didn't want to risk encountering more content like this. If you are at all squeamish about necrophilia/bestiality imagery, consider yourself forewarned. I wish i could un-see what I read.
I don’t believe it would be fair to assign a numeric rating to the entire book when I could not finish it, so my rating only applies to the 60-ish percent that I did read. The first 9 or so stories range from pretty good (3 stars) to mediocre (2 stars) to disappointing (1 star) to absolutely disgusting (to quote Kung Fu Panda, "there is now a level zero"). I think some writers confuse the shock value of really depraved content with interesting writing, but in my opinion this is a lazy narrative device to attempt to compensate for weak storytelling. I can't rate the rest of the book, or even the rest of that story for that matter, because they lost me at the dead dog masturbation fantasy. (That's not a sentence I ever, ever, ever imagined myself writing!)
I think this book requires strong and specific content warnings, because it's simply way beyond my comfort level, and I think other readers might feel the same. A reader with a stronger stomach might have an easier time taking such content in stride, but in my opinion none of the stories I read were especially great, and certainly not good enough to compensate for the ones that try too hard to be edgy. The editor seems like a genuinely nice person, and I wish him success, but I think his upcoming YA horror anthology will be a better fit for me, as I don't think I'm the right audience for this one.