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A review by zare_i
The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
4.0
This was a surprisingly good horror novel. I have watched the movies and, lets be honest, from the very title reader is aware of what is the main twist here.
But it is in the way story is told that I truly enjoyed it. Told from the perspective of a local physician we follow what at first seems like to be a mass hysteria slowly becomes a palpable danger which unfortunately our heroes cannot fight, let alone defeat because ... they just cannot. They can resist it and they can slow it down but for all means and purposes infiltration is just too good and too thorough to be stopped. Also the very nature of the infiltration is such that not once our heroes start to question themselves - is it what they see and witness real or not.
One of the comments I read for the book commented about one of the discussions in the book where there is mention of the weight of the sun-light but, if we put aside rather clumsiness of the explanation (which again for me is all right because these are discussions between laymen) what is described as a motor that spreads the invasion is nothing more than a form of solar sail. Another great concept here is the way copies are made - pure genius if you ask me. No need for physical contact or drawing blood, no aliens popping up from chest-cavity. The very process is the ultimate horror of all, waking up completely changed, feeling same but also completely different. As I said, excellent idea.
And while narrative flow is at times a little bit slow, novel itself aged more than well. And yes, after reading the novel I have to say no movie did it justice yet, they did capture the paranoia but the novel is much more terrifying than the movies in the sheer level of despair.
Recommended to fans of SF and horror.
But it is in the way story is told that I truly enjoyed it. Told from the perspective of a local physician we follow what at first seems like to be a mass hysteria slowly becomes a palpable danger which unfortunately our heroes cannot fight, let alone defeat because ... they just cannot. They can resist it and they can slow it down but for all means and purposes infiltration is just too good and too thorough to be stopped. Also the very nature of the infiltration is such that not once our heroes start to question themselves - is it what they see and witness real or not.
One of the comments I read for the book commented about one of the discussions in the book where there is mention of the weight of the sun-light but, if we put aside rather clumsiness of the explanation (which again for me is all right because these are discussions between laymen) what is described as a motor that spreads the invasion is nothing more than a form of solar sail. Another great concept here is the way copies are made - pure genius if you ask me. No need for physical contact or drawing blood, no aliens popping up from chest-cavity. The very process is the ultimate horror of all, waking up completely changed, feeling same but also completely different. As I said, excellent idea.
And while narrative flow is at times a little bit slow, novel itself aged more than well. And yes, after reading the novel I have to say no movie did it justice yet, they did capture the paranoia but the novel is much more terrifying than the movies in the sheer level of despair.
Recommended to fans of SF and horror.