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A review by ghostboyreads
Convulsive by Joe Koch
4.0
Shall you bring me laces tattered, a comb broken, an apple bitten? With proof of devotion, will you tempt me to lie? I see your truth clearly, filled with the emptiness that is my image, the twin cravings we trade. Speak with me, and share devotion: I am nothing without you.
Every so often you encounter a book that makes you question your grasp on reality, one that makes you think about your connection to the world, a book that, makes you reflect upon your own intelligence, sparking thoughts of getting an entirely new brain as your current one is seriously outdated. Convulsive is that book. This is an extremely experimental and deeply transgressive collection of short stories. Here you'll find only the most viscerally strange of tales, stories that evoke senses piqued during drug filled hazes, words that will make you see God.
It seems like a feat of impossibility to create a collection such as this, to write a work of art so mind-altering that it seems as if the author himself is on another plane of existence. Koch takes the regular, the mundane, and molds it into art so beautiful, so painstaking, that it almost masks the horrors hidden within. It's only when you uncover them, when you truly see, that you'll be left breathless, rendered silent, without speech. Ultimately, this is a novel that will benefit from several re-reads. It's unthinkable that one could soak up all this novel has to offer on just their first pass through.
Every so often you encounter a book that makes you question your grasp on reality, one that makes you think about your connection to the world, a book that, makes you reflect upon your own intelligence, sparking thoughts of getting an entirely new brain as your current one is seriously outdated. Convulsive is that book. This is an extremely experimental and deeply transgressive collection of short stories. Here you'll find only the most viscerally strange of tales, stories that evoke senses piqued during drug filled hazes, words that will make you see God.
It seems like a feat of impossibility to create a collection such as this, to write a work of art so mind-altering that it seems as if the author himself is on another plane of existence. Koch takes the regular, the mundane, and molds it into art so beautiful, so painstaking, that it almost masks the horrors hidden within. It's only when you uncover them, when you truly see, that you'll be left breathless, rendered silent, without speech. Ultimately, this is a novel that will benefit from several re-reads. It's unthinkable that one could soak up all this novel has to offer on just their first pass through.
"Once again he placed a bone to her lips. She smelled the sugar in it, felt the squirm of something fragrant in the rotting meat, the slab behind her back alive and moist, massaging her with maggots. "
Delving into this book felt like leaping from a ledge and sinking into madness. Convulsive flaunts its prose, it takes pride in its uniqueness, showing off how easily it bends and twists language into an entirely new concept. It feels as if this novel could move mountains. We are truly welcoming in a new age of horror, with Convulsive sitting amongst the best of the bunch. If what you seek is tales that will alter your perception of the world around you, stories that will change how you interact with words upon a page, then you've stumbled across the perfect collection.
He constructs a sanctuary of bones and weaves lean sinew and tense flesh through the holes. Sacrilegious magic is at work. He weaves more than meat. He weaves time.