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A review by sipping_tea_with_ghosts
It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.0
Outside of the GoodReads rating system, I'd be giving this book a 2.5 / 5 - a tale full of good descriptions of horror that help in building a sense of mystery and Lovecraftian strangeness, but is aggressively weighed down by a tone imbalance, prickly characters and an ending that felt like it was rushing for the bus with its pants around its ankles.
With this being a story focusing on the creation of art, I feel a warning is valid since the descriptions of known art pieces, figures and techniques isn't a just a feature of the characters, its a full on plot element. This text overall is bursting from its chest in references and in-jokes. If you're an outsider looking in, hoping for a digestible explanation for the artistic struggle, you're not getting it. Either you know or you don't.
Thankfully I understood most of them being a music creator and nerd with art, black metal culture, and true crime but most aren't going to pick up on that because the characters never explain beyond "Hey, this is just like _____". I might be in the minority, but I find tales that take place in our own semblance of reality to be irritating when it relies on pop culture references and what not for its worldbuilding.
There's a character that narrates Museum Interludes when the book is mostly a 3rd person affair who feels like they were designed just to irritate me with that kind of bile, and they're the main culprit in the murder of this book's tone and pacing. The interludes serve as a look into the villain's hideout while Lark tries to build this devious art piece. Other than failing to make the villains sound interesting or compelling, these brick walls of text just love to belt out brand names, inane tangents and make me wish we were back with the actual main character.
Not that Lark comes close to being a great protagonist - being a flavor of dickhead to match the town he lives in. The guy goes through a lot and some sections of this book dealing with the fate of his prickly neighbors did genuinely make me feel uncomfortable in the best way possible, but that feeling is fleeting. Closing out with an ending you'll expect if you've ever read anything Lovecraft adjacent, it just rolled off of me as soon as I closed the book. You just can't pull that kind of ending when I legitimately can't care for the characters.
So I loved the concept and Marino gets the strange horror bits so right, but the connecting fibers were unfortunately flossy at best.
With this being a story focusing on the creation of art, I feel a warning is valid since the descriptions of known art pieces, figures and techniques isn't a just a feature of the characters, its a full on plot element. This text overall is bursting from its chest in references and in-jokes. If you're an outsider looking in, hoping for a digestible explanation for the artistic struggle, you're not getting it. Either you know or you don't.
Thankfully I understood most of them being a music creator and nerd with art, black metal culture, and true crime but most aren't going to pick up on that because the characters never explain beyond "Hey, this is just like _____". I might be in the minority, but I find tales that take place in our own semblance of reality to be irritating when it relies on pop culture references and what not for its worldbuilding.
There's a character that narrates Museum Interludes when the book is mostly a 3rd person affair who feels like they were designed just to irritate me with that kind of bile, and they're the main culprit in the murder of this book's tone and pacing. The interludes serve as a look into the villain's hideout while Lark tries to build this devious art piece. Other than failing to make the villains sound interesting or compelling, these brick walls of text just love to belt out brand names, inane tangents and make me wish we were back with the actual main character.
Not that Lark comes close to being a great protagonist - being a flavor of dickhead to match the town he lives in. The guy goes through a lot and some sections of this book dealing with the fate of his prickly neighbors did genuinely make me feel uncomfortable in the best way possible, but that feeling is fleeting. Closing out with an ending you'll expect if you've ever read anything Lovecraft adjacent, it just rolled off of me as soon as I closed the book. You just can't pull that kind of ending when I legitimately can't care for the characters.
So I loved the concept and Marino gets the strange horror bits so right, but the connecting fibers were unfortunately flossy at best.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Animal cruelty