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A review by dembury
Inspection by Josh Malerman
2.0
4/3/2019 Edit: I'm changing my rating from 3 to 2 stars after more thinking. I've added in a little more in my review, but essentially I don't think Malerman's interesting idea for "Inspection" was well executed or excuses his clumsy pacing and characterizations, nor do I think he wrote a well-thought out or relevant narrative on anything pertaining to gender or sexuality. If anything, I think "Inspection" feels more dated than its 2019 release year. If you want a good Malerman story, go read "Bird Box"-it's way better.
I truly don’t know how I feel about “Inspection”. On one hand, I can honestly say I’ve never read a book quite like it. Malerman's story idea is one that is both enthralling and disturbing, and throughout the whole book I was very eager to see how things turned out. The ending was quite...dramatic. Harsh. Bloody. A blurb for the book calls the ending “Tarantino-esque” and I think that’s appropriate.
However, the pacing of the book felt off kilter, too. POVs are unevenly distributed, and really unsympathetic, droll characters are given the limelight (looking at you, Warren), and it takes away from the kids. It almost feels to me like Malerman had this really cool idea for a book and started outlining it, but didn’t spend enough time refining and really digging into parts of it. Portions of “Inspection” make for a very interesting suspense/horror novel, but those portions are kinda bogged down by unrefined, unrealized bits.
I'm also a little disappointed at the extreme black or white-ness of the story: because it revolves around a group of boys and a group of girls who are raised without the knowledge of the other, I thought gender and sexuality would be more of a narrative. But when it comes down to it, Malerman basically writes that boys are boys because they have a penis and girls are girls because they don't. It just feels a little dated and unaware.
I truly wish I had liked this book better because I've been looking forwards to it for some time! I think Malerman has potential (as seen with "Bird Box") but "Inspection" doesn't do it for me.
I truly don’t know how I feel about “Inspection”. On one hand, I can honestly say I’ve never read a book quite like it. Malerman's story idea is one that is both enthralling and disturbing, and throughout the whole book I was very eager to see how things turned out. The ending was quite...dramatic. Harsh. Bloody. A blurb for the book calls the ending “Tarantino-esque” and I think that’s appropriate.
However, the pacing of the book felt off kilter, too. POVs are unevenly distributed, and really unsympathetic, droll characters are given the limelight (looking at you, Warren), and it takes away from the kids. It almost feels to me like Malerman had this really cool idea for a book and started outlining it, but didn’t spend enough time refining and really digging into parts of it. Portions of “Inspection” make for a very interesting suspense/horror novel, but those portions are kinda bogged down by unrefined, unrealized bits.
I'm also a little disappointed at the extreme black or white-ness of the story: because it revolves around a group of boys and a group of girls who are raised without the knowledge of the other, I thought gender and sexuality would be more of a narrative. But when it comes down to it, Malerman basically writes that boys are boys because they have a penis and girls are girls because they don't. It just feels a little dated and unaware.
I truly wish I had liked this book better because I've been looking forwards to it for some time! I think Malerman has potential (as seen with "Bird Box") but "Inspection" doesn't do it for me.