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emberology's reviews
1429 reviews
Koiramäen joulukirkko by Mauri Kunnas
4.0
(Doghill Christmas Church; not yet translated into English)
Published in 1997 to raise funds for the repair work of Saint Olaf's Church in Tyrvää after it was almost destroyed by arson, this is one of Kunnas's shortest books but one of my favorites. A nighttime sled journey in the snow, nestled under blankets, and the detailed recreation of the church interior bathing in warm candlelight.
Published in 1997 to raise funds for the repair work of Saint Olaf's Church in Tyrvää after it was almost destroyed by arson, this is one of Kunnas's shortest books but one of my favorites. A nighttime sled journey in the snow, nestled under blankets, and the detailed recreation of the church interior bathing in warm candlelight.
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
Empty and crumbling sets, weird architecture, starlets thirsting to be famous, religious fanatics, tired and sick artists, cockfighting, illusioned people, restless crowds, celebrity obsession, fake horses at the bottom of pools. Everything that made/makes Los Angeles so wonderfully bizarre or a dumpster fire, depending on your point of view. West's disjointed execution wasn't the best, but I keep coming to it, so there must be something there.
The movie is equally fascinating, perfectly capturing the grotesqueness and gloominess, and the final frenzied scene is incredible.
4.0
"Where else could they go but California, the land of sunshine and oranges?
Once there, they discover that sunshine isn’t enough.
They realize that they’ve been tricked and burn with resentment. Every day of their lives they read newspapers and went to the movies. Both fed them on lynchings, murder, sex crimes, explosions, wrecks, love nests, fires, miracles, revolutions, wars. The daily diet made sophisticates of them. The sun is a joke. Oranges can’t titillate their jaded palates. Nothing can ever be violent enough to make taut their slack minds and bodies. They have been cheated and betrayed. They have slaved and saved for nothing."
Empty and crumbling sets, weird architecture, starlets thirsting to be famous, religious fanatics, tired and sick artists, cockfighting, illusioned people, restless crowds, celebrity obsession, fake horses at the bottom of pools. Everything that made/makes Los Angeles so wonderfully bizarre or a dumpster fire, depending on your point of view. West's disjointed execution wasn't the best, but I keep coming to it, so there must be something there.
The movie is equally fascinating, perfectly capturing the grotesqueness and gloominess, and the final frenzied scene is incredible.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Dr. Montague intends to investigate paranormal phenomena and prove they're real, and of the several people he invites to stay at Hill House for the summer, Theodora and Eleanor are the only ones to reply. Luke, the heir of the house, joins them because his presence is required by the owners.
They quickly discover that the house has a life of its own. It's almost a living breathing entity whose sole purpose is to confuse and consume them while making them feel isolated. When night descends, there are voices, sounds, shadows, and figures, but the way the house attaches itself to the psyche and spirit of one of the characters in particular is even more horrifying. The more their mind is splintered, the stronger the house becomes and the two become intertwined.
Although The Haunting of Hill House is in many ways a traditional haunted house story, it's Jackson's prose, her ability to bend the horror genre into subtle psychological terror, and the ambiguousness that make it special. The film adaptation The Haunting (1963) and the loose 2018 Netflix adaptation do it justice. Both are atmospheric, visually gorgeous, and are able to turn your blood into ice.
5.0
"The four of them stood, for the first time, in the wide, dark entrance hall of Hill House. Around them the house steadied and located them, above them the hills slept watchfully, small eddies of air and sound and movement stirred and waited and whispered, and the center of consciousness was somehow the small space where they stood, four separated people, and looked trustingly at one another."
Dr. Montague intends to investigate paranormal phenomena and prove they're real, and of the several people he invites to stay at Hill House for the summer, Theodora and Eleanor are the only ones to reply. Luke, the heir of the house, joins them because his presence is required by the owners.
They quickly discover that the house has a life of its own. It's almost a living breathing entity whose sole purpose is to confuse and consume them while making them feel isolated. When night descends, there are voices, sounds, shadows, and figures, but the way the house attaches itself to the psyche and spirit of one of the characters in particular is even more horrifying. The more their mind is splintered, the stronger the house becomes and the two become intertwined.
Although The Haunting of Hill House is in many ways a traditional haunted house story, it's Jackson's prose, her ability to bend the horror genre into subtle psychological terror, and the ambiguousness that make it special. The film adaptation The Haunting (1963) and the loose 2018 Netflix adaptation do it justice. Both are atmospheric, visually gorgeous, and are able to turn your blood into ice.
Nightingale: London 1966 by Ben Aaronovitch
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Christmas Moment by Ben Aaronovitch
For non-book records, review text and ratings are hidden. Only mood, pace, and content warnings are visible.
The Domestic by Ben Aaronovitch
3.0
I'd like to have more of these small cases that Peter has to deal with between the big ones. This one is a nice little ghost story. A predictable and kind of non-compelling one, but still nice.
PS. The list I'm referencing puts this before Moon Over Soho, but this is actually set between MOS and Whispers Under Ground.
PS. The list I'm referencing puts this before Moon Over Soho, but this is actually set between MOS and Whispers Under Ground.
Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
4.0
More cohesive plot-wise than the first one, and the dry humor is still great, the characters still feel like actual real people, and the portrayal of London and its history is still spot on (occasionally verging on info dumping, but I can deal with that since it's not excessive). If the purpose is to have only one main case from now on, I think it will work better in terms of keeping track of the personal lives of the characters and how the magical world is progressing.
Although jazz isn't really for me and I know nothing about it, I actually preferred the case revolving around it (and the nightlife in Soho) more than the river gods in the first book, and I absolutely loved the secondary plot in its Dr. Moreau-esqueness. I can hear the faint murmur of an excellent villain in the distance.
Someone definitely needs to reign Peter in soon, though, before he completely mucks something up because of his inexperience and tendency to get distracted.
Although jazz isn't really for me and I know nothing about it, I actually preferred the case revolving around it (and the nightlife in Soho) more than the river gods in the first book, and I absolutely loved the secondary plot in its Dr. Moreau-esqueness. I can hear the faint murmur of an excellent villain in the distance.
Someone definitely needs to reign Peter in soon, though, before he completely mucks something up because of his inexperience and tendency to get distracted.
The Home Crowd Advantage by Ben Aaronovitch
3.0
Considering I have zero interest in sports, I wasn't particularly excited about this, but thankfully it's not sports-heavy and instead deals with magical trouble. Another reference to Ettersburg as well.
Tobias Winter - Meckenheim 2012 by Ben Aaronovitch
3.0
The first story that is set after the events of Rivers of London, and it's a look into how magic is dealt with in Germany. I'm curious to see if this will play out somehow in future books. Hopefully so, because this feels like an introduction to something and raises more questions than anything. Clearly taking an apprentice is a breach of some kind of arrangement that we learned in the first book, but what happens now?
A Dedicated Follower of Fashion by Ben Aaronovitch, Ben Aaronovitch
3.0
The Deplorables continue the parade of small glimpses of great side characters, but the protagonist and his friends and whatever they had going on kind of left me cold. The basement part was great, though, and I couldn't really tell where the story was going.