frwll_hppy_vlds's reviews
135 reviews

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of my favorite books ever now. Dark, cynical, unapologetic. Read if you're angry at the world, or maybe don't. 

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Did not finish book. Stopped at 78%.

switching to ISBN 9781590173480

The Plays of George Büchner by Victor Price, Georg Büchner

dark sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

On the Heights of Despair by E.M. Cioran

dark emotional fast-paced

5.0

I'm holding back so that I don't sound like a complete fool, but I will say that I copy/pasted almost the majority of this book into my journal, I read many parts over and over again to savor them, and when I finished and put it down I said "shut the fuck up" in the most complementary way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Dark Water by Kōji Suzuki
Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%.

I really liked the ideas behind these stories, and I loved the direction that they were going in, but a lot of them just ended too abruptly! 

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.

Switching to ebook version. 

Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard

3.5

FILLED WITH SPOILERS!

To be honest I was really confused as to why Maitland couldn't escape the "island". I guess I should have been more critical, but I just assumed that wherever he was, it was just too dangerous to stop. Although I kept looking for a reason why he couldn't at least get on the freeway when it wasn't so busy, especially when he was close to dying anyway. Also the number of times that Maitland goes back and forth from the road to the air-strike shelter was pretty suspicious. I think I just spent most of the book looking for a reason for all of these inconsistencies, when I really should have been confident that they were a choice by the author. Did that make it an unpleasant read? Maybe less pleasant than it could have been, but the payoff on the last page bumped it up a half star for me. 

Too many references to the grass, though. 

I will say that this definitely makes me excited to read High Rise.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism

My edition came with an introduction by Neil Gaiman. That might discourage a lot of people from buying this edition, and I wouldn't fault them for that. I borrowed it from my library. Gaiman uses some disparaging language for some of the characters in the book, too. I found that kind of concerning.

Ruins by Brian Dillon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 33%.

I'd rather only read some of these in their full publications as opposed to all these excerpts. I'm going to scan the table of contents and bibliography in the back.