hounded's reviews
65 reviews

In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt

2.75

It was an okay book. I liked the concept of the story itself and the (albeit heavy handed) calls to classic fairy tails. But the book felt a bit pretentious and I think the story suffered from having too many elements to keep it at least some what clear. The story struggled since the writing style was very confusing and more and more kept getting added on even though it felt like there was no purpose.
Updating my review because I reading some others I completely agree with is. This would have been written better by a woman. The main characters is supposed to have some  tragic "Being a woman is hard so the life in the woods is more appealing" type deal but theres no development past that so. She ended up being a nothing character. As well as all the other women in this book. THey all have something similar but it's never expanded upon in anyway making the whole thing feel. Well. Pointless. I understand where the author was trying to go but. I don't think truly understands what he was trying to say.
Overall entertaining for a lighter read but I don't think I'll ever come back to it.

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

4.75

Wow it's been a long time since I read Maus but it's still as good as I remember. I don't even know what to say about it besides read it.

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura

4.0

I really enjoyed this! It felt slow paced which was nice I haven't read a book like that in a long time. It also really aided in the critique of capitalism with how slow certain parts felt. As being extremely working class there was so so much I could relate to with the main character which is what made it so enjoyable to me. The characters that literally just go in and out of the narrators life is so realistic to how it is when you go through so many jobs.... 
It reminds me of the quote from City of Night by John Rechy "The long goodbye the life turns into"
Plus the characters you meet are very entertaining and the little bits of surrealism sprinkled through out made me want to finish the book so bad just to know what happens in the end!!
Definitely recommend reading while in between jobs or if you need that final push to quit a bad job 

City of Night by John Rechy

4.75

Wow This book is amazing! The characters really stay with me even after I've finished the book. Th e authors note at the end saying how when he thinks about the people in his life that inspired the characters and how he doesn't know where they are now but it makes him sad but whenever he thinks about someone reading the book that the characters come to life and begin their cycles anew.  That really hit home and made me really love all the characters and all their little details even more....
Plus the plot of wanting love and mourning innocence and youth and the journey of finding oneself and realizing parts of yourself is so so so so good. 
The final chapters tie it all together so beautifully and it was so so engaging and wonderful and great.
This book is going on my list of must read LGBT lit for people. Please PLease read it and think about it for a long long time.

Sensor by Junji Ito

3.75

Surprisingly more Sci-Fi then I anticipated. As always the art work is incredible and disturbing (don't recommend eating while trying to read any of his works). The story was very interesting! I loved the villian in this book and I'm curious about the choice of Father Miguel and all of the christian content? I'll probably read up on it but still very much enjoyed it!

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

3.0

Entertaining book with interesting characters. However the plot itself was alright and I felt that the ending didn't mean a whole lot to me. I understand what it was going for but I don't think it was well done. Still an enjoyable book especially the audio book narrator! Honestly that was the best highlight of it!

Slash Them All by Antoine Maillard

4.5

Wow! The art style of this is beautiful! That was the first reason I picked it up. The first page alone I was blown away by how it looked! I love graphic novels and horror movies and this really felt like a wonderful combo of both! The story was very engaging and I loved how little dialog there was! I love when graphic novels rely more on the art then conversation to convey the story!!! 
I honestly don't have a lot of cons about this book at all. I think it was just shy of a 5 star for me but I highly recommend everyone to read it! 
There's a lot to pick apart and digest with this story too! I look forward to rereading it again and again

Tremor Dose by Michael W. Conrad

fast-paced

3.25

Very interesting concept and visually unique! I love the idea of the story itself but it felt a bit too actiony for my taste for what story it was doing but I still enjoyed it. The art style is very very cool! I have not seen anything like it before! The pencil texture and almost like old yellowing pages vibe it had made me feel very disturbed at times. There's one drawing in particular that actually made me feel so viscerally uncomfortable that I actually set the book down for a couple minutes before I could continue. 
I think my biggest problem is that the story started to feel very rushed because it was so short and I believe it would have benefited from more! I wanted more dreams and less action hero 

The concept of the government using dreams for advertising then on a bigger scale war. Is an incredible concept but I feel that this book really lacked more. Suspence in that regard it kind of felt tacked on and wasn't a super good way to keep the plot entertaining

That being said though I did still enjoy it and love the art style! Plus an open ended ending was very fun to mull over the story some more!

The Clown Brigade by Stephen Graham Jones

2.0

I love Stephen Gram Jones as an author and was very excited to listen to another audio book! However I was let down with this one :( I understand the message of it all about misogyny and men and everything he was trying to say in this book but it really just fell flat. 
Plus maybe I just really missed something but I don't understand the clowns?? I don't see what their purpose in this story is? I discussed it with my wife who said she also didn't understand so I'll probably read a few different opinions on it and see if it brings anything to light and maybe changes my opinon of the book? But even if it does this book was not my favorite. I know what he was going for but it didn't work in this one. 
That being said it was still well written as always and I enjoyed his author notes at the end :)

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

4.25

I really loved that it followed a narrative! The story was engaging and it really pulled at your heart. I look forward to rereading it! A few of the poems brought me to tears and the story itself makes me quite emotional.