perthalus's reviews
14 reviews

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Velociraptors are fucking terrifying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cursing, Blood, Car accident, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Body horror

Minor: Colonisation and Sexism

Jaws by Peter Benchley

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Fashioning a mean grin like a knife, Jaws is a jagged toothed beast that carves through each page with ease. It perfectly balances character driven drama with its unforgivingly gory horror. Each page feels grimy and dirty with peak summer heat, so much so that you’d think you could smell the fish guts coming from the words. I can see why this is a classic, and why Spielberg chose to adapt it to screen, I would too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Vomit and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, and Sexual assault

Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

The writer tries way to hard to make his main character an iconic badass horror protagonist to the point where it becomes eye-rolling.  Instead of focusing on character dynamics and relationships you just get mostly pointless snapshots of random character’s lives before they die a few pages after.

The antagonist somehow also feels incredibly undercooked despite the book being 500 pages long, and the prose is so confusing at times that I honestly can’t tell what is where and how something is happening. You think you’re in one place and then bam you’re on the opposite side of where you thought you were.

Made me miss the first book, which wasn’t too great in the first place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Cursing and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Police brutality, and Emotional abuse

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Brutal, intelligent, and politically biting, Battle Royale absolutely flies by with its fleeting snapshots of different lives and deaths. It connects you to characters you may only stick with for a few pages, yet it all feels relevant to the themes, story-world, and overall narrative.

I’ve seen the film adapt more than once before, and reading the original book provided so many pieces of context and extra character bits that made reading it entirely worth it. Koushun Takami absolutely nails the action. Even knowing what happens doesn’t remove from the intensity and suspense provided by each encounter, and god, what a premise. 

I especially love Kazuo Kiriyama’s gang, though I wish Kazuo himself got a little more background towards the end, but that may just be my bias talking. And I also love Shogo Kawada because… I don’t know, I just love him, okay? 🫶🏻 Now that I think about it, there isn’t a character I don’t really like, maybe besides Shinji, though even he has his moments. But Mitsuko, Kazuo, Shogo, Shuya, Hiroki, Chigusa, and Noriko are all characters I absolutely love.

I will say that the action can ride the edge between believable and ridiculous, especially when characters do somersaults mid-fight. And on top of that, Shinji’s computer jargon and his exposition on pre-established information made his chapters a little repetitive, but other than that I can’t pick out any glaring problems with the book or it’s story.

Overall, it’s a book that is still incredibly entertaining, shocking, and politically powerful as it was when it was first released, and it only made my appreciation grow for the story and the film adaptation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Death, Gore, Violence, Suicide, Misogyny, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Bullying, Cursing, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Minor: Suicide, Trafficking, Classism, and Homophobia

Running Wild by J.G. Ballard

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

Though quite predictable in its mystery, Ballard presents a bleak message with the narrative. He takes the reader through the dirt filled underground of a perfect neighbourhood, written in the style of a police evidence video. Perfectly polished surfaces are covered in blood, and something thought to be entirely insignificant is truthfully the key to the truth. An interesting introduction to Ballard’s work, and one I enjoyed my time with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Medical content

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Drug use, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Child death

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Will write review later.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Gore, Toxic relationship, Torture, Cannibalism, Death, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Cursing

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Incest

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

dark funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Will write review later.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Animal death, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Death, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Murder, Rape, Abandonment, Misogyny, and Cursing

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Cancer, Gore, Fatphobia, Body horror, Abortion, and Body shaming

Minor: Abortion and Cultural appropriation

Junky by William S. Burroughs

dark informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

An unflinching look into a life with no purpose finding purpose in junk. It’s a wave of nausea that takes you down the rapids of addiction and the lifestyle that comes with it. If the shoe fits, wear it, if it doesn’t, sell it for junk.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Racism, Toxic friendship, Blood, Medical content, and Trafficking

Minor: Death, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Gothic Short Stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, E.F. Benson, David Stuart Davies, Ralph Adams Cram, M.R. James, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charles Dickens, S. Carleton, Charles Robert Maturin, Walter Scott, David Blair, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nathan Drake, Richard Barham Middleton, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, J. Sheridan Le Fanu

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

I’m fairly new to Gothic literature, so this being a fairly diverse collection of short Gothic stories from different periods of the style helped me understand the progressions in Gothic literature as well as an idea of the different tropes and styles that were commonly used. I was also happy to see the inclusion of feminist Gothic short stories and writers from both Britain and America.

Not every story was great and a few I had to come back to and reread/finish because they often times went on pointless tangents that gave me fatigue whilst reading. Fortunately though, many stories like Sir Bertrand: A Fragment, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter, The Lame Priest and my favourite, The Yellow Wallpaper held striking imagery and gripping mysteries that allowed the reader to put the pieces together for themselves. Many times there were even scenes with descriptions that, despite their age, made me anxious to think about.

To top it all off, the introduction and the small biographies for each story gave a very useful and relevant insight into the writers of the stories, the places and period they were made as well as interpretations and explanations for them. It’s a solid collection and for me personally a great introduction into Gothic literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Blood, Chronic illness, Confinement, Violence, and Sexism

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Physical abuse, Classism, and Antisemitism

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

The Road speaks to me on many levels. To some extent I can compare it to my own life, especially due to how this was originally based on the author’s relationship with his son. I feel as if I am something in-between the father and the son. Carrying my fire through a grey and hopeless world, uncertain who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. Like the father and son I argue with myself about whether I’d be better off helping somebody or looking out for myself. It’s a cold ash-covered world.

The way the world is described, and the characters journey through it, feels like it draws from feelings of depression and anxiety, which I can definitely relate to. We get pages of hopeless grey landscapes full of death and destruction, only to have it broken up by an intimate moment, surrounded but also contained in those feelings. A glimpse of hope.

Every description and conversation feels real, and they never stop no matter how slow or quick the pace goes. It’s a constant, seemingly endless journey, yet every moment is to be savoured and held. The tension of reward and punishment is constantly pulling you to the following page, just to read about every night spent watching the road, every tin of pears and every secret door, because you can feel it.

Maybe I’m biased because of the person who recommended it to me, or because this is the first buddy read I’ve ever done, but this may be my favourite book I’ve read so far. It deserves every bit of praise it gets, it’s beautifully haunted, hopeless yet so incredibly hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Cannibalism, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Rape, Vomit, Slavery, Pregnancy, and Alcohol