prismotron's reviews
42 reviews

Master of Reality by John Darnielle

5.0

crying about the mental hospital in the seattle airport sensory room

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

2.0

the fool has read the r/nosleep book thinking it would be anything other than fine

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

1.0

been craving(sorry) cannibalism fiction since catching up on yellowjackets, i was stoked to have this in my arsenal of impulse purchases but my fucking god what a slog it turned out to be. do you genuinely have nothing more to say about feminism other than "anything a man can do a woman can do too...but BETTER!" bored of the ""commentary."" bored of the defanged descriptions of her butcherings. bored of this flat narrator that hardly serves her designated purpose in her own story. genuinely i could not tell you her name if i tried. some of the flowery writing did strike a chord, but ultimately was few and far between. the girlboss literature canon is not for me + i should have just rewatched hannibal again.

Cut by Catherine Lacey

3.75

running thru the streets frenzied and wailing grabbing strangers by the shoulders IF YOU ARE RAISED WITH AN ANGRY MAN IN YOUR HOUSE THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN ANGRY MAN IN YOUR HOUSE YOU WILL FIND HIM EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT THERE new stranger AND IF ONE DAY YOU FIND THAT THERE IS NO ANGRY MAN IN YOUR HOUSE on all fours screaming at their dog now YOU WILL GO FIND ONE AND INVITE HIM IN

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle

3.0

finally got me to read something from work! yes i have other books to get to but i'm weak-willed and can't resist the thrall of john darnielle's prose

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

4.5

some of these people i did not need to know anything about in retrospect (j mascis you are public enemy number 1) but the beat happening chapter was so important it is affecting me on a cellular level

I Wished by Dennis Cooper

dark emotional sad

5.0

"drawings can only hope to nail a character's resemblance, and they're just distractions from whatever wish was dying in the writer when he typed it."

i read 4/5 of the george miles cycle last year, but the absolute State i was put into was enough to require an indefinite hiatus from his work until i was stable enough to finish. not stable. maybe more eager to be shaken. pairing this with period was perfect, it heartwrenchingly expands on the most compelling aspect of the meta-narrative in the final book of the cycle: having to capture someone who is a memory. subjecting your devotion to an audience that can't fathom its depth. i don't remember where i read that grief is just love with nowhere to go. when it becomes so massive a weight it needs to live in art. my optimism poisons me to believe it can die there, too. maybe not. worth a shot.
this book is a gutting. i'll be thinking of the titular chapter and thialh for a while, probably weeping about them even longer. luv you dennis.

Alien Nine 1 by Hitoshi Tomizawa

adventurous fast-paced

2.75

bus stop scene from the OVA > hot spring blurb. yay the girls are having fun but i simply do not care. make them cry. make me cry.

Period by Dennis Cooper

3.75

creation is futile. art will never illustrate a thought, an experience, a person accurately -- but it's equally as useless not to try. someone will know. someone will connect. art is a mirror.

Comedy of Errors: Vulgar Misadventures of a Television Sitcom Dad by Erik Johnson
Did not finish book. Stopped at 18%.

challenging dark fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

only got to ~80 pages in before i couldn't anymore, which is maybe the point? the only point i can really discern thus far. the whole "let's make a grocery list of all the worst garbage we can do to women and execute it" eli rothian line of writing is just vapid and borderline fetishy. i have laundry to fold, anyway. i want to fold laundry more than i want to read this.