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rottingintheplot's Reviews (89)
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
“I didn’t look around, though. You can’t look around, every time you think you’re not alone.”
I read this in one sleep ((wink, wink)). I couldn’t put it down. I was deeply deeply deeply entranced. Good Stab’s story, his internal battle, his heartbreaks, his journey through being this vampire… and then, well, go back. Were introduced to Etsy-Betsy-Etsy, great-great-great granddaughter of Arthur Beaucharane, and are so gracefully slipped into 1912. And 1870. And Good Stab. Like how the real-bear prepares for sleep. And dreams. And this whole tale was the best and horrific fever dream you will ever have.
I feel that’s not even good enough to describe it. I know it’s not. Because that doesn’t factor in the love and care of telling ANY part of the Blackfeet story (on my part) which SGJ does beautifully and with succinct horror.
This was my introduction to SGJ. I will be back for more. I have no words, intelligent words, obviously by the repetitive use of “and. And. And.”
I’d rather have a whole discussion with anyone willing to listen about how much I loved every element of this book and preach harder than Arthur ever did about how you need to read it.
“My heart is empty now from telling this, Three-Persons. So is my pipe.”
Good Stab, you were every man ever - More than Weasel Plume, Takes No Scalps, killer, Dracula, father, judge, executioner of justice, rider, everything. The land.
>>>> Also, while I’m actually really good at interpreting native language for what we call things (for a midwestern white girl), I found this link helpful. There were a FEW I got stuck on like, “white cheeks” and “black sky iron”.
https://open.substack.com/pub/greggreene/p/readers-guide-to-the-buffalo-hunter?r=e7d9v&utm_medium=ios
challenging
dark
No. Just no. I was hoping second time was the charm with Larocca. Maybe I’ll be brave to do a third or actually explore his short stories. My first go around was with “Everything the Darkness Eats”. In love with the concept. In love with the concept of At Dark, and I feel like it wasn’t delivered.
Larocca introduces several horrors, intrusive horrors, and that’s what I got. An introduction. It felt like the novel was an outline. Paragraphs that were meant to be returned to and completed. The narrator, Ashley, tries to tell us about the horror story he was told about a young girl bitten by a snake and believed to be dead by her grandparents. And it’s said almost, verbatim like that. You get what I’m saying? Things felt paraphrased and they were honestly low handing horrors that could have easily been made vivid.
Returning to the novel feeling like an outline, to further that: the oddly placed parts of the contract, the entire chat with ‘masterjinx’ (felt like it was plugged in for filler, and was arguably the best part even though it was.so.out.of.place), and the chapters in odd order.
•I feel like the second client should have been the first, for example.
•The mentions of Ashley’s sexuality- being such a “self-loathing queer man”and taste for morbidity, or people’s suffering, hardly connects in a way that builds the horror and suspense that could be built!! Because there can be suspense built around the horror of loathing yourself, sexuality, and the fascination with others suffering.
•The client with the chat, Jinx… we’re told almost the same story twice. A story from the client about a beaten dog from the second client and Jinx. Why? Am I not seeing the bigger picture?
•And why is the short story of Victor & Tandy (something that was mentioned much earlier in the novel) and entire chapter near the end? 26 pages to itself. And its perfect by the way. Why couldn’t the entire novel be written like this? I CRY.
I finished this purely out of spite. I liked the ending. Why couldn’t the whole book be like that, again, I CRY.
why another almost closeted MMC with a dead wife and dead child storyline?
dark
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
I love Kingfisher’s ear worms because they become my ear worms. (If you read the Twisted Ones, you know).
“Black dog, white dog, live dog, dead dog, yellow dog, run!”
Nettles, moonlight, a bone dog, broken lands, blessings on blessings or curses?, a goblin market, a dust wife and godmothers, sisterly love, a satanic chicken, and “do you know why you set someone an impossible task?”
Unconditional love is nearly an impossible task. One that perhaps… “not a task for mortals who want to keep their hearts” … and I will never get over the way Marra loves, doubts herself, and admires others.
Okay at first. I really was excited for a Gatsby Vampire spin. Obviously this wasn’t a faithful retelling of The Great Gatsby. I am FIIIIIINE WITH THAT. Trust me. But remembering the bare bones of the Gatsby plot and being TOLD those things rather than building through those things and then contradicted a chapter later was … annoying.
Actually, the amount of TELLING was absolutely unbelievable. The point in which I got irritated I literally stopped to check whether this was a YA novel (it’s not) to excuse the over-telling of things.
I wasn’t able to formulate any opinions of the characters or see their point of view because I was constantly being told. Actually, I was able to formulate “childish, ridiculous, is this an attempt at being unreliable?, I’ve seen my children go through more in depth internal dialogue, and wtf?” In all this, no room to allow Daisy to redeem herself without trope vomiting and backtracking.
I don’t think there would have been any shame in making this book longer if it meant building quality tropes introduced. And there were a LOT of them. Too many to keep up with.
Also, the thrust into attempted spice between Daisy and Jay was the equivalent of a college party molestation. And by that, I mean I was having an okay time, and then I wasn’t, and they weren’t listening when I said “no, stop”. The inconsistency in words used in the chapter 8 scene, along with inconsistency in tropes.
Nope. Nope. Nope. There’s no way I will finish this.
I’ll award the 2 stars for the idea and the pretty cover. I’m done ranting.
Actually, the amount of TELLING was absolutely unbelievable. The point in which I got irritated I literally stopped to check whether this was a YA novel (it’s not) to excuse the over-telling of things.
I wasn’t able to formulate any opinions of the characters or see their point of view because I was constantly being told. Actually, I was able to formulate “childish, ridiculous, is this an attempt at being unreliable?, I’ve seen my children go through more in depth internal dialogue, and wtf?” In all this, no room to allow Daisy to redeem herself without trope vomiting and backtracking.
I don’t think there would have been any shame in making this book longer if it meant building quality tropes introduced. And there were a LOT of them. Too many to keep up with.
Also, the thrust into attempted spice between Daisy and Jay was the equivalent of a college party molestation. And by that, I mean I was having an okay time, and then I wasn’t, and they weren’t listening when I said “no, stop”. The inconsistency in words used in the chapter 8 scene, along with inconsistency in tropes.
Nope. Nope. Nope. There’s no way I will finish this.
I’ll award the 2 stars for the idea and the pretty cover. I’m done ranting.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
tense