Because genre books about genre movies are all the rage now, here comes Reaper.
The thing is, being a fan of all those things, I rather enjoy these books, and this one was no exception. Inspired heavily by both Wes Craven’s Nightmares and his lead, Englund, the author introduces us to a classically trained aging actor, Browning, whose only claim to fame is a famous lead of cheesy scary movies, who is kind of like Freddy Krueger in farmer drag. The franchise has been retired after 8 movies. Browning, now in his 60s, is a tired old man with nothing but sad convention appearances to pass the time. And then he hears that the producer of the original is bringing Reaper back. Only they don’t want the same lead. They want to go fresh with the in-and-out-of-rehabs former child star Trevor Mane. Thus, the great power struggle begins. Not only for who will be the next Reaper, but for who the next reaper will be. I promise that sentence will make more sense when you read the book. All I can say is that the character of the Reaper is very central to the narrative here. So … it’s nothing really like Scream or The Shining, outside of the fact that it seems to be how books are sold these days to audiences who can’t be bothered to read the actual description. But it is a slasher and a rather fun one at that. The author, to his credit, tried to cram some character development into what otherwise would have just been a puddle of melted cheese. Much like the movies themselves with their hokey one-liners and gotcha tricks. The writing's pretty good in general, though the characters may annoy you after a while. All in all, a fun ride. Recommended for genre fans.
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Years ago, I read and loved Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. So I was excited to see another book of his on Netgalley and requested it straight away. And then took ages to get to, because I don’t love fat books. That said, if there’s anyone worth ignoring personal preferences and braving well over 400 pages for, it’s Marra.
The man is far from prolific, but books he does produce are masterpieces. I do not use the word lightly. This book, like ACoVP, is stunning. Luminous. It took me an inordinate (or me) time to get through in no small way because sometimes I would just pause in awe and the sheer staggering beauty of a sentence or a paragraph. The skill with which Marra can write a tragedy humorously, the casual grace with which the man can break and remake your soul while reading, it nothing short of remarkable. As a writer and a reader, I admit this was not merely a read but a lesson in how to do it. That such humorous notes can sparkle in such darkness, that such cleverness should string the narrative together while jumping all over the place, geographically and temporarily, is hugely impressive. And of course, I love books about movies, and this ode to the golden age of cinema juxtaposed against the turbulence of WWII was right up my alley. It follows a diverse, largely immigrant cast in the industry they were instrumental in building and sustaining in a time when and a place where being an immigrant was not only challenging but outright dangerous. (And you can read the news to see how tragically not far the nation has come since in attitudes and prevailing mentality.) Or don’t read it for politics, read it for the characters and their journeys. Read it for the sheer joy of learning about different times and lives. For fans of historical fiction, literature, and character driven stories, this is about as good as it gets. In fact, it is up there on par with one of my all-time favorites, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which is about as high of a praise as I can dish out. Recommended. Recommended. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley. There is a certain and rather peculiar fiction subgenre out there about the quaint adventures of unusually old people. Presumably there is an audience for it. And to be fair, a lot of old people are great and way better than new ones, so …
In terms of age, you can’t beat Sister Agatha. She’s 118. Remarkably spry for her years too. Still, she is only the fifth oldest person in the world, and when she erroneously comes to think that she only has a week to live, she decides to go out on top as it were, by killing the other four contenders for the longest-lived throne. Yes, it doesn’t make much sense, but this is about quaintness and cuteness and whimsical Irish charm, not logistics. And so, Sister Agatha embarks on a globe-trotting adventure with a murderous gleam in her eye. True to the very impetus of her quest, what follows is also a comedy of errors, but she gets to go to exciting faraway places for the first time and meet all sorts of wacky characters. So, it’s fun and funny in a rather lightly amusing, inoffensive sort of way, and makes for a pretty quick and entertaining read. All in all, not too shabby for a random Kindle freebie. And right enough for April Fool's Day selection. I’ve read all of Keith Donohue's novels and really liked them, except for June which was just okay. But this one was such a disappointment. And it’s strange, because I like all the individual components like the archaeology aspect and the use of the Irish historical and mythological figures. And I enjoy Donohue’s writing too. But altogether the book just really didn’t work for me.
Despite the lovely writing, the book was sluggish, by turns dreamy or rambly. The characters were interesting, but at times ridiculous, saying wildly out of character/place/time things like “tushy”, which is just one of the ways in which this book has hit upon some really awkward raunchiness. The plot is busy, muddled, overdone. The book reads like a slog through a bog. It is no wonder that Donohue, whose books used to be released by top publishers with lovely covers and all, has done this one with the low-tier press like Crooked Lane and a cheap-looking cover. Let’s hope it’s a one off for a talented author and not a sign of things to come. Thanks Netgalley. Every so often a book comes along and blows your mind. I’m not saying this lightly. I read a fair amount, and I’m a really tough critic, and … this book was magnificent.
It drew me in from the opening pages and never let go. It isn’t just the spectacular description and terrific character development, the taut suspense and the mind-boggling plot reveals, it’s all of that plus so much more, strung together by Binge’s great writing. A man lost in his own guilt, driven to the most impossible tasks and locations to distract himself from it, a mountain appearing seemingly out of nowhere from which none come back the same and where nothing makes sense. The two of them are destined to meet—each a stunning character in their own right—for a most memorable of reckonings. Cramming science, philosophy, and faith; crossing and blending genres, this sci-fi-nightmare of the most literary kind is a beauty to behold and an adventure like no other. I loved reading this book; it’s the sort of reading experience that makes you fall in love with books all over again. Entertaining, moving, and surprising by turns, the narrative is completely engaging, leaving you to want nothing but more. In fact, it’s been difficult to select books after this one, aware that they will likely pale in comparison. Terrific book. Well worth the climb. Recommended. I enjoyed The Lemon Man, both book and protagonist, enough to welcome the sequel, despite genuine preference for standalones. The thing with most sequels is that they don’t hold the candle to the original, and this one is no exception to the rule. It isn’t so much the book’s fault, it’s just that the crisp freshness of originality inevitably leaves the building when one takes to serializing. And so, the series tend to rely on the characters themselves, hoping the reader will form a strong enough attachment to sustain them.
Does Lemon Man himself merit such an attachment? Well … first off, he doesn’t have OCD and the book should not advertise it. That just had to be said. You want to make your character quirky, hit some modern fiction prerequisites for diversity, sure, go for it. But don’t just mention a psychological disorder to check the box with nothing to back it up. That said, in the first book the protagonist had a baby and a new love interest to juggle, and that was fun. In this one, he only has the love interest (now a more permanent although difunctional situation). Yes, he still wears slippers to ride a bike, which makes no sense to anyone who rides bikes, unless slippers in Ireland are radically different from slippers elsewhere. Quirky, but is that enough? Since Lemon Man’s main appeal seems to be overcoming the odds, the author just layers on the abuse as heavily as he can. So instead of cushy paid assassin gigs, Lemon Man gets stuck doing random jobs and trying to save his bestie, while navigating a local gang war—the more he gets in, the more he gets beaten up. Violence is visited and revisited upon his person, until he can barely bike, though he preserves, of course, because he now is in the sequel, one that makes it very obvious a third book is planned. So, the plot didn’t do much for me. The writing is very, very plain. The opposite of literary fiction—commercial fiction, I suppose. Short plan sentences. One after another. It’s all like …This person walked in. They looked like * and wore * and did *. First person narration gives it a sort of engaging immediacy, so the book mainly coasts on that. My favorite thing about this was getting a bikeview tour of Dublin. That never gets old. The protagonist names every landmark and describes the city enough to make it into a character of its own, one likely more engaging that the rest put together. Overall, a quick, mildly entertaining read. Thanks Brash Books! Not often does the story behind the book overshadows the book itself. Particularly when the book in question is actually good. But with this production, you really couldn’t have it any other way.
Conceived and created in Terezin concentration camp by two creators who didn’t leave to see it ever produced, this was meant to be an opera. It is a story as tragic as it is cautionary and eerily, terrifyingly prescient/timely, all these decades later. A bloodthirsty, warmongering authoritarian dictator so out of touch with reality that he pisses off Death himself who decides to take a vacation or go on strike, but either way not do its job so that the world is at war and full of people who will not die. Simultaneously gruesomely realistic and surreal and drawn gorgeously in black-and-white, this story is as disturbing as it is unputdownable. The most effective, affecting thing about this book and the story behind it is the undeniably hopeful note. That such beauty could be born out of a darkness so deep, that it could be found in the bleakest of circumstances is a true testament to the resiliency of the spirit. An absolute must read, this is the sort of book someone might try to ban someday. And I mean it as the highest compliment. Recommended. What a magnificently disturbing nightmare of a story!
You know what else is magnificent here? A reminder that people CAN surprise you. I mean, I would have never selected this book solely based on the romcom garbage the author had churned out before. But lo and behold, she turns around (a full 180) and produces this darkness-personified of a story—a portrait of psychopath as a young woman, if you will. Actually, I selected this book based on its award-winning status and praise from respectable sources. And yeah, totally worth it. A one-sit read, a mesmerizingly, viscerally disturbing book. It pulls you into its darkness slowly. The first 20% or so it just descriptions of the island where the story takes place—this is very much as location-as-character story. We don’t meet Rachel, the character who becomes a sort of catalyst for the plot until nearly 30%. The thing is, the author absolutely has the chops to work with a leisurely pace; her descriptions are cinematically vivid. The island comes to life as a forbidding rock populated by narrow-minded, superstitious, insular people who shun the protagonist, Aoileann, and have done so for all her nineteen years on earth. She has never left the island, never been to school, all she knows of the world is what she’s read in books. Aoileann’s entire life is dedicated to (with her grandmother) taking care of her mother who has been in a vegetative state more or less since Aoileann was born. This care is described in exhaustive, visceral detail to show you just how much of a nightmare the situation is. To make matters worse (and give the situation a slightly surreal atmosphere),at night, her mother apparently crawls around, etching letters into the floor with her bare fingers. When Rachel (with her newborn) shows up on the island for a temporarily artistic residency, Aoileann sees a window into a larger world open and grabs at it for dear life. It becomes a sort of toxic obsession where she can’t quite tell if she wants Rachel for a lover or a mother, but she wants Rachel and will stop at nothing to get her. Absolutely harrowing journey into a warped mind. Very well done. It seems the story had been reworked and expanded from the original, going by descriptions alone, and more importantly, it works. Sure, yeah, it checks A LOT of the current gotta-have-it boxes along the way: a tale of motherhood, mothers/daughters dynamics, reverential treatment of body fat, queer tones, etc. but it does so in a way that never seems gratuitous and really works within the story. It isn’t a fun read by any means, nor will it work for everyone, but it would be a deranged delight for connoisseurs of dark psychological fiction. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley. A delightfully irreverent and laugh-out-loud hilarious collection of eighteen short biographies of women who lived around the turn of the twentieth century and famously (or notoriously) did things rather unbecoming of a lady.
When was the last time you read a nonfiction book in less than a day, learned a lot, and laughed your way through? This book is a proper marvel. A feminist manifesto (or eighteen) wrapped inside genuine entertainment. Because let’s face it—the past, especially when it came to women, is rather horrifying to explore without a dash of levity. And yet, these brave eighteen dared to defy the social norm by making careers, fortunes, and names for themselves in a man’s world. Audaciously, brazenly, epically so. You've got to admire it. A great read. Including photos and artwork for proper, immersive introductions. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley. A supernatural mystery with dinosaurs? Yes, please. A thousand times yes!
Plus, I read Dumas’s previous book and was rather impressed. And yet this one was something of a disappointment. Perhaps, because I was so excited going in. perhaps the stakes were set too high. Or perhaps it just isn’t that great of a book. It is good. Yes. But don’t you want more? The plot revolves around a pint-size protagonist named Simon whose entire life has been scarred by the tragic disappearance of his baby sister when he was ten. Now in his early thirties, Simon takes a job at the same museum where the disappearance occurred with eh ideas of poking around. As a child, he was fascinated with dinosaurs. As an adult, he’s … well, professionally fascinated with dinosaurs. And then he starts seeing them skulking around the museum at night. So, if the Night in the Museum was a murder mystery … And it all sounds good and fun, but: A. I didn’t care for Simon. He’s not particularly likeable, weak and whiny and emotionally incontinent, and takes much too long to learn some valuable lessons about workplace diversity, i.e. he’s too quick to hate a woman working herself to the bone (no pun intended) to keep the museum open for crappy pay but easily dismisses his assistant’s vulgar, nasty sexual innuendo jokes in that boys-will-be-boys way. B. The supernatural aspect of the novel was so disappointing. It was almost like the author just couldn’t commit to it one way or another. Is Simon hallucinating, and if so, what explains his injuries? C. The central mystery’s resolution was kind of underwhelming. And Simon seemed surprisingly forgiving of certain perpetrators because why? because they shared a sexuality? seriously? Having that been said, it was still a very entertaining read. The writing is solidly commercial as opposed to literary, but rather effective. And if you’re dinosaurs, it’s really tons of fun. So, something of a mixed bag, but a perfectly decent all-around read. Thanks Netgalley. |
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December 2023
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