Book Sand Worm

The Basics

Camille is a reporter working out of crappy newspaper, and for once her editor wants to be on top of a story. In her hometown, young girls are being murdered, and it’s starting to look like a serial killer. Camille says she’s on the job, but she’s not entirely equipped for what going home dredges up.

My Thoughts

I got onto a real Gillian Flynn kick. Gone Girl started me out. Dark Places propelled me forward. And I ended here, with Sharp Objects. Not to spend the whole review comparing her books, but I have to say that this being her first published novel, it’s clear the sort of stories Flynn wants to tell. It’s also clear the type of women she wants to showcase. The deeply damaged Camille. The mood-swinging Amma. The hypersensitive, cringe-worthy Adora. None of them overtly likeable (though an argument could definitely be made for our heroine, Camille), and therefore all the sides of womanhood that no one wishes to acknowledge or explore. I’m glad to see Flynn exploring them, though this being her first outing, it wasn’t perfect.

There was an entire section of the book wherein she tries to explain the events taking place as being partly the fault of Camille’s dependency on Amma liking and respecting her. It took a character that, despite everything, I still liked and sent her straight into a state so pathetic I lost touch with her for a couple chapters. Others might not feel so suddenly repelled, but keep in mind that Camille is around thirty and Amma is thirteen. No matter how compelling Amma is to her, it was still an unbelievable moment for me as a reader. “Likeable” wasn’t even really the problem here. It was more a case of me clutching the book and willing her to snap out of this sudden stupidity she’s found herself in, and I didn’t like that feeling.

Otherwise, I bought the story entirely. The characters, too. It did take about fifty pages to hook me in, but once I reached that mark, I read like a speed demon. I will say that this book pissed me off royally. Not in any bad way. Typical of Flynn, it was beautifully written. It was engaging. I wanted to solve the mystery.

The ways it angered me are the ways in which a book like this should anger you. Injustice. Evil. Someone enduring a horrible thing that makes your skin crawl. Someone in pain who is being subjected to the harsh judgment of people who can’t begin to understand what they’ve been through. It’s a masterpiece of human suffering, and it pulls out all the stops, but that’s half warning, as well.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

Libby Day’s mother and two sisters were murdered when she was seven years old. When asked who did it, she said without hesitation that it was her brother, Ben. Now upon being contacted by a club of murder case enthusiasts, she’s wondering if she was right. She sets out on a mission to, well, make some money but also hopefully to find some answers.

My Thoughts

Gillian Flynn strikes again. On the heels of Gone Girl, I found myself obsessed with obtaining and blasting through her other, two books. I tackled this one first, and it’s proven to be my favorite of her work thus far. Deeply written, fully realized characters at the center of a crazy, incredible, gory mystery. It really is all I could’ve hoped for in a thriller and more. Calling it a thriller feels small, because it’s of such a quality that you so rarely see in the genre.

Libby is one of the most engaging and fascinating heroines I’ve ever read. She’s flawed and unique. She’s snarky and cold, yet not distant to us as an audience. She’s damaged and relatable. The thing that had me from the very first page was Libby. I wanted to follow her, and I wanted to hear her voice. Flynn cackles in the face of this idea of “likeable” characters. She writes intensely interesting characters with real world problems, and I welcome that a lot sooner than a female lead who is picture perfect.

Along with Libby’s journey to find the truth, we get point-of-view chapters from her mother and brother the day of the murders. We get a firsthand view of the desperation her mother faced, the depression and peer pressure piling atop fifteen-year-old Ben, and the circumstances that led to such catastrophe. I will say that while I found Patty to be a tragic figure, I wasn’t as keen on Ben. Yet here’s the rub: I’m not sure we were supposed to be. Regardless of the outcome, Ben is still a person with an illness, and Flynn simply presents that without trying to create an anti-hero of him, as she does with Patty and Libby as well. It’s less about Flynn’s opinions and more about your own mileage.

I’ve heard some people didn’t buy the ending, but I actually loved how much she caught me off guard with it. I could never have seen that coming. The clues were there, and yet I wouldn’t have jumped to that conclusion. I appreciate it wasn’t entirely out of left field, but it was still shocking. That’s a precarious balance, and she does it well.

What am I saying? She did everything in this book well. The entire experience was amazing, and I simply can’t get enough of her work.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

Bill Hodges is a retired cop who left very few cases unfinished, the Mercedes Killer being one of the most notorious. Said killer is exactly what he sounds like: a guy who stole a Mercedes and ran over a crowd of people. One day, Bill gets a letter from someone claiming to be the killer. So of course, the game is on.

My Thoughts

I was not excited for this one. It sounded like a by-the-numbers thriller, and much as I love Stephen King, I wasn’t convinced we needed one of those with his name stamped on it. Thankfully, I was wrong. If nothing else, his usual panache with characters plays a big role in making this more, particularly where the killer is concerned.

I don’t think this is much of a spoiler as it’s revealed early on, but the killer has his own POV chapters. We know who he is, and we get a glimpse into why he’s like this. For me, this was one of the book’s strongest points. It felt very true to life and well-crafted. I never once felt like I was reading some thriller writer’s idea of a serial killer but rather someone who, terrifyingly, could have existed and committed these crimes.

As far as our heroes, Jerome and Holly were the most engaging for me, emphasis on Holly. Bill had his good points, but King was obviously going with a pseudo-sleuth vibe in some ways, and it didn’t always ring true. Still when I compare it to other mystery/detective protagonists, Bill wins out more than most for having the most personality. That’s something that sets this novel apart: the fact that the characters have meat to them. In this genre, that’s not easy to find.

I enjoyed the story itself, as it took some interesting turns. It kept me reading until I finished it in no time flat. I definitely won’t be giving anything away, because it is part of the fun. It’s been a while since I’ve seen King write a story this tightly woven, and it’s good to see he can be concise when it’s called for.

It’s been said by the man himself that this is the beginning of a trilogy. Not to sound contrary when I loved this book, but I’m still not sure it deserves to be a trilogy. I look forward to him proving me wrong again.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

Rabo Karabekian is an artist aging alone in a big house full of modern art. Then one day he finds Circe Berman, a young widow, on his private beach. She urges him to write an autobiography about his life, invites herself to live in his house, and starts asking questions about the locked potato barn on his property. Herein, Rabo unravels his life story and eventually comes to face that barn himself.

My Thoughts

Vonnegut doesn’t write bad books. I’ve come to believe that wholeheartedly. I do think sometimes he writes books that aren’t for everyone though, and while I enjoyed this book, there were things that left me wishing for better.

Let me start with Circe Berman. While this wasn’t really a trope when it was written, she smacks of Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She sweeps into Rabo’s life to change it for the better while struggling to be a character herself. It wasn’t until the end that I felt she had really become something besides a catalyst for Rabo, but even that felt weak. Not to mention that when Rabo’s irritation with her built, so did mine, so I struggled to both understand and like her. It didn’t break the book for me, but it was a hurdle.

I also think, and this is my problem more than it is Vonnegut’s, that this book wasn’t strange enough. For someone that’s really known for delivering oddities with a smirk, this didn’t have much of that at all. That’s not to say it wasn’t odd in its way, but the oddness was still within the walls of contemporary literature. I adjusted to it and enjoyed the book, but I think this is a sign of the sort of reputation Vonnegut made for himself as a writer of the wonderfully weird and how hard it was for him to break out.

That said, it was still a wonderful book with all that Vonnegut charm. Vonnegut attempts here to chart his way through the waters of modern art, to talk equally about what someone could see in it and what people may be incapable of seeing in it, and much of that is insightful and hilarious. He talks about war in that way that is unique entirely to him. He tells Rabo’s story the way a man facing his past might: in anecdotes, turning to look at memories only when he is prepared for them, and it works.

I always feel personally rewarded when I read Vonnegut, and this was no exception.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

On a day like any other day, Nick Dunne gets a call from his neighbor who says his front door is standing wide open. He comes home to find his wife Amy has disappeared. The investigation begins, Nick falls under scrutiny, and a media storm descends. But is Nick the one at fault?

My Thoughts

I went into this novel not knowing anything besides the fact that it’s a bestseller and rather popular. I knew those basics up there. A woman disappears, her husband is blamed, so what now? I honestly didn’t hold out much hope for this novel being anything, because I’ve read my fair share of thrillers and crime novels, and they rarely ever take it to any sort of interesting place.

Let me be the millionth person to say that this book takes it to an incredibly interesting place. In fact, it drives up to “Interesting Place”, looks around, and deems it not interesting enough. It speeds off past “Fascinating Lane” and crashes gorily right into “WTF Station.” Go into this book knowing next to nothing, because it will serve you well. I reached a point where I had a theory about what could’ve happened and then stalwartly told myself, “no, no, don’t be silly. No one has the guts to go that far.” Flynn does. She has guts to spare.

And talent. Twists and turns are well and good, but does she have the skill? Yes. And then some. This book was gorgeously written. Sinking into these words felt so good. Not just wild and crazy, but really weighty. Flynn is writing some incredibly post-post-modern feminism here with prose that packs a punch. It also takes a long, hard look at the way the media handles, or doesn’t, real life crimes and how and why they sweep the nation.

You’re looking at my rating and wondering where that other star went. I didn’t care for the ending. This book was bombastic and enormous and reached a point where I wasn’t sure we were dealing in real world logic anymore. Then it ends with a whimper when I wanted a bang that might send the book flying out of my hands under its own power. Nope. Just a fizzle. Still worth every moment though.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

Sand dan Glokta is a torturer working for the Inquisition. Formerly a soldier and left a crippled husk after being captured by the enemy, he asks himself often why he’d turn to such grisly work. Logen Ninefingers is famous in the North for his savagery. He wishes now for a life not ruled by war and yet finds himself pulled into a mysterious quest by the First of the Magi, Bayaz, which will surely lead to more killing. Jezal dan Luthar is a smug, cocky, young soldier who has always had it easy. But things are about to change.

My Thoughts

I don’t know if I’ve ever written a “Basics” section that was quite so long, but I was determined to be thorough. And I still missed stuff! But it is “Basics”. I tell myself reassuringly.

This should give you an idea of how jam-packed this book is. Lots of characters are covered, and I even left out Ferro Maljinn, the vicious, revenge-fueled ex-slave. And Major Collem West, a commoner turned high-ranking officer. Every story here is deep and well-crafted. Each perspective is perfectly unique, even the writing style shifting subtly to accommodate the character. This book truly shines in the way it presents characters, their thoughts, their very essence.

I’m reminded quite a bit of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The comparison is obvious, but I will say that Abercrombie presents his tale with a lighter tone. The humor comes a lot easier, and even the dire or heavy nature of events that take place throughout the book doesn’t leave you feeling weighed down. He’s presenting an adventure story in many respects, and it reads with that same, speedy pace even with the page count.

Still, don’t expect your granddad’s fantasy here. Everything you might expect, everything the tropes tell us should be, is subverted or played with or turned inside out. Jezal, who would normally be the hero in a tale like this, is insufferable. Glokta, who would normally be the villain, is very relatable. My favorite character actually. None of these characters fits neatly into a fantasy mold, and many of them make it clear that Abercrombie went into this venture with subversion in mind.

I loved this book. I’ve already read the second one, a review of which is coming. Honestly, he had me when the first dialogue in the book was a character in peril saying “shit”. If that doesn’t appeal, don’t even bother.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

A collection of short fiction by Harlan Ellison in which the title story is one of his most famous. It follows a group of people who are the last humans on earth. They are being kept alive by a supercomputer named AM, who also tortures them for his amusement. The situation is incredibly hopeless, but is there still escape left for them?

My Thoughts

I want to focus at first on “I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream”, the title story, for this review. It’s incredibly famous. When people talk about Ellison, this story inevitably comes up. I kept managing to skip all around it, even with my exhaustive reading of everything Ellison I could get my hands on. It was starting to get ridiculous. I’d listened to an audio book version, read by Ellison himself. I’d watched a let’s play of the damn video game. It was time I sat down and read it.

And it’s great. It really is. It’s as twisted and frightening and dark as its reputation says. I will say there are stories of his I like more, but I think that’s what happens when hype interferes. I see the reason for the popularity of it and the potential it held to be expanded on the way it was with the game, and I have no real complaints. Aside from maybe it’s the highlight of the collection. This book as a whole is very slim, and the publishers are counting on readers buying it for that story.

I especially liked “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes”, another strong story. “World of the Myth” was a great concept with some problematic sexism. I hate noticing these things, but this is what happens when you read older fiction. That has become my mantra. “Delusions of a Dragon Slayer” seems like it’s about to head down the same, sad road, and then it takes a turn that I really liked that makes me wish Ellison could always write those situations that way. The rest of the stories were middle of the road for me, and I wanted more.

So in essence, a collection with a classic story trying to ride that classic story for all it’s worth. And it could’ve been more.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

A mysterious disease is going around among a population of teens in the suburbs of Seattle in the 1970s. A disease that causes all sorts of body horror, such as growing a tail or horns or any number of physical anomalies. We follow a group of these teens who contract the disease as they go into hiding and try to navigate life with their new disfigurements.

My Thoughts

This book is insane. Which makes it difficult to talk about, because it’s very insane. There is a linear story here involving some core characters who catch the disease and start going through changes, but there are also drug trips and weird nightmares and lots of existential stuff to make for a veritable playground of themes and symbolism and depth. Though if that isn’t your bag, going into crazy analysis, I want to make it clear that this book works gorgeously at surface level. The artwork is beautiful, the characters are engaging, and the story is page-turning.

As for themes and symbols, the obvious place to start is within the idea of being a teenager and the natural changes one goes through. Here, it’s puberty with a case of the twisted, and while the story makes clear this isn’t normal on any level, it feels like a story about puberty taken up to eleven. All that awkwardness that is just part of growing up becomes hellish, horror story stuff. It doesn’t always feel that far from the truth, as some kids are ostracized for their differences, try to create a sub-group of peers as strange as them to fit in somewhere, though it’s all taken to an extreme.

For a story that is very bombastic in its subject matter, it’s very introspective. Characters narrate their lives, their worries, their hallucinations and dreams. You’re in their heads, which gives it that literary, character-driven appeal without being in the least pretentious. It’s graphic, but it doesn’t shock so much as simmer. I loved this experience entirely. And have I mentioned the astounding, beautifully clean-lined artwork?

Final Rating

5/5

1. What was the last book you marked as 'Read'?

The Face Burglar by Junji Ito, which is a horror manga collecting five different "short stories" by the artist/author.

2. What are you 'Currently Reading'?

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie, the second book in The First Law Trilogy.  

3. What was the last book you marked as 'To-Read'?

Maybe this makes me weird, but I don't mark books as "to-read". I don't like my book list being incredibly long when I haven't read that many. I feel like I'm misleading people who look at my profile and see I intend to read a lot but haven't read nearly as many books as I have listed. I only list "read" and "currently reading".

4. What book do you plan to read next?

Probably The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, which is the third book in The First Law Trilogy.  

5. Do you use the star rating system?

Yes, I do. From one to five, one being absolute dreck not worth the paper its printed on and five being the best time I ever had.

6. Are you doing a 2014 reading challenge?

Yes, and my goal is to read 50 books. So far I'm at 24.  

7. Do you have a wishlist?

I have an Amazon wishlist for several reasons. One being that it's so easy to keep track of the books I'm interested in that way. It's a lot easier than keeping a written list of what I want to buy, and because I use Amazon a lot when I buy books, it's also much easier to just add it to my cart when I'm ready. Also, for birthday and Christmas, all I have to do is pass on the link when people ask me what I want. It's very convenient.

8. What book do you want to buy next?

After The First Law Trilogy, Joe Abercrombie wrote three standalone novels in the same universe: Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and Red Country. And I want them ALL.

9. Do you have any favorite quotes? Would you like to share a few?

Here. My favorite quotes page on Goodreads. Call me lazy, but if Goodreads won't let me copy and paste the damn quotes, then screw it.

10. Who are your favorite authors?

Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Kurt Vonnegut, Tanith Lee, Gillian Flynn, Harlan Ellison, and the list goes on for a lot longer than that, but out of respect for you, the reader, I'll limit myself.

11. Have you joined any groups?

No.

The following two questions were added by A Reciprocal Love Affair With Books:

11b. Last book you abandoned?

Entirely with no intention of going back to it? I bought this book at the dollar store (hey, sometimes they have good stuff), and it was a total cover buy. It looked pretty, so I picked it up. When I started reading the first, few pages, it struck me that this was a book intended for a middle grade audience. And it wasn't particularly grand. I didn't care for the first-person narrator's voice. It was called Creepers, but I don't recall who it was by. I just sort of passed on it after that.

11c. Who are your favorite literary antagonists?

Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Pennywise the Dancing Clown from It by Stephen King. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

12.  Are there any questions you'd like to add to this tag?

Yes, and here we go.

13. How do you feel about "unlikeable" characters?

I want to broach this topic, because I see a lot of people who hate a book based solely on the fact that the main character was unlikeable. In my humble opinion, so long as a character is strongly written and engaging, I'm not concerned with whether or not I agree with what they do or if we could hang out and be buddies. Intesting and likeable are not the same things.

People I'd like to tag:

Anyone that feels like they'd like to, go for it!

The Basics

Cinder is a cyborg living under the thumb of her wicked adoptive mother. In the world she lives in, she's considered barely human, and she dreams of a day when she can be free. When her sister falls ill with the mysterious plague that has befallen New Beijing, Cinder discovers she might be the cure. Mix in a ball and a prince, and her life gets pretty complicated.

My Thoughts

This book is beloved, so I am not going to be too popular on this one. Where do I even start? There was so much wrong with this story that I can't even find a place to begin. Yet let's try.

Problem the first: the world building in this book is atrocious. That really is its worst problem, I feel. Such random information is plopped into the story without proper expansion on the very important whys, making this possibly the thinnest, softest science fiction novel ever written. Disregard the idea that maybe you need some science in your science fiction story. How about just some proper history for this future world? A third and fourth world war are both mentioned, but not how they started or who was fighting who or how it's possible that our planet could even remotely survive two more world wars. It's like she's never heard of nuclear weapons.

There's a colony on the moon (already there are so many problems with that) where everyone apparently has super powers (and it gets worse), and there is no explanation as to how that happened. Are we to assume they fiddled with their own bodies in a lab until they became crazy psychics? HOW? How even are these powers meant to work? She throws out things that sound more like magic than science but insists they are science and yet never elaborates. No, I didn't find that mystical and charming. I found it downright irritating.

Why does New Beijing have no cultural identity at all? Is that a byproduct of the wars? Why are cyborgs hated? It seems to me that the cyborg technology in place is meant to be a futuristic version of replacing lost limbs. Would people genuinely rather see the disabled in wheelchairs than with cyborg parts? Why? It's never said cyborgs are dangerous, so why are they discriminated against? When you can't even properly illustrate a social construct in your world, you're not even trying.

I walked away with so many questions that I knew would never be answered. There was not going to be a sequel that bound all this together and made me realize the depth of the story, and I could tell. This book exists on "rule of cool", the idea that if it's cool enough, it doesn't need any depth. I felt that every time I was demanding answers of this book that it was telling me to shut up and enjoy the ride, but if it's not a very good ride in the first place, I can't do that.

There needed to be something here to latch onto, and there wasn't. No well-developed characters I cared about. A thin story. Generic, unimpressive writing. It wasn't even fast paced. We also have the boring, blushy romance with a male lead that I felt absolutely nothing for, who even managed to make himself seem like a total tool by the end of the story. And a cliffhanger that was frustratingly unnecessary, seeing as how the first book didn't hook me enough to want to keep reading.

With the amount of vitriol I'm spitting, why not one star? I can't believe that I might actually be giving a book a pity star, but I think I am. It's so bad, it deserves my sympathy.

Final Rating

2/5

The Basics

Cam's father is out of work, and it just so happens it's Cam's birthday. Out of desperation, his father buys him some "magic cardboard" from a toy vendor. Well, it turns out it really was magic, and when he and Cam make a boxer out of cardboard, he comes to life. Wackiness ensues.

My Thoughts

The first thing I want to make clear is that I know this is middle grade. I know this wasn't written with me in mind. I've read some middle grade books before. The ones that don't talk down to their audience and create an atmosphere of fantasy and wonder can be some of the best journeys you ever take. This wasn't like that. It had fantastical elements to be sure, but it was mainly a comedy piece. Comedy... for ten year old boys.

I can't emphasize enough how far this was from my demographic, how unfunny I found it most of the time. It had its moments, but they were few and far between. Mostly I tried to immerse myself in the story, which had some good elements, and found myself dragged out of it by clumsy jokes that would have a little boy rofling and had me grunting in a curmudgeonly fashion.

Also, the story elements that were good were heavy-handed. Again, it's for little boys. I get it. But TenNapel really treated them like morons. So even realizing I should take into account that I'm older and going to notice the heaviness of the story-telling, I can't excuse it. He talks down to his audience to the point that I can't imagine a kid over five not feeling patronized.

Regardless of who this comic was meant for, I have to be honest about my rating. It was cute, but what substance it had was force-fed, and the comedy was juvenile. I'd give this to a young kid, because it suits them, but it has very little crossover value.

Final Rating

2.5/5

The Basics

Paul Edgecombe is the lead guard on the Green Mile, the corridor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary that houses those on death row. It's an unforgiving and thankless job at its best. At its worst, when the child-like John Coffey comes to the Mile, Paul is faced with the very real possibility that sending Coffey to "Old Sparky" might be murder.

My Thoughts

Here is the problem with falling into a reading slump that lasts almost two months. I read this book in February, and it is currently June. So bear with me if my thoughts seem scattered.

I saw the movie before reading the book. In fact, I saw it in the theater when it was first released. Being I was in my teens, I don't think I appreciated the depth of this story as much as when I recently revisited it via the book. Not to mention I feel the movie sugarcoats a lot even though it is surprisingly loyal to the novel. This story contains a lot of darkness, typical of King, and hope, also typical of King, but the film seems to mostly concern itself with hope and not the edges of darkness that creep in around it.

That was part of what I loved about this book. There's a sinister realism to a situation that has hope but is still deemed basically hopeless. There's no escaping what has to happen at this book's climax, and while there are bits and pieces that justify the ends (and part of me can't decide if that's necessary or if that was King trying to soften the blow), it's still a tragedy. Even if you can sort of convince yourself that based on certain exchanges between characters, it's for the best, it still will feel like it isn't. But that is one of King's undeniable strengths.

Here's something I'd like to address that may have been just my point of view flavoring the story. The whole thing felt very anti-death-penalty. I'm bringing that up because I appreciated that about it. Watching these characters face "Old Sparky", particularly Delacroix and Coffey for differing reasons, was a horror. It wrenched at you as a reader. The one character that you might ache to see get his moment in the chair, justice was served in an entirely different way. It was as if that chair was destined to only cause an inordinate amount of suffering and not toward the people who deserved it. I feel King was making a statement there, and it's subtle enough that it does require some pondering to get there, so I appreciate that he didn't hit me with a moral anvil but rather nudged. Just so happens it was a message worth delivering, too.

Also, need it be said I bawled?

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

A collection of stories taking place in the Sandman universe, each focusing on a member of the Endless.

My Thoughts

This is currently the last of the Sandman stories as written by Neil Gaiman. It’s not essential to the main plot to read these, but for a fan, it’s a satisfying read and worth adding to the collection. If you have a favorite Endless, chances are they’re given their moment to shine here. Even Destiny, with his cool-but-one-note ways.

For my part, Desire has always been my favorite, and his/her story was exactly in keeping with the spirit of Desire. And that’s the key. Even if the figure themselves is featured briefly, the spirit of what they are, who they are, is well on display. Despair, for instance, is more of a series of vignettes regarding her nature, and it fits.

Just how much they run the gamut as characters is exhibited here, as well. It’s obvious enough when they’re together being very different among themselves, but there’s a deeper level to it here. For example, Death’s story is gentle and playful with a sad twinge, yet Delirium’s story is disjointed and bizarre. The gaps between each of them serves to make their character development seem more solid. Even the artists’s separate approaches drive this home. And all the art is, of course, beautiful.

If you’re a fan, certainly read this. No matter who it is among them that fascinates you, it will deliver.

Final Rating

5/5

The Basics

Meet Gus. He’s the survivor of an apocalypse he doesn’t fully understand, mainly because his father has protected him from the world his entire life. There was a virus, and those who are left like to hunt, kill, or use in any way they see fit kids like Gus. Meaning kids who are part human and part animal. When Gus’s father dies, his story really begins.

My Thoughts

This first batch of issues mostly consists of setup. It’s great setup that showcases a fascinating world, a couple of engaging characters, some harsh dystopic/apocalyptic fare, and promises more greatness to come. But like any story, this is the part you have to get through to get to the good stuff. The reassuring thing is it starts getting to the good stuff about halfway through. There’s no need to wonder if the second volume will be better, because it’s practically assured it will be.

I’ve read a lot of “after the end” stories that use a virus as their catalyst. Refreshingly, this one brings something new to the table: Gus. The mere existence of Gus and the hints that there are others like him (though they take other bestial shapes) is very intriguing and unlike anything I’ve seen done in this genre. An argument could be made for everything else being done or seen before, but certainly not that, and I think it’s enough to sustain a story, especially with the hints of the virus and Gus’s kind being linked.

The artwork lies more on the cartoon side of things than the photo-realistic, but it works. The grisly moments are no less grisly, the emotion no less affecting, and there is a lot of surprising beauty here. Lemire left me staring at certain panels, just trying to absorb and memorize, flipping through more than once to revisit his art.

This is only the beginning, and the beginning was enough to make me want to pursue more.

Final Rating

4/5

The Basics

Ashley Cordova, daughter of notorious horror director Stanslas Cordova, has committed suicide. For Scott McGrath, an investigative reporter left disgraced by loose lips regarding the Cordova empire, this raises a ton of questions. With the help of Nora and Hopper, he intends to find answers to those questions and reveal Cordova as he truly is.

My Thoughts

I am not going to make any friends with this review. I understand people love this book generally, but I really did not. Some gimmicky, House-of-Leaves-esque interactivity is not enough to make a book worthwhile. You need so much more that this book lacked.

For starters, you need some engaging characters that feel like real people. Pessl was very fond of giving elaborate backstories that took pages upon pages to see their end, but still managed to fail at giving any of the characters a unique voice. Every single person we encounter, whether integral to the plot or not, is a cliche. Facts are not all that make up a person’s life or even what makes them interesting. There should be a depth that reaches beyond that, and it wasn’t here, not for a single one of them.

Then there’s the writing style. It felt pretty purple for a mystery/thriller. The way that the narrator, Scott, insisted on wording his own thoughts and reaching for elaborate metaphors reminded me of a noir detective, but it wasn’t charming. Rather it seemed desperately out of place in a story meant to be set in 2011. And the italics. What was with all the italics? I imagined Scott straining on every other word, and it took me out of the prose so fast.

And the mystery. That was the one thing I was holding on to. It even took a really great turn, where things started to seem supernatural. I was so invested in simply discovering how right or wrong these assumptions were. Then it just peters out. It winds around pointlessly, scary things happen that probably weren’t real, and then it ends on the most frustrating note in human history.

I don’t want to turn this into a rant, but this was one of those times when I listened to the majority, hoping that a large group of people had to be right on some level. I don’t really know what conclusion to come to in that regard, but I know I’ll hesitate the next time a book gets popular as fast as this did. And the most butt-blisteringly awful thing about all this? It could’ve been great. It had the recipe, but it put in too much of this and too little of that and botched the whole thing.

Final Rating

2/5