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sztehlocomics's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely stunning collection of bleak, short horror stories. Ballingrud with this volume proves that he is one of the most important voices in horror fiction today.
dankolar's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
geve_'s review against another edition
1.0
Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed.
Do I not really like horror? Is it me who is the problem?
My concern starts when I read a story that has a man character, then it has a woman character then a tiny side character pops up who is a Black man. Not a man, as the previous character had been, but specifically a Black man. And I guess we all know what that means for the "regular" man whose race doesn't need to be told to the reader for some reason. Oh also the Black character has an AAVE accent, like written out, but none of the other characters have any written accents even though the stories all take place in the south. Ok, bad start.
So then, I started to realize that whenever the horror element of each story, cause that is def how these stories went, was happening to a woman character, we don't get inside of that character's head. We get to live it all through how it affects the man character. But when the horror is happening to the man, we get to experience it through the man character. What I'm getting at is everyone is a (white) man or a prop. It goes pretty far in the last story when
Example 2: story where a woman is in an accident and starts consuming her own flesh. But instead of the story being about that it's about her teenage son who wants to have sex, gets to have sex, worries about his penis size, worries about how long he lasted his first time, worries that the girl has slept with other people, worries she will compare him to other people, joins a white nationalist group, then doesn't really join them, then shoots a horse to deal with his father's abandonment. All while his mother is at home literally cutting pieces of her own legs off and eating them which is only mentioned once. Buddy, you missed the interesting part of this story cause it's for sure not how teenage boys are obsessed with their own penises, trust me, we've heard it before.
Also here is how every story goes: Man character is sad, mad, bored, horny, emasculated, depressed, a teenager, thus he wants to punch stuff. Something supernatural exists. Men has fantasy about punching. Man gets sad cause he can't punch when he wants to. Man drives to have a punching match, but the supernatural is gone. Or is it? tHe ENd.
Literally every single character has one response to everything that happens and it is to get enraged and either punch or attack or have fantasies about graphic violence. yawn.
OKAY moving on from the boring white masculinity self pity/rage theme here and onto everything else:
The writing was bad. I kinda can't believe how many typos I found. And repetitive writing.
The stories themselves were boring, not scary at all, and every single horror element felt just tacked on to make it "horror", but really he just talked about how all these men are sad and wanna punch stuff cause they're sad. And the endings. Holy shit. Literally zero endings in this book. It's fine to leave SOME things up to the reader, but this felt extraordinarily lazy to do this with every single story.
All in all, I would not recommend this to anyone. It was bad. I won't be reading anything else by this author and I hope this isn't an omen for how the rest of October is gonna go, cause shitty "horror" books is not the curse I was looking for this month.
Do I not really like horror? Is it me who is the problem?
My concern starts when I read a story that has a man character, then it has a woman character then a tiny side character pops up who is a Black man. Not a man, as the previous character had been, but specifically a Black man. And I guess we all know what that means for the "regular" man whose race doesn't need to be told to the reader for some reason. Oh also the Black character has an AAVE accent, like written out, but none of the other characters have any written accents even though the stories all take place in the south. Ok, bad start.
So then, I started to realize that whenever the horror element of each story, cause that is def how these stories went, was happening to a woman character, we don't get inside of that character's head. We get to live it all through how it affects the man character. But when the horror is happening to the man, we get to experience it through the man character. What I'm getting at is everyone is a (white) man or a prop. It goes pretty far in the last story when
Spoiler
the only time we REALLY get into a woman's head, she is dead and a zombie and no longer has her own personality anymore, doesn't recognize her family and is driven by her zombie instincts. Like, fr bro. holy shit.Example 2: story where a woman is in an accident and starts consuming her own flesh. But instead of the story being about that it's about her teenage son who wants to have sex, gets to have sex, worries about his penis size, worries about how long he lasted his first time, worries that the girl has slept with other people, worries she will compare him to other people, joins a white nationalist group, then doesn't really join them, then shoots a horse to deal with his father's abandonment. All while his mother is at home literally cutting pieces of her own legs off and eating them which is only mentioned once. Buddy, you missed the interesting part of this story cause it's for sure not how teenage boys are obsessed with their own penises, trust me, we've heard it before.
Also here is how every story goes: Man character is sad, mad, bored, horny, emasculated, depressed, a teenager, thus he wants to punch stuff. Something supernatural exists. Men has fantasy about punching. Man gets sad cause he can't punch when he wants to. Man drives to have a punching match, but the supernatural is gone. Or is it? tHe ENd.
Literally every single character has one response to everything that happens and it is to get enraged and either punch or attack or have fantasies about graphic violence. yawn.
OKAY moving on from the boring white masculinity self pity/rage theme here and onto everything else:
The writing was bad. I kinda can't believe how many typos I found. And repetitive writing.
The stories themselves were boring, not scary at all, and every single horror element felt just tacked on to make it "horror", but really he just talked about how all these men are sad and wanna punch stuff cause they're sad. And the endings. Holy shit. Literally zero endings in this book.
Spoiler
OMG his hands were glowing at the end!!!!!! Like, k, wtf does that mean. He got dinoflagellates on his hands? He's cursed? He's crazy? A ghost lives in his hands? Like, any hint at all, please.All in all, I would not recommend this to anyone. It was bad. I won't be reading anything else by this author and I hope this isn't an omen for how the rest of October is gonna go, cause shitty "horror" books is not the curse I was looking for this month.
youraveragedave's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Really frustrating collection of short stories. The buildup and world building in each story was great, but just about every single ending felt rushed and unsatisfying. Ballingrud creates an atmosphere that is ominous and the South East US setting feels real and lived in. My favorite story was A GOOD HUSBAND, just devastating. Also SUNBLEACHED was pretty good too.
captainyaht's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
sara_beth_11's review against another edition
3.0
This short story collection got good reviews, and it was good...but not great. The book was described by reviewers as a sort of combination of horror and literary fiction, with an emphasis on the literary fiction.
I expected smart stories about the everyday horrors that can people suffer through, and this is exactly what I got. I got George Saunders with dash of Stephen King. So this collection was good, and the stories within were exactly as advertised, but not the transcendent second coming of Shirley Jackson that I'd hoped for.
I expected smart stories about the everyday horrors that can people suffer through, and this is exactly what I got. I got George Saunders with dash of Stephen King. So this collection was good, and the stories within were exactly as advertised, but not the transcendent second coming of Shirley Jackson that I'd hoped for.
jyan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.75