kazalicious's review against another edition
3.0
It was hard to get into with a disappointing ending. I liked the variety in the characters and it had really great descriptions. It had one sex scene, drug use and plenty of swearing, but if that doesn't bother you it's worth the read..
themadmaiden's review against another edition
4.0
This has to be one of the most "silent hill -ish" books I've read in a while. Not a perfect book but pretty high up there. Very, very weird. They did a good job with describing photos in a way that didn't take away from the fact that you weren't seeing anything. Ending was was a bit confusing, but man what a ride.
Speaking of Silent Hill I think dude got the bad ending or maybe the bad+ ending. Maybe if I read it again the UFO ending will show up. c:
Speaking of Silent Hill I think dude got the bad ending or maybe the bad+ ending. Maybe if I read it again the UFO ending will show up. c:
alexctelander's review against another edition
4.0
There’s something wrong with Spokane, Washington. Seriously wrong. The military has formed a protective cordon around the extreme outskirts of the city, not letting anyone in and anyone out. Strange things have started happening on the inside, people disappearing, unusual creatures being seen, as well as realities that just cannot be. But no new is getting out, and no one has any clue what is really going on.
Dean Walker has one last chance to pursue his passion and make it as a photographer, before his father makes him become part of the family business. After bribing one of the privates with a convincing story and some photos, Walker sneaks into Spokane to find out what’s really going on, seeing if he can help put a stop to it, as well as take some award-winning photos that he plans to release to the world, and become famous and incredibly rich. But on the inside, like everyone else, he sees things that simply shouldn’t be, things that cause the human mind to stop working properly. He also meets some special people that he learns to care about. Curiosity also grows in him, as he searches for an answer to what is going on in Spokane and why it’s getting worse.
A gripping kind of horror, Bad Glass uses an interesting device of describing photographs and video footage that are shocking and unbelievable, as well as drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. While the ending feels a little rushed, as the answers finally start to come, the story is well worth the wait.
Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, go to Bookbanter
Dean Walker has one last chance to pursue his passion and make it as a photographer, before his father makes him become part of the family business. After bribing one of the privates with a convincing story and some photos, Walker sneaks into Spokane to find out what’s really going on, seeing if he can help put a stop to it, as well as take some award-winning photos that he plans to release to the world, and become famous and incredibly rich. But on the inside, like everyone else, he sees things that simply shouldn’t be, things that cause the human mind to stop working properly. He also meets some special people that he learns to care about. Curiosity also grows in him, as he searches for an answer to what is going on in Spokane and why it’s getting worse.
A gripping kind of horror, Bad Glass uses an interesting device of describing photographs and video footage that are shocking and unbelievable, as well as drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. While the ending feels a little rushed, as the answers finally start to come, the story is well worth the wait.
Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, go to Bookbanter
dtaylorbooks's review
4.0
BAD GLASS is something different. In a good way. It's part horror, part apocalyptic, part science fiction and fantasy, hitting on every thread that each of those genres can unwind. I had moments reading this book that actually made my stomach churn. Of course I was eating lunch at the time and vomiting all over the lunch room table at a place I've worked at less than a week would certainly leave an impression. Not a good one. I really like where I work so I breathed through it.
In terms of character I felt it was a little thin. I didn't really have any motivation to care about any of the characters and when things really started to happen I felt more like I was watching the news than I was invested in reading a novel. The emphasis of the story was on Spokane. It was the antagonist here, as the blurb says, hunting them. Literally. I LOVED Spokane and I talk about it as if it were a fleshy type of character. It was the most dynamic thing here, morphing itself to engulf the more static characters.
Taylor was your typical hard ass, stand-offish girl that leads by example. Not unlikable but she wasn't anything I warmed to. Then her character took a major shift towards the end and I don't think it quite fit. It was too out of character and felt more like a contrivance to catapult the story forward than anything else. I didn't mind per se because I was still interested in the story but it was a point of contention. I'm not a fan of characters deviating for the sake of plot.
Amanda is one character one day and then goes off the deep end the next without much segue, throwing another shock factor into the spokes of the plot. Charlie was endearing, being the youngest of the group. He was the techie, helping the rest of the gang keep in contact with the outside world all the while continuously searching for his parents whom he KNOWS are still in town. Floyd is hung up on the death of his brother, Mac's a clingy dick from the beginning and Dean himself wants to believe he dissolves into the town with the rest of them but I didn't buy it. He's there for less than a week, put through all kinds of shit for the sake of his art but won't simply walk away when things get really bad (and everything will gladly get out of his way to walk and once he gets out of Spokane all the craziness will stop but nooooooooo). He sacrifices his life for Taylor, whom he's known A WEEK but will not return the affection nor even much of a hint that it's reciprocal, because he just can't leave her. No. I don't buy that either.
I don't buy it as much as I don't buy Taylor's character shift. Dean's very presence beyond the first few days felt forced, his reasons for staying insubstantial at best. Eventually it stopped being about his photography and started being about Taylor, again a stand-offish girl that would barely look at him. I'm going to keep driving right past that tag sale and move on to the next one.
Spokane on the other hand was a living, breathing character consuming all the others, eventually literally. The things that happen within the city, whether they just happen to the surroundings or to the people themselves, were so incredibly vivid that I could almost feel all of the panic and worry and wonder at what was going on. From the weird bodily mutations to nature bucking it's own trend, I believed it all. It was the most vivid part of the story. If it weren't such an integral part, if the story focused more on the characters than on the surroundings, I would have lost interest pretty quickly. But I kept reading for Spokane. I wanted to see what the hell was going on with it.
I almost expected the ending to crap out. I don't know why but I was anticipating the whole thing ending up being a dream. It was alluded to. I'll spoil it for you: it's not. Thank god. I would have been so incredibly pissed off I don't know what I would have done. You get an answer but it leaves a lot of whys hanging out there and you still don't REALLY know what's going on by the time the story ends. You have an idea and I think it's enough to satisfy the curiosity that the plot brews but there's definitely room for more.
BAD GLASS is, atmospherically, a great blend of horror and apocalyptic, the latter really just on the edge of the world about to go to hell in a Pinto. There are some truly terrifying moments and the way Gropp wrote all of the changes it really plays with your mind and you won't know what to think about everything that's happening. You'll start to second-guess things and you'll be trying to figure it out right from the moment Dean gets into the city and starts seeing these things first hand. It's light on character development but the city itself is such a huge personality in the book that it'll just overwhelm everything else. Really I don't think there's room for much else in terms of the other characters. And I'm okay with that.
In terms of character I felt it was a little thin. I didn't really have any motivation to care about any of the characters and when things really started to happen I felt more like I was watching the news than I was invested in reading a novel. The emphasis of the story was on Spokane. It was the antagonist here, as the blurb says, hunting them. Literally. I LOVED Spokane and I talk about it as if it were a fleshy type of character. It was the most dynamic thing here, morphing itself to engulf the more static characters.
Taylor was your typical hard ass, stand-offish girl that leads by example. Not unlikable but she wasn't anything I warmed to. Then her character took a major shift towards the end and I don't think it quite fit. It was too out of character and felt more like a contrivance to catapult the story forward than anything else. I didn't mind per se because I was still interested in the story but it was a point of contention. I'm not a fan of characters deviating for the sake of plot.
Amanda is one character one day and then goes off the deep end the next without much segue, throwing another shock factor into the spokes of the plot. Charlie was endearing, being the youngest of the group. He was the techie, helping the rest of the gang keep in contact with the outside world all the while continuously searching for his parents whom he KNOWS are still in town. Floyd is hung up on the death of his brother, Mac's a clingy dick from the beginning and Dean himself wants to believe he dissolves into the town with the rest of them but I didn't buy it. He's there for less than a week, put through all kinds of shit for the sake of his art but won't simply walk away when things get really bad (and everything will gladly get out of his way to walk and once he gets out of Spokane all the craziness will stop but nooooooooo). He sacrifices his life for Taylor, whom he's known A WEEK but will not return the affection nor even much of a hint that it's reciprocal, because he just can't leave her. No. I don't buy that either.
I don't buy it as much as I don't buy Taylor's character shift. Dean's very presence beyond the first few days felt forced, his reasons for staying insubstantial at best. Eventually it stopped being about his photography and started being about Taylor, again a stand-offish girl that would barely look at him. I'm going to keep driving right past that tag sale and move on to the next one.
Spokane on the other hand was a living, breathing character consuming all the others, eventually literally. The things that happen within the city, whether they just happen to the surroundings or to the people themselves, were so incredibly vivid that I could almost feel all of the panic and worry and wonder at what was going on. From the weird bodily mutations to nature bucking it's own trend, I believed it all. It was the most vivid part of the story. If it weren't such an integral part, if the story focused more on the characters than on the surroundings, I would have lost interest pretty quickly. But I kept reading for Spokane. I wanted to see what the hell was going on with it.
I almost expected the ending to crap out. I don't know why but I was anticipating the whole thing ending up being a dream. It was alluded to. I'll spoil it for you: it's not. Thank god. I would have been so incredibly pissed off I don't know what I would have done. You get an answer but it leaves a lot of whys hanging out there and you still don't REALLY know what's going on by the time the story ends. You have an idea and I think it's enough to satisfy the curiosity that the plot brews but there's definitely room for more.
BAD GLASS is, atmospherically, a great blend of horror and apocalyptic, the latter really just on the edge of the world about to go to hell in a Pinto. There are some truly terrifying moments and the way Gropp wrote all of the changes it really plays with your mind and you won't know what to think about everything that's happening. You'll start to second-guess things and you'll be trying to figure it out right from the moment Dean gets into the city and starts seeing these things first hand. It's light on character development but the city itself is such a huge personality in the book that it'll just overwhelm everything else. Really I don't think there's room for much else in terms of the other characters. And I'm okay with that.
craftyhilary's review
3.0
A terrifically creepy idea, but with a weak execution. I wasn't particularly invested in the characters, and I didn't feel the storylines paid off. I skimmed most of it.
elisability's review
2.0
Something weird is happening in Spokane. People are disappearing, things that shouldn’t exist are calmly walking down the streets, people become melded into walls, ceilings, floors, each other… The city is quarantined, but Dean Walker, a dumb selfish 20-something-year-old, sneaks in with a camera to take the pictures that will hopefully make him famous. There he meets a bunch of people who stayed in the city for no viable reason, and falls in love with literally the first girl he meets. Then things happen that make zero sense whatsoever and left me wondering what possessed me to even read this book in the first place.
There was a good story, a good idea, hidden somewhere in there. We saw it appear a bit around page 250, and then again in chapter 19. The rest just felt like a collection of random events without heads or tails, no explanations or sense whatsoever, interspersed with characters getting drunk and/or high. There was no continuity to anything, threads would just fizzle out with no conclusion. When two characters disappear, nobody even talks about the possibility of trying to rescue them. They just get high and move on with their “lives,” such as they are.
Actually, it read as if Gropp wrote this during NaNoWriMo (the month where you have to write 50K words), going in with no plan whatsoever and publishing it as soon as it was over, with absolutely no editing.
Plus, there was altogether too much swearing. If it’s organic, I don’t notice it, but if it starts jumping out at me, it means there’s too much.
My review reads like this should get 1*, but I only give 1* to books that make me angry for some reason. This didn’t make me angry, it just made me sad that something so bad could get published–and actually win a prize!
If you like the idea of a city becoming ground zero for something terrible and mysterious, I recommend [b:Lexicon|16158596|Lexicon|Max Barry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356080172s/16158596.jpg|20077336] by Max Barry instead. Much, much better.
There was a good story, a good idea, hidden somewhere in there. We saw it appear a bit around page 250, and then again in chapter 19. The rest just felt like a collection of random events without heads or tails, no explanations or sense whatsoever, interspersed with characters getting drunk and/or high. There was no continuity to anything, threads would just fizzle out with no conclusion. When two characters disappear, nobody even talks about the possibility of trying to rescue them. They just get high and move on with their “lives,” such as they are.
Actually, it read as if Gropp wrote this during NaNoWriMo (the month where you have to write 50K words), going in with no plan whatsoever and publishing it as soon as it was over, with absolutely no editing.
Plus, there was altogether too much swearing. If it’s organic, I don’t notice it, but if it starts jumping out at me, it means there’s too much.
My review reads like this should get 1*, but I only give 1* to books that make me angry for some reason. This didn’t make me angry, it just made me sad that something so bad could get published–and actually win a prize!
If you like the idea of a city becoming ground zero for something terrible and mysterious, I recommend [b:Lexicon|16158596|Lexicon|Max Barry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1356080172s/16158596.jpg|20077336] by Max Barry instead. Much, much better.
csdaley's review
4.0
A very sad and depressing book. It painted a bleak world with people just trying to survive. The writing was good but I am still not sure how I feel about the last 1/4 of the book. It left me thinking hmm.
alexctelander's review
4.0
There’s something wrong with Spokane, Washington. Seriously wrong. The military has formed a protective cordon around the extreme outskirts of the city, not letting anyone in and anyone out. Strange things have started happening on the inside, people disappearing, unusual creatures being seen, as well as realities that just cannot be. But no new is getting out, and no one has any clue what is really going on.
Dean Walker has one last chance to pursue his passion and make it as a photographer, before his father makes him become part of the family business. After bribing one of the privates with a convincing story and some photos, Walker sneaks into Spokane to find out what’s really going on, seeing if he can help put a stop to it, as well as take some award-winning photos that he plans to release to the world, and become famous and incredibly rich. But on the inside, like everyone else, he sees things that simply shouldn’t be, things that cause the human mind to stop working properly. He also meets some special people that he learns to care about. Curiosity also grows in him, as he searches for an answer to what is going on in Spokane and why it’s getting worse.
A gripping kind of horror, Bad Glass uses an interesting device of describing photographs and video footage that are shocking and unbelievable, as well as drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. While the ending feels a little rushed, as the answers finally start to come, the story is well worth the wait.
Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, go to Bookbanter
Dean Walker has one last chance to pursue his passion and make it as a photographer, before his father makes him become part of the family business. After bribing one of the privates with a convincing story and some photos, Walker sneaks into Spokane to find out what’s really going on, seeing if he can help put a stop to it, as well as take some award-winning photos that he plans to release to the world, and become famous and incredibly rich. But on the inside, like everyone else, he sees things that simply shouldn’t be, things that cause the human mind to stop working properly. He also meets some special people that he learns to care about. Curiosity also grows in him, as he searches for an answer to what is going on in Spokane and why it’s getting worse.
A gripping kind of horror, Bad Glass uses an interesting device of describing photographs and video footage that are shocking and unbelievable, as well as drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. While the ending feels a little rushed, as the answers finally start to come, the story is well worth the wait.
Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews, go to Bookbanter
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