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kellyvandamme's review
4.0
So this is the second novella by Ariana that I’ve read (albeit in reverse chronological order but they’re standalones, so that doesn’t matter). And this is second time I finish a novella by Ariana thinking: what the HELL have I just read?! Only a handful of characters, all of them completely bonkers, in a story where the shit hits the fan so hard, said fan explodes in your face, because said shit is bananas! BANANAS I tell ya! All sorts of hurting and maiming and carving words into skin, and poking needles into eyes, I didn’t even need Fahrenheit Press to tell me it’s noir, I figured that one out all by myself thank you very much!
So what we have here is another decidedly nightmarish read. You know that feeling when you’ve had a very eventful day, you might be a bit shaken by something that happened or something someone said or did during the day, and when you finally get to sleep, you sleep very fitfully, your mind trying to process and make sense of the stuff that happened, you’re stumbling from one dream into another, waking up for seconds in between, and when the alarm goes off in the morning you’re feeling dead tired and entirely combobulated. That feeling? That is exactly how I felt when reading Dark Water!
In other words, this is a book you must not try to make sense of. Go in, immerse yourself, let the tide of strange, poetic sentences draw you into in the deepest darkest crevices of the human mind, let the madness wash over you and relearn how to breathe when you’ve turned the final page and the dark water ebbs away.
If you think you’re up to that, then I will happily recommend you pick up this novella and jump in at the deep end!
So what we have here is another decidedly nightmarish read. You know that feeling when you’ve had a very eventful day, you might be a bit shaken by something that happened or something someone said or did during the day, and when you finally get to sleep, you sleep very fitfully, your mind trying to process and make sense of the stuff that happened, you’re stumbling from one dream into another, waking up for seconds in between, and when the alarm goes off in the morning you’re feeling dead tired and entirely combobulated. That feeling? That is exactly how I felt when reading Dark Water!
In other words, this is a book you must not try to make sense of. Go in, immerse yourself, let the tide of strange, poetic sentences draw you into in the deepest darkest crevices of the human mind, let the madness wash over you and relearn how to breathe when you’ve turned the final page and the dark water ebbs away.
If you think you’re up to that, then I will happily recommend you pick up this novella and jump in at the deep end!
hsienhsien27's review
4.0
Another novella, for the past month or so, novellas and short story collections have been part of my main reading habit. I'm currently reading a novella and a short story collection now and I think I will continue to do so. Not because giant tomes aren't my thing anymore, I just got so used to reading on the kindle that books with tiny font and heavy weight are just not for me now.
So I got this for free when Number Thirteen Press started giving e-books out. When I find a small press, the first books I check out are the books written by non-White authors or women. Basically, I pay attention to the marginalized voices first, because those are the books that get the least recognition. So I decided to read this novella by an author who has written several poetry chapbooks. I've never heard of her, but have heard of her literary journals.
Although, I kind of have to say that this wasn't the best noir I've read, I found it quite confusing, but beautiful in it's prose and sadistic main characters. What threw me off the most was the dialogue being written in italics. So I couldn't tell if the characters were thinking or whispering until the author said so. I found it odd and it added to the confusion. But then I read the synopsis for the plot and things were clear, but the italicized dialogue, I will just assume it was a stylistic reason, a formatting issue, or maybe all of the characters really were speaking in low hoarse tones like Christian Bale playing Batman.
What happens it that Henry is a painter, an artist, one day he loses it and kills his wife. He makes art out of corpses, carving in symbology into the flesh of his victims and pulling out their eyes, the silver coins are the last embellishments. When the police find the bodies, they are surprised to see that the victim has two shining silver coins for eyeballs. Then there's Lorelei, John, and Elizabeth who are all tied with him somehow. They are all caught in some sort of web, where they are aware of what Henry is doing. there's some sort of steam filled love triangle between the three (apparently John is good with the ladies) and they all want to kill Henry because Henry is losing it and is getting more vicious by the years.
I gotta say, this will make a terrifying movie, a new Silence of the Lambs. Except. Henry isn't a cannibal. The ending ties up like most insanity filled noir like this. It's kind of obvious. I won't reveal it.
For a novella, things go by pretty fast and time isn't wasted, it's at a good pace. What makes a good noir, from what I've read so far, is quick writing, but writing that has substance and very little filler unless you're trying to write a novel, and you want to add in some more backstory with multiple plot strands. Every word to matter, but every word has to contain some sort of feel whether it's gloomy, funny, or angry, it needs to mean something.
Henry doesn't improve and I guess I can say he doesn't get better either. He is the same old Henry throughout the novella, but Elizabeth loses her empathy and accepts that her brother is a murderer. She also has to accept that her lover is no different. And I guess I can say, that sort of leaves a strong woman tone to it, where I guess women can't really trust dudes.
Rating: 4/5
Originally posted on Notes on the Shore
So I got this for free when Number Thirteen Press started giving e-books out. When I find a small press, the first books I check out are the books written by non-White authors or women. Basically, I pay attention to the marginalized voices first, because those are the books that get the least recognition. So I decided to read this novella by an author who has written several poetry chapbooks. I've never heard of her, but have heard of her literary journals.
Although, I kind of have to say that this wasn't the best noir I've read, I found it quite confusing, but beautiful in it's prose and sadistic main characters. What threw me off the most was the dialogue being written in italics. So I couldn't tell if the characters were thinking or whispering until the author said so. I found it odd and it added to the confusion. But then I read the synopsis for the plot and things were clear, but the italicized dialogue, I will just assume it was a stylistic reason, a formatting issue, or maybe all of the characters really were speaking in low hoarse tones like Christian Bale playing Batman.
What happens it that Henry is a painter, an artist, one day he loses it and kills his wife. He makes art out of corpses, carving in symbology into the flesh of his victims and pulling out their eyes, the silver coins are the last embellishments. When the police find the bodies, they are surprised to see that the victim has two shining silver coins for eyeballs. Then there's Lorelei, John, and Elizabeth who are all tied with him somehow. They are all caught in some sort of web, where they are aware of what Henry is doing. there's some sort of steam filled love triangle between the three (apparently John is good with the ladies) and they all want to kill Henry because Henry is losing it and is getting more vicious by the years.
I gotta say, this will make a terrifying movie, a new Silence of the Lambs. Except. Henry isn't a cannibal. The ending ties up like most insanity filled noir like this. It's kind of obvious. I won't reveal it.
For a novella, things go by pretty fast and time isn't wasted, it's at a good pace. What makes a good noir, from what I've read so far, is quick writing, but writing that has substance and very little filler unless you're trying to write a novel, and you want to add in some more backstory with multiple plot strands. Every word to matter, but every word has to contain some sort of feel whether it's gloomy, funny, or angry, it needs to mean something.
Henry doesn't improve and I guess I can say he doesn't get better either. He is the same old Henry throughout the novella, but Elizabeth loses her empathy and accepts that her brother is a murderer. She also has to accept that her lover is no different. And I guess I can say, that sort of leaves a strong woman tone to it, where I guess women can't really trust dudes.
Rating: 4/5
Originally posted on Notes on the Shore
daniellelouis_'s review
4.0
I'm the type of reader who does enjoy the occasional novella, especially if it's as dark and disturbing as this one. I like to be kept on my toes, while expecting an explosive ending. This read delivered on all those accounts. Why am I even surprised? Ariana is a hugely talented author who has a flair for creating the most sadistic of characters and narratives.
The main protagonist of Dark Water is Henry, who comes across as a huge misogynistic character with a very negative opinion of women, not just those in his life but all women. We learn from the blurb that Henry's wife Callipie has been murdered and no-one is willing to believe him, when you meet Henry you'll know why. He is a very distasteful character in my opinion, and oh what a pleasure it was to see him in this undesirable predicament.
The storyline is that of a dark and twisted nature, where torture, suicide, murder and brutal revenge are the main culprits of the darkness! There's an incident that involves an eye that I'm still not willing to discuss, but that one sentence made me squirm... a lot! This is a fantastic point to make, that Ariana's writing can transport you into the storyline, like you're a nosey neighbour watching from a distance. This is the power of words. It's excellent.
The storyline flicks between past and present, at first I thought i'd accidently walked into a time machine but after a couple of chapters it all made sense and in hindsight I think it really worked. Like I've said, it kept me on my toes, and the affect was spot on! The narrative made me shiver, as you do when you're in the presence of pure evil. There was a sentence that made me think that this guy was 100% not right, who describes the act of murder as rebirth and freedom. Creepy as hell!
The ending was WOW, like a car that had been travelling down one lane, to then without any indication, speed into the next lane. It was like literary whiplash, which is always the good kind. Throw in a f***ed up type of love triangle (which there was) you've got fantastic warped read. I couldn't have asked for more!
If you're a reader of dark, twisted noirs that is "darkly wonderful... One hell of an explosive firecracker" AND under 100 pages then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! If you're not sure if you're they noir reading type, well try it out, you will be surprised! Obviously, I recommend it!
The main protagonist of Dark Water is Henry, who comes across as a huge misogynistic character with a very negative opinion of women, not just those in his life but all women. We learn from the blurb that Henry's wife Callipie has been murdered and no-one is willing to believe him, when you meet Henry you'll know why. He is a very distasteful character in my opinion, and oh what a pleasure it was to see him in this undesirable predicament.
The storyline is that of a dark and twisted nature, where torture, suicide, murder and brutal revenge are the main culprits of the darkness! There's an incident that involves an eye that I'm still not willing to discuss, but that one sentence made me squirm... a lot! This is a fantastic point to make, that Ariana's writing can transport you into the storyline, like you're a nosey neighbour watching from a distance. This is the power of words. It's excellent.
The storyline flicks between past and present, at first I thought i'd accidently walked into a time machine but after a couple of chapters it all made sense and in hindsight I think it really worked. Like I've said, it kept me on my toes, and the affect was spot on! The narrative made me shiver, as you do when you're in the presence of pure evil. There was a sentence that made me think that this guy was 100% not right, who describes the act of murder as rebirth and freedom. Creepy as hell!
The ending was WOW, like a car that had been travelling down one lane, to then without any indication, speed into the next lane. It was like literary whiplash, which is always the good kind. Throw in a f***ed up type of love triangle (which there was) you've got fantastic warped read. I couldn't have asked for more!
If you're a reader of dark, twisted noirs that is "darkly wonderful... One hell of an explosive firecracker" AND under 100 pages then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! If you're not sure if you're they noir reading type, well try it out, you will be surprised! Obviously, I recommend it!
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