Reviews

I didn’t enjoy this book, really didn’t enjoy it, it was a pretty grindingly formulaic kind of body horror but I kept reading waiting for the impossibly, really just impossibly difficult to follow or enjoy prose — Jim Phelps, burn THIS tape; just digressions and nonsequitirs all over the god damn show and flow on sentences that don’t count as sentences because they just don’t stop having words and grammar be damned — to resolve or justify itself but it never did, it just keeps going on and on in this borderline unreadable writers-workshop fashion, and the ironic thing is that this is a book about how scary it is for there to be an empty blank spot, but there’s a piece of punctuation that looks exactly like that, it’s called a full stop and it goes at the end
of sentences but this book just doesn’t want to use any of those to save its life. It’s physically uncomfortable to try and read. I couldn’t recommend it.

dandaloriian's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

2.0

depechemold's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

5.0

SCREAMING AND GNASHING MY TEETH

can’t decide if i loved this or SKIN more but i’m so fucking obsessed. i love how this and SKIN are so similar…the protagonist being the one who loves more and suffering for it…the genuine friends who just can’t help (vanese’s final scene…! randy’s…!)…the question of “is it real or is it insanity” and the answer being both

two specific fave pieces of disgust came at the very end: nakota’s broken-off feet and malcolm’s viperfish mouse. there were a lot of times when the sparse, kind of ambiguous, descriptions of the body horror left me (absolutely) not unsatisfied but still wanting more, wanting to be able to really picture the grotesquerie—but the climactic horror wasn’t like that. those two moments were so plain and unelaborated that it made the impact so much stronger and i didn’t want any more detail. i often feel that one of my favorite things in horror is just “wouldn’t that be fucked up?” because sometimes that’s all there is. lots of things are just fucked up and they have no meaning and you can’t force them into the schema of your worldview in any way that’s coherent with logic or “meaning.” holding the dismembered pieces of your love in a hug: just sick.

merricatadamtine's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A book review four years in the making.... ICYMI: I heard about The Cipher by Kathe Koja from a list on the now defunct Unbound Worlds, a great site that had recommendations for all kinds of fantasy/sci fi and horror. I couldn't find it anywhere... so it festered away in my mental TBR pile... Last September it was re-released in paperback, so I could finally read it aaannnnnddddd----- It's not bad. I think at the time it was originally released (1991) it might have been more unique, but House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski borrows heavily. I find it's influences towards Lovecraft (unnamed horrifying oppressive presence), Stephen King's short story I Am The Doorway, published in his book Night Shift (hand specific transformation) and William Burroughs (Naked Lunch particularly) . I know people balk at Koja's description of the characters of Nick and Nakota (mostly classifying them as addicts) but they actually take very few drugs, and I think the author does an excellent job of capturing the gritty, desperate times many of us had in our 20's.. These are people on the edge and looking for something that will transcend them beyond their existence... The Funhole will do that, but it exacts a price. Also, I will say, that I see the author getting knocked quite a lot for how... graphic? dirty? vile? she portrays the characters, but honestly I have seen the same done in the book John Dies In The End and that guy was hailed as a maverick.... sexism or what? Are only men allowed to write disgusting characters? I thought the book was a great metaphor for the gatekeeper mentality as well as addiction. Nick could easily stop the Funhole by moving or staying away (it only appears when he is there) but for some reason he can't... some pulls are inexplicable... Overall, glad I read this book, but more glad I didn't pay 60$ for it...

noisyreq's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

2.0

miactaft's review against another edition

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4.0

what a horrible experience. thank you, kathe koja.

rebeccaloosli's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

I thought this had a really strong start but fell off for me as the book continued. I longed for tighter editing and more nuanced characters. However, if you want grotesque, weird, and unsettling horror, you’ll get it!

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