nexadon's review
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Quite a lovely little book if you can get your hands on a copy. Extremely grotesque very yucky, prose is digested best when you just meet it where it is and you will get pissed off if you try to tease out the meaning of every sentence. Wish there was less pregnancy horror, could have been better if it didnt lean on that trope so heavily
ogotha's review
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
kitten_nuisance's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was doing a thing. As I began reading it, comp authors that came to mind included Cormac McCarthy, Kristi Demeester, Brian Evenson, William Faulkner. . . however, I just didn't feel like this book arrived anywhere. Sometimes a book is just vibes, and that can be fine, but maybe this book was just not vibes for me in particular. I felt like it became repetitive (on top of vague, which is not a good combination here), and didn't become anything greater than its many descriptions of rot and ruin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Animal death
getradified's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
2.0
Less a collection of short stories than a litany of vignettes and lists (that's right, a litany of lists) of things crumbling, rotting, molding, falling from the sky, drowning, vomiting, dripping, disintegrating, breaking down, melting, bubbling, decaying, putrefying, stinking, degenerating, deteriorating, and dissolving. This physical decrepitude (of humans, animals, buildings, Earth, everything) is mirrored in all of these stories by familial breakdowns between parents and sons (there's a kind-of daughter in one story, but the father is the protagonist in that one) or siblings, which is a nice technique, but when it's the only technique present in every single story...
The language, furthermore, veers wildly between lofty and poetic and oddly pedestrian. This might be a conscious choice, but if it is, I hate it.
With a lot of editing and condensing and combining, these 13 mediocre-or-worse stories could have been condensed down to like 2-3 really great ones ("The Ruined Child" being, I think, the closest to a great work here as is). There was a lot of potential under the grime and shit and mess of this book, but Butler got too caught up in... well, the grime and shit and mess of this book, and never polished anything enough to really deliver on that potential.
The language, furthermore, veers wildly between lofty and poetic and oddly pedestrian. This might be a conscious choice, but if it is, I hate it.
With a lot of editing and condensing and combining, these 13 mediocre-or-worse stories could have been condensed down to like 2-3 really great ones ("The Ruined Child" being, I think, the closest to a great work here as is). There was a lot of potential under the grime and shit and mess of this book, but Butler got too caught up in... well, the grime and shit and mess of this book, and never polished anything enough to really deliver on that potential.
foolishpsychopomp's review
I think the concept has potential but it was just incredibly boring and repetitive with really awkward writing.
laurarosessupposes's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Really interesting concept. The work is somewhat experimental and ergodic, reflective of nightmares, especially when the book is destroyed as suggested.
fluidstatic's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Sprawling alliterative streams of madness, filth, pestilence, surreality, and inexplicable numbness. Plagues of gravel, ink, smoke, blood, mold, glass, endless grinning sun that drinks the sea. I can only describe this book of almost-stories as an onslaught. Grabs you on the first page, hypnotizes you with florishes of alliteration and subtle meter. It then drags you along, as you grow increasingly numb to the hideous grime of its imagery, to a complete lack of satisfying conclusion. This thing reads like David Lynch directing an A24 art house film about the death of humanity; not just the population, but the concept. Cruel, murky, gritty. Eventually you just want it to stop, but you can't put it down - like being emotionally exhausted by a 24 hour news cycle, but it's delivered by the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and no matter how numb you are to the violence and rot and emptiness, they're the only thing on TV. Truly an exercise in florid, unrelentingly bleak imagery as blunt instrument. Not a fun read, but certainly a vivid and unique experience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Bullying, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Murder, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Terminal illness