marpesea's review
This was a well crafted story that is just too grim for me right now. It's clever and the world is fascinating and the narrator is solid, but I have no desire to listen to any more of it.
hartzy13's review against another edition
2.0
Great idea. Execution lacking : disjointed story telling, no coherent world building, difficult to understand actions.
zacko's review
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
barondp's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
readwithmeemz's review against another edition
3.0
I’m an Indigo Employee, and I received an advanced reading copy of this book, from Indigo Books & Music, in exchange for my honest feedback.
This book was dark, and gritty, and weird, and kind of gruesome - but it was also cool, and interesting, and action packed. I loved the concept - i really do love dark, weird sci-fi - but I don’t read a lot and of it (at least not adult sci fi) - and I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone with this one. This was a quick read - but still dark and pretty heavy. It’s a solid book, and I think it would be great for fans of The Walking Dead.
This book was dark, and gritty, and weird, and kind of gruesome - but it was also cool, and interesting, and action packed. I loved the concept - i really do love dark, weird sci-fi - but I don’t read a lot and of it (at least not adult sci fi) - and I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone with this one. This was a quick read - but still dark and pretty heavy. It’s a solid book, and I think it would be great for fans of The Walking Dead.
david_agranoff's review
5.0
I reviewed Brian Allen Carr's surreal horror novel "The Last horror novel in History of the World" back in 2015. I enjoyed it as a short but totally surreal novella. At the time I said I laughed alot reading this novel which is some kinda of supernatural small town siege tale set against the interesting back drop of a small border town in Texas. Given the title I expected a satire, or a bizarro send up of horror novels but that wasn't the case. This is more like experimental horror that based on the strength of the strong prose is a really cool quick read.
I was excited about this book and wanted to read it after hearing BAC on the JDO (J.David Osbourne) show podcast. Between then and actually getting around to the book I remembered nothing about it. I am glad I went in cold. SIP is a totally weird novel, those worried that BAC would lose his edge getting published by a traditional publisher - don't worry.
Sip is one of the weirdest horror novels I have ever read. The structure of the narrative is a little more straight forward there are no one sentence chapters, but the idea is plenty weird enough. It takes place in a post apaoclyse western setting, the world was not ended by nuclear war or climate change. In this future our world fell apart when junkies developed an addiction for consuming the souls of others through their shadows. Drinking the shadows gives you rest and the dreams of the person or animals you steal from but leaves the creature dry. Dry means you can't sleep or dream.
On a basic level you have great weird elements like shadow drinkers and limb scavengers, you have western elements with the train and the wasteland setting. Those are lots of neat-o elements but at the heart are human characters. At it's core friendship and loyalty plays as important a role as a mainstream YA novel. There is much to relate too at the heart of the story.
One neat aspect is how the concept and setting subverts the nothing setting or the dark or darkness being home to horror. In this world the sunlight and light in general is source of terror. The characters from Bale and Mira break the tension with momments of humor from time to time. The gee-whiz of the concept was enough to get my interest but it is Characters that made this a step-up from the BAC novel I read.
BAC is a talented writer and the very concept is strong argument for the book. At times the prose is poetic, but it is the world building and setting where the beauty lies. That is a neat trick. Overall I would say this is a weird fiction masterpiece if you like bizarro, horror or science fiction there is something here for everyone. If you think that all the ideas have been exhausted before 2017 then you need to read Sip. It is a book like no other and worthy of massive praise.
I was excited about this book and wanted to read it after hearing BAC on the JDO (J.David Osbourne) show podcast. Between then and actually getting around to the book I remembered nothing about it. I am glad I went in cold. SIP is a totally weird novel, those worried that BAC would lose his edge getting published by a traditional publisher - don't worry.
Sip is one of the weirdest horror novels I have ever read. The structure of the narrative is a little more straight forward there are no one sentence chapters, but the idea is plenty weird enough. It takes place in a post apaoclyse western setting, the world was not ended by nuclear war or climate change. In this future our world fell apart when junkies developed an addiction for consuming the souls of others through their shadows. Drinking the shadows gives you rest and the dreams of the person or animals you steal from but leaves the creature dry. Dry means you can't sleep or dream.
On a basic level you have great weird elements like shadow drinkers and limb scavengers, you have western elements with the train and the wasteland setting. Those are lots of neat-o elements but at the heart are human characters. At it's core friendship and loyalty plays as important a role as a mainstream YA novel. There is much to relate too at the heart of the story.
One neat aspect is how the concept and setting subverts the nothing setting or the dark or darkness being home to horror. In this world the sunlight and light in general is source of terror. The characters from Bale and Mira break the tension with momments of humor from time to time. The gee-whiz of the concept was enough to get my interest but it is Characters that made this a step-up from the BAC novel I read.
BAC is a talented writer and the very concept is strong argument for the book. At times the prose is poetic, but it is the world building and setting where the beauty lies. That is a neat trick. Overall I would say this is a weird fiction masterpiece if you like bizarro, horror or science fiction there is something here for everyone. If you think that all the ideas have been exhausted before 2017 then you need to read Sip. It is a book like no other and worthy of massive praise.
jadelee_ls's review
3.0
Loved the idea, prose and weirdness but in the end it all kind of became pointless (violence)?
tiranamisu's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
themarce's review against another edition
1.0
Good premise. No plot. No character development. No lasting imagery.
Big points for the amazing Waiting for Godot reference.
Big points for the amazing Waiting for Godot reference.
thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
5.0
Carr does an excellent job of threading the separate narratives together to create a compelling and exciting story.
He won the inaugural Texas Observer Story Prize (judged by Larry McMurtry) in 2011 with his short story, “The First Henley”, and also the Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel for his book Motherfucking Sharks (Lazy Fascist Press, 2013). These two awards alone should tell you all you need to know about the range of work of Brian Allen Carr. Between December 2012 and November 2014, he published at least three collections and two novellas – an impressive rate of work by anyone’s standards – and Sip is his first published novel. It has been described as a “post-apocalyptic sci-fi Western” but the themes explored – including addiction, friendship and survival – delivered in Carr’s own unique style, means that one short description does it little justice.
The story is set on an Earth gone bad. The demise of the world began with a child exhibiting behaviour similar to someone suffering from rabies. But when the scientists and doctors witnessed him sipping from his shadow, the world changed. As it is with human nature, curiosity got the better of some folk and soon, divisions and factions began to appear between those that succumbed to their shadow addiction and those that abstained. The former became slaves to the taste of their own shadow, getting high on it, some even going as far as to steal the shadows of others, while the latter built massive domes to house their cities and adopted a militaristic and moralistic lifestyle, without natural light. What Carr has created is essentially a post-apocalyptic world without the cataclysmic event. Instead the world has steadily fallen into ruin as half of the world became junkies and the other half became scared.
One group of “Domers” have begun to venture out into the world, protecting themselves with a train that continuously encircles their encampments while they seek to make contact with the other domes. Life within the domes is shown to be regimented and uniform, where everyone has the same haircut and they are all given jobs and rations. But one soldier on the train, Bale, dares to defy his orders and the natural order when he witnesses the intriguing Mira and her mysterious shadow. Mira is a young lady who lives in a small farmhouse and has to care for her mother since the deranged criminal Joe Clover stole her shadow, forcing Mira to “borrow” shade from animals so that her mother can sleep. The premise is original, and delivered with a wonderful style. The way Carr depicts Mira and the burden she feels when having to steal from the animals, and the way she communicates with each species and the difference in the dreams depending on the animal, is nothing short of tremendous. His sentences read like poetry, sometimes dark and often extremely emotive, but always with a rhythm and fluidity that makes the words flow from the page to the reader’s mind.
(The full review can be found at the This Is Horror website.)
He won the inaugural Texas Observer Story Prize (judged by Larry McMurtry) in 2011 with his short story, “The First Henley”, and also the Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel for his book Motherfucking Sharks (Lazy Fascist Press, 2013). These two awards alone should tell you all you need to know about the range of work of Brian Allen Carr. Between December 2012 and November 2014, he published at least three collections and two novellas – an impressive rate of work by anyone’s standards – and Sip is his first published novel. It has been described as a “post-apocalyptic sci-fi Western” but the themes explored – including addiction, friendship and survival – delivered in Carr’s own unique style, means that one short description does it little justice.
The story is set on an Earth gone bad. The demise of the world began with a child exhibiting behaviour similar to someone suffering from rabies. But when the scientists and doctors witnessed him sipping from his shadow, the world changed. As it is with human nature, curiosity got the better of some folk and soon, divisions and factions began to appear between those that succumbed to their shadow addiction and those that abstained. The former became slaves to the taste of their own shadow, getting high on it, some even going as far as to steal the shadows of others, while the latter built massive domes to house their cities and adopted a militaristic and moralistic lifestyle, without natural light. What Carr has created is essentially a post-apocalyptic world without the cataclysmic event. Instead the world has steadily fallen into ruin as half of the world became junkies and the other half became scared.
One group of “Domers” have begun to venture out into the world, protecting themselves with a train that continuously encircles their encampments while they seek to make contact with the other domes. Life within the domes is shown to be regimented and uniform, where everyone has the same haircut and they are all given jobs and rations. But one soldier on the train, Bale, dares to defy his orders and the natural order when he witnesses the intriguing Mira and her mysterious shadow. Mira is a young lady who lives in a small farmhouse and has to care for her mother since the deranged criminal Joe Clover stole her shadow, forcing Mira to “borrow” shade from animals so that her mother can sleep. The premise is original, and delivered with a wonderful style. The way Carr depicts Mira and the burden she feels when having to steal from the animals, and the way she communicates with each species and the difference in the dreams depending on the animal, is nothing short of tremendous. His sentences read like poetry, sometimes dark and often extremely emotive, but always with a rhythm and fluidity that makes the words flow from the page to the reader’s mind.
(The full review can be found at the This Is Horror website.)