hilaryistired's review
4.0
I read Josh Malerman's Bird Box about a year ago, and absolutely loved it. So when I saw that he had a new book available, I knew I had to get my hands on it and see how it was. I was particularly curious about this one because it had to do with musicians and sound, and I wanted to see how those worked into this story, especially as a musician myself.
While this didn't quite live up to Bird Box, this book was fantastic. When I finished it, I looked over at my partner who was reading beside me, and said, "What the hell did I just read," because it's one of those books that are so out there that you're not sure if you're actually reading it or if you're just descending into insanity. It's confusing and deep and philosophical and creepy and everything else that I loved about Bird Box, but about music and sound. But it did take me a few days to sit down and write this review, because it took me that long just to make sense of what I had just read.
The Good Points of Mad Black Wheel:
This book is addictive as hell. You dive into it and get going, and it's hard to put it down. It's just fast paced enough to keep you hooked, but not so much so that you feel like you miss information as you go. With it not being that long of a book, you'll fly through this no problem.
The chapters jump back and forth between present day and past, and they're not marked in any way, but it's not at all hard to keep track of what time we're in. Time markers would have been nice, but they were pleasantly not needed, which is nothing something you can say about many books.
I read and watch a lot of thrillers and horror stories, and I don't have anything that quite compares with Malerman's twisted stories. And this book is no except. The idea, and how it's executed and built up is so incredibly brilliant, and there's nothing I can even compare it to except for his other book. I also absolutely loved how music and sound come into play in this book and how it was used. If you've got any connection to music, this will resonate with you.
The Downsides of Mad Black Wheel:
The characters are barely developed and their relationships are weird. It's not unlike what Malerman did in Bird Box, but it didn't work as well this time around. We spent a lot of time with our main character and his love interest (also, insta-love. But that's a thing in near death experiences it seems, so we'll forgive it for now) but I honestly can't tell you much about them. Nor did I really care about them. They were just the people that things happened to in the story. It would have been far creepier if they had been developed a bit more and I was forced to care about them more.
This book should have been shorter. There was a lot of extra material, especially with Ellen and with the hospital that just seemed unnecessary and it made the story drag a bit during these chapters.
All in all, this book is one hell of a trip, and I did really enjoy it. Still not entirely sure what I just read, but that in itself is fun. Now that Malerman has done sight and hearing, I'm thinking we should start taking bets as to which sense his next book takes on. If you like books where you don't know everything, even at the end, music, or psychological thrillers, you should definitely give this book a go.
While this didn't quite live up to Bird Box, this book was fantastic. When I finished it, I looked over at my partner who was reading beside me, and said, "What the hell did I just read," because it's one of those books that are so out there that you're not sure if you're actually reading it or if you're just descending into insanity. It's confusing and deep and philosophical and creepy and everything else that I loved about Bird Box, but about music and sound. But it did take me a few days to sit down and write this review, because it took me that long just to make sense of what I had just read.
The Good Points of Mad Black Wheel:
This book is addictive as hell. You dive into it and get going, and it's hard to put it down. It's just fast paced enough to keep you hooked, but not so much so that you feel like you miss information as you go. With it not being that long of a book, you'll fly through this no problem.
The chapters jump back and forth between present day and past, and they're not marked in any way, but it's not at all hard to keep track of what time we're in. Time markers would have been nice, but they were pleasantly not needed, which is nothing something you can say about many books.
I read and watch a lot of thrillers and horror stories, and I don't have anything that quite compares with Malerman's twisted stories. And this book is no except. The idea, and how it's executed and built up is so incredibly brilliant, and there's nothing I can even compare it to except for his other book. I also absolutely loved how music and sound come into play in this book and how it was used. If you've got any connection to music, this will resonate with you.
The Downsides of Mad Black Wheel:
The characters are barely developed and their relationships are weird. It's not unlike what Malerman did in Bird Box, but it didn't work as well this time around. We spent a lot of time with our main character and his love interest (also, insta-love. But that's a thing in near death experiences it seems, so we'll forgive it for now) but I honestly can't tell you much about them. Nor did I really care about them. They were just the people that things happened to in the story. It would have been far creepier if they had been developed a bit more and I was forced to care about them more.
This book should have been shorter. There was a lot of extra material, especially with Ellen and with the hospital that just seemed unnecessary and it made the story drag a bit during these chapters.
All in all, this book is one hell of a trip, and I did really enjoy it. Still not entirely sure what I just read, but that in itself is fun. Now that Malerman has done sight and hearing, I'm thinking we should start taking bets as to which sense his next book takes on. If you like books where you don't know everything, even at the end, music, or psychological thrillers, you should definitely give this book a go.
guywho_reads's review
1.0
I’d like to leave my review as bummed & disappointed.
This story is about a group of musicians who get recruited by the US military to find the source of a bizarre sound which is causing people to become very ill in the African desert.
I am not a fan of period pieces nor wars nor military based stories nor science fiction nor vomiting(Yes, I said vomiting) & thats basically all this book had to offer. I was hoping the horror aspects would pull me through the story but even that wasn’t enough to get to me enjoy this read. The only reason this was not DNF’d was to see if anything would happen between Philip and his nurse, Ellen. But even when something did spark between them it was so rushed and nonchalantly placed that it felt almost unnecessary. There were a ton of plot holes and I found the writing choppy and confusing.
Overall this book was a total miss for me. However, I’m not giving up on my man Josh Malerman just yet! I’d like to pretend this never happened and move on.
This story is about a group of musicians who get recruited by the US military to find the source of a bizarre sound which is causing people to become very ill in the African desert.
I am not a fan of period pieces nor wars nor military based stories nor science fiction nor vomiting(Yes, I said vomiting) & thats basically all this book had to offer. I was hoping the horror aspects would pull me through the story but even that wasn’t enough to get to me enjoy this read. The only reason this was not DNF’d was to see if anything would happen between Philip and his nurse, Ellen. But even when something did spark between them it was so rushed and nonchalantly placed that it felt almost unnecessary. There were a ton of plot holes and I found the writing choppy and confusing.
Overall this book was a total miss for me. However, I’m not giving up on my man Josh Malerman just yet! I’d like to pretend this never happened and move on.
zukythebookbum's review against another edition
Could already tell the flashbacks with the band was gonna annoy me. I don’t like books about bands so thought I’d quickly move on.
pwbalto's review
3.0
This book would have gotten a higher rating from me if we didn't have to hear about Dwayne the drummer's dark skin literally almost every single time he was mentioned.
Otherwise, ehhh? Tremendously spiritual and abstract scary book about war and history that somehow turns into, like Vertigo by the end. Complete with lovestruck couple and mysterious murder.
Otherwise, ehhh? Tremendously spiritual and abstract scary book about war and history that somehow turns into, like Vertigo by the end. Complete with lovestruck couple and mysterious murder.
crtilden's review
3.0
While eerie throughout, I didn’t find this horror book particularly scary. I didn’t find the characters to be as fleshed out, and the style of swapping time period/character viewpoints with shorter chapter lengths doesn’t really give the reader the opportunity to become invested in who the characters are and why we should care about them and their situation. That style helps with confusion (which I believe is the point) and keeping the reader on their toes, however.
rock_n_reads's review against another edition
5.0
Josh Malerman has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I loved Birdbox, his novella A House at the Bottom of a Lake, and now Black Mad Wheel. He does a fantastic job creating a sensory experience in his novels (and I couldn't help but wonder if there's a theme starting here, first with the sense of sight in Birdbox, and now with sound in Black Mad Wheel). I'm not always great at articulating my thoughts on the books I read, but let me give this a try: I think that books, just like music and other forms of art, are experienced differently by all of us. Some other readers might love this, while some will not enjoy it at all. I gave it 5 stars because it created tension that made it so hard to put down, and I just love some of the figurative language used. This is another novel in which I'd go back and underline the words that I could relate to or that made me feel something strong. This novel is set in the late 1950s, so the Detroit he describes was different than today, but there are many characteristics of its people and spirit that remain the same. I went to grad school in Detroit and saw all of the wonderful things about a city that is rarely discussed in a positive light. Some of his lines about Detroit and other Michigan landmarks in general resonated with me and I loved it. One of my favorite lines is in chapter 8, when he states that Philip "experiences an alien combination of feelings: nostalgia for a place he hasn't left yet, and claustrophobia too". I've experienced that type of advanced nostalgia many times in my life. Readers who expect this to be a lot like Birdbox may be disappointed. I love both novels, but they are completely different stories. This one was not as frightening but it still gave me a snowballing sense of unease until the climax. At first I wasn't sure about the ending, but after reading the last page a few times, it fit perfectly.
lmags15's review
3.0
Interesting book with convincing visuals and sympathetic characters. Not as good as "Bird Box", but a suitable followup.