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megmcardle's review against another edition
4.0
I've got to mull this one over some more. Very weird premise of a father trying to connect to his comatose son through the fantasy world of his favorite comic. I wanted to love it, and I did enjoy the noir/fantasy mash-up aspects, but there were places were it didn't seem as fully realized a concept as it could have been. Still, pretty cool.
higgbemine's review against another edition
2.0
i'm not certain i got the point of this book. if your child was in a coma would you drain fluid from his shunt and shoot yourself up with a shunt juice/methamphetamine mixture to interact with him in a dream state? if so, this book is something you might be interested in.
carolynf's review against another edition
4.0
The story of a off-kilter father trying to take care of his comatose son while maintaining sanity, and the story of a band of circus "freaks," who were the subject of the son's favorite comic books and may or may not be a part of his comatose dreamscape now. At the end, I'm not really sure whether the father is seeing actual reality or a fantasy forced upon him while in a vulnerable frame of mind.
pharmdad2007's review against another edition
2.0
Very dark, macabre story about a man who goes overboard trying to help his comatose son. Kind of like Stephen King meets Haruki Murakami. Maybe an extra half star because the protagonist is a pharmacist...
ekaczmarek's review against another edition
4.0
Okay... there are a lot of things not to love about this book. There's a pervading, hypermasculine, jaded, sexually-cringey, gratuitously-violent overtone that smothered any pleasure I was getting from the storyline and characters. The characters were pretty flat and unlikable. BUT. I came out of this book liking it a lot more than I expected. I hated the biker gang initially, but as the narrative pieces coalesced with the progressive dialogue between Limbo and reality, I understood them. There are some beautiful passages. The ending was deeply satisfying, like a conversation that comes full circle. Would I recommend this book? Probably never. Did I enjoy it, in the end? Absolutely I did.
kkayleen's review against another edition
3.0
it took me two years to finish this bad boy through the birth of my son as a single mama, but i did it. i’m going to be honest, i kept coming back for the comic book world because i have a *thing* for circuses.
confused on danny’s purpose at the end, confused by the trip, unsure why they killed buzz(??) but whatever. i finished it. meh.
confused on danny’s purpose at the end, confused by the trip, unsure why they killed buzz(??) but whatever. i finished it. meh.
staceynerdin's review against another edition
3.0
Very bizarre. Fantastic writing, but a bit too much sex/violence/language for me, and the surrealist twist took me just to the bounds of enjoyability.
rosemarysbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Creepy and dark - I enjoyed it! Part of the novel is taking place in "real life" and part of the novel takes place in a weird comic book, which mirrors the real life aspects. I found this interweaving to be quite interesting, but sometimes hard to follow. After a while, I got the hang of it, and had no more trouble. Oddly, I enjoyed the comic book characters more than the "real life" ones. A worthwhile fantasy read, but it is basically a fun, fluff book.
smithla8's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
sjurban's review against another edition
3.0
I really didn't want to give this book only one star. I feel bad doing that to any book, but it was really terrible. The pacing was so off, the characters were built up fairly well, but then acted in ways that were totally contradictory to what you had just learned about them.
I usually like "surrealist" novels, I am able to suspend reality and dig into the world that a book creates. This book just didn't work. You can't put a "surreal" label on it and then blow off the people who don't like it by just saying they didn't "get" it.
I listened to the audio and that may have made it worse. The reader used lots of different voices for different characters, but his voice was annoying and almost all of the characters sounded like they were stoned.
I would not recommend this book to anyone.
I usually like "surrealist" novels, I am able to suspend reality and dig into the world that a book creates. This book just didn't work. You can't put a "surreal" label on it and then blow off the people who don't like it by just saying they didn't "get" it.
I listened to the audio and that may have made it worse. The reader used lots of different voices for different characters, but his voice was annoying and almost all of the characters sounded like they were stoned.
I would not recommend this book to anyone.