encal202's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
spacesong's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Literally one of the best books I’ve ever read and definitely my favorite.
This book is basically everything I love about horror and sci-fi. Eldritch entities - check
A perfect town that seems a little too perfect - check
Science fiction that attempts to be grounded in real world theories - check
A genre I like to call ‘midwestern gothic’ - check
It’s written well and the narrative grips you relentlessly as your imagination runs wild with what ifs.
‘What’s going on with the town?’ ‘Is the main character really human?’
‘What’s with the mysterious laboratory up on the mesa?’
The ending is satisfying, for the most part. And certain parts of the book left me reflective on what it means to be human. ‘What lengths would I go to survive?’ ‘Would doing what was needed to survive make me lose my humanity?’ ‘Can things that are not human have what’s essential in humanity?’
Overall, a fantastic read that will grip you from start to finish and leave you questioning the human condition.
This book is basically everything I love about horror and sci-fi. Eldritch entities - check
A perfect town that seems a little too perfect - check
Science fiction that attempts to be grounded in real world theories - check
A genre I like to call ‘midwestern gothic’ - check
It’s written well and the narrative grips you relentlessly as your imagination runs wild with what ifs.
‘What’s going on with the town?’ ‘Is the main character really human?’
‘What’s with the mysterious laboratory up on the mesa?’
The ending is satisfying, for the most part. And certain parts of the book left me reflective on what it means to be human. ‘What lengths would I go to survive?’ ‘Would doing what was needed to survive make me lose my humanity?’ ‘Can things that are not human have what’s essential in humanity?’
Overall, a fantastic read that will grip you from start to finish and leave you questioning the human condition.
carn17's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
taylorhohulin's review against another edition
5.0
I'd almost forgotten how much I love scary stories about small towns where things are juuuuust a little off. And then I read this bad boy and HOLY COW was I reminded. Because it's not just about a creepy small town. It's about crazy science experiments gone wrong. It's about ancient creatures beyond human understanding. It's creepy and mysterious, and the entire last half of the book has the intensity level that most books save for the last couple scenes. I'm going to be reading more from Robert Jackson Bennett, and I'm going to be doing that soon.
lyrrael's review
4.0
Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map, and in that little town are quiet streets lined with pretty houses that conceal the strangest things. Ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother’s home in Wink, New Mexico, and when she gets there, she finds that the people of Wink are very, very different.
Woo. Lovecraftian horror. This really reminded me of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, which, if you haven’t listened to before, you really ought to. I loved Mona -- she’s pragmatic, realistic, cynical, even in the face of some really weird shit going down. And while I get that Bennett is more literary than a lot of authors out there, I sort of wished that this book had been trimmed down a little -- I was really experiencing book fatigue by about page 500, but I knew if I put it down, I’d never pick it back up. This is not to say that the book isn’t fantastic -- it really is, and it may make it onto my favorites shelf. It was definitely a joyride.
Woo. Lovecraftian horror. This really reminded me of the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, which, if you haven’t listened to before, you really ought to. I loved Mona -- she’s pragmatic, realistic, cynical, even in the face of some really weird shit going down. And while I get that Bennett is more literary than a lot of authors out there, I sort of wished that this book had been trimmed down a little -- I was really experiencing book fatigue by about page 500, but I knew if I put it down, I’d never pick it back up. This is not to say that the book isn’t fantastic -- it really is, and it may make it onto my favorites shelf. It was definitely a joyride.
thauge's review against another edition
It was just a bit slow and not really getting anywhere. Plus, cosmic horror isn’t typically my jam.
lachese's review against another edition
4.0
With regards to this book, I'm the living embodiment of the warring subconscious trope (the one with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other). I discovered this book from a list of Lovecraftian influenced novels. However, after reading the book, the essence of true Lovecraftian fiction seems to be missing.
The first half of the book was exactly what I look for in Lovecraftian fiction. The fragility of sanity? Check. unfathomable creatures? Check. Human insignificance? Semi-check. The most important tenant of cosmic horror: the incomprehensible unknown? - check.
I can pick out the exact moment when the cosmic horror/Lovecraftian elements slipped away from the novel's grasp. Before this particular moment, the book tossed us tempting bits of information. Enough to stave a bit of the reader's hunger for knowledge, but not enough to fully satiate. There are enough blank spaces in the story for the reader's imagination to take root. However, the particular moment previously mentioned completely destroyed any bit of mystery left in the novel, thereby removing the most important element of cosmic horror: the unknown. Worst of all, all of this background information and question answering was done in a massive narrative infodump of dialog. Not just any dialog, but a dialog produced by one of the supposedly unfathomable pandimensional creatures. NO. Just NO. Please stop. That scene in the book completely destroyed every single bit of mystery and horror more than half of the book had worked so hard to achieve (and had done so well).
From that point everything went downhill for me. The mystery was gone, the fear of the unknown was gone, but somehow it managed to get even worse. The monsters were *horrified gasp* relatable. I know, right? What sort of cosmic horror novel has relatable pandimensional creatures? I won't spoil everything for future readers, but look forward to themes of motherhood (heavy, heavy, themes of motherhood. In fact, an entire 30 page academic paper could be written on the theme of motherhood contained within American Elsewhere) and narcissism.
Maybe the complete wanton destruction of the cosmic horror trope was purposeful. Perhaps it was a social or philosophical commentary. Perhaps it was trying to point out that fear has no purpose and the unknown is not actually incomprehensible. Everything is relatable. Also themes of sacrificing to be a good mother (I'm sorry, the whole heavy motherhood thing I found a bit eye rolling, but I have zero maternal instinct and find babies and small children loud and irritating so take my opinion with a grain of salt.)
Despite my distaste of the breakdown of Lovecraftian themes, I cannot give this book a low score, mostly because I found the writing to be darn good. Along with the main character, I became lost in this strange little town. I became embroiled in the mystery of the lab on the mesa. I became charmed by the unusual residents and their quirky behavior. Some of the characterization of certain individuals was inconsistent, but I suppose I can attribute that to their personal growth. Descriptions of various locations along with "distortions" in reality were visceral and visual.
Overall, I'd recommend this novel to anyone who isn't looking for traditional cosmic horror, especially those looking for an introduction to the genre while still getting a desired story resolution.
Well done, Mr. Bennett. Just please leave some mystery next time.
The first half of the book was exactly what I look for in Lovecraftian fiction. The fragility of sanity? Check. unfathomable creatures? Check. Human insignificance? Semi-check. The most important tenant of cosmic horror: the incomprehensible unknown? - check.
I can pick out the exact moment when the cosmic horror/Lovecraftian elements slipped away from the novel's grasp. Before this particular moment, the book tossed us tempting bits of information. Enough to stave a bit of the reader's hunger for knowledge, but not enough to fully satiate. There are enough blank spaces in the story for the reader's imagination to take root. However, the particular moment previously mentioned completely destroyed any bit of mystery left in the novel, thereby removing the most important element of cosmic horror: the unknown. Worst of all, all of this background information and question answering was done in a massive narrative infodump of dialog. Not just any dialog, but a dialog produced by one of the supposedly unfathomable pandimensional creatures. NO. Just NO. Please stop. That scene in the book completely destroyed every single bit of mystery and horror more than half of the book had worked so hard to achieve (and had done so well).
From that point everything went downhill for me. The mystery was gone, the fear of the unknown was gone, but somehow it managed to get even worse. The monsters were *horrified gasp* relatable. I know, right? What sort of cosmic horror novel has relatable pandimensional creatures? I won't spoil everything for future readers, but look forward to themes of motherhood (heavy, heavy, themes of motherhood. In fact, an entire 30 page academic paper could be written on the theme of motherhood contained within American Elsewhere) and narcissism.
Maybe the complete wanton destruction of the cosmic horror trope was purposeful. Perhaps it was a social or philosophical commentary. Perhaps it was trying to point out that fear has no purpose and the unknown is not actually incomprehensible. Everything is relatable. Also themes of sacrificing to be a good mother (I'm sorry, the whole heavy motherhood thing I found a bit eye rolling, but I have zero maternal instinct and find babies and small children loud and irritating so take my opinion with a grain of salt.)
Despite my distaste of the breakdown of Lovecraftian themes, I cannot give this book a low score, mostly because I found the writing to be darn good. Along with the main character, I became lost in this strange little town. I became embroiled in the mystery of the lab on the mesa. I became charmed by the unusual residents and their quirky behavior. Some of the characterization of certain individuals was inconsistent, but I suppose I can attribute that to their personal growth. Descriptions of various locations along with "distortions" in reality were visceral and visual.
Overall, I'd recommend this novel to anyone who isn't looking for traditional cosmic horror, especially those looking for an introduction to the genre while still getting a desired story resolution.
Well done, Mr. Bennett. Just please leave some mystery next time.
mferrante83's review against another edition
4.0
Imagine, if you will, the perfect town; immaculately groomed lawns, quiet streets, perfect houses, smiling faces, and no crime to speak of. Wink, New Mexico is just such a town though as Mona Bright learns upon her arrival such perfection comes at a price. There are places in Wink that you just don’t go, things you just don’t do, and thoughts you aren’t aloud to think. There are secrets hidden behind the immaculate walls and picturesque homes and the Mesa it sits beneath, home to an abandoned research facility, casts a long and deep shadow on the denizens of Wink.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s American Elsewhere has one of the most perfect premises to get me interested. The novel’s opening chapter provides a tantalizing glimpse that things aren’t quite what they seem offering a nice taste of things to come before slowing things down a bit. American Elsewhere is a delicately paced novel focusing on atmosphere over action. Mona Bright, an ex-cop, discovers during the reading of her father’s will that her mother once owned a house in a town called Wink. With the inheritance set to expire soon Mona sets off to find Wink which is a town that has become rather difficult to find in recent years. Arriving in Wink, Mona is met with a strange vision of a town seemingly right out of the 1950s where everybody knows everybody and nobody ever leaves.
As the novel unfolds Bennett focuses primarily on building tension, layering on the weirdness bit by bit. While the novel sets out with the focus on squarely on the mystery of Mona’s mother it quickly unfurls into something grander and far more epic in scope. Elements of humor, horror, and science fiction infuse the novel creating a brilliant mosaic that reveals a complex and fascinating whole. The horror of American Elsewhere is, particularly at the start a subtle one. Wink is a familiar sort of place colored with just enough strangeness to prove instantly unsettling. The familiar combined with the strange creates a curious effect that seems to enhance both. One particular moment, as Mona explores the contents of Mrs. Benjamn’s tea pantry illustrates this nicely. As Mona explores deeper and deeper into Mrs. Benjamin’s tea pantry the ingredients listed on the teas become stranger and stranger, not to mention that fact that pantry itself seem to be impossibly large. It is unsettling precisely because it takes something so normal as tea and mixes it together with something strange.
American Elsewhere takes a bit of a science fiction turn as well. I get all tingly when science fiction and horror mention abandoned research facilities and my excitement definitely skyrocketed with the introduction of the lab atop the mesa. Glimpsed in the novel’s prologue I was instantly desperate to see what kind of horrific secrets it harbored. Bennett delivers, though it definitely takes a while to get there. The nature of it’s scientific explorations provide profound revelations for the rest of the plot. With the setting of Wink, including the lab, Bennett shows a real talent at world building. The setting, while not particularly large, has a sense of liveliness and authenticity that serves to ground the novel despite its weirdness. Wink essentially becomes a character in the story.
The audiobook version of American Elsewhere, narrated by Graham Winton is quite excellent. Winton provides the perfect tone for each scene and manages to capture a distinct voice for every character. However, at just over 22 hours its leisurely pacing can occasionally make for a difficult listen. Despite this I found the Winton’s winning performance made for excellent company during a long drive holding my attention even as he described sights that were difficult to envision.
Sedately paced American Elsewhere is an engaging read with a winning combination of the familiar and the strange. Bits of mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy are deftly woven by Bennett to craft a tapestry of the strange and wonderful. This is a novel that wears many different skins and the genre-bending fits the tone of the novel perfectly. This is an excellent book that will stick with you until the end.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s American Elsewhere has one of the most perfect premises to get me interested. The novel’s opening chapter provides a tantalizing glimpse that things aren’t quite what they seem offering a nice taste of things to come before slowing things down a bit. American Elsewhere is a delicately paced novel focusing on atmosphere over action. Mona Bright, an ex-cop, discovers during the reading of her father’s will that her mother once owned a house in a town called Wink. With the inheritance set to expire soon Mona sets off to find Wink which is a town that has become rather difficult to find in recent years. Arriving in Wink, Mona is met with a strange vision of a town seemingly right out of the 1950s where everybody knows everybody and nobody ever leaves.
As the novel unfolds Bennett focuses primarily on building tension, layering on the weirdness bit by bit. While the novel sets out with the focus on squarely on the mystery of Mona’s mother it quickly unfurls into something grander and far more epic in scope. Elements of humor, horror, and science fiction infuse the novel creating a brilliant mosaic that reveals a complex and fascinating whole. The horror of American Elsewhere is, particularly at the start a subtle one. Wink is a familiar sort of place colored with just enough strangeness to prove instantly unsettling. The familiar combined with the strange creates a curious effect that seems to enhance both. One particular moment, as Mona explores the contents of Mrs. Benjamn’s tea pantry illustrates this nicely. As Mona explores deeper and deeper into Mrs. Benjamin’s tea pantry the ingredients listed on the teas become stranger and stranger, not to mention that fact that pantry itself seem to be impossibly large. It is unsettling precisely because it takes something so normal as tea and mixes it together with something strange.
American Elsewhere takes a bit of a science fiction turn as well. I get all tingly when science fiction and horror mention abandoned research facilities and my excitement definitely skyrocketed with the introduction of the lab atop the mesa. Glimpsed in the novel’s prologue I was instantly desperate to see what kind of horrific secrets it harbored. Bennett delivers, though it definitely takes a while to get there. The nature of it’s scientific explorations provide profound revelations for the rest of the plot. With the setting of Wink, including the lab, Bennett shows a real talent at world building. The setting, while not particularly large, has a sense of liveliness and authenticity that serves to ground the novel despite its weirdness. Wink essentially becomes a character in the story.
The audiobook version of American Elsewhere, narrated by Graham Winton is quite excellent. Winton provides the perfect tone for each scene and manages to capture a distinct voice for every character. However, at just over 22 hours its leisurely pacing can occasionally make for a difficult listen. Despite this I found the Winton’s winning performance made for excellent company during a long drive holding my attention even as he described sights that were difficult to envision.
Sedately paced American Elsewhere is an engaging read with a winning combination of the familiar and the strange. Bits of mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy are deftly woven by Bennett to craft a tapestry of the strange and wonderful. This is a novel that wears many different skins and the genre-bending fits the tone of the novel perfectly. This is an excellent book that will stick with you until the end.
gregtrob's review against another edition
5.0
This was a great book. It pulled me in within the first few chapters and I found it hard to put it down. Lots of questions and they all get answered in a wonderful tale of suspense, action and sci fi goodness.
the_paigemaster's review against another edition
4.0
Pros:
-Welcome to Night Vale vibes
-Creepy abandoned lab in the middle of the desert
-Great portrayal of generational trauma
-Science for nerds
-The whole theatre thing and Gene Kelly
-Engaging writing
-Lead scientist shares a name with my grandfather which made me giggle
Cons:
-Needed about 200 less pages
-I need to spend more time exploring the creepy abandoned places
-Weird eldritch god has an underaged girlfriend
-Needed more of biggest brother protecting littlest sister
-I hated that one whiny guy and his dumb Panama hat. How did someone have that many of the same hat?
-Welcome to Night Vale vibes
-Creepy abandoned lab in the middle of the desert
-Great portrayal of generational trauma
-Science for nerds
-The whole theatre thing and Gene Kelly
-Engaging writing
-Lead scientist shares a name with my grandfather which made me giggle
Cons:
-Needed about 200 less pages
-I need to spend more time exploring the creepy abandoned places
-Weird eldritch god has an underaged girlfriend
-Needed more of biggest brother protecting littlest sister
-I hated that one whiny guy and his dumb Panama hat. How did someone have that many of the same hat?