zcopie's review
slow-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? Yes
1.25
djohan's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.25
mw2k's review
2.0
Postmodernist literary structures and horror don't mix - at least I don't think so. It started out well enough, as we get to experience why Amity is the way she is, then the scene shifts to Thailand, and we enter wacky world from which this book never recovers.
motherhorror's review
4.0
I'll be writing up my review for Cemetery Dance today but I will say this:
This book is straight-up bananas. The writing is like nothing I can compare it too. There are 1,000 different ways to be horrified. If you are looking for something new to completely blow your mind, try this. (not for readers who dabble in horror. This is for full-on horror readers)
~Sadie
This book is straight-up bananas. The writing is like nothing I can compare it too. There are 1,000 different ways to be horrified. If you are looking for something new to completely blow your mind, try this. (not for readers who dabble in horror. This is for full-on horror readers)
~Sadie
brennanlafaro's review
3.0
Big exhale. This is my first experience with an Aaron Dries book, and it’s… a lot. The story opens with a rescue effort for young Amity Collins, who is lost in the wilderness. The results are equal parts tragic and life-altering leaving Amity deaf and fatherless. Fast forward thirteen years, and Amity, alongside her brother Caleb, decide they’ve had enough of Evans Head, Australia, and decide to travel, ending up in Thailand. A series of events sends them, alongside a few other characters that the reader head hops along to an island called Koh Mai Phaaw to see a local primate-centered tourist attraction.
Once they arrive at the island, everything goes bad. Not pretty bad. Not relatively bad. Real, real bad. What follows is a no-holds barred, ultra-violent(borrowed from the back cover) extravaganza where no character is safe, and Dries doesn’t allow you to look away while he eviscerates and mutilates. Despite the warning the synopsis on the back provides, I found myself ill-prepared for just how gory things would get. There’s a hint given the events of chapter one, but the island visit is truly on another level.
My only complaint comes with the final act of the book. Up until about page 250 or so, the story is enthralling and relatively straightforward. There are hints and subtle elements of the supernatural, but around the third act, things get weird, things get trippy, and for me, things got incomprehensible. Readers who are smarter than I am may find a lot to like here, but there were some things that went over my head.
Something that stands out almost as soon as you open the book is the prose of Aaron Dries. His writing is vivid and even though his descriptions can be downright unsettling, there’s an air of beauty to everything he writes. It didn’t surprise me to learn that Dries works/has worked in nursing and social work. A Place For Sinners would be at home being labeled splatterpunk, but there’s a humanity in the atmosphere throughout the story that doesn’t always show up in comparable works.
While A Place For Sinners didn’t work for me quite as much as I’ve seen it work for others, the writing style Dries employs has me intrigued. This is an author whose other books I’ll be looking out for. Notably, Cut To Care - Dries’ short story collection set to be released next year. A Place For Sinners is now available through Beneath Hell Publishing.
Once they arrive at the island, everything goes bad. Not pretty bad. Not relatively bad. Real, real bad. What follows is a no-holds barred, ultra-violent(borrowed from the back cover) extravaganza where no character is safe, and Dries doesn’t allow you to look away while he eviscerates and mutilates. Despite the warning the synopsis on the back provides, I found myself ill-prepared for just how gory things would get. There’s a hint given the events of chapter one, but the island visit is truly on another level.
My only complaint comes with the final act of the book. Up until about page 250 or so, the story is enthralling and relatively straightforward. There are hints and subtle elements of the supernatural, but around the third act, things get weird, things get trippy, and for me, things got incomprehensible. Readers who are smarter than I am may find a lot to like here, but there were some things that went over my head.
Something that stands out almost as soon as you open the book is the prose of Aaron Dries. His writing is vivid and even though his descriptions can be downright unsettling, there’s an air of beauty to everything he writes. It didn’t surprise me to learn that Dries works/has worked in nursing and social work. A Place For Sinners would be at home being labeled splatterpunk, but there’s a humanity in the atmosphere throughout the story that doesn’t always show up in comparable works.
While A Place For Sinners didn’t work for me quite as much as I’ve seen it work for others, the writing style Dries employs has me intrigued. This is an author whose other books I’ll be looking out for. Notably, Cut To Care - Dries’ short story collection set to be released next year. A Place For Sinners is now available through Beneath Hell Publishing.
alanbaxter's review
5.0
This is a confronting and disquieting read, peopled with strong characters in a variety of powerfully impossible situations. Dries’ prose is lyrical and accessible, the subject matter most certainly not for the faint-hearted. But a superb read all the same.
tracyreads's review
4.0
Dear Mr. Dries, thank you for bringing my nightmares to life. This book contains SO MANY things that make me squirm: “teeth” issues, BUGS, and an overall sense of entrapment were the three biggies for me. I have no doubt that other readers will no doubt find their very own “special moments” within these pages. -Sincerely, Tracy.
A Place for Sinners is at once a novel about family and survival as well as a no-holds-barred, evil island extravaganza. There are no safe places within these pages and I really dig the way Dries handles some of these moments. The beginning starts off with a bang, literally. We get some character development and plot movement, and then the battle royale at the worst island ever.
The first time we “visit” the island there is a scene with a machete that Dries delivers in such an off-handed way. As if this is just par for the course here on the island. I re-read that part a couple times because it read as if someone was tying their shoes or performing some other ordinary daily task, not the devastation that was actually taking place. Here on the island, these things ARE the norm and I love that the author introduces this in this manner.
I actually had the opportunity to read this book with a group of bookish friends. One thing we discussed really stuck out to me. There are no perfect characters here. All of them flawed, all of them with their own demons. There is “the shark”, a buggy kind of guy, and several other characters that fit this flawed theme. I suppose one can name Amity as the main protagonist, a girl and then a woman who seems to be a victim of circumstance. She experiences growth as a character and does her best to thrive, but even she joins the ranks of flawed people. Think about it, we all are “damaged” in some way and I appreciate this portrayal.
I had a good time with this book. There were a few moments and changes in storytelling that I personally didn’t gel with, but I already know these particular things work great for other readers; group/buddy reads have the BEST discussions. Previously, I read Dries’ book House of Sighs and liked it. After experiencing this book I will show up for all of this author’s future work.
A Place for Sinners is at once a novel about family and survival as well as a no-holds-barred, evil island extravaganza. There are no safe places within these pages and I really dig the way Dries handles some of these moments. The beginning starts off with a bang, literally. We get some character development and plot movement, and then the battle royale at the worst island ever.
The first time we “visit” the island there is a scene with a machete that Dries delivers in such an off-handed way. As if this is just par for the course here on the island. I re-read that part a couple times because it read as if someone was tying their shoes or performing some other ordinary daily task, not the devastation that was actually taking place. Here on the island, these things ARE the norm and I love that the author introduces this in this manner.
I actually had the opportunity to read this book with a group of bookish friends. One thing we discussed really stuck out to me. There are no perfect characters here. All of them flawed, all of them with their own demons. There is “the shark”, a buggy kind of guy, and several other characters that fit this flawed theme. I suppose one can name Amity as the main protagonist, a girl and then a woman who seems to be a victim of circumstance. She experiences growth as a character and does her best to thrive, but even she joins the ranks of flawed people. Think about it, we all are “damaged” in some way and I appreciate this portrayal.
I had a good time with this book. There were a few moments and changes in storytelling that I personally didn’t gel with, but I already know these particular things work great for other readers; group/buddy reads have the BEST discussions. Previously, I read Dries’ book House of Sighs and liked it. After experiencing this book I will show up for all of this author’s future work.
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