tandem_tricycle's review
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
inciminci's review
5.0
One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve is a wonderful, allegorical novella about identity, aggression, estrangement, inner conflicts, desires, solitude and maybe even a little about hope and despair and I just loved it. Every now and than there will be a book hat I read digitally and feel so strongly about that I'll want to own a physical copy of it. This is that book to me!
Two halves of a dead man, loosely joint still, re-awaken to life on top of an autopsy table. They grew a thin membrane over their sliced sides that holds in every organ that was parted in two. They walk out of that room, holding on tightly to the only thing they know – each other.
Not a mirror image or a photo, or a copy; each one looking at a body much like his own, and yet an entire separate person.
Their so-to-say postpartum life gradually develops into a regular life of two, a regular life where rent needs to be paid and needs have to be met, where inner thoughts take their course, where wishes, envy, relief, even pressure may surface and maybe motivate actions. Some day it is over and it is time to confront the meaning behind it all. And it's cruel here.
The very stripped, prosaic writing goes really well with the concise, to the point storytelling and is exactly to my taste. Not a word is wasted here and all is kept short and meaningful. I also really felt for the characters or half-characters to be precise, their actions and motives were comprehensible and to a degree even relatable to me.
What can I say, this was a perfect read that I can only genuinely recommend, I'm a fan!
Two halves of a dead man, loosely joint still, re-awaken to life on top of an autopsy table. They grew a thin membrane over their sliced sides that holds in every organ that was parted in two. They walk out of that room, holding on tightly to the only thing they know – each other.
Not a mirror image or a photo, or a copy; each one looking at a body much like his own, and yet an entire separate person.
Their so-to-say postpartum life gradually develops into a regular life of two, a regular life where rent needs to be paid and needs have to be met, where inner thoughts take their course, where wishes, envy, relief, even pressure may surface and maybe motivate actions. Some day it is over and it is time to confront the meaning behind it all. And it's cruel here.
The very stripped, prosaic writing goes really well with the concise, to the point storytelling and is exactly to my taste. Not a word is wasted here and all is kept short and meaningful. I also really felt for the characters or half-characters to be precise, their actions and motives were comprehensible and to a degree even relatable to me.
What can I say, this was a perfect read that I can only genuinely recommend, I'm a fan!
kismetmoon's review against another edition
5.0
How did this novella have me relating so easily, so strongly, with a man who had once been vertically sawed in half?
I think it’s because this brilliant author, M. Shaw, knows that horror is at its best when it’s tapping into fears that are real and relatable – and these familial fears: extreme codependency and toxic sibling relationships are some of my most extreme. One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve takes a look at these fears through two brothers, who had once been one body, who awaken in a morgue, on a slab, cut in half. These brothers, Left and Right, both have very distinct voices, wants, desires – one wishes to carve a new path for himself, and dreams of a different life, while the other holds onto his brother tighter and tighter still, refusing to give him the space to find his own identity.
How each brother deals with these desires is enthralling – but make no mistake, this is no mere family drama. Shaw’s a master of the macabre, and there’s a dearth of dark details littered throughout the novella that keep you, as the reader, unnerved. From the way they hobble out of the hospital, entrails and guts spilling out of their wounds, to the disturbing way they regrow their cloven limbs, to the folk horror-esque ending where it all comes together, the story wrapped up with a gruesome bow, there’s some much here that will satiate all your cravings for something weird and dark and thought-provoking. After reading One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve, I’m a huge fan of Shaw, and the works of Tenebrous Press – and I can’t wait to read more from this author, and this wonderfully weird and wicked press.
I think it’s because this brilliant author, M. Shaw, knows that horror is at its best when it’s tapping into fears that are real and relatable – and these familial fears: extreme codependency and toxic sibling relationships are some of my most extreme. One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve takes a look at these fears through two brothers, who had once been one body, who awaken in a morgue, on a slab, cut in half. These brothers, Left and Right, both have very distinct voices, wants, desires – one wishes to carve a new path for himself, and dreams of a different life, while the other holds onto his brother tighter and tighter still, refusing to give him the space to find his own identity.
How each brother deals with these desires is enthralling – but make no mistake, this is no mere family drama. Shaw’s a master of the macabre, and there’s a dearth of dark details littered throughout the novella that keep you, as the reader, unnerved. From the way they hobble out of the hospital, entrails and guts spilling out of their wounds, to the disturbing way they regrow their cloven limbs, to the folk horror-esque ending where it all comes together, the story wrapped up with a gruesome bow, there’s some much here that will satiate all your cravings for something weird and dark and thought-provoking. After reading One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve, I’m a huge fan of Shaw, and the works of Tenebrous Press – and I can’t wait to read more from this author, and this wonderfully weird and wicked press.
meats's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
hognob's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
possumpages's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
this book was not what I expected it to be but it was so good because of that. sad and dark with bright sparks of humor this book is slim but packs a lot in the short runtime. very very much worth picking up.
sunnybopeep's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Wow, that ending was super unexpected. This is basically a modern fairytale. It’s hard to describe this book, but it’s very good and definitely worth a read.
Content Warnings
Body gets cut in half and becomes two people whose guts are always kinda falling out
Spoiler
because of a weird fae that is performing an experiment on a codependent brothervarian_ross's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Any book that can help me through a rough dentist appointment gets 5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Body horror, Torture, Gore, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Grief
Moderate: Self harm
joreadsbooks's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Read an eARC from the Publisher
Content warning: body horror, domestic psychological abuse, self-harm, abstract depictions of eating disorder
The debut novella from Tenebrous Press delivers on its promise of new weird body horror. In a morgue, a cadaver cloven in half wakes up as two distinct personalities: Left and Right. Where one tries to assimilate, the other descends into a madness that brings the tale back to the beginning.
A surreal journey of identity and trying to live in a society when one is missing half a body, a delightful inaugural introduction to a new horror press.
The prose in this novella is dreamlike. Part fairy tale, part nightmare, it immerses the reader in fresh strangeness. The halves trying to understand the world around them is unsettlingly logical in its progression. This isn’t a critique, as much as it is a deep desire to see this story from the point of view from the seemingly normal people Left and Right interact with. There’s the motel clerk, the librarian, and countless others. It’s bewildering, but that’s the kind of ride you’re on.
Left and Right had very distinct voices and plot directions. There’s never a moment of confusion thanks to the deep interiority. I can’t say too much about the direction they go in, but they have very different philosophies when it comes to what it means to be alive. Also with regards to what it means to be a family. I found myself unsettled throughout, even during the moments when it seems like they’ve achieved normalcy.
In addition, Shaw puts a wonderfully grotesque attention to detail to the biology of our narrators. From them trying to pass themselves off as one person, to trying to maneuver with and without dexterity, and to how their forms change over time. It’s gross, and it’s really fun.
Content warning: body horror, domestic psychological abuse, self-harm, abstract depictions of eating disorder
The debut novella from Tenebrous Press delivers on its promise of new weird body horror. In a morgue, a cadaver cloven in half wakes up as two distinct personalities: Left and Right. Where one tries to assimilate, the other descends into a madness that brings the tale back to the beginning.
A surreal journey of identity and trying to live in a society when one is missing half a body, a delightful inaugural introduction to a new horror press.
The prose in this novella is dreamlike. Part fairy tale, part nightmare, it immerses the reader in fresh strangeness. The halves trying to understand the world around them is unsettlingly logical in its progression. This isn’t a critique, as much as it is a deep desire to see this story from the point of view from the seemingly normal people Left and Right interact with. There’s the motel clerk, the librarian, and countless others. It’s bewildering, but that’s the kind of ride you’re on.
Left and Right had very distinct voices and plot directions. There’s never a moment of confusion thanks to the deep interiority. I can’t say too much about the direction they go in, but they have very different philosophies when it comes to what it means to be alive. Also with regards to what it means to be a family. I found myself unsettled throughout, even during the moments when it seems like they’ve achieved normalcy.
In addition, Shaw puts a wonderfully grotesque attention to detail to the biology of our narrators. From them trying to pass themselves off as one person, to trying to maneuver with and without dexterity, and to how their forms change over time. It’s gross, and it’s really fun.
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