A review by sabrinarcb
These Nameless Things by Shawn Smucker

1.0

I am ASTOUNDED by the ratings of this book. Those who have reviewed it so far must be among the most generous people on earth because this book, meant to be some sort of retelling of Dante's Inferno, is truly worthy to be a ring of purgatory endured by Dante. The main character, DAN, spends most of the book bumbling around a mysterious town giving us no information about himself, the town, or even something interesting to think on. The self indulgent language seems to have given people the impression that this book has some sort of "depth" but I couldn't find that to be any less true. Its poor use of language to convey an uninteresting and unstructured "story" is torture to read. The only reason I finished this torturously bad book was to discuss it at book club (which was a great time, there was plenty of HORRIBLE content to discuss).
With its poor writing, uninteresting characters, stumbling plot, heavy handed "mysteriousness," and lack of any sort of compelling point/moral/theme- I can confidently say this is high among the worst books I have ever read.

If it were possible to award a book a 0, this one would certainly be worthy of it.