A review by dark_reader
A Deep Horror That Was Very Nearly Awe by J.R. Hamantaschen
5.0
Phenomenal. Where has this writer been hiding? Oh, behind impenetrable cover art and mouthful titles, depending on the indie horror and weird fiction underground for recognition and circulation. Someone, please shine a limelight on this fellow!
Full disclosure: the author contacted me on Goodreads and offered his book for free. The transfer-of-document didn't work, likely because I am a Luddite, but I looked at the 'Look Inside' preview on Amazon and wouldn't you know it, his copyright page was sufficient to convince me to buy it. Did you catch that? The copyright page alone is strong enough to drive sales. I think my reviews are always honest regardless of the source.
So. Here's the skinny on J.R. Hamatansasetchen or whatever his name is: he has a voice. It's unique, refreshing, honest, and often discomforting. I simply love how his characters think. I have very similar feeling about [a:Haruki Murakami|3354|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615497402p2/3354.jpg]'s books (in translation); something about how his characters think and express themselves endlessly fascinates me. Hemantoskeletor's characters, at least in this collection, are typically young adults or teenagers (yes, those are actually two separate things), and without resembling each other at all, they often display personas full of self-doubt, insecure self-analysis, shaky confidence, and recognition of emotion and interpersonal manipulation that, clearly, is very hard for me to describe. Just go read some of his stories, okay?
These stories address many aspects of everyday life, including family, romantic relationships, friendship, depression, coming home to find a demon in your kitchen, sex, bullying, pooping in public restrooms, finding your place in the modern world, suicidal ideation, all that stuff. They are light on horror, or at least delayed in introducing anything out of the ordinary, and when it does hit it's nicely subtle. One story is about a pair of teenagers in love, planning to lose their virginity together, and it's very sweet and conscientious and you're very proud of how smart and mature they're being about it and oh by the way for the last twenty years a small percentage of men become instantly homicidal upon having penis-in-vagina sex but don't worry. The internal lives of the main characters are unfiltered, and many stories made me very uncomfortable when they caused me to reflect on parts of my own life.
Isn't that what a great story should do? Make you feel uncomfortable examining your own life?
The stories don't even need horror or weird elements to carry them. They're strong enough even before you get to those parts.
The longest stories in this collection are the best, I thought, and so I will join the chorus of whiners about the lack of longer-form fiction coming to us from this fellow, who said in this book that he was working on this, but he's a liar so I will just have to keep reading his newer and older short story collections until it maybe happens.
Full disclosure: the author contacted me on Goodreads and offered his book for free. The transfer-of-document didn't work, likely because I am a Luddite, but I looked at the 'Look Inside' preview on Amazon and wouldn't you know it, his copyright page was sufficient to convince me to buy it. Did you catch that? The copyright page alone is strong enough to drive sales. I think my reviews are always honest regardless of the source.
So. Here's the skinny on J.R. Hamatansasetchen or whatever his name is: he has a voice. It's unique, refreshing, honest, and often discomforting. I simply love how his characters think. I have very similar feeling about [a:Haruki Murakami|3354|Haruki Murakami|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615497402p2/3354.jpg]'s books (in translation); something about how his characters think and express themselves endlessly fascinates me. Hemantoskeletor's characters, at least in this collection, are typically young adults or teenagers (yes, those are actually two separate things), and without resembling each other at all, they often display personas full of self-doubt, insecure self-analysis, shaky confidence, and recognition of emotion and interpersonal manipulation that, clearly, is very hard for me to describe. Just go read some of his stories, okay?
These stories address many aspects of everyday life, including family, romantic relationships, friendship, depression, coming home to find a demon in your kitchen, sex, bullying, pooping in public restrooms, finding your place in the modern world, suicidal ideation, all that stuff. They are light on horror, or at least delayed in introducing anything out of the ordinary, and when it does hit it's nicely subtle. One story is about a pair of teenagers in love, planning to lose their virginity together, and it's very sweet and conscientious and you're very proud of how smart and mature they're being about it and oh by the way for the last twenty years a small percentage of men become instantly homicidal upon having penis-in-vagina sex but don't worry. The internal lives of the main characters are unfiltered, and many stories made me very uncomfortable when they caused me to reflect on parts of my own life.
Isn't that what a great story should do? Make you feel uncomfortable examining your own life?
The stories don't even need horror or weird elements to carry them. They're strong enough even before you get to those parts.
The longest stories in this collection are the best, I thought, and so I will join the chorus of whiners about the lack of longer-form fiction coming to us from this fellow, who said in this book that he was working on this, but he's a liar so I will just have to keep reading his newer and older short story collections until it maybe happens.