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A review by hsienhsien27
Dark Water by Ariana D. Den Bleyker
4.0
Another novella, for the past month or so, novellas and short story collections have been part of my main reading habit. I'm currently reading a novella and a short story collection now and I think I will continue to do so. Not because giant tomes aren't my thing anymore, I just got so used to reading on the kindle that books with tiny font and heavy weight are just not for me now.
So I got this for free when Number Thirteen Press started giving e-books out. When I find a small press, the first books I check out are the books written by non-White authors or women. Basically, I pay attention to the marginalized voices first, because those are the books that get the least recognition. So I decided to read this novella by an author who has written several poetry chapbooks. I've never heard of her, but have heard of her literary journals.
Although, I kind of have to say that this wasn't the best noir I've read, I found it quite confusing, but beautiful in it's prose and sadistic main characters. What threw me off the most was the dialogue being written in italics. So I couldn't tell if the characters were thinking or whispering until the author said so. I found it odd and it added to the confusion. But then I read the synopsis for the plot and things were clear, but the italicized dialogue, I will just assume it was a stylistic reason, a formatting issue, or maybe all of the characters really were speaking in low hoarse tones like Christian Bale playing Batman.
What happens it that Henry is a painter, an artist, one day he loses it and kills his wife. He makes art out of corpses, carving in symbology into the flesh of his victims and pulling out their eyes, the silver coins are the last embellishments. When the police find the bodies, they are surprised to see that the victim has two shining silver coins for eyeballs. Then there's Lorelei, John, and Elizabeth who are all tied with him somehow. They are all caught in some sort of web, where they are aware of what Henry is doing. there's some sort of steam filled love triangle between the three (apparently John is good with the ladies) and they all want to kill Henry because Henry is losing it and is getting more vicious by the years.
I gotta say, this will make a terrifying movie, a new Silence of the Lambs. Except. Henry isn't a cannibal. The ending ties up like most insanity filled noir like this. It's kind of obvious. I won't reveal it.
For a novella, things go by pretty fast and time isn't wasted, it's at a good pace. What makes a good noir, from what I've read so far, is quick writing, but writing that has substance and very little filler unless you're trying to write a novel, and you want to add in some more backstory with multiple plot strands. Every word to matter, but every word has to contain some sort of feel whether it's gloomy, funny, or angry, it needs to mean something.
Henry doesn't improve and I guess I can say he doesn't get better either. He is the same old Henry throughout the novella, but Elizabeth loses her empathy and accepts that her brother is a murderer. She also has to accept that her lover is no different. And I guess I can say, that sort of leaves a strong woman tone to it, where I guess women can't really trust dudes.
Rating: 4/5
Originally posted on Notes on the Shore
So I got this for free when Number Thirteen Press started giving e-books out. When I find a small press, the first books I check out are the books written by non-White authors or women. Basically, I pay attention to the marginalized voices first, because those are the books that get the least recognition. So I decided to read this novella by an author who has written several poetry chapbooks. I've never heard of her, but have heard of her literary journals.
Although, I kind of have to say that this wasn't the best noir I've read, I found it quite confusing, but beautiful in it's prose and sadistic main characters. What threw me off the most was the dialogue being written in italics. So I couldn't tell if the characters were thinking or whispering until the author said so. I found it odd and it added to the confusion. But then I read the synopsis for the plot and things were clear, but the italicized dialogue, I will just assume it was a stylistic reason, a formatting issue, or maybe all of the characters really were speaking in low hoarse tones like Christian Bale playing Batman.
What happens it that Henry is a painter, an artist, one day he loses it and kills his wife. He makes art out of corpses, carving in symbology into the flesh of his victims and pulling out their eyes, the silver coins are the last embellishments. When the police find the bodies, they are surprised to see that the victim has two shining silver coins for eyeballs. Then there's Lorelei, John, and Elizabeth who are all tied with him somehow. They are all caught in some sort of web, where they are aware of what Henry is doing. there's some sort of steam filled love triangle between the three (apparently John is good with the ladies) and they all want to kill Henry because Henry is losing it and is getting more vicious by the years.
I gotta say, this will make a terrifying movie, a new Silence of the Lambs. Except. Henry isn't a cannibal. The ending ties up like most insanity filled noir like this. It's kind of obvious. I won't reveal it.
For a novella, things go by pretty fast and time isn't wasted, it's at a good pace. What makes a good noir, from what I've read so far, is quick writing, but writing that has substance and very little filler unless you're trying to write a novel, and you want to add in some more backstory with multiple plot strands. Every word to matter, but every word has to contain some sort of feel whether it's gloomy, funny, or angry, it needs to mean something.
Henry doesn't improve and I guess I can say he doesn't get better either. He is the same old Henry throughout the novella, but Elizabeth loses her empathy and accepts that her brother is a murderer. She also has to accept that her lover is no different. And I guess I can say, that sort of leaves a strong woman tone to it, where I guess women can't really trust dudes.
Rating: 4/5
Originally posted on Notes on the Shore