A review by scarletcarnival
The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon
2.0
I'm not entirely sure what I think about Concrete Grove. It's dismal, to be sure. It's disconcerting as well. Somehow between the dark fantastic and the horrific realism of the slums, there is a conjunction that develops into McMahon's Grove. It's uncomfortable, to say the least. It's terrifying if you realize much of the hyperrealism of the story involve episodes that happen in real life already.
Concrete Grove is brutal. In many ways, it's more brutal in what it doesn't actually say but only intimates in scenes that setup the imagination and then quickly moves on in time to a moment past the horror. However, I have to wonder how much of this book is about trying to elicit horrific images and how much is about any kind of plot at all. Yes, there is a resolution to this story. The only problem is that I'm not entirely sure I understand the story in the first place. It feels loose and malformed, much like some of the dark creatures of the Grove that don't really have all that much screen time, so to speak.
This novel is definitely a quick read. I started it this morning, I've worked barely half of my 10-hour shift at this point, and I'm already finished. It's not rocket science and there is certainly no depth of philosophy here. And, to be frank, I only found a single quote in the whole book that even stood out.
On the other hand, to be fair, I might have to pick up the other two books in the trilogy. There is definitely something about the Grove that is intriguing—if only for the same reasons you can't stop watching the train wreck.
Concrete Grove is brutal. In many ways, it's more brutal in what it doesn't actually say but only intimates in scenes that setup the imagination and then quickly moves on in time to a moment past the horror. However, I have to wonder how much of this book is about trying to elicit horrific images and how much is about any kind of plot at all. Yes, there is a resolution to this story. The only problem is that I'm not entirely sure I understand the story in the first place. It feels loose and malformed, much like some of the dark creatures of the Grove that don't really have all that much screen time, so to speak.
This novel is definitely a quick read. I started it this morning, I've worked barely half of my 10-hour shift at this point, and I'm already finished. It's not rocket science and there is certainly no depth of philosophy here. And, to be frank, I only found a single quote in the whole book that even stood out.
On the other hand, to be fair, I might have to pick up the other two books in the trilogy. There is definitely something about the Grove that is intriguing—if only for the same reasons you can't stop watching the train wreck.