Book Reviews

[bugen]

The Godsend - Bernard Taylor

"When it began there was no way of knowing that anything had begun."

With a sad, despairing look back at the untold events of the last few years, we almost instantly know something went horribly wrong at the book’s opening. Then there’s the abrupt shift to a sweet, idealistic family existence where we are deftly swept into the personal lives of the Marlowe family who one evening host a strange, pregnant woman in their house.

The book is 1/5 over by the time a glimpse of horror rears its head, just for an instant. Then, as abruptly as before, we’re treated with the gently stunning story of how the parents, Alan and Kate, first met as young professionals--a very real, enchanting, simple story--and then we’re back into the enveloping family structure that lovingly moves along. One gets a sense of appreciation and even spiritual fulfillment watching the family heal from tragedy and progress through their strength and bonds with each other.

But as we learned at the very beginning, it’s not to be. Only tremendous skill lets us forget while the spell is weaved, and it’s a beautiful, haunting thing.

You’ve been told almost nothing of the plot, very little about the book, and hopefully that’s enough, because you’ll want everything to be as fresh as possible when you sit down to read this.

A sweet, small-town family existence. The foreknowledge that it’s not going to end well. Sensuous, wistful writing that doesn’t waste a word and softly pulls the heart-strings and mists the eyes. But don’t be fooled. While this book is technically horror, it’s really sheer terror, and it’ll hit you in that one place you can never escape: home.

The Godsend is a brilliantly crafted tapestry of love and triumph, panic and doom, giving you no chance to put it down. Go get it, and happy Halloween.

5 stars

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*Centipede just announced intention to publish this book. Pics to follow when it's released.

[bugen]

The Twelve - Justin Cronin

“We’re all dying, baby. Fair enough. But some of us more than others.”

The players from book 1 of the trilogy have separated and scattered with many years having passed before this book begins. Much like The Passage, this one starts with a serious bang and maintains a fantastic pace for its first few hundred pages. But unlike the first book, this one doesn’t taper off much much after the first explosive sections.

Besides pacing, another improvement over its predecessor is general setting. A good deal of this book takes place in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter of the world, as opposed to the isolated area many generations later in which the first book spends so much time. Here the population has still been all but destroyed, but a great deal of the book takes place around recognizable city structures and various elements of modern living are present. And when we do get to our characters from the first book that grew up in such a small community in the wasteland, the main stage they’re interacting with is much more relatable than the dusty huts and tiny village that dominates so much of The Passage. In short, many of the elements that helped slow down the otherwise excellent first book just aren’t present here.

The cast of characters is complex; our heroes are scattered, captured, tortured and alone, and the overall story becomes so much more satisfying when some of the threads from the first book as well as new ones started here begin weaving together.

The Twelve never once devolves into a slog, a big achievement for a work of this size, and at times it crosses the line over into masterpiece territory, managing to be both fleet and sweeping. With this one clocking in as a superior work to the startling but slower-paced first novel, you’ll find yourselves wanting to read it quickly despite relatively few action scenes and comprehensive storytelling, both of which are factors that often hinder other horror novels. Here is works exceedingly well–The Twelve s a phone-book-sized behemoth that’s nevertheless tough to put down. This second novel maintains all of the color and complexity you’ve come to expect while improving the flow, and if you liked The Passage, chances are you’re going to love this one.

“Love had sealed their doom. Which was what love did.”

4+ stars (5-)

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[bugen]

The City of Mirrors - Justin Cronin

“Behind every great hatred is a love story.”

A complex cast of characters fulfilling its calling brings the trilogy to a magnificent end. Such a massive, apocalyptic series concentrating on just a couple of generations is a bit tricky, though the history of events is well-mapped in all the right ways, but it works perfectly for a series of books you can truly lose yourself in, and categorization like that isn’t made lightly. The final pages swell with heart, and intimacy with characters built over lifetimes enhances gravitas. You’ll feel like you’ve known them your entire life, and also like a long-running epic vampire western you’ve been following for decades concludes exactly how it should.

On the subject of intimacy with the characters, both preceding books have sections that dive deeply into the experiences and thought processes of various players, but The City of Mirrors features an in-depth study of the origin of Patient Zero that is especially noteworthy. The series excels at alternating between modern events and those of the original calamity, but here the author chooses to go deep into the history of the thing that started it all, and because of it we’re treated to an experience invoking Dickens, completely forgetting we’re in the middle of a horror novel and providing an especially striking section to an extraordinary series.

While book 2, The Twelve, improved on the original by a good margin in terms of flow, this 3rd book edges it out. The trilogy is exceptionally well-written and comes with high recommendations, and if folks around you ever mention horror as a ‘summer read,’ bash them over the head with Justin Cronin. When they come to, hit ‘em again, because these 600,000+ words need to be savored like The Lord of the Rings– not glossed over. It succeeds at being as epic as it wants to be.

“We are the knife of the world, clamped between God’s teeth.”

The City of Mirrors was the best of a comprehensive, apocalyptic horror trilogy, and within the genre it’s at the opposite end of the spectrum of torture porn and splatterpunk. This is literary without being pompous, and horror is rarely this rich.

5- stars

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*pics to follow when CD's edition is published

[RonClinton]

bugen, you've reignited my interest in this series a bit with your fine reviews. I wasn't bowled over by the first novel of the trilogy -- was good, but has structural and pacing problems for me -- so didn't follow up with either the second or third installment. Sounds like perhaps I did myself a disservice, and I may remedy that.

[bugen]

Thanks Ron, and I felt pretty much the same about the first book. It had some excellent parts, with the monsters he created being so much better than most modern vampires, but sometimes the book just got crushed under its own weight. These later two are still pushing 200,000 words each, but they feel much leaner. Even with a slower first entry, I'm a big fan of the trilogy in the end.

[Sock Monkey]

Well, I'm not happy with Bugen's fantastic reviews because it keeps reminding me that I don't have the signed limited editions on my shelf and how much I want them!

I haven't read the second or third book yet so I can't talk on their improvement over the first, but I didn't have the issues with pacing that others have had. Maybe it's because I heard in advance about the shift in narrative so I didn't find it as jarring. Or maybe it's because Cronin's writing reminds me of early Straub so I just sat back and let the world-building take the time it needed, knowing that it would get somewhere. I also just enjoyed the journey so much! I look forward to sitting down the remaining two books in the future!

Thanks for the great reviews, bugen!

[bugen]

Thanks, Sock Monkey!

That's an apt comparison to Straub. Neither of them are in a rush to get the story told, just letting it develop and breathe on its own. Ghost Story was my first book by him, and I spent a good portion of it wondering when this legendary novel was going to pop out and grab me. Then somewhere in there it hit me that the author had been slowly weaving a fog around me with a slow burn, literary style, and that was a crucial element in making the story so good. What a great book...

[bugen]

The Collector - John Fowles

“What I’m trying to say is that having her as my guest happened suddenly, it wasn’t something I planned the moment the money came.”

They call it a thriller. And it is, heightening suspense and anxiety, but since nearly half the book takes place from the point of view of the disturbed and mentally challenged kidnapper, and the other half from the highly capable but terrorized victim, we could call it a psychological thriller. And it is, but since each page turn brings with it a mounting, disabling dread, we should probably just call it horror.

A young butterfly collector, shunned by his peers and sheltered by his mother and aunt, wins a lottery and sends the two women traveling. Alone and with means, he hatches his plan to kidnap the object of his affection, having only watched her from afar. He’ll shelter her in his home and give her everything she wants until she realizes how much he loves her and returns the affection.

The stubborn logic and justification in the kidnapper’s mind lends a type of pity to his POV. On the other side, the woman’s thoughts reveal a life she’s now realizing she’s wasted because of her inability to see its value until these events. As she spirals into her own madness, fixating on a relationship with a man who’s lived his life for each moment and without compromise, she learns more about herself in these few weeks than in her preceding decades.

Reading this book, one imagines the constant struggles and sometimes electric, sometimes somber manner in which the author must have figured out the next steps of his characters. The clinical assessment and character judgments made by the educated young woman, the perversity and naivety of the unhinged young man, the struggle and hopelessness of the human condition–this goes way beyond fascinating and is truly scary stuff. The Collector is a mesmerizing work of dark genius, and you may have no choice but to read it in one sitting.

“There must be a God and he can’t know anything about us.”

5 stars

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*Soon to be a Centipede release

[Brian861]

Thanks, Sock Monkey!

That's an apt comparison to Straub. Neither of them are in a rush to get the story told, just letting it develop and breathe on its own. Ghost Story was my first book by him, and I spent a good portion of it wondering when this legendary novel was going to pop out and grab me. Then somewhere in there it hit me that the author had been slowly weaving a fog around me with a slow burn, literary style, and that was a crucial element in making the story so good. What a great book...

I tried to read Ghost Story but I don't think I even made it 25 pages in before I put it down. Maybe I just need to try harder.

[RonClinton]

Love Fowle's THE COLLECTOR. I have the signed/limited, leather Franklin Library edition and am very pleased to have it, so will very likely pass on the upcoming Centipede reprint edition...otherwise I'd be all over it. Also have the 18"x24" framed canvas print of the 1st ed. HC art upstairs in the reading loft...got it from B&N a decade or more ago. My wife thought it was a nice piece of art...until she read the book, and then shuddered at the fact that it was on the wall. But it's still there. This one:

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A Centipede reprint I'm looking forward to is THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER by Davis Grubb. No idea when that's on their schedule, though.

[TacomaDiver]

I'm intrigued by The Collector now - definitely adding this to my buy list (unless it's some crazy expensive edition.)

[bugen]

Franklin does great work, and a pic on ebay of their limited looks awesome! And if I had that print, I'd hang it on the wall, too. Thanks for the tip on The Night of the Hunter. People seem to really love it--I added it to a tracker for an e-book price drop and look forward to reading it.

[Martin]

I tried to read Ghost Story but I don't think I even made it 25 pages in before I put it down. Maybe I just need to try harder.

I agree with Bugen. Ghost Story, like many of Mr. Straub's longer stories takes its time developing but in the end it is well worth it.

[Sock Monkey]

I'm intrigued by The Collector now - definitely adding this to my buy list (unless it's some crazy expensive edition.)

The Collector is now up for sale on the Centipede website for $175.

[TacomaDiver]

I saw that in the CP newsletter this morning - little out of my splurge but it now never read before price range. (If I wasn't trying to buy Lauren Graham's new book - signed - this would be a slam dunk.)

The Collector is now up for sale on the Centipede website for $175.