Book Reviews

[RJK1981]

The 2nd review will be of one of the most disappointing reads of last year. When looking at books page I was surprised to see it was the most helpful critical review. This book wasn't a bad story, but it could have been SO much better for me. I think if it was expanded to novel size it could have been better.


Down by Nate Southard

The first thing I noticed with this book was the immediate typo in the book in either the description of the story or on the first page that gives the date of the story. The back of the book says it takes place in 1992 while the start of the book makes it June, 1993. This was the first of a few typos in the story, along with a font size that should have been a little larger given the short length of the story. While those two issue were a little annoying (and confusing when it came to when it was supposed to be taking place), they will not factor into my rating as I don't blame the author for them and only mention them here to inform others in case that would impact their desire to read this.

I had never read anything by Nate Southard before this, but had heard good things, so I was excited to read this and check out his work. In the end I finished this feeling let down and disappointed. What started out as a strong psychological thriller with an unknown creature terrorizing a band that was involved in a plane crash turned into supernatural horror story with no purpose. This story started very strong for me, but ended up finishing very weak.

While I don't mind having supernatural elements in my horror stories I want there to be a purpose. What I got when I read this felt like it was just thrown in for no good reason. There was no story of exactly what the supernatural element was, why it was there, how it got there, what it wanted, or pretty much anything else about it.

The first part of this was easily a 5 star story, but the last part of this was only about a 1.5 star story. In the end I give it 3.25 stars. I think if this story had been expanded into a larger novel with a proper explanation given of the supernatural force involved it could have been at least a 4 star story. Even better, if the supernatural force was never involved it would have definitely been a 5 star story. I'm sure that I'll read something from this author again in the future, but hopefully it will be a stronger story throughout than this one was.

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1YTGZ7...cm_cr_rdp_perm

[RJK1981]

Most of my reviews are somewhat short, though I never run into the issue of needing to add more words to meet a minimum count on Amazon. If I only have a few words to say, then I won't bother with a review as it wouldn't be helpful. I also won't really bother reviewing books that already have a ton of reviews since my review would be lost in the shuffle and not saying anything new. I also won't review a book I read many years ago since the book wouldn't be fresh enough in my mind. For example, I LOVED The Kite Runner and highly recommend reading it, but since I read it a few years ago I won't review it (not to mention it has a ton of reviews anyway, lol). That book is still the only book I was prepared to throw across the room and not finish if the scene I was at went a certain way. Luckily it didn't go that way, lol. That one will forever be in the top 5 (probably more like the top 2 or 3) of books I have read. I made the mistake of reading his other book out at the time, A Thousand Splendid Suns, right after that one. I was so drained emotionally from Kite Runner that while I enjoyed Splendid Suns, I couldn't get into it emotionally.

I will post a couple a reviews here right now though (along with a link to their Amazon pages if you want to vote them as being helpful). Feel free to peruse my other reviews too if you'd like. First up will be the longest I have on Amazon, and one of my favorite books I read last year. On this one I actually did mention what the plot was, somewhat at least (1 short paragraph).


I'm Not Sam by Jack Ketchum

I wasn't sure what to expect of this book before reading it as far as what it would be like. I do know I was not expecting it to be like it turned out to be. Having read Ketchum before one thing I did expect was at least bit of violence, but there is not really any violence to speak of, with the exception of throwing things around.

While this lacked the usual violence and death of previous Ketchum books I have read, it did not need it for the horror to show itself. The basic plot is that Patrick and his wife, Sam have been married 8 years and have a good life together. That all changes one night when Patrick awakens to discover Sam has somehow changed. Sam is not who she was. Sam is no longer Sam. What results is Patrick trying to figure out exactly what has happened to his wife and tries to figure out how fix whatever is wrong with her.

This short novella packs quite a punch in its pages. To add even more of punch to the gut, there is a short story included after the end of the novella. After taking a few minutes to think of and absorb the impact of this story, as requested in the introduction, I continued on to the short story. The short story packs another punch to the gut, despite its short length.

The first part is very powerful and definitely qualifies as a horror story in my mind, despite the lack of what is usually thought of in a typical horror story. Adding the 2nd story just added to the impact this book had with me. I rarely sit and absorb the end result of a story when I am finished, especially with horror ones. This is because there usually isn't something deep to think of and ponder just what could happen. Even though it was late and I was tired I couldn't wait until I was more rested before reading the short story, and after I finished that story at close to 2am I had to sit there and absorb this book as whole and think about it for a little while.

I look at my wife of under 2 years and think of this book, wondering what if? What if it happened to her? How would I handle it? What would I do? What could I do? I honestly don't know how to answer those questions, and I very much hope I never need to answer them. I am sure that being married only added to the impact of this story as I don't think there would be as much to think about if I were single. I am quite sure I would love this if that were the case, but it wouldn't have quite the same impact. Imaging waking up to my wife changed in the way Sam was changed would definitely qualify as horrific in my mind.

5/5

http://www.amazon.com/review/R9KVYJQ...cm_cr_rdp_perm

[Sock Monkey]

Fantastic review, bugen. And I'm not just saying that because I happen to agree with you. :-) There was one part in The Ruins where I think I actually started talking out loud to the book as if the characters could hear me. I believe that maybe some of the criticism leveled at The Ruins might be that it lacks the moral complexity that A Simple Plan had. I plan on revisiting both when CD reissues them.

I think the idea of more in depth reviews and/or discussion to be very interesting. I'm in the midst of two books at this time and will post a review of at least one when I'm done.

[bugen]

The Ruins - Scott Smith

A lot of people hate this book, and many others love it. There’s very little middle ground.

We have social and personal deconstruction here, mirrored with literal deconstruction, and it works horrifyingly so. It’s visceral and mean but not grotesque, and the book plays out like a movie.

A small group of young travelers is stranded on a hill in the Mayan jungle. The base of the hill ringed with death, the travelers seek to survive with minimal supplies while a vicious jungle attacks them. It is alive with no creatures or insects or birds, or anything but the vines.

A lush, graphic death meets the group as dehydration and heat suffocate the visitors during the day as they’re trapped by the writhing greens while the injuries mount. During the night it further devolves as our characters occasionally have brief respite to consider their fates and their newest horrors. The next days get worse, and worse, as the visitors fall to the horrors of the vines and themselves, questioning each other, questioning inward, questioning our constructs, and there’s a Rorschach in here somewhere.

At heart its heart the book may be meta-horror. It knows. You know. Eventually, the characters know as well. Clear pictures of the scenes are presented throughout, never wavering, and the author has us locked in place purposely. This was actually something special, and it’s one of the subtler areas of stories that aren’t often realized. Not like this. In recent memory Joe Hill did this a few times with NOS4A2, bringing some scenes into stark, frightening, crystal-clear reality. The Ruins finds this level early and maintains it throughout, and it’s most pleasurable to be locked in place by a story. Many of us are after exactly that experience.

Having had the exceptional pleasure of reading A Simple Plan and The Ruins back to back over a few days, it’s possible to develop a rare view of Smith’s ability to visually cement a scene. For those who haven’t read either, please be encouraged to pick up both immediately, reading them back to back and fairly quickly. You won’t be able to help it–you’ll see the clarity of picture the author has drawn in each.

The Ruins is not a tale for the faint, but this is not an audience where that applies. If you haven’t read it, read it. It’s neither a short nor long book, but it’s over quickly. Dirty and mean, it’s unnerving and cynical and rendered in 4k.

5 stars

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[bugen]

Considering the qualities of the readers gathered here it might be cool to track our thoughts on the various books in our field. There is a wealth of info hidden in the 1-3 sentence reviews we tend to politely leave in posts, but I encourage these reviews to be much longer if you would like. Or only a little longer - it doesn't matter as long as there's awareness that the space exists for you to take time to get your point across and let us all know what you think of these works, especially when they’re recent/upcoming releases from our favorite publishers.

Differing opinions are welcome as well, but let's be polite in regards to each others' views.

Please don't be shy. I'm going to post the first review of the last novel I finished that CD has in queue, and journalists could tear my sentence structure apart and send me back to grade school. But most of us aren’t pro writers. We’re the amateur athletes of readers in our field, enthusiast grade... simpatico. We see deeper truths in our fiction, and I've a suspicion we’d all benefit if we could share more of this insight with each other.