Reading Log, Bitch
 

I'ma talk about the stuff I read this year.

Like this, which is a new favorite.

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House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, 2000
709 pages (technically speaking)

This was recommended by a friend, a published author herself. I wanted a sick book of course but also inspiration. By the time I started reading this, I'd already started much more of my own stories, and as I LEAFED through it with unstoppable anticipation, I found that somehow my work was uncannily similar. You'd think it not possible that I didn't take any cues from it, that heavy influence is deceivingly notable. Impressive for never reading it.

I came in search of horror and boy did I find it. Visually driven stuff. Not just talking about the imagery either. The Irvine Welshian, experimental and indeterminate format reads like an ancient scroll written anonymously in a language spoken nowhere. Along the way we encounter braille and single/couple word pages that do well to increase your heart rate to match the pace at which you suspensefully flip and flip. Musical staves, margins filled with endless lists of notable and possibly some nonexistent architecture. Triangular passages residing in the corners of pages and paragraphs that quite literally fall apart like a Jenga tower.

House is madness and anguish incarnate. Starting from the inside out, it revolves around a simple but fragile and disintegrating family, exploring the ineffable qualities of a house that is larger on the inside than out. The family and affiliated friends that arrive to trek the infinite and impossible chambers within the house are themselves the subject of a conceptual (as in nonexistent) homemade film being described in immense and imagined detail as an academic study by a conspicuously crazy and deceased blind man, who left behind his haphazard manuscript in his apartment when he died, a whole trunk full of scraps of concentrated tin foil hat-ness, whose outrageous delusions are found and assembled by a young man, ultimately the narrator if there ever was any, who also tells of his own deterioration brought upon by the discovery in scattered footnotes and brought into further light by the appendices.

Never before (and admittedly I haven't read all that much in my life until now) have I encountered such a visceral and relentless account of what it means to suffer in every way. The brutal honesty delivered by our disgruntled narrator is uncompromising, you can almost feel the pain that this book exudes.

I would readily liken this to At the Mountains of Madness but of a modern age. What scares us is that same Lovecraftian ambiguity that is almost threatening in its perplexity and unknown-ness. The interior of the home depicted in The Navidson Record (the central piece of House), is reminiscent of the titanic temples of the Great Old Ones found at the Plateau of Leng. Beneath the house is an endless void with unlimited doors and curves, spiral staircases, impossible stretches of distance, and corridors and halls that shift on their own accord or perhaps bend to the state of the observer, with different personalized images seen by each character even if they're looking at the same thing.

House delivers on an astonishing amount of levels. It is horrifying, intensely disturbed, and with enough grief for twelve funerals. It is sad, sad and utterly life like, as relationships crumble and egos even more so. It is frequently hilarious. It is meticulous, a jimmy rustling characterization of the absolute furthest reaches of the mind and the images it has the ability to create. It is well researched and even more, like... well there's a veritable smorgasbord of very particular and specific footnotes and references to many many many made up things that are quite scholarly. On top of it all, House proves once again that there is nothing outside of yourself that can even come close to matching the terror of the human mind.

10/10

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The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, 2010
480 pages

This I checked out on a semi-whim. I read his book Slade House a month prior, to fair enjoyment. It was quick not only in size, but also managed to be an easy page turner. I don't want to call the writing simple by any means, as that sounds like an insult, and it really isn't to begin with, so I'll just say it was very digestible and one to knock out in a day or less. A haunted house story that offered some solid chills that as a standalone read was more or less predictable. It intrigued me enough to want to check out more ambitious novels of his, namely Cloud Atlas, but the library didn't have that and they were closing in five minutes, so I nabbed this.

A well researched historical drama, differing from Slade House's ghosts and time warps and apertures leading to otherworldy eternal houses, Thousand Autumns is not without its own sense of mystery and intrigue. The story itself and other tales told therein are kept grounded in history and realism but remain fascinating when suffused with often subtle forays into the fantastical and folkloric. The story takes at the very end of the 1700's, and is stretched mildly throughout the Orient, mainly a Dutch trading outpost near Nagasaki called Dejima. Here a simple clerk travels to make a fortune and offer his services in recording and investigating certain criminal activities of his company following a warehouse fire that destroyed a good amount of stuff while the former company superiors were out slammin whores at a brothel like Shaq at the hoop. He would become infatuated with a midwife, whose own duties would be taken advantage of after sent unwillingly to an enigmatic and reclusive shrine. I want to avoid spoilers, so I'll just say that the organization at this shrine is invested in some shady and possibly mystical creeds.

Apparently a genre hopper, David Mitchell maintains an endearing style that's not overtly abstract or complex but also not some novelized paint by numbers. It's intelligent and casual, and not without some laughs.

I didn't think it'd be my thing at first, and you can spare me your cliches because it has nothing to do with the cover, but it surprised me in a way akin to some movies I've been skeptical of. Thousand Autumns is rooted in areas of literature I have little to no expertise in, but it had me unexpectedly engaged, so I'd personally take the liberty of recommending it as an early plank of the path bridging the gap to Tolstoy. I don't have any desire to read it again and it's not the style I'd binge on, much more humble and political, but it's good.

7/10

Reading House of Leaves is the closest I've ever come to feeling like nothing else in the world is moving, that time itself has stopped, and it's just me and the book, and the book is winning.

do you like how I did the blue

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The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell, 2014
609 pages

I don't have a story for checking this out so you can come see me about it on the streets.

What I'd already read of Mitchell enticed me enough to keep diving into the magic. This is (probably) a central work describing the exploits of a "cabal of dangerous mystics and their enemies". It connected the previous two books I read, totally unexpectedly in the case of Thousand Autumns, and I'm willing to bet his other stuff comes into play as well. This should probably have been read before Slade House though. That book was good but kinda spindly story wise, and threw concepts around like common knowledge. A lot is explained here in The Bone Clocks.

Told from several different perspectives and spanning decades, The Bone Clocks is the story of a girl that gets swept up into some kinda psychic war of extensive background involving carnivorous mind predators and body hopping immortal-esque mystics and rapid fire hand symbols. I'm no expert on all that business (that's what the book is for) but it's quite imaginative and fantastical.

The book itself is engaging as ever and definitive in its personal style. Much more cryptic and magically connected, and just as readable. As ambiguous as all the concepts and themes are, the writing style is totally accessible and often hilarious. Rich in humor and a lot of really nice descriptions, never overly complicated but always textured with intrigue and mystery.

8/10

YES. Good stuff so far, subscribing.

Blue was cool.

I started The Bone Clocks but stopped about 100 pages in to return later. I just wasn't into it but I will say that certain parts of those 100 pages were, just, wow.

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Plague Ship, by Clive Cussler, 2008
590 pages

Innit that cover nice. Straight from the postcard aisle of a Safeway.

I discovered that two books wasn't enough for the time I couldn't get anymore, so I had to resort to what I had on deck. I didn't hate it, it's just one of those basic ass thriller novels with jokes that have been rehashed since the dawn of man, and a lot of simplistic prose.

It's about Vin Diesel (he'd be in the movie obv) and his crew discovering a cruise ship with all patrons dead in literal pools of blood except for one. Then we discover the virus was unleashed by some whack anti-population cult with stupid ideals and even stupider elaborations of them, cuz like, well what they say is stupid.

There's cool parts I guess like any generic action movie but otherwise it is light years from the stuff I like and I dunno what else to say

4/10

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Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis, 2005
320 pages

I had to take a break from Jerusalem after 1000 pages and I had this on deck, so I opened it up and found that I could scarcely undo this action, and it was done in seconds. Hours, that is.

This book is a fictionalized jaunt through the author's life that turns paranormal with a good old demon haunting and Patrick Bateman stalking/murdering. It's not super crazy complex so don't expect so much of a review... But it's pretty good.

Starts off with a Halloween party at the Ellis place, with his daughter having issues with her inexplicably terrifying bird doll and an unrecognized guess dressed up as Patrick Bateman. Then we can also tie in an ongoing interplay with Ellis's dead father and the demonic activity in the house, and then his own (Bret) troubled relationship with his son and some missing children. All the questions and craziness pretty much have to do with all this paternal tension everywhere.

It's not a hard read by any means, and generally very gripping for a while and the pages ought to fly by with ease. Some things may be somewhat, I don't wanna say obvious, but like, more apparent I guess, the closer we get to the resolution of everything, but it doesn't take away from the story, which itself is somewhat simple. But it's told nicely, in the succinct and blunt Ellis way, and with a lot of hilarity and a generous dose of terror.

8.5/10

I read Lunar Park

I was kinda like meh

I really liked that book while I was reading it, but then it went nowhere and I came away from it pretty disappointed.

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Jerusalem, by Alan Moore, 2016
1266 pages

I really didn't even know this was a book until I saw it on the shelf and was enticed by the ultra enchanting spine (author AND title), but really, it seemed cool, and I knew who Alan Moore was, and it was nice and wide so I thought it should occupy a lot of time which is what I need. I read what it was all about though and was way more into it, seemed like something I had to read.

It's objectively incredible, for sure. Since there's so much content, I could give it 10/10 even if I may not have loved every second of it. And I may not have not loved every second, but it really wears on you. I had to take a break at the beginning of book three. But still, it's literature as **** and a masterful display of language and style and elegance and description and all in all just a prosal clinic. I made that word up, but the prose is indeed so nice it's almost offensive to my obviously inferior ability and intelligence. Like, every sentence is eloquently divine, and any given paragraph is crazy enough to put whole sagas to shame. The maximalism involved can sometimes work against it though, I'd say. Can something be too descriptive? If so, Jerusalem is probably a good example. Pages upon pages of literary visual bombardment, sensory overload in written format. It's cool but like erodes your mind away trying to envision the infinitely magical and god like structures and other things depicted here, and erodes your eyes with the many many many words used to do so. I've seen the term "hallucinatory prose" thrown around a lot and never exactly knew what it meant, but this ought to qualify, if not only for endless descriptions of things maintaining an actual hallucinatory quality (ghosts walking around leaving after images through the air and fractal elves and whatnot).

So I may not be the best mind to tell you about the content but I already started this journal so I'm contractually bound to. On the whole it's all about a slum in Northampton called the Boroughs which, to cut a very long story short, is supposed to be the holy city in question (I think). At least a projection of it, but then pretty much everything in this book is a projection of everything. It spans all of history, and tells of a whole plethora of substantial figures and their connections with the place, and of the ever original and prevalent themes of madness and death and the meaning of everything ever, and mind melting multi dimensional mathematics, and eternalism, and a family from the Boroughs with a history of madness that shaped all of existence, and corners which you'll probably never look at the same way again, and ghosts and everything including the kitchen sink. I'm pretty sure there are multiple literal kitchen sink parts.

It's divided into three books, with the second being significantly children's fairy tale-y and fantastical, sandwiched between experimental historical madness, with book three moving into more whack styles of writing, including a pseudo-Joyce chapter written about his daughter... So it's kinda comprehensible? At least in comparison to Finnegan's Wake. I'm not gonna lie, I skimmed an okay amount, but what I did I skimmed multiple times if that makes any difference. There's a lot in the whole thing that could be construed as unnecessary, bu for the most part remains entertaining.

There's so much to be said and I'm actually probably gonna attempt a better review that actually talks about the story, or at least what of it that I grasp, but also feel it may be futile, if you wanna experience it you gotta do just that and pick it up.

Important players include: William Blake, Oliver Cromwell, Samuel Beckett, Lucia Joyce

10/10

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Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell, 1999
426 pages

This is probably my favorite of the four of his books I've read so far. I had to read it immediately after finishing it the first time because I was hellbent on unlocking its secrets, of which there are many. Many little hings too, like a single sentence that didn't mean anything the first time or a word that was forgotten before you realized its significance. There's a lot of that.

The story's told through the narratives of a handful of different characters whose actions are seemingly coincidental but totally interlocking. Imagine that for a book right idea right? We have a believed telepathic doomsday cultist/chemical terrorist that despises society, a jazz kid working in a Tokyo record shop that name drops 70 musicians per page and falls in love with a girl on her way back to Hong Kong, a lawyer in Hong Kong with a little girl haunted apartment and failed marriage, a woman that runs a Tea Shack on the side of a Chinese Holy Mountain that's always getting wrecked, a transmigrating conscience searching for the origin of a story that is its only memory aside from being "born" on the Holy Mountain, a museum attendant in St. Petersburg also involved in art heists and such criminal activity, a musician/ghostwriter/womanizer in London getting down on the science of chance, a physicist on the run from the American government for resigning from a project, and a late night radio show dialogue.

So like, it's fairly complex, and the last two (or the two before the last, the last one is short) chapters are arguably where all the money is. We're in the midst of some kinda war, and there's some kinda comet, so some kinda doomsday cult is formed, and some kinda mad science (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_cognition) is being studied by some kinda scientist whose awesome brain is being used to develop intelligent weaponry unbeknownst to herself, so she some kinda leaves the project and retreats to her home island. So, the disembodied spirit plays a lot into it all, transmigrating into the scientist's mind and gathering the information, and by the time the last chapter rolls around some things are outrageous and come back around.

It's a book that's hard to describe without giving out spoilers, it would seem, but it's quite a treat. The prose is the same as always, simple but engaging and elegant, there's some nice humor, a lot of deep stuff regarding chance and coincidence and how it shapes the world and whatever and love. I'm pretty sure there's red herrings for days, and all kinds of references to everything else that two reads are probably necessary.

8.5/10

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Less Than Zero, by Bret Easton Ellis, 1985
208 pages

Some good angst. Pretty much about punk ass people doing punk ass ****. It's boiling with apathy and teenage alienation.

Clay comes home to LA for vacation and doesn't have a good time. There's some partying and drugs and sex, and all the while no one he knows seems to care all that much about anyone else or anything despite the downward urns coming about in everyone's life. He's been looking for his best friend without luck for a while to discover he's gone down the worst of it, heroin and prostitution for days. But Clay wants to see the worst and probably succeeds, the events at the end of the book are grisly. Then he goes back to New Hampshire. Yay.

It's really easy to read and I finished it in a few hours again. There's some angsty bits that just hurt to read, less because it's gruesome or terrible and more like just **** these ****s. Anyway I liked it okay.

7.5/10

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Dreams of Shreds and Tatters, by Amanda Downum, 2015
256 pages

This was in the science fiction section :0
I always get frustrated that there's different sections for scifi and mystery and I could be missing out on stuff cuz I'm always forgetting about that and just in the fiction.

This book was pretty decent I'd say. They kept talking about the Lovecraftness which was one of the things that intrigued me most in the first place but it's pretty toned down. There's virtually no Lovecraftian excess that's always fun (everything being infinitely this and ineffably that) but there are clear references/influences, with the dream cities and night gaunts.

It's about a girl who comes to learn a friend of hers that she hasn't heard from for some time has in fact been involved in some accident and is now in a coma, so this girl and her partner travel to Vancouver to check it out, and get involved with Mr. Coma's circle of starving artists/mystics. They find out about a whack drug they take supposed to bestow stronger abilities for like, dreaming and artistic visions and power and bliss, but with very undesirable negative effects.

So basically, within the coma, this guy is trapped in a weird underworld that coincides with the earthly dreamworld (I guess) so our main character has to plunge deep therein to rescue her friend from the demons and whatnot leeching his artistic prowess and ultimately coaxing him further into the realm ie to never wake from the coma ie dying, or something like that.

There's not a whole lot of mystery and mind blowing but it's fun to read, with all kinds of magical themes and darkness and shadow monsters. It goes by quick, as well. The prose is not overly complicated or simplistic, and there's clear nods to other fantasy worlds that are not subtle at all. Good but probably could be a lot bigger.

6.5/10

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Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell, 2006
294 pages

I read this cuz I still can't find Cloud Atlas.

It's about a kid being 13.

Well, content wise, there's not much more to say than that. But it's quite a nice read. It's not all fantasy-like like a lot of his other stuff, but it's very compelling for an angst monger like myself. It details a year in the life of a 13 year old in Worcestershire in 1982-1983, with all the first kisses and Talking Heads records and English teen slang you can handle. The prose is what you'd expect but much more endearing, I think, coming from this new perspective of youth, and there's a lot more distinction in it that way. I read through it real quick.

Jason Taylor has kind of a speech problem, describes himself as a middle ranking kid and goes on about all the whacks and the cool guys and gals at school, tries his first cigarette, sees a fight and some intercourse, joins a gang, publishes poems under a pseudonym, etc.

It's a humbling book, realistic, honest, often funny, touching, another etc. Apparently they like to think of it as a modern Catcher in the Rye, of which my experience/knowledge is limited, but Black Swan Green is nice.

8.5/10

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The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters, 2014
576 pages

Well I checked this out because of the many intriguing quips of praise on the back that of course turned out to be for a different book, I love how they do that. But I read this, and enjoyed reading it, and I definitely want to seek out this other one now.

But here's this, which isn't a ghost story at all. It's a historical drama/romance that goes crime. Takes place in 1922 England, and the story is of a mother and daughter who open up their home for lodgers, or as they like to call them, paying guests, after the man of the family died and left the best gift of all, crippling debt.

The guests, a Leonard and Lilian Barber, are a modern one, whose tendencies and style intrigue the young(ish) landlady Frances and her mother. Along with that, certain desires also spring up as the novel progresses and things are revealed. As a love affair develops between Lilian and Frances, we track it along, observing the tension and disturbances brought about by whatever.

And tension is something that this book has in heaps. It's probably it's strong suit. It's a bit slow beforehand, but speeds up a touch once the affair is in full force, and then there comes a major spike in pace at a certain climactic moment, but really kinda fizzles away from there. The tension though is what's up. The two women have to hide this shady business from their respective peers, and the time they have together is limited and wrenching and also "volcanically sexy", and I guess I'm inclined to agree. I'll have to mirror something I saw in another review I most likely wouldn't have thought of, being who I am and all, and say that Sarah Waters is great at describing physical contact and gestures. The physicality runs the gamut from very subtle to very unsubtle and explicit, with many unique ways of putting it all. Of course I have no idea what physical contact is like but this book is sexy. Tension and sexiness in abundance, tenderness, sympathy.

And while I did enjoy reading this book, I can't say the way it all went down in the end was agreeable with me. There's a serious lack of resolution when the end rolls around. During the final chapters as the pages just kept slipping by, I was expecting something drastic to come about, heavier expectancy with each passing sentence. But ultimately I found it to be just a gradual decline into what I think was a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

I can't get into it because there's a very abrupt spoiler involved, but this moment is so sudden that it peaks the excitement and intrigue immediately after a humble buildup. I didn't know what to expect in the end during the aftermath, but was kind of let down.

So I'm kinda conflicted in that regard. I still liked reading it, much to my surprise, and when things started to pick up I was very much enthralled, but it turned into an empty feeling.

7-7.5/10?

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We Are Here, by Michael Marshall, 2012
400 pages

This was intriguing, surely. Described as chilling and unsettling and all the other things that good books often are. It's a mystery that veers into slight fantasy territory, but it remains urban and humane. It's one of those mind-bending types.

It starts off with something we already learn by reading the back, but that's ight. We have a newly published author in a strange subway encounter with a person he (supposedly) doesn't know who says "remember me".

Then we skew off into a new narrative, another couple up in New York who both work late at the same bar, gets involved with finding out who is stalking a friend of theirs.

It's so spoilable, it seems a lot of my choices have been, but we end up spiraling into parallel worlds that may not be so parallel as they seem at first, inhabited by beings born of loss and regret and loneliness. They can't be seen, at least not easily, and band together and cause some kinda existential ruckus.

Reading it is fun most definitely. It's intensely gripping and suspenseful and even emotionally touching at times, going into all the great themes. The fantasy elements are ultimately heavily subdued, which gives it the air that everything is quite real... and maybe it is. It's wonderfully written and the humor is nothing less than my exact type. Highly enjoyable.

9/10

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The Straw Men, by Michael Marshall, 2002
400 pages

I was quite compelled to read more books from Michael Marshall since I loved We Are Here, and this one had some great praise and was apparently deeper steeped in horror which is what I'm about. While I might not agree with it being "Scary as hell" - Stephen King, it had it's moments. But aside from those moments, it was entirely awesome nonetheless, a great thriller and mystery all round.

Once again, the key event(s) that would seem to kick it all off are already told on the back. A man finds a note from his recently deceased parents that says "we're not dead", and a girl gets kidnapped, and some guys shoot up a McDonald's.

And once again, the main story is advanced through two seemingly separate plot lines, interspersed with chapters here and there detailing the abducted girl's captivity.

It's more solidly delivered than We Are Here, I'd say, that one has a lot of stuff especially at the end that are kinda like what, but Straw Men comes back around sturdily. The guy with the dead but apparently not dead parents, Ward, goes from the note on a quest for truth, as you can imagine. He is disgruntled to find that his father, the owner of a large real estate agency, had the company shut down rather than passing it on to his heir, which advances his questions further. He finds a video tape with what would appear very mundane material, but, get this, it's anything but.

Meanwhile, an ex-CIA agent is brought back into action (though on his own accord) after the girl's kidnapping, as he believes it to be the work of the same killer he's already been on the heels of years before after his own daughter was a victim and before then.

What we uncover has to do with a secret society bent on reverting back to the ways of hunting and gathering, and they have this whack ass manifesto that says a lot of whack and stupid things about viruses and such misanthropic delusions. So they hella kill people.

It's also quite spoilable, although I suppose that's how mysteries pretty much are. They're mysteries after all. But there's some cool revelations, good shocks, and harrowing violence and vengeful atmosphere, and that humor that I enjoy. It's more straightforward in the end than We Are Here, but I dunno which I liked better. Both are brilliantly constructed.

9/10

The Little Free Library
 

You could make a solid case for this being a redundant thread since I already had the reading log but then again it's not 2018 anymore, and in that thread I was reading books I actively sought out at real libraries and such. But due to the immense late fees built up on my account I can no longer check out items and most likely never will be able to in this county again, but in this living situation a man's gotta read. I'm kinda bummed out that I was reading so tough before coming down here then just like, stopped. But anyway, this thread will focus on whatever random junk I pick up at the Little Free Library.

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Apparently there's a lot more of these than I thought and I couldn't find any picture of the one I will actually be exploiting but that's the gist of it. Naturally, especially when you have a literary taste that comes more out of left field, you may imagine the books that do get left in here are gonna be by lame nobodies or extra lame somebodies, but I have been surprised by some novels already, most notably The Paying guests, a slow moving portrait of forbidden love I probably would not have checked out without the intriguing praise on the back for a totally different book. I was already immersed before realizing that though.

Anyway, my first acquisition was already a fairly entertaining jaunt of comic depravity.

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The Big Bamboo by Tim Dorsey, 2007

This sort of comic crime thriller I feel like comes around a lot but this wasn't bad. I actually liked it a fair bit. It has a very Thompsonian nature but gone Hollywood over Vegas, and it's generous with the hilarity. Moves quick but manages to spark a bit of intrigue here and there and goes into mystery territory with all these separate plot lines that don't seem related but you know, they are. That's how books be.

Interesting to note the main protagonist here (and it's not his only hurrah), is a manic serial killer with a penchant for gratuitous film references. So the bad guys are the good guys.

3.5/5

I like the concept of this thread and look forward to reading. I love the Little after Libraries around me and enjoy donating to them and taking from them, I’ve gotten some great stuff.

I have one of these down the street from my house. I love the idea so much. Great thread Mondo. That's not surprising tho.

I have one hanging outside my house! (not my idea sadly, housemate put it there) People put lots of junk in there, but now and then a good book comes through

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The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith, 2014

Somewhat moving observation of heartbreak and suppressed hope in revolutionary wartime. It's not the most exciting book, but what it lacks in action or mind meltation it makes up for with an arresting and gorgeous prose.

Follows two generations of love, loss, and yearning, and deals with a lot of moral themes. Slavery, what freedom and acceptance really mean, and just general wholesome stuff.

Honestly it's kinda boring, not because it's not my go to style by any means (in fact another historical drama, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, surprised me with how much I enjoyed it), it's just a drag. Extra points for its stunning composition and lush wordplay.

2/5

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The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young, 2015

This was cool.

It's a swampy mystery situated on the bayou and centered around the freshly uprooted secrets and crimes of a prominent Louisiana family. A journalist is dispatched to their manor after the long since abandoned subject of a missing son is brought back to light.

Here and there it slips into slight chill territory but the magic lies within the meticulously woven dilemma at hand. Close to the end there's plot twists coming at you left and right and red herrings like a mother****er.

3.5/5

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Mutation by Robin Cook, 1997

I'd picked up three Robin Cook books from the LFL, as the description of "medical thriller" intrigued me and I figured you could almost equate it to "body horror".

The story's okay enough I suppose, about a father that genetically engineered a sort of super child that's running havoc. In my opinion, the novel is hindered by its prose. It's not super advanced or ambitious, except for the parts explaining medical and scientific this and that. It's more for casual readers I'd imagine.

3/5

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The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchet, 1985

The LFL had presented a much more choice trio of books the other day, this Pyramids, and Wyrd Sisters.

One of the most imaginative and fantastical books I've read. Kinda reminds me of Galactic Pot Healer in terms of sheer zany and outlandish whatsit. Unique and distinct prose and description that appeals to me on a fairly high level.

4/5

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Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner, 2015

you know the title and cover scream "edgiest book in the supermarket" but it went pretty hard. In a casual way. Mystery and crime and thrills. I got two other books from the other since apparently the LFL is the place to go for trios. I've started another one which is already proving to be more on the horrific side with even some violence :0 but this one is fun and I got to a point where it was greatly compelling and had to finish the whole last like 150 pages cuz I was blazed af.

4/5

"Edgiest book in the supermarket" is my aesthetic every single day

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Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner, 2008

Considerably more violent than Crash and Burn but perhaps not as enthralling of a mystery. Thriller through and through. Spider fetish.

3/5

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The Killing Hour by Lisa Gardner, 2004

Tight in that it is kinda like a combo of the previous two, with even more violence galore and riveting climaxage.

3.5/5

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Pyramids by Terry Pratchett, 1990

I enjoyed this one more than The Color of Magic but I don't really know why. That one definitely travels further but Pyramids was more engrossing as a character study and pyramids are ineffably mystic. I also like the desert. Intergalactic Pharaoh story.

4/5

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Jacob's Folly by Rebecca Miller, 2013

What a marvelous book. Vaguely reminiscent of Jerusalem in some ways albeit toned down comparatively by like 600%, simply because that book is more expansive than some galaxies. But this one brought me great pleasure and satisfaction and had me a bit connected in a personal way.

Tells the story of a reincarnated Jewish street peddler turned valet turned high ranking socialite and his mischievous plans to at once bring down a modern good Samaritan and persuade a new Jewish lady of interest to toss tradition in favor of desire. Of course these lives eventually intersect, intertwined with our main character's recollection of his past life and its rise and perpetual fall from grace by way of death.

I found the young girl's story the most moving and interesting, being raised heavily Jewish, but overcoming the boring traditions of the past to pursue greater and more contemporary things. Thus a whole new world is shaped around her.

But all of it is great, I related to the historical narrative the main character rising above poverty and despair three times over. Ambitious, touching, droll, and highly insightful.

4.5/5

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Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pretchett, 1989

Don't get me wrong this was still a good and fun read but it seemed kinda hokey. A lot of the dialogue is very unnatural and jokes quite forced and it would almost appear to be going for an overly deliberate comedy style which takes away from it a touch. It lacks the vastness and adventure of The Colour of Magic and the inexplicable and ineffable mysticism of Pyramids and overall seems much more easy going on the mind.

I'm obviously not even close to an expert yet but I feel this could possibly be a Discworld Dud®

2.5/5

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Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris, 2012

A delightful thing here. I didn't know it was a sequel to the more celebrated Chocolat but it holds up fine on it's own, any returning concepts and themes are handled in a pretty straightforward fashion.

I probably wouldn't have expected to enjoy it so much if I glanced over the details beforehand but everything I'm reading I'm going into blind, and haven't been super disappointed by anything yet. This book is flavorful and delicate in prose and plot, dealing with an overlying theme of segregation in a French slum-sub city for Muslims cut off from the adjacent and haughty Anglos.

A lot to do with religion and pastries and I had a good time.

3.5/5

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Germinal by Émile Zola, 1885

So mad props. It's very possible that this is the gnarliest and most harrowing book I've read but I'm drawing a blank on too much competition at the moment. Either way, it's easily one of them for sure. Old fashioned prose and insanely descriptive in all aspects from imagery to the very suffering of mankind. Like you can just feel the anguish this book exudes.

The strike got going earlier than I expected and from there on the book wasn't messing around. Certain moments of an especially severe nature had me thinking that it was the zenith of monstrosities but it just kept getting worse. Mutilated bourgeois genitals, horses dying in pain, brains spurting out everywhere, claustrophobia that damn near made me ache.

This was gripping, but in the way a vice would grip your skull until it implodes. Moving and without relent.

5/5

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Dune Road by Jane Green, 2009

This is about middle aged ex-wives in Connecticut.

I enjoyed it though.

3/5

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The Walking by Bentley Little, 2000

Witchcraft and uncanny valleys. Sometimes it was chilly, but one part in particular shook me. Loaded with organs and zombies and the occult

3.5/5

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Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers, 2006

This book on the other hand was sick on a badass level. The "JK Rowling/Shel Silversteen/Douglas Adams should by no means be heeded. This goes far beyond "monumental silliness" into vast reaches of the fantastic imagination. Also often greatly ponderous and sometimes gruesome, it has so much to appreciate. So much I'd probably run out of breath talking about it.

It's a hero adventure but overloaded with madness and it never gives up. Torturing devices infused with a plethora of solutions to run through the victim's veins, stuff that will simultaneously delay and quicken the onset of death, inflict pain and alleviate all in one move. Titanic 12 legged Lovecraftian abominations. Subcutaneous armies of alchemically animated cyborgs. Alchemy everywhere. Traversal of the four brains of a Nocturnomath, imbibing in knowledge unknowable.

I could go on but I won't.

5/5

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Kiss of the Bees by J.A. Jance, 2001

Cool book that I didn't comment on soon enough to be hyped. It's got indians and ****.

3.5/5