It kept me ~just~ interested enough to keep reading -- which is, ultimately, what I wanted even though it is already washing out of my mind like the tIt kept me ~just~ interested enough to keep reading -- which is, ultimately, what I wanted even though it is already washing out of my mind like the tide. Foley does a great job of keeping you in suspense about everything (although the jacket copy mentions a murder, the actual reveal of a ~dead body~ doesn't come til nearly the last twenty pages or so), but that's not necessarily a good thing. I hoped this would be a little more "And Then There Were None" but it decidedly isn't that....more
This book is magnificent. It is a joyful shout, a party in summer, a good sweater in winter. It's kind and full of life, it's angry at the 6 out of 5.
This book is magnificent. It is a joyful shout, a party in summer, a good sweater in winter. It's kind and full of life, it's angry at the world (as we all should be), it's funny and sexy and god the food! It's strange and compelling, full of angels and Presidents and questions about whether or not love can be enough to get us through this life. Spoiler (not really): it definitely could be....more
A bit of Bluebeard, a dash of Stepford, a surprising amount of Good Omens... this is a short-sharp-shock of a book, devourable in a single sitting. YoA bit of Bluebeard, a dash of Stepford, a surprising amount of Good Omens... this is a short-sharp-shock of a book, devourable in a single sitting. You might figure out some of what's going on, but Valente keeps you held tight by the throat as the novella races to its end. Terrific stuff....more
Lightning does not strike twice and some things don't need a follow-up and it turns out that that's the case in both instances for this book vis-a-visLightning does not strike twice and some things don't need a follow-up and it turns out that that's the case in both instances for this book vis-a-vis A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. Told in the same time-and-character-and-genre-hopping structure as its 'sibling' novel, THE CANDY HOUSE is Egan's attempt to... well, to do what, really? That's kind of my big question with this book. Where GOON SQUAD's focus on time and mortality was playful and clever and concrete, this book is trying to grapple with similar issues but also with the (as it is called several times throughout) 'candy house' of social media / interconnectivity and the ways that giving up our data for an easier life is a Bad Deal. Even as I tried to describe that just now, I found myself once more frustrated by the lack of coherence to the novel -- it just feels like a draft still, like she didn't quite figure out how she really wanted to talk about the issue at hand. Don't get me wrong, there's great writing here (because of course there is) and some of the sections are as moving as anything. And it's a joy to notice familiar names and put together the connections to the world we visited once before -- except where David Mitchell and Emily St. John Mandel and the like seem to be connecting their worlds out of a joy of the doing, Egan's feels forced. "Hey remember Sasha?!!!?!?" instead of the accidental joy of realizing that the person here is connected to that other person from before. It's not a bad book, but it suffers because of the expectations heaped upon it. And thems the breaks, really. ...more
Right up there with Langan's THE FISHERMAN as an exploration of grief twinned with cosmic horror. Moreno's prose is gentle until it isn't, just like tRight up there with Langan's THE FISHERMAN as an exploration of grief twinned with cosmic horror. Moreno's prose is gentle until it isn't, just like the story. It's interesting to see non-cosmic-horror-versed folks grapple with this one, which is ultimately the tale of a man whose life is turned completely upside down by forces outside his control, forces he doesn't understand, forces he and those around him CANNOT understand because they are true supernatural bogeymen type things. But it's also the story of a man suffering the loss of his partner, the guilt he feels over thinking its his fault, the way that the laws of nature feel upended because of that loss. It's a hell of a read.
5+ I really didn't know what to expect with this, and it was all the better for it. Mandel pulled off something really incredible with this, and not ju5+ I really didn't know what to expect with this, and it was all the better for it. Mandel pulled off something really incredible with this, and not just because it's a pandemic book I actually found tolerable to read. (Sorry Gary, sorry Scalzi, sorry Sarah Hall, sorry to everybody else who is going to rush out a pandemic-set or pandemic-focused book! Too soon, babes!) It's weirder, more ambitious, than anything she's done previously. She's also starting to do a David-Mitchell-esque uber-novel thing and I'm all about it?!
Anyway. I needed this and it was exactly right. Time travel, the natural world, the simulation hypothesis, the uncanny thing it must've felt like to be on her last book tour when the world shut down... it's all here and she's a person you can trust to keep you safe while reading about it....more
A terrifically compelling horror-thriller, claustrophobic and unsettling. It's got elements of both ALIEN and ALIENS, as well as any given ghost-ship A terrifically compelling horror-thriller, claustrophobic and unsettling. It's got elements of both ALIEN and ALIENS, as well as any given ghost-ship story (I myself was thinking a lot about the episode of seaQuestDSV where they visit the sunken ghost ship). I liked that the blend of supernatural and human-influenced horror was fluid, but that it never tipped too far in one direction or the other. Even the "flashback/present/flashback/present/present/present" structure really *worked* for me here. And if the ending was a little faster than I would've liked / if I saw some of those final reveals coming, well, that doesn't diminish the fact that they were incredibly enjoyable and that this book kept me awake at night -- both in the reading and in the after-reading-fear. ...more
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