Chances are if you hang around youtube / tiktok you've heard of this book complete with the attention seeking folks pulling mock faces of disgust or wChances are if you hang around youtube / tiktok you've heard of this book complete with the attention seeking folks pulling mock faces of disgust or worse still comedic cannibal poses. But like all shocking novels of the moment the content of the novel is higher quality than the shock and awe surrounding it.
Set in an alternate future were a virus as rendered all animals inedible virus carriers the government has found a solution in it's people to solve it's meat crisis and they arn't the green crackers of Soylant Green.
Transfering traditional practices over to the new meat there is certainly an intelligence to Agustina Bazterrica's writing which goes beyond grotesque shock tactics even though she clearly knows how to make the reader squirm and while this isn't a book for all tastes like so much splatterpunk writing for those who can stomach it this certainly is a unique and engaging read....more
“Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.�
Written eight years prior to Carrie while he was still in his freshman year of the Univ“Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.�
Written eight years prior to Carrie while he was still in his freshman year of the University of Maine though we would still have to wait another five years after the release of his breakout hit for it to actually be published under his Pseudonym for which he used a photo of his agent’s insurance agent Richard Manuel for the author photo. This has been a book I’ve wanted to read since Horror author Thom Carnell brought it up on his sadly defunct but still highly listenable podcast The Bonus Material Podcast as book he always wanted to see adapted.
Certainly the concept is simple and gripping as 100 boys compete in a death march till one remains, constantly being forced to walk with those falling below 4mph being shot by the soldiers constantly following them. The walkers being driven on by the prospect of the large cash pot and a prize of their choosing as they battle the elements, exhaustion and the never ending road ahead of them.
It really is perfect material for adaptation with George Romero considering the project in �88 and Frank Darabont picking up the rights in 2007 only to let them lapse with New Line picking them up the following year and proceeding to play director musical chairs with Francis Lawrence (Constantine) currently attached to direct. Of course there is the minor issue of getting a plot which revolves around the government sanctioned murder of kids to get around the censors and considering how long Battle Royale took to get to the states I wouldn’t count on it happening anytime soon, even if it remains a fun project like “Flicker� to imagine what could have been. Certainly my hope would be a title sequence or atleast a trailer set to Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine�.
It could almost be seen as King tasking himself with a writing exercise. How do you write a novel with one hundred male characters and still manage to make them individuals with backstories? Of course most of this number are pure cannon fodder given outlines while others such as our lead Garraty we get to know over the course of the walk as they reveal their backgrounds but rarely what they hope to claim as their prize though it soon becomes clear that many of the group have their own plans to edge their chances of winning while egos and personalities clash only further added to by the strains of continually walking a journey which King certainly captures for the reader while bringing back nostalgic memories of the rainy scout hikes up and down the various tors and valleys of Dartmoor.
While King has never had the best endings the ending here is certainly open to the readers personal interpretation be it as a descent into madness, the spectral figure of death or perhaps an early appearance of the always lurking Randall Flagg. However you choose to read it, the story is easily one of his best....more
John Waters is one of the few authors for who a new book still feels like an event, somthing few authors output can achieve especially as old writers John Waters is one of the few authors for who a new book still feels like an event, somthing few authors output can achieve especially as old writers much like directors rarely managing to claw it back once they start coasting or as in the case of Bret Easton Ellis start believing their own hype.
This latest collection of essays written with his trademark blend of charming wit and warped humour is an fitting follow up to "Role Models" as he once more draws on his own misadventures and eccentric tastes to regale us with tales of drugs, Chimp art and failing upwards in Hollywood while working in chapters on his warped ideas for his dream house and a restaurant called "Gristle" before outlining his own funeral plans in the final chapter.
Sure Waters humour is not for all tastes but then this has been a reoccurring feature of his career from outlaw film maker to his current position as filth elder. Perhaps in anothers hands some of his observations would be crass but his trademark charm carries across on the page as it does in person....more
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