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Reviews and Comments
aka @koosli@aus.social. I'm almost exclusively reading horror fiction, truly the greatest of genres.
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Kat wants to read Ring by Kōji Suzuki
Kat started reading The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
Kat wants to read Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Kat stopped reading The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft
Kat started reading The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft
Kat reviewed Snail on the Slope by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Bureaucrarboreal surpassment, fur and fuzz it
4 stars
I am trying to tittle each review this year with a book-related pun but I can't think of one for The Snail on the Slope. So instead I've gone with something as baffling as the book itself.
Snail is such a funny book while also being a bit of a slog. It goes off on tangents all over the place and not a whole lot happens. That is the point, though, so don't be put off if you are partial to Soviet satire. I think of it as Kafka with a sense of humour.
Kat started reading Snail on the Slope by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Kat reviewed A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
Kat started reading A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
Kat reviewed Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Dirty deeds done by dudes
3 stars
Loved the premise and the beginning chapters, but ultimately HSB avoids all possibilities for something insightfully great. Instead, it's all male gaze, breasting boobily and women suffering. Written in 2007 and aged badly. Joe Hill picked the wrong hero.
Kat reviewed Maeve Fly by C. J. Leede
The misanthroppiest place on earth
3 stars
Maeve works as a Disney Princess at Disneyland, haunts dive bars on the Sunset Strip and lives with her Old Hollywood grandmother. She's cultivating her misanthropic side but it's not quite enough, eventually settling on going the full Patrick Bateman.
I like how CJ Leede writes (I'm talking the phrasing and such, not the subject matter) but this book seemed a couple of drafts away from being finished. There is too much that doesn't add up, too many loose ends and late/improbable reveals. And I'm taking into account the cartoony, turned up to 11 storytelling.
A lot about it was fun, although it was too sadistic and mean-spirited for me. Guess I'm not ready for this anti-hero.