Eh. This one just couldn't carry its weight to the end for me. It just went on for too long so much so by the end my eyes were glazing over and I didn Eh. This one just couldn't carry its weight to the end for me. It just went on for too long so much so by the end my eyes were glazing over and I didn't really care anymore. Maybe if pared back by about 100 pages a tighter, leaner narrative would have been the result and that might have helped things.
The book has a great premise and there are a few creepy scenes, but overall things just take too long to unspool. By the time all the pieces start to come together, none of it feels like a surprise or that compelling. And since there is a "Manson Family" vibe to the whole affair it all starts to feel a little too recycled in its familiarity, despite the supernatural elements that by the climax also feel rather clumsy and heavy-handed.
It's a bummer to have to 2-star this one. I really thought it was going to grab me by the short hairs, especially after this resounding endorsement from Nick Cutter:
"A monstrous Russian nesting doll of a book, holding secrets within secrets; the plot barrels headlong towards one of the most shocking climaxes you're ever likely to read. This one is going to wreck you."
Either Mr. Cutter is extending a tremendous generosity to a fellow author, or I'm just the bitchy meanie who missed the point. Maybe a little from Column A, and a little from Column B.
Wreck me? Hardly. I saw the ending coming a mile away.
I love to be scared and suspended in a state of heebie-jeebies. I crave the dread, succumbing to the paranoia and to that always elusive (but much des I love to be scared and suspended in a state of heebie-jeebies. I crave the dread, succumbing to the paranoia and to that always elusive (but much desired) sensation of epic creep. I don't mind when authors reach for the gross out (that's all fine for a good bit of schlocky fun); but where horror's beating heart really lies -- where it lives and breathes in the darkened shadows -- is in the dread and creep. That's how it all began with Gothic fiction. Those are its roots baby, and on some primal level as voracious consumers of the tale, this is still what we crave when we ask somebody to "tell us a scary story".
Of course, horror by its very nature and definition is extremely fluid and subjective (I would argue the most subjective of all the genres). What scares and unsettles us is so specific to the individual. Horror can be, and often is, in the eye of the beholder. It's an emotion that happens in the nervous system, not the brain. Horror can be smart and demanding of its reader/viewer, but the desired experience is to feel during and think later.
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I'm always on the hunt for the next thing that's going to scare the pants off me. Over the years, there have been long dry spells. I'm getting older, and more critical. I don't scare as easy as I used to and most of my horror consumption of late has been of the film kind, not the book kind. That doesn't mean I stop looking.
I'm always looking.
When a co-worker brought I Remember You to my attention, I was intrigued. It was in translation from Icelandic. I had never read anything by an Icelandic author before and this particular one was being touted as terrifying. So I took a chance, and I'm really glad I did. This is a ghost story, and like a lot of the best ghost stories, there is a mystery that demands to be solved.
I Remember You is a duel narrative that switches off every chapter. The first narrative is of three friends who travel to a remote abandoned village in Iceland. Their plan is to renovate a property there and make it a travel destination for those seeking natural beauty and escape. From the first moments of their arrival, the friends begin to notice strange occurrences. As the days pass, things get stranger and more frightening as the group realize they are trapped with no easy escape.
The second narrative follows a doctor whose son disappeared three years previously. His body was never found and the loss continues to torment him and his estranged wife. As the chapters flip back and forth (often ending on a cliffhanger), the tension and stakes ratchet up accordingly. The two dueling narratives eventually collide and combine in a most satisfying way. This isn't a fast-paced story. It takes its time. Each reveal meant to be savored.
I recommend reading this late at night, preferably with the wind howling high and loud outside your window and if the lights should flicker, well -- don't be alarmed. It's just the wind.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's moody and atmospheric and creepy as all hell in parts. This would make a fantastic movie (I'm going to betray my reader heart here and say it would probably make a better movie than book). I love ghost stories on film and if you love any of the following movies, you will probably love this book.
I'm not giving any stars here, only a warning: beware which edition of this collection you choose, for if you choose unwisely, you will be sore[image]
I'm not giving any stars here, only a warning: beware which edition of this collection you choose, for if you choose unwisely, you will be sorely ripped off in more ways than one.
I chose unwisely. My edition is the 2010 "updated" version published by Harper Collins with new illustrations by Brett Helquist. To say that it's been sanitized for safe consumption is an understatement. The reason the original 1981 edition became an instant classic and a frequently challenged book in schools and libraries was for Stephen Gammell's ghoulish and nightmarish artwork.
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I cry foul and bullshit. You don't mess with perfection and genius. Without Gammell's drawings, this collection loses its bloody, beating heart and is barely worth the paper it's printed on. Who thought this was a good idea? I'm incensed, especially for all the kids who might pick up this book expecting to have the bejeebers scared out of them and wind up merely bored or slightly amused. Unforgivable!
I was going to rant here about our ill-conceived, often hypocritical efforts to "protect" our children and censor their reading materials, but I'll save that for another day. Perhaps for when I write a real review for the real version of this book, the only one that counts, the only one that should be bought and gifted to any young person seeking his or her gateway drug into the realm of the macabre.
Jack Torrence thought: officious little prick ~The Shining (1977)
**Note: I chose not to put this review behind a spoiler tag. Below I discuss both the
Jack Torrence thought: officious little prick ~The Shining (1977)
**Note: I chose not to put this review behind a spoiler tag. Below I discuss both the book and the movie assuming if you're reading this, you're familiar with both.
Even though Stephen King's primary reputation has been 'America's boogeyman', I can count on one hand the number of pure horror novels I feel he's published (and they all come early in his career) -- 'Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, It, Misery and of course, The Shining. King is most famous as master of the macabre, but fans know he is also a keen observer of human behavior and emotions. He knows what makes us tick, and he's just as likely to make us laugh and cry as he is to scream. These five books? These he wrote to make us scream – and shiver, and look over our shoulder, peek under our bed, bar the closet door, and leave the lights on. He wrote them – to put it bluntly – to scare the shit out of us.
His tale of the doomed Torrence family and the sinister Overlook Hotel is in many ways a classic ghost story with its roots firmly planted in Gothic literature, Anne Radcliffe, Henry James and Edgar Allen Poe. More than these however, King is clearly writing under the influence of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Richard Matheson's Hell House. The notion of a malevolent house, seething from within with awareness and intent, was far from virgin territory by the time King came to it in the 1970's. Yet, King brought his own distinct brand of terror to the table and the result has left an indelible mark on not just the genre, but on contemporary literature.
Is The Shining scary? You're goddamn right it is. And I think I never really thought about how scary until I listened to the audiobook. Actor Campbell Scott does an outstanding job, and like all the best ghost stories going all the way back to caveman times, this one is meant to be told, you kennit? Not merely read – but listened to -- surrounded by darkness, hunched around a dwindling fire. There are tropes and themes embedded in The Shining that penetrate to the very lizard part of our brain where fear and anxiety make their home.
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In regards to the movie, Stephen King has not been shy over the years voicing his discontent with Kubrick's cinematic interpretation of his novel. I love the movie for many reasons (even though it's been around for so long and parodied so often it's hard to take it seriously anymore). But it pays to remember that Kubrick chose to tell an entirely different story from King.
The beating heart of King's novel is the sundering of the family unit, the destructive forces of alcoholism, the legacy of domestic violence and the incipient guilt and self-loathing it can bestow. If I have one complaint about the movie is that it fails to show any tragedy. King's version is not only terrifying, but heartbreaking. It is the story of a flawed but decent man in the process of clawing his way back into the light when all that he loves is ripped away from him. Whereas Kubrick's film focuses purely on a man losing his shit (in other words, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy).
In the film version, we see Jack Torrence go stark raving mad and viciously turn on his family with homicidal intent. But King's Jack Torrence doesn't go crazy, or suffer from the proverbial “cabin fever” alluded to in references to Grady, the Overlook's infamous previous caretaker. In the novel, it's the Overlook itself acting with malignant and malicious forethought that uses and abuses hapless Jack Torrence. It manipulates him, it twists his thoughts and controls his behavior. You can look at it as an alien invasion, or an outright demonic possession, but by the end of the novel, Jack Torrence is no longer a who but a what referred to as an it.
It hurried across the basement and into the feeble yellow glow of the furnace room's only light. It was slobbering with fear. It had been so close, so close to having the boy....It could not lose now.
Jack is lost inside of the monstrosity the Hotel has made him, as it uses his body to hunt down his little boy to murder him. A large part of the story's inherent tragedy for me, is watching Danny Torrence -- who loves his father very much -- lose him in such a frightening and grisly manner.
”Doc,” Jack Torrance said. “Run away. Quick. And remember how much I love you.” “No,” Danny said. “Oh Danny, for God's sake--” “No,” Danny said. He took one of his father's bloody hands and kissed it. “It's almost over.”
Now this fall, after a wait of almost four decades, readers will finally discover what kind of a man this little boy with his unique ability to shine has become. That's a story I didn't even know I wanted until it became a reality. Now I want it more than I can even put into words. In all of this overlong review where there are still many, many things I could have rambled on about, I failed to find a moment to speak briefly of Dick Halloran. I love this character -- his humour, his kindness, his fierceness and strength. I can only hope that catching up with Danny Torrence will mean crossing paths with Mr. Halloran again too. ...more
Written for the Hard Case Crime line of paperback novels, Stephen King's Joyland may look like a duck -- with its tantalizing pulp cover making promis Written for the Hard Case Crime line of paperback novels, Stephen King's Joyland may look like a duck -- with its tantalizing pulp cover making promises of sex and violence -- but it definitely doesn't quack. In fact, it's another kind of animal altogether, a coming of age tale tinged with the bittersweet tang of nostalgia and the wistful remembrances of what was and what might have been.
This isn't new territory for King. Anyone who's read him at all knows that this is his stomping ground and when he's firing on all cylinders, nobody does it better. It isn't done badly here either (there are some great passages filled with humor and insight), it's just that the effort and subsequent result feel lackluster overall. The characters are fleshed out just enough to move the story along and give King some hooks to hang his "looking back on it now" philosophizing, but stacked up against King's pantheon of memorable characters, the ones found in the pages of Joyland are easily forgotten (at least by me).
I almost think this little book suffers from the schism of an identity crisis. King has in his hands a paranormal crime plot replete with a garish 1970's amusement park setting haunted by the ghost of a murdered young woman. This being Hard Case Crime, I was keen to get King's take on hard-boiled noir or just full on pulp. I looked forward to sensationalist violence, cheap thrills and snappy, stylistic dialogue (and no, sorry Uncle Stevie, but you don't win any points for injecting the patter of carny speak on every other page).
King can't stop himself from telling an entirely different kind of story about a young man with a broken heart and his extended summer spent growing up and getting on. It's a story of emotions and memories and the metaphor of a flying kite and the panoramic view from a giant Ferris wheel. It's 80% middle-aged navel-gazing and youthful angst. The other 20% consisting of uncovering the identity of a murderous predator and revealing the details behind a haunting feel tacked on as afterthoughts. In this case, for Hard Case, I would have much rather seen those ratios reversed.
Another problem I had (view spoiler)[was the kid in the wheelchair. His second sight ability struck me as too deus ex machina serving no other purpose really other than to save our hero at the last minute from certain death (I also felt the kid was just a pale knock-off of Danny Torrence). If Joyland had turned out to be a full on hyper-dramatized pulp novel, a kid character such as this could have probably fit right in and worked. But the majority of the story is ponderous and beautiful and as a plot device, the second sight stands out like a sore thumb. (hide spoiler)]
Still, while it wasn't the novel I wanted or expected, Joyland is a sweet story, a little maudlin in places, but enjoyable nevertheless. Constant Readers will take pleasure in immersing themselves for a little while in a Kingscape that feels both familiar and satisfying.
It's good people, it's just not all that it's quacked up to be.
Mr. King and I (or Uncle Stevie if I may) have a loooong history that stretches back decades now. His books have become the s OCTOBER COUNTRY 2013 - #2
Mr. King and I (or Uncle Stevie if I may) have a loooong history that stretches back decades now. His books have become the soundtrack to my life, the novels I reach for in times of stress and grief in search of comfort and solace. Some may find that weird, considering the man's reputation as America's Boogeyman, but it's never been weird to me.
No one can spin a yarn quite like this man to keep you reading well past dark and into the wee hours of the morning. No one is as good as he is at locating our primal fears and anxieties and purging them in a storytelling catharsis that's as addicting as it is healing. No one can write characters as real as the person you fall asleep next to at night, or have hated to your very core since you were a child.
Yes, Stephen King knows what scares us, because it scares him too, but he also knows how we love, how we fail, how we fall down and find the courage to pick ourselves up again. He knows what makes us human, and better than that, he knows how to write it all down on the page capturing the very essence of our humanity like a magician captures lightning in a bottle.
Can he do it every time? No. But I don't love him any less for that fact. Does he try his very best to do it every time? You bet, with intent and integrity. King is no sell-out, and no one will ever be able to convince me otherwise.
zip it...shhhh...no...talk to the hand
I imagine King approached the story of Danny Torrence all grown up with a lot of respect and trepidation. The Shining is one of King's most memorable novels, with an iconic film adaptation that in some ways has even eclipsed the book itself. As a reader I approached this sequel with trepidations of my own. Even though you do your best to stranglehold your galloping expectations, you can't help but get excited and to imagine how it's all going to come together, what it's going to feel like.
This is a good book. Once you start it, like so many of King's best works, you will want to (have to) finish it. But it isn't The Shining and anyone expecting a full frontal assault horror novel on par with that classic will be sorely disappointed. In a lot of ways Doctor Sleep is a completely different book altogether, because it's written by a completely different man who has lived a lot of life and learned a lot of things. It's probably not even fair to compare the two, but it's inevitable. A sequel is a sequel.
As a sequel it does succeed brilliantly in one important aspect, and that is answering the question: "hey, whatever happened to the kid in The Shining?" Dan Torrence carries some heavy burdens which have derailed his life in more ways than one. Blocking out his traumatic childhood has doomed him to repeat history -- at least that of his father and Jack Torrence's black temper and unquenchable thirst for booze. Dan is an alcoholic, selfish and unscrupulous, and facing his rock-bottom. Anyone who knows anything about King's personal life, knows he is a recovering alcoholic. So who better to write a story about a life lost to booze and the battle to get healthy "one day at a time".
Dan's life, what it was, what it becomes, is a great part of this novel, and I loved reading about it. Then there's the other part -- a band of psychic vampires traveling the dusty back roads of America by RV calling themselves the True Knot. These are interesting, hideous creatures with a colorful history. On the King villain scale however, we've encountered way worse, and way more memorable.
Ditto Abra. As a child heroine facing down the supernatural dark King has equipped her with some pretty mighty powers. She is in fact, King's most powerful, making little Danny Torrence, Carrie White, Charlie McGee, and Johnny Smith combined look like a dim bulb on a Christmas tree. Becky describes it best in her review this way:
Things were just so easy for her, since she was so powerful in the shining, and on top of that, she had a support system - two parents, Danny, Billy, and John. And she was more than twice Danny's age when he had to fight for his life, alone. So I just didn't really feel all that concerned about her, as unfair as it may be. I feel like King went easy on her.
Abra surpasses super-human into superhero range. And while I feared for those around her, I never ever feared for her.
(view spoiler)[Overall, I think that the odds just seemed so greatly on the side of the heroes, so vastly uneven. Not only was the Knot low on steam, but did they really have to be plagued by measles too? And did Abra have to be so very strong, "a lighthouse" to Danny's "flashlight"? (hide spoiler)]
There is a lot to enjoy here, but for me there is an emotional depth missing that I've come to crave with King's books and the characters he creates. I wanted to live in this story, and think about it constantly, and I did neither. I enjoyed it for the adventure it was, and will have no problems recommending it, but it won't live on and linger in the mind the way so many of his other books have for me.
The one part that really shook me up? (view spoiler)[The torture killing of the baseball kid. Man, that scene is BRUTAL. King pulls no punches there, and I felt it right to my bones. Also, Danny seeing Jack at the end, and blowing him a kiss. I choked up at that even though I knew I was being manipulated. Damn you King!! Well played. (hide spoiler)]
I stumbled across this book at work the other day, and it called to me with a sweet siren song of potential. This edition comes replete with charcoal I stumbled across this book at work the other day, and it called to me with a sweet siren song of potential. This edition comes replete with charcoal illustrations, ribbon bookmarks (always classy) and is published by Centipede Press -- centipede!! Eww! Awesome, right? Plus it's about a scary ass hotel. I'm thinking Overlook, I'm thinking House of Leaves, Hill House, Hell House... well, it's none of these. The Deadfall Hotel has such potential, but it never really fires up all its engines and VROOOMS, you know? Some of the language is great. There are several moments where the atmosphere is suitably creepy. But it's just not enough to sustain over 300 pages.
Plus it's not really scary. It's very old-fashioned. Very English. Very childlike too. Not childish, but like a classic Grimm's fairy tale almost, complete with an eleven year old girl. Now, give the guts of this story to Neil Gaiman or Guillermo del Toro? Then you'd have something. I'd be all over that baby.
Charcoal drawings (Do not be fooled. They are awesome. This book is not)
During a solo work/study trip to Ireland in fall of 2000 I was out one dusky evening exploring the cobble-stoned lanes of Dublin's City Centre when I During a solo work/study trip to Ireland in fall of 2000 I was out one dusky evening exploring the cobble-stoned lanes of Dublin's City Centre when I stumbled upon the entrance to the Irish Film Institute movie house. Excited, I shyly stuck my head inside the front door. I felt a little bit like Alice discovering the rabbit hole. Hanging on the wall to my left as I walked inside was this movie poster:
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Remember, this would have been before the deluge of Asian horror (and the numerous American re-makes) found its way to Western audiences. I had never heard of such a movie. All I knew is that the image on the poster ran a cold shiver of dread down my spine. Turns out the Institute was screening a double feature that night of the original Japanese film version of this book called Ringu followed by its sequel.
How could I resist such a temptation? I could not, and bought my tickets immediately. I had never, ever experienced anything like it to that point and it scared the pee out of me*. Later I would return to the hostel where I was staying to find the staff had relocated me to the very top floor in a room all by myself! Everything creaked and groaned in that place and to say I had an uneasy night of sleep would be putting it very politely.
Even though this book is the source material for a game-changing, must-be-experienced horror film, I cannot give it the same high marks. There is definitely something lost in translation. The prose is stilted and restrained in places, not doing its part to build upon the dread and tension the subject matter deserves. It feels a bit dated and old-fashioned, and to be blunt, sexist in a way that kept me out of the story. No woman is treated very well in this novel, and I hated the way Asakawa speaks to his wife.
While there is an indisputable vibe of disquiet, Suzuki's book is much more focused on communicating the details of the unraveling mystery, making it a plot-driven whodunit piece than a sensory onslaught ghost story. If I had not seen the movies first, I would imagine the aspects of the mystery would have kept me quite riveted. It is a fascinating case after all and the way Asakawa and his friend Ryuji systematically follow a series of clues uncovering the tape's origin and purpose is compelling. But I had seen the movies first, so there was no big reveal for me, and I was a little impatient at times at how long Suzuki was drawing out some of the investigation.
Having said that, I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Suzuki obviously has a larger vision for his story that goes beyond what has been captured on film. I'm keen to discover what surprises completing the trilogy will bring.
Before I say anything about this classic bit of horror, I want to put a plug in for the film adapRichard Matheson (1926 - 2013)
Thanks for the stories.
Before I say anything about this classic bit of horror, I want to put a plug in for the film adaptation. Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon is a truly terrifying ghost story. I always felt it didn't get the attention it deserved because The Sixth Sense was released earlier the same year and stole all the thunder (for the record, I think Stir of Echoes is the better movie). If you haven't seen it I highly recommend that you do. You won't even spoil Matheson's novel because the movie takes a very different approach to the story and the mystery.
Now with that out of the way on to the book! The more Richard Matheson I read, the more I understand why Stephen King touts him as his biggest influence. Twenty years before King ever started writing about small towns and all the ugly things small town residents can get up to, Matheson was writing about horror in the suburbs. He takes the familiar, safe, boring 'burbs and all the white, middle-class people who abide there and introduces monsters. Sometimes the monsters are purely psychological, sometimes ghostly, other times it is an affliction (as with Scott Carey in The Incredible Shrinking Man or Robert Neville in I am Legend).
Whatever "the monster", what you really get as a reader is some pretty keen insight into human behavior. And sometimes it can be a lot uncomfortable to read. People can think pretty ugly, and act even uglier. Tom Wallace is your "every man", your average middle class schmoe attempting to live out the American Dream with his young wife and son. Tom's life takes a turn for the bizarre when he jokingly allows his brother-in-law to hypnotize him. Suddenly Tom's mind is wide open and he begins to "know" things and see things, a forbidden knowledge that throws his life into chaos.
This is a simple story, but it packs a lot of punch. It is a ghost story and a mystery and a peek into 1950's human psychology. It's interesting to read just how the husbands and wives relate to one another in this novel; it becomes quickly apparent that not only is the story set during that time, but that the author is also writing from a pre-Women's Lib perspective. This gives the novel an authentic old-fashioned feel that works extremely well given the subject matter. I loved it.
One note about the reader -- he is fantastic, and I think contributed a lot to my overall enjoyment of the story. He has this wicked bass voice and when he whispers it will give you chills....more
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