Take a photo of a barcode or cover
findingmontauk1 's review for:
Jack & Jill
by Kealan Patrick Burke
Jack & Jill is a novella by Kealan Patrick Burke about a girl who experiences some out-of-the-ordinary terrible things and how those events still haunt her as an adult with a family of her own. We get to see childhood innocence, death of a family member/sibling, grief, mental illness, and child molestation all in one short novella. It’s like a smorgasbord of cringe-worthy debauchery! The way that KPB can craft all of this together the way he does is just further proof that he is brilliant and MUST be either sacrificing goats on the daily or summoning some badass dark wizard for help!
What I enjoy most about this story is the imagery Burke uses. A lot of this book is non-dialogue so his descriptions have to be good, am I right? One of my favorite examples is when he is talking about a childhood home: “Entering the gloomy hallway was like stepping back inside the womb… the house was smaller than I remembered it, the rooms narrower, as if my absence had created a vacuum that pulled the walls in closer.” Being able to evoke those same feelings a lot of us have about returning to our childhood homes and now they seem so small and faded is just the start of how good he is in this book! And some of the chapters are the protagonist’s dreams… and… they are TWISTED!
Another strong aspect of the book is how there seems to be this constant struggle of perception versus descent into madness versus reality. It’s not until at least halfway through that you begin to question the accuracy of the protagonist’s recollections and status of her stable mental faculties. What starts out as relentless nightmares results in a twist and shocking moment that made me cringe, drop my jaw, you name it. But that is what KPB does; he pushes his stories to those points that make you go, ‘OH MY GOD!” and then you thank all the Gods that you are reading his stuff! That climactic moment…
As with some of the best horror stories, this one really messes around in humanity and reality. It is easily a 5 out of 5 from me and I am excited there are so many more stories from him that I still get to read!
What I enjoy most about this story is the imagery Burke uses. A lot of this book is non-dialogue so his descriptions have to be good, am I right? One of my favorite examples is when he is talking about a childhood home: “Entering the gloomy hallway was like stepping back inside the womb… the house was smaller than I remembered it, the rooms narrower, as if my absence had created a vacuum that pulled the walls in closer.” Being able to evoke those same feelings a lot of us have about returning to our childhood homes and now they seem so small and faded is just the start of how good he is in this book! And some of the chapters are the protagonist’s dreams… and… they are TWISTED!
Another strong aspect of the book is how there seems to be this constant struggle of perception versus descent into madness versus reality. It’s not until at least halfway through that you begin to question the accuracy of the protagonist’s recollections and status of her stable mental faculties. What starts out as relentless nightmares results in a twist and shocking moment that made me cringe, drop my jaw, you name it. But that is what KPB does; he pushes his stories to those points that make you go, ‘OH MY GOD!” and then you thank all the Gods that you are reading his stuff! That climactic moment…
As with some of the best horror stories, this one really messes around in humanity and reality. It is easily a 5 out of 5 from me and I am excited there are so many more stories from him that I still get to read!