aaronj21's Reviews (912)

Paul Tremblay's work is always a bit hit or miss for me. Head Full of Ghosts is one of my favorite horror novels of all time yet I could barely make my way through Survivors Song. But when his books do hit, they hit hard and this one was a knockout.

Horror Movie has so much going for it. Tremblay's skillful, almost effortless weaving of multiple perspectives, lost media influences, pitch perfect 90s settings, and of course, ample horror. For me there were really no misses here, the pacing was immaculate, it drew you in ever so gradually, feeding you just enough information to keep you interested and off balance and the whole thing built and intensified like the worst kind of nightmare into a sickening crescendo.

From start to finish Horror Movie is a solid five stars and it proves that Tremblay is still evolving and growing as a writer. I will be thinking about and recommending this one for a long time to come.

Very educational, I learned a fair bit.

This was a good book to end 2023 on. It had been on my TBR for ages, it was instantly engrossing and compelling throughout, overall a very odd, powerful book I liked quite a lot but am not sure I can ever recommend to anyone. At the end I was having to pause often, trying to read through the tears.

This book would be at home in a new niche sub genre that I've noticed and chosen to call "Family on Vacation Experiences a Vague Apocalypse'" à la "Cabin at the End of the World". I liked this book well enough although it was somehow even slower and more thoughtful than the already slow and thoughtful movie adaptation that I watched before reading. I found the author's style and turn of phrase invigorating and compelling, his intelligent and layered language contrasted phenomenally with the sudden sharp action interspersed throughout the novel.

This was one of those books that impressed me to a degree such that I will automatically give any new book by this author a shot.

This book was nothing short of gripping. Like many others, I began this book and found it hard to put down until I’d read it all, I hadn’t planned to read it so quickly but I couldn’t help myself.

This non-fiction book recounts the events of August 1 2008 when a perfect storm of adverse conditions and breakdowns in planning and communication lead to the deaths of eleven mountaineers and the serious injury of several others on K2, the deadliest mountain in the world.
The author of this book, Graham Bowley, is a journalist and his background shines through in the best possible way here. The events of the day, chaotic as they are when you factor in the mountain conditions, disparate climbing teams, and various firsthand accounts, are skillfully woven into a coherent, compelling narrative. Not everything is known about the disaster and where accounts differ or where information is incomplete it’s sure to be labeled as such. Another strength of this book is, paradoxically, the fact it was written by a non-climber, indeed, by someone who knew next to nothing about the world of high altitude mountain climbing prior to writing this book. Concepts and jargon are explained carefully and Bowley can write about the events of that day, and about mountain climbing in general, with a certain level of objectivity.

This was a great book and one of the highlights of the year for me so far, I would recommend it to just about anyone but especially anyone who likes riveting non-fiction.

I was thrilled to get an early copy of this newest Chuck Tingle novel, I finished this gem of a book in a little less than 24 hours, though I could have burned through it in half the time had life not gotten in the way, pesky things like needing to eat and sleep. I cannot stress enough how delightful, moving, and readable this book was. From the very first scene I was firmly hooked and could hardly rest or put it down until I read the whole thing.

The basic premise of Bury Your Gays is that a successful screenwriter, Misha, is told by studio executives to kill off the stars of his show right after they finally express their long simmering love for each other. He refuses and afterwards is stalked and attacked by movie monsters from his own filmography. The story builds tension and parcels out context and clues carefully, making for an increasingly tense, frightening tale where the stakes so much higher than just one man’s life.

This book is doing a lot, not only is it by turns genuinely funny, utterly horrific, and deeply moving, it also grapples with issues as varied as AI in art, trauma and representation in media, and corporate pride ™ in a refreshingly acute and lucid way. All of these elements are perfectly balanced, working in concert to push the whole narrative forward, rather than drowning out the other themes or hampering the flow of the novel. Believe me when I tell you that, Bury Your Gays does not miss a beat, not once.

This novel was a triumph, I can hardly think of many books that try to do so much and succeed so adeptly. In addition to being a compulsive joy to read, Bury Your Gays represents the creative apotheosis of a genuinely talented and authentic queer voice in fiction. If Chuck Tingle’s previous, “mainstream” titles like Straight and Camp Damascus, weren’t enough to clue people in that the man behind the pink mask is a powerful and talented writer with a unique and arresting vision of queer horror, Bury Your Gays should be a shot across the bow and a wakeup call.

Do yourself a favor and see what all the hype is about, Bury Your Gays is a memorable, thrilling read, quite unlike anything else you’re likely to pick up this year.

Dead Endings certainly earns the warning on the description.

“Beware! For once the spine is cracked, and these tales are experienced, the act of reading them cannot be undone and the stain of their horror will forever remain.”

The stain will certainly linger.

The three stories in this collection all had their pros and cons but each was horrifying and indeed upsetting in its own unique way. The initial tale, Lustmord, while in my opinion the weakest of the collected stories, does an excellent job setting the tone with some truly upsetting imagery in the vein of a horror story by the likes of Eric LaRocca. After that story, you never know quite what the author is going to do, what image he’s going to put in your head of how his stories will end. This created a pleasantly unsettling sense of apprehension that heightened the horror of the other two tales. Brimstone, was the most gripping story for me and I would gladly read a much longer collection from this writer if all the short stories were of that caliber.

Overall this was a decent collection that definitely delivers on the premise of extreme horror. While I wasn’t completely blow away I did find something unique and compelling in each story. I’d be interested to see how this author grows and develops. I hope he keeps writing.

Stitches was a neat little collection of eerie tales.

The stories in this volume are not quite what you would call "horrific" or "terrifying". Instead they're ghost stories that create a pervasive sense of unease and mounting dread around the mundane, everyday aspects of ordinary people's lives. This brand of lower intensity, lingering, everyday, horror definitely has merit and doesn't always get the attention it deserves in modern media when it seems like everything is trying it's hardest to scar you for life.

I worry that people will see Junji Ito's name and immediately expect a Junji Ito level horror manga, (which this is not, he was merely the illustrator for these tales), and become frustrated when that's not what the book is. This hardly seems fair and on its own merits this collection is a spooky, unsettling series of stories good for a pleasant afternoon read.

People wanting a scarring, mind warping Junji Ito manga will be disappointed but that is not at all the fault of this collection.

Certainly worth the hype, this play vividly portrays a kind of everyday tragedy that is no less potent for being mundane.