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aaronj21's Reviews (912)
A dark fairytale of a story whose conversational and folksy tone reminds me favorably of Stephen King and Bradbury.
Not quite as good as The Postman, but still pretty darn entertaining.
Atmospheric doesn't even begin to describe this superlatively unsettling novel; The Terror is a masterclass in Historical Fiction and Horror and a uniquely potent blend of both.
It seems cosmically unfair that the person who wrote Hyperion can ALSO pull off this stunning blend of historical fiction and horror, but he did. Simmons is just a damn good writer with a talent for immediately pulling you into a story and keeping you hooked through the entire, door-stopping, length of the book.
The Terror follows the doomed Franklin Expedition as it searches for the illusory Northwest Passage only to become frozen in the polar ice. As both ships, The Erebus and the Terror and their crews try to survive the elements, they begin to realize something out there on the ice is hunting them, picking them off one at a time.
As detailed and immersive as all good historical fiction should be, The Terror never feels burdened by the weight of its historical accuracy, it doesn’t plod along or drag down the narrative but enhances it. The characterization is solid and unique, making the rather large cast of characters differentiated enough for easy reading. The horror elements are creeping and insidious and occasionally violent and sudden, a truly enjoyable, shocking reading experience.
It seems cosmically unfair that the person who wrote Hyperion can ALSO pull off this stunning blend of historical fiction and horror, but he did. Simmons is just a damn good writer with a talent for immediately pulling you into a story and keeping you hooked through the entire, door-stopping, length of the book.
The Terror follows the doomed Franklin Expedition as it searches for the illusory Northwest Passage only to become frozen in the polar ice. As both ships, The Erebus and the Terror and their crews try to survive the elements, they begin to realize something out there on the ice is hunting them, picking them off one at a time.
As detailed and immersive as all good historical fiction should be, The Terror never feels burdened by the weight of its historical accuracy, it doesn’t plod along or drag down the narrative but enhances it. The characterization is solid and unique, making the rather large cast of characters differentiated enough for easy reading. The horror elements are creeping and insidious and occasionally violent and sudden, a truly enjoyable, shocking reading experience.
I can’t stand when authors self-insert stories about their own lives into non-fiction titles. I know this about myself. Unless there is a very, very good reason, i.e. you were literally an eyewitness to a crucial event or have some inside knowledge no one else on Earth has, I’ll be annoyed by any trace of this in a non-fiction title.
However…
The self-inserts here weren’t too bad. In fact, they were usually quite funny, and if they never really added anything to the non-fiction narrative, they did entertain and remained brief enough to be inoffensive.
This was an informative book, although its subject, literally the ship HMS Erebus means it includes lots of detail unrelated to the infamous Franklin Expedition. Readers wanting books mainly about this subject would be better served with other titles. But anyone with a more general interest couldn’t go wrong with this volume.
However…
The self-inserts here weren’t too bad. In fact, they were usually quite funny, and if they never really added anything to the non-fiction narrative, they did entertain and remained brief enough to be inoffensive.
This was an informative book, although its subject, literally the ship HMS Erebus means it includes lots of detail unrelated to the infamous Franklin Expedition. Readers wanting books mainly about this subject would be better served with other titles. But anyone with a more general interest couldn’t go wrong with this volume.
Definitely read it if…
You’re the titular, easily spooked, nascent horror fan
You generally like movies and enjoy the “best of…” genre of film books
You’re a horror fan who’s already seen all of these and just enjoy reliving them, reading about the cultural impact of these films, and the history of horror cinema more broadly.
This book was composed of brief, entertaining, and informative chapters. I read it very quickly and found something to like about every section. The brand of humor was very much to my taste and I found myself laughing aloud at several points, yes, Johnny Depp’s crop top in Nightmare on elm street is slutty, the Babadook is a gay icon, and FINALLY someone’s talking about Zara’s weird clam shell e-reader from It Follows.
You’re the titular, easily spooked, nascent horror fan
You generally like movies and enjoy the “best of…” genre of film books
You’re a horror fan who’s already seen all of these and just enjoy reliving them, reading about the cultural impact of these films, and the history of horror cinema more broadly.
This book was composed of brief, entertaining, and informative chapters. I read it very quickly and found something to like about every section. The brand of humor was very much to my taste and I found myself laughing aloud at several points, yes, Johnny Depp’s crop top in Nightmare on elm street is slutty, the Babadook is a gay icon, and FINALLY someone’s talking about Zara’s weird clam shell e-reader from It Follows.
Only slightly more informative than a Wikipedia article in parts, but the pictures were nice.
I found the world building and alternate history WAY more interesting than Alvin himself, or any of the characters for that matter.
What do you mean everyone in England with magical ability got deported to the colonies by Oliver Cromwell? What do you mean the Iroquois have seats in congress? What do you MEAN George Washington got beheaded?
The unique magic system, alternate history elements, and generally capable story telling were able to keep me hooked throughout this book, it remains to be seen if they can keep me interested enough to read more in the series though.
What do you mean everyone in England with magical ability got deported to the colonies by Oliver Cromwell? What do you mean the Iroquois have seats in congress? What do you MEAN George Washington got beheaded?
The unique magic system, alternate history elements, and generally capable story telling were able to keep me hooked throughout this book, it remains to be seen if they can keep me interested enough to read more in the series though.
Michael Rowe is perhaps my favorite living Canadian author. The fact that his work doesn’t get wider exposure continues to perplex and frustrate me.
Wild Fell is the last of his books I hadn’t read, so I fixed that this October.
This novel could really almost be divided neatly into three different but connected segments. The tragedy of Sean and Brenda in Alvina, the main character’s fraught childhood, and finally the ghost story proper as our protagonist buys a haunted house sight unseen.
Overall it was an entertaining, unique, captivating read. I definitely enjoyed the first segment the most, but overall it told a fascinating story with an ending I didn’t see coming. Rowe writes with beautiful clarity and vividness and his works have a cinematic quality to them, like the story is a movie that you’re living in.
October is still my favorite of his so far but I’m certainly glad I read this and will eagerly read anything else he puts out.
Wild Fell is the last of his books I hadn’t read, so I fixed that this October.
This novel could really almost be divided neatly into three different but connected segments. The tragedy of Sean and Brenda in Alvina, the main character’s fraught childhood, and finally the ghost story proper as our protagonist buys a haunted house sight unseen.
Overall it was an entertaining, unique, captivating read. I definitely enjoyed the first segment the most, but overall it told a fascinating story with an ending I didn’t see coming. Rowe writes with beautiful clarity and vividness and his works have a cinematic quality to them, like the story is a movie that you’re living in.
October is still my favorite of his so far but I’m certainly glad I read this and will eagerly read anything else he puts out.
Everything you ever wanted to know about axe-murder.
Rachel McCarthy James spins a vivid yarn of the history of this most prosaic of murder weapons. As long as humans have had axes, a transformative and versatile tool, we have also used them to end other human’s lives. As long as we’ve used them to chop tree branches, we’ve also used them to sever human limbs, really the comparisons are endless. More dramatic than a knife but easier to use than a sword, McCarthy James sets out to delve into the “why” behind this particular form of homicide.
All the classics are here, Lizze Borden gets a chapter mostly to herself (I think she was innocent, by the way) and the iconic axe centric scene in The Shining gets a moment in the limelight as well. But more interesting are the lesser known axe-murders through history, Freydis of Greenland, Seqenre Tao, and William Tillman (who takes the prize for the most based axe murder in this or any other book, seriously, look him up and get that man a movie deal).
Through it all the writing is vivid, cogent, and rapid, reading this is like taking a tour of an especially macabre museum from a funny but very well informed tour guide. While the details can be shocking even in our violence saturated age (holy crap was the chapter on Linda Joyce Glucoft upsetting on a visceral level), this book is ultimately informative and offers a meditative view on an oft sensationalized topic.
Rachel McCarthy James spins a vivid yarn of the history of this most prosaic of murder weapons. As long as humans have had axes, a transformative and versatile tool, we have also used them to end other human’s lives. As long as we’ve used them to chop tree branches, we’ve also used them to sever human limbs, really the comparisons are endless. More dramatic than a knife but easier to use than a sword, McCarthy James sets out to delve into the “why” behind this particular form of homicide.
All the classics are here, Lizze Borden gets a chapter mostly to herself (I think she was innocent, by the way) and the iconic axe centric scene in The Shining gets a moment in the limelight as well. But more interesting are the lesser known axe-murders through history, Freydis of Greenland, Seqenre Tao, and William Tillman (who takes the prize for the most based axe murder in this or any other book, seriously, look him up and get that man a movie deal).
Through it all the writing is vivid, cogent, and rapid, reading this is like taking a tour of an especially macabre museum from a funny but very well informed tour guide. While the details can be shocking even in our violence saturated age (holy crap was the chapter on Linda Joyce Glucoft upsetting on a visceral level), this book is ultimately informative and offers a meditative view on an oft sensationalized topic.
Hannibal Lecter if he slayed (more).
I’ve seen others compare this book to Bret Easton Ellis’s work and frankly that’s insulting. Despite their surface level similarities, these two psychopaths aren’t in the same time zone, let alone the same league. Dorothy Daniels is far better. She’s a fleshed out, nuanced, fascinatingly articulate murderer. Patrick Bateman could never.
This book was full of frankly dazzling writing, replete with lavish metaphors sparking with razor wit and lustrous beauty that is just on the right side of being a “bit too much”, at least for me, your mileage may vary. This woman has very definite opinions about EVERYTHING, and even when I don’t agree with them I absolutely adore how they’re framed. E.g. living without duck fat is the definition of privation, Boston is the least sexy city she’s ever been to, Prohibition was a profoundly stupid time in America’s history, etc.
A Certain Hunger would be ideal for fans of shows like Killing Eve or people who maybe got a little too into Yellowjackets. I was hooked from page one, this book pulled me out of a mild reading slump I wasn’t even aware I was in. From start to finish this was a uniquely captivating read. I was shocked, I was amused, I was entertained, what more could anyone ask for?
I’ve seen others compare this book to Bret Easton Ellis’s work and frankly that’s insulting. Despite their surface level similarities, these two psychopaths aren’t in the same time zone, let alone the same league. Dorothy Daniels is far better. She’s a fleshed out, nuanced, fascinatingly articulate murderer. Patrick Bateman could never.
This book was full of frankly dazzling writing, replete with lavish metaphors sparking with razor wit and lustrous beauty that is just on the right side of being a “bit too much”, at least for me, your mileage may vary. This woman has very definite opinions about EVERYTHING, and even when I don’t agree with them I absolutely adore how they’re framed. E.g. living without duck fat is the definition of privation, Boston is the least sexy city she’s ever been to, Prohibition was a profoundly stupid time in America’s history, etc.
A Certain Hunger would be ideal for fans of shows like Killing Eve or people who maybe got a little too into Yellowjackets. I was hooked from page one, this book pulled me out of a mild reading slump I wasn’t even aware I was in. From start to finish this was a uniquely captivating read. I was shocked, I was amused, I was entertained, what more could anyone ask for?