Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The beast and its attacks are extremely vivid and beautifully, horrifically described.
Category: horror
What I’ve been reading – Black Virus by Bobby Adair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book, but if I hadn’t pressed on past the first couple of pages then I might never have known it. The opening scenes were quite slow and flat, almost awkwardly written! But I persisted a bit, and the story quickly picked up speed, incident and excitement. It’s quite odd how different the initial impression was, almost as if the manuscript got into the hands of an editor who decided they were going to ‘improve’ the initial introduction to the book – it actually reads like a different writer.
But most of the book is great. I like the lack of sentimentality, the hard edge and realism of Christian, the adolescent MC. He sees the world as it truly is, both before and after the apocalyptic events that wreck human existence, and he sees human motivations without rose-coloured glasses too. It makes him unnerving to most people, since ‘humankind cannot bear very much reality’. But I like him for it.
There is a fight scene early on that is brilliantly written, concise but with every necessary detail supplied and the choreography of the scene implied without laborious plotting out and the written equivalent of anatomical dolls to diagram the action. (The polar opposite of a fight in a paranormal romance I read recently, which went on for pages and went to ludicrous lengths to describe the movement of every pinkie finger and the emotional responses of the participants.)
And the climax, when it comes, had me putting my hands over my eyes as if I were watching a really good and bloody horror film. Shocking, but brilliant and clever and almost funny, rather like the violence in Fight Club. I don’t normally care for violence in books or films – it has to be this well-done for me to appreciate it.
Recommended, really well done and worth your time.
What I’ve been reading – We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
If negative amounts of stars were possible then that’s how I’d roll. Competent and horrid.
What I’ve been reading – Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman
Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A very sombre book. The delusions of the scriptwriter/main character initially when he became sick were very sad, certain that he was getting better. The whole book seems packed with metaphor and meaning, but how you choose to interpret it is another thing. The story that will never be told, never seen onscreen, but the writer labours at it anyhow. The oncoming apocalypse within his story, that fizzles like a damp squib. What does it mean, eh? The reader is left to decide. Much like life.
I found it an enjoyable read, in a melancholy way. But I think there are probably better places to begin exploring Gaiman’s work.
This is really good, read it.
The Sign I have always struggled with these things. There are signs everywhere to give you direction. You see them, Stop signs, Green lights. These are for those obvious things in life or death. Where to look, though when things are not as obvious as you, or I, might wish them to be? It depends. […]
alexankarrbooks 