Lee
While I did not love the narrative nor the characters much, there is no denying the prescient impact of how well this parallels what is occurring in the United States. I like the concept and framework of Dream Hotel, just didn’t thoroughly enjoy the characters and their development. Not to make qualitative comparisons, what Lalami accomplishes is in the same vein of Philip K. Dick’s pre-crime parables in Minority Report—PKD himself of course being directly influenced by Huxley, Orwell, Wells, and Bradbury. All the terrible things occurring in Dream Hotel are not only real, but occurring as we write and read this (to a slightly lower degree of dream reading tech so far).
The likes of Palantir are undeniably actively pursuing and researching how to make this mind and dream reading tech a reality, which when paired with their already existing invasive facial recognition tech, will essentially erase any sense of privacy. Think the pre-crime AI pool girls from Minority Report blended with the dream marketing tech of Nic Cage’s Dream Scenario, backed by big money secretive corporations like in Inception, now multiply it all by 5 and weaponize it. Oh you had a dream where you punched your terrible boss in the face? Well, now we’re legally able to place a premeditated assault charge on you and imprison you. What’s that, you had a dream you went on a date with your celebrity crush and things went well let’s say? Well, with a good lawyer, the government might be able to smack you with a sexual assault charge just because you thought of it. I know a lot of people would be sent to Dream Hotel’s Risk Assessment Administration system just for day dreaming of a certain orange individual disappearing…
Suffice it to say, I’m curious what Lalami follows this up with, as I do think she has a strong voice that could work well within a realistic near future sci-fi realm.
An interesting take on a whodunit with a potentially unreliable narrator framework. My second least fave Moshfegh, but still a captivating character study for yet another weird girl, amplified by the isolated setting. I could see this being made into an A24 psychological thriller with the likes of Isabelle Huppert.
Not sure how to feel about this one. On one hand it's somewhat of a different take on vampires, using a fun narrative conceit to keep you intrigued, but on the other, I didn't really care about any of the characters. One thing is for certain though, as a debut, the Anna Kovatchava has a strong and promising grasp on world-building and atmosphere. The pacing is probably what will give most some hurdles
Peter Swanson is always challenging himself with some sort of writing mechanic. Whether it be telling you who the murderer is right away, giving you the climax early on, or in this case, writing his narrative backwards, he never bores. I was surprised to see he pulls it off here, keeping my intrigue and attention to the central dynamic as we walk through their lives backwards from middle-aged to literal children. If you're into crime thrillers, Swanson is your guy.
Not that's tonally similar at all to Hokum, but the thought did cross my mind with Adam Scott’s troubled author and this book’s cursed sentient dead author’s desk. I do like a cursed object movie! This is my first Fracassi, and I am inclined to check out some more (the retirement home slasher next), as he does well with building a dark atmosphere and integrating gory kills with flowing modern prose. I was expecting to like this more, but I do think it's well worth your time—albeit overlong—if you like the Stephen King influenced cursed author (s/o Alan Wake) narrative. Fracassi even takes a couple of fun jabs at King, like he tends to use the n-word more than necessary.
Content warning: rape
I like the mixed media formatting of having to follow along with blueprint diagrams and maps of the houses in question. That said, I found the mystery and eerie atmosphere to be nonexistent, as you could immediately point out the titular strangeness of the house the moment you take one look. I was hoping for the reveal to be much darker and twisted as many Japanese tales go.
If you enjoyed Calypso Protocol, this will be right up your alley. Imagine that Dead Space influenced space prison barge setting of infected zombie convicts paired with the a Star Wars theme. Less Jedi/Sith than in the previous book Red Harvest, but more eerie atmosphere and gore with the entrapped and dark setting. There’s also a pretty cool cameo I was not expecting!
“Money is like acid. It burns through everything: friendships, family, lovers, husbands and wives. What ever bond you think you have, money will make that bond dissolve, it's acid.”
Believe the hype. King of Ashes is a highly entertaining and well-crafted crime revenge thriller with some really fun characters. This is my first experience with S.A. Cosby, and now I'm eager to explore his other books. I was told this book has some terrific villains, and it definitely delivers with the sadistic Tranquil & Torrent. Reading this book made it very easy to picture a movie adaptation in my mind, as Cosby’s writing flows smoothly and clearly captures these living characters right off the page. My only major gripe is that the ending feels rushed and comes together too quickly, especially after all the buildt up tension and raised stakes preceding it. That said, I very much enjoyed it from start to finish and was upset it ended. This would make an excellent double read or a future double feature film billing alongside Don Winslow’s City on Fire.
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Fancast:
- Roman: Michael B. Jordan / John David Washington - Dante: Damson Idris - Naveah: Teyonah Parris / Zazie Beetz - Mr. Carruthers: Forest Whitaker / Sam Jackson - Torrent: Daniel Kaluuya - Tranquil: Trevante Rhodes - Yellaboy: Lakeith Stanfield - Splodie: 21 Savage / Jason Mitchell - Khalil: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II / Winston Duke - Chauncey: Aldis Hodge - Jealousy: Anitta - Shade: Brian Tyree Henry
The concept of a Norwegian heavy metal band body horror revenge thriller with a splash of (shockingly not marketed) Jennifer’s Body and Norse gods was enough to peak my intrigue. Unfortunately the coloring really did not do it for me, and often times was actually quite difficult to make out with its shading/lighting. Vanesa Del Rey’s art style was interesting and unique, but I felt that the colors and shading obscured a lot of the lines and detail. Meanwhile I was let down by the lack of more Norse myths given Azzarello’s extensive work with Wonder Woman. It could have leaned more into The Ritual.
[3.25/5]
A decent crime thriller that has you trying to solve who the killer is. I don't think it flows as well as Peter Swanson’s murder thrillers, but I can't deny this one has quite the fast pace. It's not as mind-blowing and wild as the word of mouth, but I was never bored. That said, I did not like the ending at all.
One of the big twists is rather predictable, while the other is one you just could not guess given the lack of any breadcrumb evidence left by the author. A pet peeve of mine for movies, shows, and books is when the creator pulls a reveal out of nowhere without having left one iota of potential evidence for the eagle-eyed viewer/reader. It's a personal preference, but I think you should always be able to solve the mystery on your own before reaching the actual reveal, if you're actively paying attention and making your own detective conspiracy boards. Rant aside, it's a brisk read for fellow fans of not as grim murder mysteries and crime shows like The Watcher, His & Hers, The Girl on a Train.
Fancast:
- Ruth: Daisy Edgar Jones / Monica Barbaro
- Scott: Jake Gyllenhaal / Sebastian Stan
- Detective Farrow: Ben Mendo / Jon Tuturro / Colman Domingo
- Detective Hernandez: Eiza Gonzalez
- Amanda: Jodie Comer / Rachel McAdams
- Wendy: Anne Hathaway / Cate Blanchett
- Wallace Crone: Michael Fassbender
- Billy Cameron: Dan Stevens / Jon Bernthal
My first foray into Torrey Peters, and a great first impression at that. Very immersive transgressive collection of shorts, with the titular one being the absolute highlight. There are a total of 4 shorts of varying lengths, from 40pg, 50pg, up to the titular best at roughly 150pg. If anything, I recommend you at least read the Stag Dance short (a novella essentially) towards the middle of this overall brisk read. It's a really interesting crises of identity mixed with a bit of camp thriller and eco-horror. The Chaser is a also very good, I didn't care too much for the opening and closing shorts. I will def be keeping my eyes out for more from Torrey Peters.
The Purge mixed with Ready or Not 2. It could improve in the next volume, but I felt like they built up the zany killers with more hype than they could deliver. I was expecting to spend more time with them and their unique manners of playing their respective games. But again, it could be fixed in the future since this initial volume sets up the playing field world of the comic. I was expecting a little more from Pornsak Pichetshote’s section though.
A slow-burn surreal psychological comedy I unfortunately did not love or find to be funny. I’ll give it props for its absurdist plot and meta narrative that truly had me guessing left and right up until the out-there ending, but I don’t particularly think James Joyce would have been jealous of this (as the book states). It’s unique, and if you want something genuinely fresh to get the brain cogs turning, give it a whirl. Maybe I'll revisit this again down the road.
Checked this out from the library to see if I wanted to invest more time into the anime. I saw the shockingly short 35ish minute anime film and was very disappointed. So I figured maybe the manga will have more of the desired violence, bloodshed, and creature designs I felt were lacking. Nope, not really. You'll have a better time with the Gantz vampire arc (not that their plots are identical).
I fear this may have not been for me, which is doubly sad as I’m Brasilian. Whether it be the poetic stream of consciousness narrative (I’m rarely a fan of stream of consciousness) or the absolute surreal nature of its existential plight, I found it difficult to grasp and remain engrossed by. Perhaps as Lispector warns and recommends in her intro, I should revisit this when I am older with more life experiences–not that I lack many already. What I can say, is that I never have nor will I ever have this amount of philosophical reflection upon eliminating an intruding insect in my room. Couldn’t be me fam. when it comes to insects, call me the Lisan al-Gaib.
Maybe my fave Bukowski so far. Maybe. His writing style is incredibly honest, extremely crass, and more than likely problematic to many. But there’s just some rugged Hemingway type charm to it that it flows so well, and funny too. This one hits harder if you’re reading it while working at a job you don’t particularly like and under a boss that gets on your nerves. Bukowski has a very rude yet frank way of looking at the world, and you sort of have to respect his sincerity to it. His writing is not for everyone, but I do absolutely think you owe it to yourself to at least try one of his books.
