Jared

I finally switched my major back to English Education, so now I need to read some books that I could potentially teach in class in the future. And I definitely think that this is a good novel to teach.

I think a large reason this book works is because of how much time we spend we spend at Hailsham. Honestly, I think the first two parts of the book are a lot stronger than the last part. Growing up, I was always more interesting in the slice of life introductions of novels than the rest of the story, so I really appreciated how much of this was just stories about Kathy's life.

I cried at the end of this book. It really is beautiful. Idk it's hard to write about novels because I spend so much time with them and I don't know what to say.

Kristopher Triana continues to show me that a lot can be done in extreme horror without having to resort to senseless shock. It’s baffling to me that he’s friends with Aron Beauregard, because Kris is so much better at writing than he is.

I loved the romance, and I really liked that it wasn’t smutty. You’re told to read a romance book and your mind immediately goes to pork written for middle aged women, but Triana was very reserved here.

I wish it was longer, to be honest. I felt like there was a lot more room for their relationship to grow and develop beyond the 100 something pages we’re given. I’d love to see Triana write another horror novel or see this one adapted to film.

Overall, I’m glad I read this. I’m gonna take a break from horror for a bit because Playground and Endless Night took a lot out of me, but I’m glad I read this before that break.

Kristopher Triana might be my #1 author of all time.

I don't have much to say about this one. It was starting to grab me, but then she started eating people and all of the psychological manipulation just kinda went out the window. The first 200 pages or so are pretty awesome though, it's just a shame they through away all of the tension building for a rushed and rather pathetic ending.

Luckily, Kristopher would improve greatly in the next two years with Gone to See the River Man, a book that's paced perfectly and has a beautifully profound while still disturbing ending.

Why did I finish this one? I honestly can’t tell you. The last book I read before this was Playground and it was so unbelievably awful that it kinda made me not want to read a book for a long time. But three months later and I’ve finally made it through.

Endless Night is a bad horror novel. It’s a great road trip story, but horrible everything else. There are large chunks of this book dedicated to Jody, Andy, Jody’s Dad and Sharon just having a normal vacation that are intercut with the killer talking about how much he wants to kill Jody. I really don’t know if that was meant to make us feel tension but it doesn’t work. I *guess* Laymon was trying to make the reader uncomfortable with the underlying idea that “he could show up at any moment” but it really loses steam quickly. I found myself wanting to get through the killer’s chapters as quick as possible so I could get back to the vacation plot line.

I guess the book succeeded in getting me to care about the characters. But even then it wasn’t like they were treated like real people. Jody and especially Sharon are treated like objects of desire rather than people. The omniscient narrator is *always* talking about their bodies in a very odd way. Even worse that Jody is 16. When the killer’s perspective is just filled with how much he wants to rape this character, it just goes over the top when the unseen narrator of the normal chapters is also constantly describing how attractive this kid is supposed to be.

The ending sucked. I’ve seen stories lull the audience into a sense of comfort before ripping it away. Mommy (2014) in particular is really good at doing what I think this novel was trying to do. But here it just feels cruel. And not in a smart or thought-provoking way. It just gets worse for the sake of getting worse.

Honestly, I’m kinda pissed that Gone to See the River Man was as good as it was. Because I keep getting tricked into thinking that extreme horror can be good. Maybe Kristopher Triana is just built different. I should just read his other books and avoid the rest of the genre.

Endless Night was a waste of time. If Richard Laymon can stop being a pedophile, he should try to write a slice of life comedy book.

From page one it was the worst book I had ever read. At first I was going to finish it with the hope that it would get better. Eventually it got to a point where I finished this out of spite.

Entirely pointless book. A bad spiritual successor to Saw, horrible writing in every aspect, and just pure shock value for the sake of shock value. Aron Beauregard cannot write children.

Don’t waste your time. It’s not even disturbing, it’s just gross. And not in a fun way either. There is something fundamentally wrong with you if you take pleasure in portraying or taking in violence against the most innocent.

The worst part about this was that the book randomly took a turn in an attempt to make you feel bad for the situation. You can’t do that. You have not earned sympathy, you cant suddenly act like this violence has weight to it when you revel in its goofiness.

I very rarely call any art worthless but this was worthless.

From page one it was the worst book I had ever read. At first I was going to finish it with the hope that it would get better. Eventually it got to a point where I finished this out of spite.

Entirely pointless book. A bad spiritual successor to Saw, horrible writing in every aspect, and just pure shock value for the sake of shock value. Aron Beauregard cannot write children.

Don’t waste your time. It’s not even disturbing, it’s just gross. And not in a fun way either. There is something fundamentally wrong with you if you take pleasure in portraying or taking in violence against the most innocent.

The worst part about this was that the book randomly took a turn in an attempt to make you feel bad for the situation. You can’t do that. You have not earned sympathy, you cant suddenly act like this violence has weight to it when you revel in its goofiness.

I very rarely call any art worthless but this was worthless.

I don't have much to say about this one. It was starting to grab me, but then she started eating people and all of the psychological manipulation just kinda went out the window. The first 200 pages or so are pretty awesome though, it's just a shame they through away all of the tension building for a rushed and rather pathetic ending.

Luckily, Kristopher would improve greatly in the next two years with Gone to See the River Man, a book that's paced perfectly and has a beautifully profound while still disturbing ending.