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FediversalPublicFriend@bookwyrm.social reviewed John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1) by David Wong

John Dies at the End is a comic horror novel written by David Wong that …

Decent horror, awful humour

2 stars

The novel doesn't do a very good job fusing horror and comedy. Both exist in the book, but it feels more like there are designated horror segments and designated comedy/action segments that you whip between at the author's whim. The horror is quite evocative and enjoyable, but the bulk of the book is the action and the comedy, which is so bad it's insulting. It's not witty or clever, it's crass, violent, and gratuitously edgy, with penis and shit jokes and characters who say slurs and bad guys who punch everyone in the balls making up the bulk of the author's comedic repertoire.

If you enjoy that sort of stuff, you might find the book enjoyable. I certainly don't object to reading books with transgressive, strange, or potentially offensive material, but in this novel it feels like meaningless shock humour, edge for the sake of edge, serving no purpose other …

The novel doesn't do a very good job fusing horror and comedy. Both exist in the book, but it feels more like there are designated horror segments and designated comedy/action segments that you whip between at the author's whim. The horror is quite evocative and enjoyable, but the bulk of the book is the action and the comedy, which is so bad it's insulting. It's not witty or clever, it's crass, violent, and gratuitously edgy, with penis and shit jokes and characters who say slurs and bad guys who punch everyone in the balls making up the bulk of the author's comedic repertoire.

If you enjoy that sort of stuff, you might find the book enjoyable. I certainly don't object to reading books with transgressive, strange, or potentially offensive material, but in this novel it feels like meaningless shock humour, edge for the sake of edge, serving no purpose other than to make you go "omg did he REALLY just say that?!?!?!?!" after the bad guy sings some pop song with the lyrics rewritten to be half racial slurs. It's an agonising read if the humour doesn't work for you, and it did not work for me at all.

FediversalPublicFriend@bookwyrm.social reviewed House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

House of Leaves (Hardcover, 2006, Pantheon)

A young family moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover …

Best known for an underused gimmick

4 stars

The typesetting stuff in House of Leaves is unique, clever, impressive from a technical standpoint, and certainly not like anything I had ever seen before. Unfortunately, it is often little more than a gimmick — some of the most striking and complex printing in the entire book is used for what amounts to filler, never used for anything with more depth than adding some visual flair to a linear text. That might be enough for some, but it was hard not to be disappointed after hearing so much about the the novel's legendary reputation.

I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the academic/informational presentation of the main text, I enjoyed the house and the analysis surrounding it, and I enjoyed some of the narrative around Johnny Truant, even if I found his footnote interjections mostly tedious and annoying, particularly earlier into the novel. I don't think I would have enjoyed these …

The typesetting stuff in House of Leaves is unique, clever, impressive from a technical standpoint, and certainly not like anything I had ever seen before. Unfortunately, it is often little more than a gimmick — some of the most striking and complex printing in the entire book is used for what amounts to filler, never used for anything with more depth than adding some visual flair to a linear text. That might be enough for some, but it was hard not to be disappointed after hearing so much about the the novel's legendary reputation.

I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed the academic/informational presentation of the main text, I enjoyed the house and the analysis surrounding it, and I enjoyed some of the narrative around Johnny Truant, even if I found his footnote interjections mostly tedious and annoying, particularly earlier into the novel. I don't think I would have enjoyed these elements any less if the book's strange typesetting was taken out entirely, though, which seems like a real missed opportunity.

FediversalPublicFriend@bookwyrm.social reviewed Almost Nowhere by nostalgebraist

Once upon a time, Anne lived in a tiny and orderly universe.

Narrative as a puzzle

5 stars

Almost Nowhere is a sort of narrative puzzle box. Expect to be bombarded with seemingly unrelated plot threads, characters, and settings, take notes, make connections, learn about and understand the rules and forces governing the narrative, and even read through straight up lectures on fictional physics, slowly but surely figuring out how everything fits into place, disjointed and disparate parts coming into focus to reveal a cohesive whole. It's a deeply creative, complex, and rewarding piece of web fiction, if you're willing to engage with it.

FediversalPublicFriend@bookwyrm.social reviewed Modern Cannibals by Bavitz

Z. Coulter's best friend Max is into some new thing called Homestuck. Like, freakily into …

Superbly written metafanfiction

5 stars

To be honest, the first time I tried to read Modern Cannibals, I was immediately put off by the jittery and hyperactive narration of Z., the PoV character for a good chunk of the book. I'm glad I stuck with it though, because Modern Cannibals is an exemplary work of web fiction — comedic, dark, poignant, transgressive, and surreal, built around a fascinating cast of characters, and written in a deft and entertaining prose that not many fanfic authors manage.