|
I couldn't get into Starving Saints because the main characters didn't seem to be in any real danger. The general population of the castle is in real trouble, sure, but then they introduce a way for one main character to escape whenever she wants, and a refuge for another main character that the bad guys can't intrude upon. And since they're all working together they can either all escape together at any point or just take refuge in the safe zone. What keeps them there is a sense of duty that they need to prevent more bad stuff from happening but if they're not in any real peril I find it hard to care.
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2025 12:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jan 15, 2026 21:06 |
|
|
Starving Saints was really hard to read. Like. The way the author wrote it. I’d read a page, and then go “wait I didn’t process any of that.” And that’s not really a problem I usually have reading. Lots of words on the page without seemingly saying anything. I tapped out at like page 100 when I was reading an ARC of it. It’s very gay tho.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2025 13:34
|
|
|
Ccs posted:I couldn't get into Starving Saints because the main characters didn't seem to be in any real danger. The general population of the castle is in real trouble, sure, but then they introduce a way for one main character to escape whenever she wants, and a refuge for another main character that the bad guys can't intrude upon. And since they're all working together they can either all escape together at any point or just take refuge in the safe zone. What keeps them there is a sense of duty that they need to prevent more bad stuff from happening but if they're not in any real peril I find it hard to care. I haven't read Starving Saints in particular but my feeling on a lot of what I have read from Starling is that she has an (IMO) terrible writing habit of setting up theoretically interesting conflicts, then going out of her way to undercut any actual tension in her books, so this all kind of tracks with her vibe as an author in general. To her credit I think it's a choice rather than like, a product of inexperience, but I've just learned that as much as I like her actual ideas, I don't generally enjoy her execution. Luminous Dead is a book I thought I'd really like in theory but was a pretty big letdown in reality.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2025 14:47
|
|
|
I definitely found Saints to be better paced than Luminous was, but the split POV helps a lot with that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2025 14:51
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:How horny is it? Nothing super explicit from what I remember, mostly lesbian yearning, but there are a few brief scenes that are kinda horny. No one really outright has sex on the page though unless I'm misremembering.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2025 15:13
|
|
|
New Humble bundle has all the Murderbot Diary books, plus a bunch of other stuff. I haven't read any of it but they're pretty popular
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2025 01:03
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:New Humble bundle has all the Murderbot Diary books, plus a bunch of other stuff. I haven't read any of it but they're pretty popular Hell yeah patient readers stay winning
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2025 02:50
|
|
|
Finished The Country Under Heaven (very good) and I couldn’t figure out why it kept reminding me of Between Two Fires. And just then it hit me: the episodic format gives both the cadence and style of HBO miniseries, albeit with totally different tone and content. Anyway, read them both
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2025 22:00
|
|
|
Throne of Bones is good stuff. Definitely the best thing I've read since The Atlas of Hell. Wouldn't be surprised if Ballingrud has read these stories.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2025 02:03
|
|
|
Just read "I'm thinking of ending things" by Iain Reid and I guess I should have looked it up beforehand because I'm pissed I wasted so much goddamned time on a loving Dallas-esque bullshit ending. 0/5 stars Do not read this book.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2025 19:50
|
|
|
Is the book that the movie is based on? I didn't get more than 10 minutes into the movie.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2025 21:35
|
|
|
It’s an amazing book  Edit: also really what you’ve said is such a lazy generalization and maybe entirely a misunderstanding of what is going on? It’s a book that asks you to work while reading it, for sure Also, so much time? It’s like 200 pages long Conrad_Birdie fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Sep 2, 2025 |
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 02:12
|
|
|
Conrad_Birdie posted:It’s an amazing book Yeah, of COURSE it's a generalization. I didn't want to spend an hour writing up how much I don't like this book. Also  "maybe a misunderstanding". Fine. The crux of the book is you're presented with a running narrative of a woman who is, at best, really loving annoying. She spends the whole of the book alternatively being annoyed, hemming and hawing, doing stupid poo poo like ignoring a weird stalker, and failing to assert herself in any way. I read past page 50 out of spite, hoping something unpleasant was going to happen. It never really did. I will give the book the barest minimum of credit, though- there were a few scenes that built up a respectable amount of dread. They could not save it, though. So yeah, she's dating some dude -Jake-, and she's thinking about breaking up with him, hence the title (or is that the only meaning??? Maybe there's some subtext there?? I wouldn't know, I'm a moron) They go on a road trip to meet his parents. The whole trip is weird, they get to the house and it's weird, and the parents are freaks. She gets no answers to any of her questions about the weirdness of the house, or the parents. She stumbles in a basement and there's a weird painting. She goes into Jakes bedroom and looks at picture. Shell later ask him about this picture and be pissed off about it. I'll stop at this point and note that the book falls all over itself to spoon feed you hints that maybe all is not as it seems. There's a running meta-narrative about some guy who maybe killed himself, I dunno, he's a loner, we never would have suspected blah blah blah. So anyway, they're driving home and stop at a dairy Queen for treats. In the middle of a snowstorm. Late at night. The girls behind the counter are somewhat mocking, and maybe our protag thinks she's seen them before? Or maybe not? Theres a third girl who actually makes the treats and she has a skin rash I guess. She offers some weird "I'm worried about you" warning to the protag, who leaves. In the car, our heroine continues her thinking about how bad this sucks and how much she wants to be home. Jake, in his wisdom, decides their treats are going to get sticky and decides to go down a side road to throw the trash away at a high school. In a blizzard. The lady does nothing but offer up the most mild of refusals and they make their way to this school. Boyfriend throws the trash away but acts all sketchy about it. We are all moving towards the end of the horror movie. He comes back to the car, protag demands to know why he went around to the back of the school, blah blah blah, they start to gently caress. Yeah, she doesn't have good instincts, I guess. Jake catches sight of some rando watching them try to gently caress, and dashes away with the keys to beat the guy up or whatever. Protag follows him into the school, cant find him, it's creepy, the janitor is weird, she finds messages that echo some of her weird stalker's voice messages. The book decides to drop the hammer, and treats us to mixed pronouns (switching to we vs I) and what feels like 10 whole pages of the phrase "what are you waiting for" over and over again, but since I've been told the book is only 200 pages total I doubt the author would have wasted 5% on a dumb gimmick. Oh, wait, no I don't. I bet he *did* waste that much paper on his loving stupid I'm-so-high-right-now-this-is-crazy freshman psychology class bullshit. Anyway, the ending is a muddled, vague morass of anti-closure. The whole book is actually the fantasy of some old piece of poo poo who's crazy and is playing what-if in his head before he offs himself because his life is sad and pathetic. There's a meet-cute at the beginning of the book between the lady and the boyfriend and the old janitor spends some excruciating time wringing his hands over not actually asking for her number in real life. So yeah, actually, the whole book, the protagonist, the parents (they're dead btw), the dairy queen, all of it is just the dying ramblings of some dude who could not make anything of his life and regrets it, I guess. Through a really pretentious lens, I could see this piece of poo poo book as satirizing the redpilled incel pricks littering the internet, but that's giving it faaaar too much credit. That you're apparently describing the books hamfisted breadcrumbing as "work" is honestly loving insulting and shame on you for implying I'm too dumb to get it. But please, tell me what I've misinterpreted. What am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? What am I waiting for? Me, for this loving book to end. 0/5 stars, again
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 04:17
|
|
|
Thanks for the plot synopsis I guess? For a book I’ve already read?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 13:51
|
|
|
Wait, I’m confused, is enjoyment of media a subjective experience or something?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 14:57
|
|
|
Conrad_Birdie posted:Thanks for the plot synopsis I guess? For a book I’ve already read? I'm not the one telling other people "you just don't get it". Anyway, opop makes a good point. Enjoyment is subjective. I didn't enjoy the book, you did, we can move on.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 15:06
|
|
|
FWIW I also enjoyed it but it's a book whose entire premise is kind of built on saying "gently caress you" to the reader about 3/4 of the way through, even more so than your standard "twist ending" kind of plot. Which, honestly, just seems like Iain Reid's whole deal because Foe does... mechanically similar things, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it? In any case, it's a book that I think it's entirely possible to completely understand what it's doing and both really love or absolutely despise and I'd find either reaction understandable, lol
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 15:09
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:FWIW I also enjoyed it but it's a book whose entire premise is kind of built on saying "gently caress you" to the reader about 3/4 of the way through, even more so than your standard "twist ending" kind of plot. Which, honestly, just seems like Iain Reid's whole deal because Foe does... mechanically similar things, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it? I think if I had known that ahead I might have enjoyed it more, but it goes against the nature of the book. Vitriol aside, I get why people would like this. It's not badly written in the same way a truly bad book would be.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 15:14
|
|
|
sephiRoth IRA posted:I'm not the one telling other people "you just don't get it". Yes I was just being a grump. I’m sure there’s plenty of books we agree are great.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 16:38
|
|
|
Nothing gets my blood hotter than arguing about books on the internet! I started the long walk after seeing the trailer for the movie and it's, okay? Part of my issue is that the book doesn't work as well in today's age where you have weirdoes who do super marathons on the regular. I know the book is centered on untrained 16 year olds, which is why the story works in the first place. I will say the tone of the dialogue does hit that sleazy 16yo boy vibe pretty well. I'm skeeved out by all of them, the main character included. It's not a great book, but it has its moments so far.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 17:05
|
|
|
sephiRoth IRA posted:That you're apparently describing the books hamfisted breadcrumbing as "work" is honestly loving insulting and shame on you for implying I'm too dumb to get it. But please, tell me what I've misinterpreted. You clearly understand it just fine and I agree the book is dogshit and also agree about how lame it is to be condescended to about it because it sure ain't something that gets better with work. I don't think the story is unrecoverable, I think the author just did a bad job writing it. I'm curious if you've read Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay and how you felt about it if so Fallom fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Sep 2, 2025 |
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:23
|
|
|
What is it about the horror threads this week? Shall we rename it "Slashfic & Seething September?" Maybe I should ask ChatGPT...
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:32
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:
  
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:36
|
|
|
So how do you guys feel about Between 2 Fires?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:50
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:So how do you guys feel about Between 2 Fires? Fuckin sucked (Jk I loved it) Fallom posted:You clearly understand it just fine and I agree the book is dogshit and also agree about how lame it is to be condescended to about it because it sure ain't something that gets better with work. I did, and I didn't like it for similar reasons! It's hard to say which executed it less well. I think I was more frustrated about Ending Things, but it had better moments of dread and so probably is the better of the two books. With Horror Movie, I was left with a "That's it?" sort of feeling. Just meh about it, I guess.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:57
|
|
|
The only thing that I can say negative about Between Two Fires is that it heightened my expectations for all the other Buehlman works to unreasonable levels.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 20:58
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:So how do you guys feel about Between 2 Fires? Do I need to read Between 1 Fires first or can I jump straight in
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 21:00
|
|
|
sephiRoth IRA posted:Fuckin sucked I think I end up with roughly the same conclusion about the two. Horror Movie is probably better executed, but it's also way more languid and feels about as insulting to the reader by the end. escape artist posted:The only thing that I can say negative about Between Two Fires is that it heightened my expectations for all the other Buehlman works to unreasonable levels. So far the only other book of his I've read is The Lesser Dead and it kicked rear end so I'm psyched if that holds up
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 21:09
|
|
|
sephiRoth IRA posted:Fuckin sucked That's the feeling I've left almost every Tremblay book with, honestly. I've only really liked A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock, and honestly I think I wouldn't view Ghosts very well on a re-read. Devil's Rock is... well, "languid" is a good word for it, to borrow the description from Fallom, but in that one it seems intentional--it's less of an out-an-out horror novel than kind of a meditation on loss through the lens of horror, so the pacing kind of works in its favor, so long as you're not expecting a traditional kind of ghost story. But Tremblay kind of always treats his books like he has all the time in the world to develop a meaningful plot, and seems to just... forget to do it, a lot of the time. I've kind of given up on him as an author if I'm honest, I've mostly been disappointed by what I've read from him. He definitely has some interesting ideas, but is fixated on those ideas to the expense of actually telling a story. I remember the "director's cut" of Cabin at the End of the World had some notes from him about how much he worked in various little bits of symbolism, like people touching a specific lamp in the cabin before violence happened or something like that, and it just felt so very, very contrived in retrospect. Like sure, that's cool in theory (maybe?), but if it results in the actual delivery of the story to feel stilted and unmotivated (which IMO that book was, constantly), none of your authorial intentions about symbolism and ritual really amount to much. Fallom posted:So far the only other book of his I've read is The Lesser Dead and it kicked rear end so I'm psyched if that holds up Honestly that one is probably his other best book that I've read, depending on your opinion of grimdark fantasy novels. If you are a fan, then Blacktongue Thief is pretty solid IMO. Those Across the River is okay, I don't regret reading it but it's not gonna set the world on fire. I honestly don't remember much about Suicide Motor Club other than it also involved vampires and wasn't nearly as good as Lesser Dead.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 21:57
|
|
|
I've only read his Head Full of Ghosts so far but found it pretty weird that the ending was in broad strokes, the same as the one from We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And it's pretty obviously intentional considering his character and the one from that book have such similar names. I liked it well enough up until that point, but I was just sort of bewildered and it put me off trying his other work.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 22:28
|
|
|
I've really liked all the Tremblay I've read but Horror Movie was a bit up it's own rear end and I didn't love the ending
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 22:34
|
|
|
DurianGray posted:I've only read his Head Full of Ghosts so far but found it pretty weird that the ending was in broad strokes, the same as the one from We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And it's pretty obviously intentional considering his character and the one from that book have such similar names. I liked it well enough up until that point, but I was just sort of bewildered and it put me off trying his other work. This was my gut feeling too. Too close to be coincidence, but it didn't feel like homage either. All in all I've been mildly let down by all of tremblays books, so I should probably stop giving them a chance. As for Buehlman, I thought those across the river was fine. As stated, not amazing, but entertaining and mostly well-written.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 22:59
|
|
|
I DNF'd Head Full of Ghosts in large part because of the We Have Always Lived in the Castle parallels, which gave me a huge case of "stop reminding me of a great book in your mediocre book." I flipped forward to the end, and, yeah. Knock that poo poo off. For Ending Things, I enjoyed the twist, mostly because there are so many straightforward dogshit stories of Woman With No Interiority Loves Mediocre Nerd Guy that the revelation that this one was authorially deliberate -- that the POV character has no life or interiority because she's imagined by the mediocre nerd, based on a woman he met once in passing and can't even conceive of an inner life for -- felt kind of refreshing? And you've got some clever tells in the text, like how Jake is displacing his own flaws onto the narrator. He's lactose intolerant in real life, but she's the lactose intolerant one in the fantasy narrative who has to watch him be served dairy desserts (although he doesn't ever eat them; his imagination doesn't go that far, I guess). It's a book I think is more clever than scary, but a decent read for that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2025 23:17
|
|
|
I also dnf'd Head Full of Ghosts because it was on audiobook and three hours went by without anything happening besides a teenage girl being edgy and mysterious.
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2025 10:59
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:I've really liked all the Tremblay I've read but Horror Movie was a bit up it's own rear end and I didn't love the ending This is true for me as well. I kept trying to like Horror Movie because I enjoyed all the previous books I read, so I spent the first half feeling like I must be missing something
|
|
#
?
Sep 3, 2025 14:08
|
|
|
The Throne of Bones was an amazing book, the grossest thing I've ever read and one of the funniest. The language is incredible, it really hits the sweet spot of not being as impenetrable as Wolfe or as ironic as Vance but still mysterious and sardonic. The titular The Throne of Bones story was the highlight, and the novella that closes the book didn't live up to what came before, but it was all good. I went on a tear of McNaughton's other work afterward, his short fiction collections Nasty Stories and Even More Nasty Stories scratch some of the same itch but they're hit or miss. I really like the Lovecraft-inspired story that began Even More Nasty Stories, but some of the following ones bored me. Also his short fiction set in the modern day seems to toy with disconnected ideas that don't go anywhere, like "a girl accuses her parents of a crime they didn't commit so she can steal their money, then on a later road trip she gets kidnapped by a crazy hillybilly. Story over." Okay, I guess she got her just desserts but it doesn't work that well as a story, it's missing the wit and feeling of connection that the Throne of Bones stories had. His Lovecraft lore inspired book Downwards to Darkness also doesn't work that well. The pacing is all over the place, characters enter and exit without much intention, and fates of the main characters doesn't feel justified. It feels like a first draft that could have been polished up into something really interesting if certain characters were introduced earlier and it didn't include such a long info dump on HP Lovecraft himself.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2025 02:21
|
|
|
Ccs posted:The Throne of Bones was an amazing book, the grossest thing I've ever read and one of the funniest. The language is incredible, it really hits the sweet spot of not being as impenetrable as Wolfe or as ironic as Vance but still mysterious and sardonic. The titular The Throne of Bones story was the highlight, and the novella that closes the book didn't live up to what came before, but it was all good. I went on a tear of McNaughton's other work afterward, his short fiction collections Nasty Stories and Even More Nasty Stories scratch some of the same itch but they're hit or miss. I really like the Lovecraft-inspired story that began Even More Nasty Stories, but some of the following ones bored me. Also his short fiction set in the modern day seems to toy with disconnected ideas that don't go anywhere, like "a girl accuses her parents of a crime they didn't commit so she can steal their money, then on a later road trip she gets kidnapped by a crazy hillybilly. Story over." Okay, I guess she got her just desserts but it doesn't work that well as a story, it's missing the wit and feeling of connection that the Throne of Bones stories had. Totally agree on Throne of Bones it owns. Thank you for reading McNaughtons other stuff too, I have purchased some of his other stuff for my kindle and will get around to it eventually but I kind of figured it might not be as good and Thrones.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2025 15:38
|
|
|
Just finished Adam Nevill's Last Days and while I think it's a lot more entertaining than The Reddening is still badly needed an editor and the last 10% or so really felt like he was giving up. I gotta just give up myself; I haven't been happy with anything he's written. This one had a really cool start, though, and a lot of interesting stuff going on most of the way through.
Fallom fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Sep 5, 2025 |
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2025 16:52
|
|
|
Fallom posted:Just finished Adam Nevill's Last Days and while I think it's a lot more entertaining than The Reddening is still badly needed an editor and the last 10% or so really felt like he was giving up. I gotta just give up myself; I haven't been happy with anything he's written. This one had a really cool start, though, and a lot of interesting stuff going on most of the way through. At least for me, Nevill undoubtably has some really cool ideas, but they're frequently couched in really rough/questionable construction, rambling or incoherent plots, poor pacing, or bad characterization. I don't think anything I've read from him has been outright terrible, more that most of it hasn't quite lived up to expectations, or like in the case of The Ritual, it's good for a decent chunk, then just loses the thread in the back half. The one exception, for me at least, was House of Small Shadows, which wasn't without some small issues here and there (IIRC my main gripe was that the protagonist is a bit of a cipher, her motivations are kind of baffling at times and she feels a bit like she's just there for the plot to happen to her, but it's been a few years since I've read it) but on the whole I really enjoyed it. I've been meaning to re-read it but honestly I'm worried it might have the same issues as the rest of his books I've read since, haha.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2025 17:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jan 15, 2026 21:06 |
|
|
I liked Last Days, but agree the ending flopped. Giving up feels like a good description. Maybe if he did have a better editor some of these neat ideas would land better.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2025 18:22
|
|