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Willy
In an isolated school for boys with emotional problems, a disturbed adolescent struggles against a mire of ignorance and oppression. Then he meets Willy ... and the other boy – charismatic and strange – saves him. Or damns him.
WILLY is a dark psychological thriller by the author of THE PINES, THE SHORE and MARTYRS & MONSTERS.
THE PRESS ABOUT ROBERT DUNBAR
“The catalyst for the new literary movement in horror.” ~ Dark Scribe Magazine
“Substantial amounts of panache and poetic insight.”~ Cemetery Dance Magazine
“A vivid literary voice.” ~ Shroud Magazine“Masterful” ~ HellNotes
“Never less than brilliant.” ~ The Black Abyss
“In a class all his own.” ~ The Aquarian
“Breathtaking eloquence.” ~ Dark Wisdom
WILLY is a dark psychological thriller by the author of THE PINES, THE SHORE and MARTYRS & MONSTERS.
THE PRESS ABOUT ROBERT DUNBAR
“The catalyst for the new literary movement in horror.” ~ Dark Scribe Magazine
“Substantial amounts of panache and poetic insight.”~ Cemetery Dance Magazine
“A vivid literary voice.” ~ Shroud Magazine“Masterful” ~ HellNotes
“Never less than brilliant.” ~ The Black Abyss
“In a class all his own.” ~ The Aquarian
“Breathtaking eloquence.” ~ Dark Wisdom
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2011
8 people are currently reading
1154 people want to read
About the author
Robert Dunbar
33 books734 followersRobert Dunbar is the author of the THE PINES TRILOGY, a series of supernatural thrillers – THE PINES and THE SHORE and THE STREETS. These novels have garnered extremely positive reviews, attracting a great many readers, and the author often blogs about his adventures in the genre world here at Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Dunbar has written for television and radio as well as for numerous newspapers and magazines. His plays and poetry have won awards, and his short fiction has been widely anthologized. You can find an interview with him here:
http://www.uninvitedbooks.com/page32....
Dunbar has been called "the catalyst for the new literary movement in horror" and "one of the saviors of contemporary dark fiction," which he loves… in no small degree because of how such comments provoke the troll community.
To learn more, drop by Robert Dunbar’s Literary Darkness discussion group.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
Dunbar has written for television and radio as well as for numerous newspapers and magazines. His plays and poetry have won awards, and his short fiction has been widely anthologized. You can find an interview with him here:
http://www.uninvitedbooks.com/page32....
Dunbar has been called "the catalyst for the new literary movement in horror" and "one of the saviors of contemporary dark fiction," which he loves… in no small degree because of how such comments provoke the troll community.
To learn more, drop by Robert Dunbar’s Literary Darkness discussion group.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
May 12, 2017
A thrilling, creepy, atmospheric tale of oppression and friendship, with one of the most remarkable unreliable narrators I've read. Perhaps the most difficult unreliable narrator challenge, for a writer, is the art of immersing the reader in a character through the language alone--making how the character speaks reflective of who he or she is. Dunbar pulls this off to perfection, with language that's "not quite right" in many ways, which tells us so much without having to explicitly tell us anything. The novel packs quite an emotional punch and has a literary eloquence that will take your breath away.
April 22, 2011
I have mixed feeling about this book. I was expecting a horror, but it is more of a suspense. I consider a horror something that tries to scare me. Willy did not do this. I was expecting a Gay novel, but this is a coming of age, consummated-hero-worship novel (ie, you and hero become friends). Even with my strong tendency to make all protagonists Gay in my mind, I did not get a sense of this at all. The boys were cute, though ;-)
I think a part of the problem came from my expectations. I had not read much about the book, but had seen how others had shelved the book (largely horror and GLBT) and had seen the types of sites that reviewed it (horror sites). I would call this a suspense or psychologic thriller or mystery. It instilled a strong sense that something was going to happen, something either queer or horrifying. I really don't know if that sense comes from expectations or from the book.
But the dénouement is too fuzzy for a mystery/suspense/thriller, at least for me. That I like books with ambiguous resolutions or ending underscores this. The best novels, IMO, allow me to decide the ultimate outcome, or meaning from my own experiences. I felt I needed more from Willy, though. I feel there is too much ambiguity. I wonder if knowing more from Willy's point of view would have helped me, if Willy is indeed real.
Amended:
All that said, I liked the book—thus 4 stars, as a mouse-over pops up "really liked it". The main characters were complex and interesting and I would like to find out more about them. The milieu was very well painted. Overall the book is well written. I still feel chilled from the snow and wind and have a sense of ennui that permeated the scholl's hallways. The journey was a good one. The destination left me feeling half empty, as perhaps it was.
I have not read much modern "horror", so maybe am too inexperienced to really get it. Or maybe I just did not get it period. Perhaps a re-read will help—probably will do if it comes up for discussion. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that I feel a need to understand Willy
I'm still thinking about this book which means it's better than the 3 stars I originally gave it. I think I got too caught up with genre concerns and should have taken what was given.
Amended Again 22 Apr 2011:
I am still thinking about this book, nearly every day. I cannot get it off my mind. I keep coming up with possible answers to all of the unanswered questions I have. I've been writing them down so I can looks for clues when I reread the novel. Since the protagonist remains unknown, I have decided to call him The Kid.
Bumped it up to 5 stars.
I think a part of the problem came from my expectations. I had not read much about the book, but had seen how others had shelved the book (largely horror and GLBT) and had seen the types of sites that reviewed it (horror sites). I would call this a suspense or psychologic thriller or mystery. It instilled a strong sense that something was going to happen, something either queer or horrifying. I really don't know if that sense comes from expectations or from the book.
But the dénouement is too fuzzy for a mystery/suspense/thriller, at least for me. That I like books with ambiguous resolutions or ending underscores this. The best novels, IMO, allow me to decide the ultimate outcome, or meaning from my own experiences. I felt I needed more from Willy, though. I feel there is too much ambiguity. I wonder if knowing more from Willy's point of view would have helped me, if Willy is indeed real.
Amended:
All that said, I liked the book—thus 4 stars, as a mouse-over pops up "really liked it". The main characters were complex and interesting and I would like to find out more about them. The milieu was very well painted. Overall the book is well written. I still feel chilled from the snow and wind and have a sense of ennui that permeated the scholl's hallways. The journey was a good one. The destination left me feeling half empty, as perhaps it was.
I have not read much modern "horror", so maybe am too inexperienced to really get it. Or maybe I just did not get it period. Perhaps a re-read will help—probably will do if it comes up for discussion. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that I feel a need to understand Willy
I'm still thinking about this book which means it's better than the 3 stars I originally gave it. I think I got too caught up with genre concerns and should have taken what was given.
Amended Again 22 Apr 2011:
I am still thinking about this book, nearly every day. I cannot get it off my mind. I keep coming up with possible answers to all of the unanswered questions I have. I've been writing them down so I can looks for clues when I reread the novel. Since the protagonist remains unknown, I have decided to call him The Kid.
Bumped it up to 5 stars.
May 2, 2011
Original review posted on Layers of Thought.
A disturbing and poignant coming of age story with elements of suspense and psychological terror which verges on the paranormal.
About: Arriving at his most recent boy’s school, the story’s narrator is among a number of “marginal” young adults living at the facility, perhaps with behavior problems or mental health issues – quintessential “lost boys”. The school appears to be their last resort before incarceration or asylums.
The story has a murky and gothic feeling – being set in an icy wintery season, containing dysfunctional adult characters, and taking place within decrepit halls and dusty corridors. Amazingly the story teller is never named. Lost in the system and within himself, our narrator tells his tale via cryptic journal entries, through which we see that he is “damaged” as he enters yet another broken educational facility.
Enter Willy, a charismatic, intelligent and contrastingly wealthy roommate to our story teller. He sees through the façade of the school and its teachers, and assists the boys to understand they are of value – especially our unnamed character. But this comes at a price, and as the story progresses the reader can only guess what is really going on.
My Thoughts: Through the narrator’s journaling, appropriate for a young person’s developing writing skills, the reader is led on a dark roller-coaster ride with only small glints of hopefulness. We see a lack of self worth, dark teacher student conflict, and a crooked system where the needs of the lost and disabled are not met by teachers/administrators. This is contrasted with emerging feelings of self discovery, including youthful romantic angst, and some normal coming of age fun and games.
Robert Dunbar’s grasp of the human experience is heart-piercing and he clearly understands these lost souls. Here, Willy is speaking to our main character:
One thing I think may be difficult for some readers is accessing the narrator’s language – a key to the story. It is choppy with some stream of consciousness thought which gives it a dissociative feel. However, I loved it and was at the edge of my seat while reading the book. The author effectively uses this and a variety of techniques to create a combination of angst and chills
In summary Willy, with its bits of resolution and redemption, was hard to put down. I think that it will be enjoyable for many mainstream readers, especially those who enjoy coming of age stories, stories that border on paranormal, and those that leave the reader wondering how it will all work out. There is some light m/m romance and glbt intimacy with tasteful sexual allusions, and also some slightly strong language and gore. This novel is distinctly intelligent, emotionally insightful and alarming; the reader is left with only a reference, a wonder, and a delicious dark suspicion of what has actually occurred. This genre-blending story gets 4 stars in my opinion. I loved it!
A disturbing and poignant coming of age story with elements of suspense and psychological terror which verges on the paranormal.
About: Arriving at his most recent boy’s school, the story’s narrator is among a number of “marginal” young adults living at the facility, perhaps with behavior problems or mental health issues – quintessential “lost boys”. The school appears to be their last resort before incarceration or asylums.
The story has a murky and gothic feeling – being set in an icy wintery season, containing dysfunctional adult characters, and taking place within decrepit halls and dusty corridors. Amazingly the story teller is never named. Lost in the system and within himself, our narrator tells his tale via cryptic journal entries, through which we see that he is “damaged” as he enters yet another broken educational facility.
Enter Willy, a charismatic, intelligent and contrastingly wealthy roommate to our story teller. He sees through the façade of the school and its teachers, and assists the boys to understand they are of value – especially our unnamed character. But this comes at a price, and as the story progresses the reader can only guess what is really going on.
My Thoughts: Through the narrator’s journaling, appropriate for a young person’s developing writing skills, the reader is led on a dark roller-coaster ride with only small glints of hopefulness. We see a lack of self worth, dark teacher student conflict, and a crooked system where the needs of the lost and disabled are not met by teachers/administrators. This is contrasted with emerging feelings of self discovery, including youthful romantic angst, and some normal coming of age fun and games.
Robert Dunbar’s grasp of the human experience is heart-piercing and he clearly understands these lost souls. Here, Willy is speaking to our main character:
“You don’t know what you are. You’re lost in yourself and you can’t always be. Would be a tragedy. Yes? No? Don’t nod like that. You don’t understand. Are you even awake enough to hear? It would be a tragedy because you feel, and you can’t imagine how rare that is, not yet. But you could. Be strong. If you survive long enough.”
One thing I think may be difficult for some readers is accessing the narrator’s language – a key to the story. It is choppy with some stream of consciousness thought which gives it a dissociative feel. However, I loved it and was at the edge of my seat while reading the book. The author effectively uses this and a variety of techniques to create a combination of angst and chills
In summary Willy, with its bits of resolution and redemption, was hard to put down. I think that it will be enjoyable for many mainstream readers, especially those who enjoy coming of age stories, stories that border on paranormal, and those that leave the reader wondering how it will all work out. There is some light m/m romance and glbt intimacy with tasteful sexual allusions, and also some slightly strong language and gore. This novel is distinctly intelligent, emotionally insightful and alarming; the reader is left with only a reference, a wonder, and a delicious dark suspicion of what has actually occurred. This genre-blending story gets 4 stars in my opinion. I loved it!
July 25, 2011
This rating is for you folks.
(I love reviewing the reviewers.)
Very little of my work has been as personal or as deeply felt as this book, and I never imagined that readers would respond so strongly. (There's a lesson here about trusting your own process -- I hope I've absorbed it.) I'm deeply moved by all these wonderful comments.
Thank you, everyone.
(I love reviewing the reviewers.)
Very little of my work has been as personal or as deeply felt as this book, and I never imagined that readers would respond so strongly. (There's a lesson here about trusting your own process -- I hope I've absorbed it.) I'm deeply moved by all these wonderful comments.
Thank you, everyone.
January 9, 2012
Excerpt:
Then I tumbled over a stiff knob of root that twisted like tree guts.
green green wet deep taste green
and a little red
Slow to get up. Twigs and dead grass stuck to me, but I like to feel them on my skin, the needles, in the palms of my hands, like I’m not just myself but part of ithe woods.
Kneeling there, it felt like I was thanking them for Willy.
In Robert Dunbar’s WILLY, passage after passage is worthy of note. In some sections, one senses a deliberate choice made for every word—a remarkable feat, given it is written as fourteen-year-old’s journal, complete with spelling errors. WILLY drips with atmosphere and tension.
Dunbar’s protagonist is a troubled boy newly arrived at yet another reform school or a ‘dump’ as Willy calls it, a dump for all the kids no one wants to deal with anymore. He’s been abandoned and beaten down for so long he’s forgotten anything else. Until he meets his roommate, Willy, and is taken under his wing.
Willy seems to all but run the school, battling its warped teachers, leading its damaged pupils, despite bouts of some mysterious illness. The teachers’ hate and fear of him is palpable. And yet, the boys love Willy. He is kind to the MC, protecting him, transforming him. But there is something sinister about Willy. He sees, he knows, too much. He is too aware.
Excerpt:
“You don’t know what you are. You’re lost in yourself and can’t always be. Would be a tragedy. Yes? No? Don’t nod like that. You don’t understand. Are you even awake enough to hear? It would be a tragedy because you feel, and you can’t imagine how rare that is, not yet. But you could. Be strong. If you can survive long enough.”
So Willy tells the protagonist. In Willy’s world, survival is not guaranteed.
Dunbar layers the plot with depth and subtlety. The MC is an unreliable narrator with an imperfect memory and a distinct lack of mental stability. He is damaged and desperate for love. His attachment to Willy borders on frantic. To inhabit his reality is intoxicating. And creepy.
The intimacy between Willy and the protagonist is delicately displayed, never feeling heavy-handed—the hesitations, the tests of loyalty, of love are right. The narrator’s self-expression gradually matures, as Willy draws him out of his shell.
Novels written in the format of a character’s journal can be problematic. There is the danger of the narrator knowing too much, or relaying information in a way that kills the tension, whether through a disbelief the character would write something a particular way, or simply losing the immediacy of events. Dunbar pulls it off. I never felt manipulated as details were revealed, as characters showed their colors. Dunbar leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. If you only like unambiguous endings, WILLY isn’t for you.
I won’t give anymore away. This is my introduction to Robert Dunbar’s work, and I cannot recommend it enough. I can’t help but be impressed by the balance between intense emotion and the dislocation of reality.
Then I tumbled over a stiff knob of root that twisted like tree guts.
green green wet deep taste green
and a little red
Slow to get up. Twigs and dead grass stuck to me, but I like to feel them on my skin, the needles, in the palms of my hands, like I’m not just myself but part of ithe woods.
Kneeling there, it felt like I was thanking them for Willy.
In Robert Dunbar’s WILLY, passage after passage is worthy of note. In some sections, one senses a deliberate choice made for every word—a remarkable feat, given it is written as fourteen-year-old’s journal, complete with spelling errors. WILLY drips with atmosphere and tension.
Dunbar’s protagonist is a troubled boy newly arrived at yet another reform school or a ‘dump’ as Willy calls it, a dump for all the kids no one wants to deal with anymore. He’s been abandoned and beaten down for so long he’s forgotten anything else. Until he meets his roommate, Willy, and is taken under his wing.
Willy seems to all but run the school, battling its warped teachers, leading its damaged pupils, despite bouts of some mysterious illness. The teachers’ hate and fear of him is palpable. And yet, the boys love Willy. He is kind to the MC, protecting him, transforming him. But there is something sinister about Willy. He sees, he knows, too much. He is too aware.
Excerpt:
“You don’t know what you are. You’re lost in yourself and can’t always be. Would be a tragedy. Yes? No? Don’t nod like that. You don’t understand. Are you even awake enough to hear? It would be a tragedy because you feel, and you can’t imagine how rare that is, not yet. But you could. Be strong. If you can survive long enough.”
So Willy tells the protagonist. In Willy’s world, survival is not guaranteed.
Dunbar layers the plot with depth and subtlety. The MC is an unreliable narrator with an imperfect memory and a distinct lack of mental stability. He is damaged and desperate for love. His attachment to Willy borders on frantic. To inhabit his reality is intoxicating. And creepy.
The intimacy between Willy and the protagonist is delicately displayed, never feeling heavy-handed—the hesitations, the tests of loyalty, of love are right. The narrator’s self-expression gradually matures, as Willy draws him out of his shell.
Novels written in the format of a character’s journal can be problematic. There is the danger of the narrator knowing too much, or relaying information in a way that kills the tension, whether through a disbelief the character would write something a particular way, or simply losing the immediacy of events. Dunbar pulls it off. I never felt manipulated as details were revealed, as characters showed their colors. Dunbar leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. If you only like unambiguous endings, WILLY isn’t for you.
I won’t give anymore away. This is my introduction to Robert Dunbar’s work, and I cannot recommend it enough. I can’t help but be impressed by the balance between intense emotion and the dislocation of reality.
October 23, 2014
If you hallucinate once, the line between the real and the imaginary can be blurred forever. But isn't this the very origin and beauty of fiction? On the pages of the journal of a youth growing up in isolation, Dunbar ties the knot between experience and the very process of writing, between the world and the word from the very first words, which open like a chasm under the reader's feet to suck us deep into the consciousness of a boy who struggles to make sense of the world, and is compelled, not so much by the suggestion of a psychiatrist, but by his own need to communicate and to explain his world to himself, whom we first meet being dropped off at the gates of a new school of eternal winter, a Cocytus where students society has forsaken are parked like cars no one sees any use for any more.
Swept in by the vernal winds that blow on the pages of the boy's account comes Willy, one of the most mysterious entities I have ever met in Literature, yet, one thing is sure, Willy is intelligent, smart, educated and the centre of the boy's and soon of the school's attention. Growing up in broken sentences at first, and developing thoughts alongside vocabulary and structure, the boy finds his own 'aptitude' as Dr Spenser says through Willy; for those who suffer from the same malaise, like myself, that aptitude is both a blessing and a damnation: Poetry...
Willy is an emotional roller coaster hanging in the skies of solipsism, beaten by the cold winds of Bildungsroman, mystery, that rises on the waves of Literature that break with violence onto the beach of self-awareness, and roar with the hellish uncertainties of Human psychology and the impossibility of awareness. It had me laughing out loud one moment, weeping the next, admiring Dunbar's creative genius and mastery of the written word and original fusion of structures, traditions, and themes. A wonderful read at all levels.
Swept in by the vernal winds that blow on the pages of the boy's account comes Willy, one of the most mysterious entities I have ever met in Literature, yet, one thing is sure, Willy is intelligent, smart, educated and the centre of the boy's and soon of the school's attention. Growing up in broken sentences at first, and developing thoughts alongside vocabulary and structure, the boy finds his own 'aptitude' as Dr Spenser says through Willy; for those who suffer from the same malaise, like myself, that aptitude is both a blessing and a damnation: Poetry...
Willy is an emotional roller coaster hanging in the skies of solipsism, beaten by the cold winds of Bildungsroman, mystery, that rises on the waves of Literature that break with violence onto the beach of self-awareness, and roar with the hellish uncertainties of Human psychology and the impossibility of awareness. It had me laughing out loud one moment, weeping the next, admiring Dunbar's creative genius and mastery of the written word and original fusion of structures, traditions, and themes. A wonderful read at all levels.
July 22, 2013
A young boy with serious emotional (and/or mental) problems is unceremoniously dropped off at a school for "last chance" cases. The campus is foreboding, the staff is unfeeling, unhelpful, or just plain creepy, & his roommate is nowhere to be found. All he has to keep himself company is his journal, which some former counselor urged him to write in as often as possible. So he does . . . throughout a series of increasingly disturbing events, and a friendship which threatens to either save or utterly destroy him.
Telling more than this would involve spoilers, and this is much too remarkable an experience to spoil. Lovers of classic horror, quiet horror, the Gothic, or the weird should put this concisely & lyrically written novel on their "to read" lists immediately.
Telling more than this would involve spoilers, and this is much too remarkable an experience to spoil. Lovers of classic horror, quiet horror, the Gothic, or the weird should put this concisely & lyrically written novel on their "to read" lists immediately.
March 25, 2011
Excellent book.
My full review can be read at Dark Scribe Magazine.
http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/rev...
My full review can be read at Dark Scribe Magazine.
http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/rev...
September 20, 2011
I've been thinking about this book a lot, which to me is an indicator of a great novel. It's the kind of book that leaves unanswered questions and drops hints throughout to let you draw your own conclusions. There are things I'm not really sure about and I will definitely have to read this again later.
Other reviewers have summarized this book pretty well, so I won't do that, I'll instead just give my impressions of it. As someone who is familiar with the struggles of mental illness and being a social outcast in school, the narrator's language and feelings resonated with me. I felt that he wrote with both social naivete and startling insight into people, if that makes sense. The part where he saw guys beating up the fat kid and the teacher not caring much showed that he did understand the darker parts of human nature. The descriptions he gave were lyrical and creative. One of my favorite descriptions was from a walk in the woods, "The mounds of pine needles feel all brown and rubbery, which is nice to step on, all splotched with gray like blood from clouds." I felt like I was given little treats throughout with phrases like that.
If you're a frequent horror reader, you probably do not expect a happy ending. Sometimes I feel like authors tack on some saccharine ending to keep the reader from feeling sad inside when it's over. You know what? I hate that. The ending of this book was a bit ambiguous, but I did feel chilled inside and a bit unsettled when it was over. Another reviewer stated that they felt the ending had a hopeful note to it. Either way you interpret this book, I think at least it makes you FEEL. Any book (or movie for that matter) that evokes an emotional response from me is a good one. I also believe any book that can have multiple interpretations has to be a layered, complex, masterful work.
In summary, WILLY is an amazing novel. It made me think of Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, or Henry James (if James didn't ramble on so much). WILLY deserves to become a classic of literary horror.
Other reviewers have summarized this book pretty well, so I won't do that, I'll instead just give my impressions of it. As someone who is familiar with the struggles of mental illness and being a social outcast in school, the narrator's language and feelings resonated with me. I felt that he wrote with both social naivete and startling insight into people, if that makes sense. The part where he saw guys beating up the fat kid and the teacher not caring much showed that he did understand the darker parts of human nature. The descriptions he gave were lyrical and creative. One of my favorite descriptions was from a walk in the woods, "The mounds of pine needles feel all brown and rubbery, which is nice to step on, all splotched with gray like blood from clouds." I felt like I was given little treats throughout with phrases like that.
If you're a frequent horror reader, you probably do not expect a happy ending. Sometimes I feel like authors tack on some saccharine ending to keep the reader from feeling sad inside when it's over. You know what? I hate that. The ending of this book was a bit ambiguous, but I did feel chilled inside and a bit unsettled when it was over. Another reviewer stated that they felt the ending had a hopeful note to it. Either way you interpret this book, I think at least it makes you FEEL. Any book (or movie for that matter) that evokes an emotional response from me is a good one. I also believe any book that can have multiple interpretations has to be a layered, complex, masterful work.
In summary, WILLY is an amazing novel. It made me think of Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, or Henry James (if James didn't ramble on so much). WILLY deserves to become a classic of literary horror.
March 24, 2011
Willy begins with the arrival of an unnamed adolescent at his next stop in the institutional cycle, a school for boys with emotional problems. His last doctor has suggested that he keep a diary, and so begins the story of a withdrawn child shuttled to a school that is so decrepit it barely functions. There he meets his new roommate, a boy named Willy, whose charisma draws the other young men to him.
Within the first few pages, Robert Dunbar thoroughly places you in the young diarist’s head, and it is heartbreaking to read the thoughts of a child with such low self-esteem. No one encourages him or attempts to draw him from his shell, except for the principal of the school and eventually Willy.
With the arrival of Willy, the diarist begins a subtle transformation that Dunbar communicates with eloquent prose. I was reminded of Flowers for Algernon as I read the diarist’s words grow from those of an isolated child to become the thoughts of a young man. Yet Dunbar doesn’t overreach by creating an adult clothed in an adolescent’s body; he stays true to the diarist’s character and he shows us how love can transform and damn a soul.
This is the kind of novel that makes me yearn for a book club that discussed superior dark fiction. With Willy, the reader gets the best of both worlds–an excellent story for the casual reader, but if you’re like me and like to look a little closer, Willy is a tale of depth both in terms of story and characterization.
This is Robert Dunbar’s finest novel to date and certainly my favorite.
Within the first few pages, Robert Dunbar thoroughly places you in the young diarist’s head, and it is heartbreaking to read the thoughts of a child with such low self-esteem. No one encourages him or attempts to draw him from his shell, except for the principal of the school and eventually Willy.
With the arrival of Willy, the diarist begins a subtle transformation that Dunbar communicates with eloquent prose. I was reminded of Flowers for Algernon as I read the diarist’s words grow from those of an isolated child to become the thoughts of a young man. Yet Dunbar doesn’t overreach by creating an adult clothed in an adolescent’s body; he stays true to the diarist’s character and he shows us how love can transform and damn a soul.
This is the kind of novel that makes me yearn for a book club that discussed superior dark fiction. With Willy, the reader gets the best of both worlds–an excellent story for the casual reader, but if you’re like me and like to look a little closer, Willy is a tale of depth both in terms of story and characterization.
This is Robert Dunbar’s finest novel to date and certainly my favorite.
February 1, 2011
What a wonderful book!I think that this is Rob Dunbar's best ever.The story is about a young adolescent who goes to a school for troubled kids and they when he tries to do the same thing that he did in other homes-playing invisible-it doesn't work because of who his roommate is...Willy.
Willy is brilliant and twisted and quickly takes the main protagonist under his wing.We don't learn exactly what Wily has done to place him in this setting but we know that it involved the hurting of others.
Without giving to much away this is a story about friendship and the possibilities of transformation because of who we are around.
This is a hauntingly beautiful book.
Willy is brilliant and twisted and quickly takes the main protagonist under his wing.We don't learn exactly what Wily has done to place him in this setting but we know that it involved the hurting of others.
Without giving to much away this is a story about friendship and the possibilities of transformation because of who we are around.
This is a hauntingly beautiful book.
August 20, 2011
A poignant story written in the form of a boys journal. He writes of his arriving in a boys boarding school, all that occurs there and the behaviour and emotions of himself and other boys particularly his main friend Willy. The story was engaging at times but I was expecting some more horror in the environment. As it's written in a style of a journal by a child, in first person account, it does not have chapters and the writing prose is not purposely of a high standard. It was put together well and just missing few things to make me like it that extra bit.
July 18, 2013
Ambiguous, atmospheric, darkly Gothic in pace and presentation. My first Dunbar piece, and I was not disappointed! Absolutely brilliant.
June 20, 2011
Title: Willy
Author: Robert Dunbar
Genre: Horror
Page Count: 257
Subgenre: Literary Dark Fiction
Publisher: Uninvited Books
Publishing Date: January 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9830457-2-4
Rating: Very Good
Excerpt:
“Walking near the field today, shouting started. That kid who wanted my homework and some other guys kept punching the fat kid. There was a whole tangle of them and a bunch of punches that kept missing, but not enough. One of the guys jumped up like this was a game or something and came down swinging his fists like a hammer. Mostly they just got in each other’s ways, but the fat kid had blood coming out of his nose. I hate to see stuff like that. He fell and got kicked hard. Then the Gym teacher showed up and made them stop, but with this “can’t help it, guys” expression on his face, like the kid deserved it for being fat. Then he had trouble standing up, and I felt worse when he wobbled a little and the guys laughed. The teacher took him away to take care of him but made a face doing it, and the fat kid knew it.
One of the kids who did the punching is the one with the short hair like he thinks he’s in the army of something. His skull shows all the way around. A couple of times he’s said something to me, and I think his name is Joe, too. Weird. Maybe everybody here is named Joe. It’s lunch now. He just came up to my table and told me not to study so hard. “Long as you don’t hang yourself of stab nobody they pass you.” I thought about making some kind of a crack about what if you stab yourself or hang somebody, but he was talking to some other kid by then so I just kept writing. He probably thinks I’m strange.”
Synopsis:
Willy, a novel by Robert Dunbar, is told entirely through the journal entries of a nameless boy with severe emotional problems. The teen is dropped off in the middle of the night at his new school which specializes in treating boys with psychological disorders. The school is a complex of decaying, Gothic structures surrounded by dark woods. It’s winter. The school’s founder, Dean Forester, is an old man who is dying. The school principal (and principle antagonist) is a Dr. Spenser. The faculty is a motley crew; some good teachers, some bad. A prefect named Bigelow keeps an eye on the boys at night.
The narrator eventually meets his roommate “Willy,” a charismatic, wise-beyond-his-years boy with Hannibal Lector-like powers of control over the other boys, as well as over the staff. Through Willy’s appreciation and teaching, the wounded narrator begins to heal and emerge from his shell.
Willy shares his powers with his new roommate — or transfers them. The two boys share intimate moments, including physical ones. As the novel progresses, the journal-writing narrator begins to take on Willy’s personality, becoming a figure of power in his own right. He also takes on Willy’s mission, which is to oppose Dr. Spenser; the sexual abuse of boys by Spenser is hinted at in the book.
When the climax occurs the journal-writing narrator is swept up in Willy’s life and mission. But is it really Willy’s mission — or some unnamed horror residing in the school itself?
Review:
There is a very skillful writer at work in Willy. Robert Dunbar has created a believable teen, with believable issues who, as the book progresses, comes out of his withdrawn state and starts to rejoin the world and heal. The vagueness of outer plot detail is complemented by Dunbar’s precision in relating inner details of his character’s emotional journey.
The nameless narrator begins the book almost completely introverted and all outer action is reported through his eyes. In addition to being an “unreliable narrator,” he’s made even more unreliable by mental illness. So the strength of Willy — its atmospheric, hermetic point of view — is also a weakness. We catch only glimpses of the outer world so the effect of the “horror” is diminished by its vagueness. It’s hard to know what’s going on out there.
Outer world events are inferred by snatches of conversation, hinted at by index cards hidden in a speech, presaged by the looming figure of a statue in a courtyard and, in the end, proved by a rising body count that seems almost gratuitously tacked on. Willy’s artistic and atmospheric rendering prevented it from being as gripping as it might have been.
Having said that, Robert Dunbar’s writing skills make Willy a book worth reading. The portrayal of students and faculty and the accounts of the boys’ bonding adventures are all fresh, credible and creatively told. The teen’s journal-writing insights are sometimes profound, but always honest and authentic. It’s nice how the boy’s perceptions grow keener as he emerges. Dunbar does cool things with typography, using strikethroughs to show his character’s indecision, or confusion. Mysteriously, other entries appear in the teen’s journal, heightening suspense and challenging the book’s own structure, yet they work.
In Willy, Robert Dunbar has written a book similar to Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas, a book that eschews a Hollywood (or any) traditional ending. Willy is a journey of healing, with darkness and horror both as a backdrop and a catalyst. Although Willy brightens in the end, the book remains as mysterious as mental illness itself.
Rating: Very Good
Author: Robert Dunbar
Genre: Horror
Page Count: 257
Subgenre: Literary Dark Fiction
Publisher: Uninvited Books
Publishing Date: January 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9830457-2-4
Rating: Very Good
Excerpt:
“Walking near the field today, shouting started. That kid who wanted my homework and some other guys kept punching the fat kid. There was a whole tangle of them and a bunch of punches that kept missing, but not enough. One of the guys jumped up like this was a game or something and came down swinging his fists like a hammer. Mostly they just got in each other’s ways, but the fat kid had blood coming out of his nose. I hate to see stuff like that. He fell and got kicked hard. Then the Gym teacher showed up and made them stop, but with this “can’t help it, guys” expression on his face, like the kid deserved it for being fat. Then he had trouble standing up, and I felt worse when he wobbled a little and the guys laughed. The teacher took him away to take care of him but made a face doing it, and the fat kid knew it.
One of the kids who did the punching is the one with the short hair like he thinks he’s in the army of something. His skull shows all the way around. A couple of times he’s said something to me, and I think his name is Joe, too. Weird. Maybe everybody here is named Joe. It’s lunch now. He just came up to my table and told me not to study so hard. “Long as you don’t hang yourself of stab nobody they pass you.” I thought about making some kind of a crack about what if you stab yourself or hang somebody, but he was talking to some other kid by then so I just kept writing. He probably thinks I’m strange.”
Synopsis:
Willy, a novel by Robert Dunbar, is told entirely through the journal entries of a nameless boy with severe emotional problems. The teen is dropped off in the middle of the night at his new school which specializes in treating boys with psychological disorders. The school is a complex of decaying, Gothic structures surrounded by dark woods. It’s winter. The school’s founder, Dean Forester, is an old man who is dying. The school principal (and principle antagonist) is a Dr. Spenser. The faculty is a motley crew; some good teachers, some bad. A prefect named Bigelow keeps an eye on the boys at night.
The narrator eventually meets his roommate “Willy,” a charismatic, wise-beyond-his-years boy with Hannibal Lector-like powers of control over the other boys, as well as over the staff. Through Willy’s appreciation and teaching, the wounded narrator begins to heal and emerge from his shell.
Willy shares his powers with his new roommate — or transfers them. The two boys share intimate moments, including physical ones. As the novel progresses, the journal-writing narrator begins to take on Willy’s personality, becoming a figure of power in his own right. He also takes on Willy’s mission, which is to oppose Dr. Spenser; the sexual abuse of boys by Spenser is hinted at in the book.
When the climax occurs the journal-writing narrator is swept up in Willy’s life and mission. But is it really Willy’s mission — or some unnamed horror residing in the school itself?
Review:
There is a very skillful writer at work in Willy. Robert Dunbar has created a believable teen, with believable issues who, as the book progresses, comes out of his withdrawn state and starts to rejoin the world and heal. The vagueness of outer plot detail is complemented by Dunbar’s precision in relating inner details of his character’s emotional journey.
The nameless narrator begins the book almost completely introverted and all outer action is reported through his eyes. In addition to being an “unreliable narrator,” he’s made even more unreliable by mental illness. So the strength of Willy — its atmospheric, hermetic point of view — is also a weakness. We catch only glimpses of the outer world so the effect of the “horror” is diminished by its vagueness. It’s hard to know what’s going on out there.
Outer world events are inferred by snatches of conversation, hinted at by index cards hidden in a speech, presaged by the looming figure of a statue in a courtyard and, in the end, proved by a rising body count that seems almost gratuitously tacked on. Willy’s artistic and atmospheric rendering prevented it from being as gripping as it might have been.
Having said that, Robert Dunbar’s writing skills make Willy a book worth reading. The portrayal of students and faculty and the accounts of the boys’ bonding adventures are all fresh, credible and creatively told. The teen’s journal-writing insights are sometimes profound, but always honest and authentic. It’s nice how the boy’s perceptions grow keener as he emerges. Dunbar does cool things with typography, using strikethroughs to show his character’s indecision, or confusion. Mysteriously, other entries appear in the teen’s journal, heightening suspense and challenging the book’s own structure, yet they work.
In Willy, Robert Dunbar has written a book similar to Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas, a book that eschews a Hollywood (or any) traditional ending. Willy is a journey of healing, with darkness and horror both as a backdrop and a catalyst. Although Willy brightens in the end, the book remains as mysterious as mental illness itself.
Rating: Very Good
June 12, 2016
I really had to think about this one.
When I started this book, I was really kind of on the fence. While I understood the concept, and, in turn, the stream-of-consciousness and seemingly unedited writing style, it was hard to focus on what was going on. I had to keep going back and reading things. As someone with not a whole lot of time and not much patience, this irked me. Still, I was pretty determined – having heard high praises of this book and drawn to the elements of queer romance in a horror novel, I kept plugging at it.
Damn, I'm so happy I did.
The premise is: our unnamed protagonist and unreliable narrator, who I'm going to call X from now on, is dropped without preamble at night in the middle of the term at a school for "wayward youths." The narrator feels so isolated and alone in his world that the only way he can make sense of it is to keep a journal – the book. He writes in it constantly, much to the bemusement of others. After some time of the narrator navigating this school alone and lost, enter his roommate, Willy - strange, highly intelligent, charismatic, idealistic. Other boys at school are drawn to him, and none more than the narrator. The two of them form an extremely close bond. From there, things seem kind of fun, the narrator comes out of his shell, boyhood antics and shenanigans abound.
Then things take a very sinister turn. Villains become heroes become villains again. Innocence and guilt, delusion and reality, truth and lies: they all blend together. There's only one thing we can be certain of, and it's that Willy is not who we believe him to be, but we can't be sure what he is.
Dunbar paints a masterful picture. The book is full of atmosphere. When seen through the eyes of a young man with an unidentified mental illness, reality becomes so blurred that the atmosphere becomes ever more confining. The whole book almost reads like a classic ghost story. The scares are subtle, they're psychological, and they come from the questions that arise: What happened, just now, to that teacher? Why did Willy say that? What does he know that we don't?
Much of our knowledge of Willy's past comes from snippets of conversation the narrator hears while wandering the halls and from a pilfered file that the narrator barely understands before disposing of it. I liked this mysterious way of giving us a different picture of Willy. It was a good way to show one side of Willy we are not privy to, because of the narrator's devotion to him. We know Willy is responsible for something, but we can never be sure what, and we can never be sure if we want to blame him when the only lens we have to frame him through is the narrator's. It's clear Willy did something Very Very Naughty – some teachers call him “evil,” another calls him a “monster” - but Willy has freed our narrator, shows him such gentleness and such inspiration that I couldn't find it in me to believe the nastiness. I was so torn.
The romance element is so subtle that I could've missed it, but towards the end, it wrecked havoc with my emotions. I couldn't put the book down because I was so emotionally invested in the narrator. There are allusions to sex and they are so perfectly in line with everything else - I love this even more, because I'd feared we were going to get some hokey four page long love scene, which has its place to be sure, just not in a book like this. Despite wanting to read more novels that break free from the heteronormative mainstream novels we find out in the world, I was also quite refreshed to see that neither the narrator nor Willy seemed to have any doubts or questions about what was happening between them. There was no “gay panic,” no weird confessions where someone says, “Just so you know, I'm gay.” If someone wanted to read it without that romantic subtext, it could be done – although I argue it would be eliminating a key part of the story – because it isn't so out there that Dunbar is shoving down our throats.
Basically, it all just comes off as so extremely natural.
I love horror. Everyone knows this about me, it is a fundamental part of my personality. I like to be scared. The only problem is, it's getting increasingly hard to scare me. Gore, demons, murderers – I can read about these things, turn out the lights, and sleep unplagued by nightmares. It takes a lot to knock me off-kilter. Willy did exactly that for me. It does everything right. While it raises more questions than it answers – something that I find infinitely frustrating – it does so entirely because we are reading a story from the point of view of someone who lives in a reality separated from our own. As such, his reality becomes ours and it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out what is the truth. It is from this questioning of the truth that my fear came from. How can I be confident, when I don't know who to trust anymore?
All I know is, I kind of love Willy – the book and the character. That's the only truth I could pick from the book. That, and it fucked me up for a few days. Actually, I'm still kinda fucked up about it. My coworkers are sick of hearing it. I told my mom to read it. I stayed up until 3am reading and tried to sleep off my confusion, only to wake up more unsure than ever.
I'll read this book again for sure, to answer all my questions, but also to just ride the roller coaster again. 5/5 stars without question – any book that can make my heart pound like that has really earned it.
When I started this book, I was really kind of on the fence. While I understood the concept, and, in turn, the stream-of-consciousness and seemingly unedited writing style, it was hard to focus on what was going on. I had to keep going back and reading things. As someone with not a whole lot of time and not much patience, this irked me. Still, I was pretty determined – having heard high praises of this book and drawn to the elements of queer romance in a horror novel, I kept plugging at it.
Damn, I'm so happy I did.
The premise is: our unnamed protagonist and unreliable narrator, who I'm going to call X from now on, is dropped without preamble at night in the middle of the term at a school for "wayward youths." The narrator feels so isolated and alone in his world that the only way he can make sense of it is to keep a journal – the book. He writes in it constantly, much to the bemusement of others. After some time of the narrator navigating this school alone and lost, enter his roommate, Willy - strange, highly intelligent, charismatic, idealistic. Other boys at school are drawn to him, and none more than the narrator. The two of them form an extremely close bond. From there, things seem kind of fun, the narrator comes out of his shell, boyhood antics and shenanigans abound.
Then things take a very sinister turn. Villains become heroes become villains again. Innocence and guilt, delusion and reality, truth and lies: they all blend together. There's only one thing we can be certain of, and it's that Willy is not who we believe him to be, but we can't be sure what he is.
Dunbar paints a masterful picture. The book is full of atmosphere. When seen through the eyes of a young man with an unidentified mental illness, reality becomes so blurred that the atmosphere becomes ever more confining. The whole book almost reads like a classic ghost story. The scares are subtle, they're psychological, and they come from the questions that arise: What happened, just now, to that teacher? Why did Willy say that? What does he know that we don't?
Much of our knowledge of Willy's past comes from snippets of conversation the narrator hears while wandering the halls and from a pilfered file that the narrator barely understands before disposing of it. I liked this mysterious way of giving us a different picture of Willy. It was a good way to show one side of Willy we are not privy to, because of the narrator's devotion to him. We know Willy is responsible for something, but we can never be sure what, and we can never be sure if we want to blame him when the only lens we have to frame him through is the narrator's. It's clear Willy did something Very Very Naughty – some teachers call him “evil,” another calls him a “monster” - but Willy has freed our narrator, shows him such gentleness and such inspiration that I couldn't find it in me to believe the nastiness. I was so torn.
The romance element is so subtle that I could've missed it, but towards the end, it wrecked havoc with my emotions. I couldn't put the book down because I was so emotionally invested in the narrator. There are allusions to sex and they are so perfectly in line with everything else - I love this even more, because I'd feared we were going to get some hokey four page long love scene, which has its place to be sure, just not in a book like this. Despite wanting to read more novels that break free from the heteronormative mainstream novels we find out in the world, I was also quite refreshed to see that neither the narrator nor Willy seemed to have any doubts or questions about what was happening between them. There was no “gay panic,” no weird confessions where someone says, “Just so you know, I'm gay.” If someone wanted to read it without that romantic subtext, it could be done – although I argue it would be eliminating a key part of the story – because it isn't so out there that Dunbar is shoving down our throats.
Basically, it all just comes off as so extremely natural.
I love horror. Everyone knows this about me, it is a fundamental part of my personality. I like to be scared. The only problem is, it's getting increasingly hard to scare me. Gore, demons, murderers – I can read about these things, turn out the lights, and sleep unplagued by nightmares. It takes a lot to knock me off-kilter. Willy did exactly that for me. It does everything right. While it raises more questions than it answers – something that I find infinitely frustrating – it does so entirely because we are reading a story from the point of view of someone who lives in a reality separated from our own. As such, his reality becomes ours and it becomes increasingly difficult to figure out what is the truth. It is from this questioning of the truth that my fear came from. How can I be confident, when I don't know who to trust anymore?
All I know is, I kind of love Willy – the book and the character. That's the only truth I could pick from the book. That, and it fucked me up for a few days. Actually, I'm still kinda fucked up about it. My coworkers are sick of hearing it. I told my mom to read it. I stayed up until 3am reading and tried to sleep off my confusion, only to wake up more unsure than ever.
I'll read this book again for sure, to answer all my questions, but also to just ride the roller coaster again. 5/5 stars without question – any book that can make my heart pound like that has really earned it.
August 31, 2011
Willy
by Robert Dunbar
Uninvited Books (2011)
257 pages
ISBN 9780983045724
With a title like "Willy," it's really easy to tap into my inner frat boy. And lord knows I blurted out, "can't wait to get my hands on Robert Dunbar's Willy well beyond the joke's expiration date. So, now that I've finally gotten round to reading this novel, it's time to get serious and offer my opinion on Robert's latest work.
Willy is not horror literature in the way most of us consider the genre, but it is most certainly dark fiction--very dark. The book starts in a strange fashion, and as the first few pages progress it becomes clear this is a story told by an adolescent boy as he writes in a journal, in the dark, on his way to his new school. It's a school for boys that winds up feeling like the land of misfit toys. All of the boys either have emotional issues or are downright crazy, and the same goes for some of the teachers, too.
At no point in the novel do I recall seeing the boy's name, which seems fair considering the book is in his own words, and who among us writes down our name in our diaries?
The boy's thoughts drift as he recounts his days, even writing things down as they happen, which gives the pace of the story a harried, through-the-keyhole ambiance, especially through the first half of the book. In a new school, surrounding by students and teachers who either confuse him or irritate him, the boy tries to keep to himself most of the time, but still manages to incur derision from just about everyone--until he meets his roommate Willy.
Willy has an aura about him, inspiring either fear or deference from the other boys in school--sometimes both--and as the boy writes in his journal, it seems Willy takes him under his wing. Then, some aspects of life at the school become easier for him. He has friends, he shows an aptitude in some classes, his latent love of poetry starts to shine through, and the shadows in the woods seem far less imposing. But, other things take a darker turn, as the principal holds a disdain towards Willy and the boy's friendship. This is where subtle hints of homo-eroticism start to seep out from the pages. Nothing is admitted outright, except for the boy's growing devotion to Willy, and a willingness to do whatever he can to remain in the enigmatic boy's life.
The novel was a hard one to get into for me, as the writing style was the antithesis of a hook--more like a bramble bush--and challenged me to read, an unspoken promise that things would become clearer, the deeper into this boy's mind I delved. At times the narrative feels like a tightrope, never knowing which way the boy's psyche might tip and fall, or if he might actually come out at the end unscathed, or at least intact. It's the kind of book that requires more than a day or so upon finishing to really appreciate. Even after you're done, the words will still creep up on you, like the things just out of sight in the woods where the boy wanders.
Willy is a far cry from Robert's debut novel, The Pines, which was outright horror. This novel is the personification of sinister subtlety. A few passages feel laborious, but the work as a whole is masterful.
by Robert Dunbar
Uninvited Books (2011)
257 pages
ISBN 9780983045724
With a title like "Willy," it's really easy to tap into my inner frat boy. And lord knows I blurted out, "can't wait to get my hands on Robert Dunbar's Willy well beyond the joke's expiration date. So, now that I've finally gotten round to reading this novel, it's time to get serious and offer my opinion on Robert's latest work.
Willy is not horror literature in the way most of us consider the genre, but it is most certainly dark fiction--very dark. The book starts in a strange fashion, and as the first few pages progress it becomes clear this is a story told by an adolescent boy as he writes in a journal, in the dark, on his way to his new school. It's a school for boys that winds up feeling like the land of misfit toys. All of the boys either have emotional issues or are downright crazy, and the same goes for some of the teachers, too.
At no point in the novel do I recall seeing the boy's name, which seems fair considering the book is in his own words, and who among us writes down our name in our diaries?
The boy's thoughts drift as he recounts his days, even writing things down as they happen, which gives the pace of the story a harried, through-the-keyhole ambiance, especially through the first half of the book. In a new school, surrounding by students and teachers who either confuse him or irritate him, the boy tries to keep to himself most of the time, but still manages to incur derision from just about everyone--until he meets his roommate Willy.
Willy has an aura about him, inspiring either fear or deference from the other boys in school--sometimes both--and as the boy writes in his journal, it seems Willy takes him under his wing. Then, some aspects of life at the school become easier for him. He has friends, he shows an aptitude in some classes, his latent love of poetry starts to shine through, and the shadows in the woods seem far less imposing. But, other things take a darker turn, as the principal holds a disdain towards Willy and the boy's friendship. This is where subtle hints of homo-eroticism start to seep out from the pages. Nothing is admitted outright, except for the boy's growing devotion to Willy, and a willingness to do whatever he can to remain in the enigmatic boy's life.
The novel was a hard one to get into for me, as the writing style was the antithesis of a hook--more like a bramble bush--and challenged me to read, an unspoken promise that things would become clearer, the deeper into this boy's mind I delved. At times the narrative feels like a tightrope, never knowing which way the boy's psyche might tip and fall, or if he might actually come out at the end unscathed, or at least intact. It's the kind of book that requires more than a day or so upon finishing to really appreciate. Even after you're done, the words will still creep up on you, like the things just out of sight in the woods where the boy wanders.
Willy is a far cry from Robert's debut novel, The Pines, which was outright horror. This novel is the personification of sinister subtlety. A few passages feel laborious, but the work as a whole is masterful.
March 5, 2017
My first thoughts are: What the hell did I just read? And why did I like it so much??
Basically I love this book and it will be very hard to explain why I like it, but I'm just going to list a couple things.
I found this book on a list of gay horror books, but I have a few problems with that. First of all, I don't think this is a horror book. It also calls it a psychological thriller which I also think is incorrect. It only felt like a mystery to me. Maybe a psychological mystery? Is that a thing? Or is that too close to thriller? All I know is that it didn't feel like a horror book or a thriller book, to me at least. And second, the fact that it was on a list of GAY horror books. I ended up being ok with the ambiguous homosexuality of it, but I was constantly waiting for them to kiss or something and that never happened. At least from what the character told us. I do believe they kissed or had some sexual experiences between the two of them, but it is only slightly implied.
One thing I thought constantly while reading this was "I will never be able to write this well." The author was just so clearly able to get the character's personality and mental instability across through the writing. It seriously always felt like I was reading a journal from an insecure and depressed teenager. It never felt like I was reading something the author had actually written. The unnamed main character just felt so real to me. Maybe more real than any character I've ever read.
I liked that the main character was unreliable. Sometimes I wanted to shake him and tell him to tell me everything because I needed to know so bad! But the way this was written and the fact that he was unreliable made this book an experience.
Willy (the character) was so fascinating to me. I wanted to know everything about him. And just what the hell was going on!?
I have so many unanswered questions that I feel like I will be revisiting this book again and again. I want to figure out the mystery. I have lots of suspicions, but nothing is confirmed. I know I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come. When I read that last sentence I just put my kindle down on my lap and stared straight ahead. This book is brilliant to me. I can't even explain properly.
If you don't like a plethora of unanswered questions, an unreliable narrator, and a serious open ending then this book is not for you. I can see it being very frustrating to some people, but anyone that's like me will love this!
Basically I love this book and it will be very hard to explain why I like it, but I'm just going to list a couple things.
I found this book on a list of gay horror books, but I have a few problems with that. First of all, I don't think this is a horror book. It also calls it a psychological thriller which I also think is incorrect. It only felt like a mystery to me. Maybe a psychological mystery? Is that a thing? Or is that too close to thriller? All I know is that it didn't feel like a horror book or a thriller book, to me at least. And second, the fact that it was on a list of GAY horror books. I ended up being ok with the ambiguous homosexuality of it, but I was constantly waiting for them to kiss or something and that never happened. At least from what the character told us. I do believe they kissed or had some sexual experiences between the two of them, but it is only slightly implied.
One thing I thought constantly while reading this was "I will never be able to write this well." The author was just so clearly able to get the character's personality and mental instability across through the writing. It seriously always felt like I was reading a journal from an insecure and depressed teenager. It never felt like I was reading something the author had actually written. The unnamed main character just felt so real to me. Maybe more real than any character I've ever read.
I liked that the main character was unreliable. Sometimes I wanted to shake him and tell him to tell me everything because I needed to know so bad! But the way this was written and the fact that he was unreliable made this book an experience.
Willy (the character) was so fascinating to me. I wanted to know everything about him. And just what the hell was going on!?
I have so many unanswered questions that I feel like I will be revisiting this book again and again. I want to figure out the mystery. I have lots of suspicions, but nothing is confirmed. I know I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come. When I read that last sentence I just put my kindle down on my lap and stared straight ahead. This book is brilliant to me. I can't even explain properly.
If you don't like a plethora of unanswered questions, an unreliable narrator, and a serious open ending then this book is not for you. I can see it being very frustrating to some people, but anyone that's like me will love this!
May 21, 2013
I have an obsessive passion for books. My friends know this and supply my need. That does mean however, that I have so many books on my computer that it threatens to overload regularly. It also means that my to-read queue is rather long. I received Willy as a Christmas present and it entered the ever-growing list. After reading James Keen’s review of The Shore, I decided to dig Willy out of the vault.
Providing a summary for this book is almost as challenging as reading the first few pages. We have an unnamed protagonist shunted into a decaying school for wayward boys. The entire novel is in first-person. Our unnamed boy keeps a journal and this is what we the readers are privy to as the novel itself. Normally I balk at first-person, but Dunbar makes it work here. Initially the entries are unreadable nonsense. The boy has been repeatedly written off by a broken system. He’s roomed with the mysterious Willy and as the novel progresses, Willy helps him sort out life, both figuratively and literally.
The first-person narrative works here because it allows Dunbar to maintain the mystery necessary to make this work. The essential question in this novel comes down to reality. What is real, imagined, or supernatural? Is Willy real or does our damaged child imagine him? We only see the boy’s perspective so there is no outside verification of anything in the novel. At one point, I even wondered if anything here was real. What if this boy is in an asylum making it all up? His own imagination at work? Dunbar weaves a tale of fantasy, unreality, insanity, and possibilities that leave the reader dazzled. Even the climatic ending (no spoilers here) is rife with ambiguity and raises even more questions about the authenticity of the boy’s narrative.
This is a complex, challenging read. There’s no gore, splatter, or violence. It’s dark, disturbing, and haunting. It’s a novel that I will pull off the shelves again knowing I’ve missed something., but realizing there will never be answers. A must-read.
Providing a summary for this book is almost as challenging as reading the first few pages. We have an unnamed protagonist shunted into a decaying school for wayward boys. The entire novel is in first-person. Our unnamed boy keeps a journal and this is what we the readers are privy to as the novel itself. Normally I balk at first-person, but Dunbar makes it work here. Initially the entries are unreadable nonsense. The boy has been repeatedly written off by a broken system. He’s roomed with the mysterious Willy and as the novel progresses, Willy helps him sort out life, both figuratively and literally.
The first-person narrative works here because it allows Dunbar to maintain the mystery necessary to make this work. The essential question in this novel comes down to reality. What is real, imagined, or supernatural? Is Willy real or does our damaged child imagine him? We only see the boy’s perspective so there is no outside verification of anything in the novel. At one point, I even wondered if anything here was real. What if this boy is in an asylum making it all up? His own imagination at work? Dunbar weaves a tale of fantasy, unreality, insanity, and possibilities that leave the reader dazzled. Even the climatic ending (no spoilers here) is rife with ambiguity and raises even more questions about the authenticity of the boy’s narrative.
This is a complex, challenging read. There’s no gore, splatter, or violence. It’s dark, disturbing, and haunting. It’s a novel that I will pull off the shelves again knowing I’ve missed something., but realizing there will never be answers. A must-read.
January 12, 2012
Willy is a darkly poetic, occasionally surreal coming of age gothic, narrated in the first person by a damaged teenager in a remote, decaying reform school for boys. The book is distinguished chiefly by its flawlessly executed first-person adolescent narrative voice - I’d rank Dunbar’s work in this regard as on a par with the master, Lynda Barry - it never once rang a false note. As with Dunbar’s other novels of dark fiction, his characters are not of the rank-and-file middle class, but those left behind by society, attempting to survive in often brutally harsh environments, usually getting through only by dint of their own grit and determination. Our protagonist here is not only the classic Unreliable Narrator, but also likely in dire need of serious psychotropic medications: a Holden Caufield with problems extending far beyond mere comfortable existential angst. The story unfolds ambiguously at a deliberate pace; we never quite know whether the narrator’s relationship with the title character, the mysterious, perhaps sinister Willy, is ultimately more bad than good for him, their classmates and the school faculty; Dunbar trusts his readers to fill in the many blanks to their own satisfaction. All of these inexplicable, ominous and touching elements come together in the end for a story that may hang about your thoughts for days afterward.
July 15, 2013
If you are looking for something easy to categorize, a book that asks questions and answers them in comforting ways, or typical horror tropes, you're not going to like this book. If you're looking for that rare thing, a book that refuses to hold your hand, that leaves you thinking about the characters and the mysteries long after the last page, this is for you.
The entire story is presented from one point of view, the unreliable observations of a teen boy who writes obsessively in a journal. From the very first page you're knocked off balance, and you can't help but feel a bit like a voyeur as you read his innermost thoughts and feelings. This unnamed narrator is probably one of the most sympathetic characters I've ever met in any dark literature, and it's very much to the author's credit that there aren't any truly "evil" characters in the book at all. Or are there? How you answer this question probably says more about how you approach the book, and life, then it does about the characters themselves. And isn't that exactly what fiction is supposed to do?
The entire story is presented from one point of view, the unreliable observations of a teen boy who writes obsessively in a journal. From the very first page you're knocked off balance, and you can't help but feel a bit like a voyeur as you read his innermost thoughts and feelings. This unnamed narrator is probably one of the most sympathetic characters I've ever met in any dark literature, and it's very much to the author's credit that there aren't any truly "evil" characters in the book at all. Or are there? How you answer this question probably says more about how you approach the book, and life, then it does about the characters themselves. And isn't that exactly what fiction is supposed to do?
May 2, 2011
This is one of the most incredible books I've ever read.
March 2, 2015
These reviews will be quoted in subsequent editions of the book.
“Unique ... highly recommended.”
Midwest Book Review
“Profound ... honest and authentic ... a journey of healing.”
The Reading Review
“Dark and complex ... a book that will stay with you.”
Reader Advisory Board
“Dunbar, oddly, is a light in a world that is all about darkness.”
LL Book Review
“Heartbreaking ... subtle ... eloquent.”
Book Love
“Challenging and satisfying.”
Nights & Weekends
“Powerful and compelling … in a genre-busting tour de force, Robert Dunbar has redefined the beauty of dark literature.”
Literary Mayhem
“A masterpiece.”
The Kindle Book Review
“Disturbing and poignant.”
Layers of Thought
“Lyrical and suspenseful … a tour de force.”
Shroud Magazine
“Masterful … expertly crafted … horror at its best, most fulfilling.”
Dark Scribe
“One of the finest pieces of dark fiction that I have read.”
SF Signal
“Stunning and emotionally intense … deeply moving.”
The Black Abyss
“Terrifyingly beautiful.”
HellNotes
“Only a writer of unusual talent and discipline could create such an assured and impressive novel.”
The Fright Site
“A welcome change from the average horror novel. Dunbar challenges us to examine the true nature of evil.”
Dark Media Magazine
“Very much an example of adult horror, with all the intelligence, sophistication and ambiguity that implies ... a compelling reading experience.”
TerrorFlicks.com
“It just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Horror World
“Will leave an indelible mark on those who read it.”
HorrorNews.net
“This harrowing novel transcends genre.”
Tomb of Dark Delights
“This is a must-read book.”
To-The-Bone Reviews
“A unique voice and perspective.”
Queer Magazine Online
“Superb.”
Southern Rose Reviews
“Masterful.”
Rabid Reads
“An intense look at fear, power and the nature of evil.”
Famous Monsters of Filmland
“Unique ... highly recommended.”
Midwest Book Review
“Profound ... honest and authentic ... a journey of healing.”
The Reading Review
“Dark and complex ... a book that will stay with you.”
Reader Advisory Board
“Dunbar, oddly, is a light in a world that is all about darkness.”
LL Book Review
“Heartbreaking ... subtle ... eloquent.”
Book Love
“Challenging and satisfying.”
Nights & Weekends
“Powerful and compelling … in a genre-busting tour de force, Robert Dunbar has redefined the beauty of dark literature.”
Literary Mayhem
“A masterpiece.”
The Kindle Book Review
“Disturbing and poignant.”
Layers of Thought
“Lyrical and suspenseful … a tour de force.”
Shroud Magazine
“Masterful … expertly crafted … horror at its best, most fulfilling.”
Dark Scribe
“One of the finest pieces of dark fiction that I have read.”
SF Signal
“Stunning and emotionally intense … deeply moving.”
The Black Abyss
“Terrifyingly beautiful.”
HellNotes
“Only a writer of unusual talent and discipline could create such an assured and impressive novel.”
The Fright Site
“A welcome change from the average horror novel. Dunbar challenges us to examine the true nature of evil.”
Dark Media Magazine
“Very much an example of adult horror, with all the intelligence, sophistication and ambiguity that implies ... a compelling reading experience.”
TerrorFlicks.com
“It just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Horror World
“Will leave an indelible mark on those who read it.”
HorrorNews.net
“This harrowing novel transcends genre.”
Tomb of Dark Delights
“This is a must-read book.”
To-The-Bone Reviews
“A unique voice and perspective.”
Queer Magazine Online
“Superb.”
Southern Rose Reviews
“Masterful.”
Rabid Reads
“An intense look at fear, power and the nature of evil.”
Famous Monsters of Filmland
July 16, 2013
‘Willy’ has one of the more unreliable narrators I’ve ever read. This being an epistolary novel, told in personal entries in a tattered school notebook, the narrator, naturally, never names himself. Because of this, we have to assume the narrator is Willy, until, about a quarter of the way through when we are introduced to Willy and begin to think otherwise, raising more questions than answers.
The foreboding atmosphere early on and suggestions of evil, especially in the forest, I believe, are very important to the story as a whole. What’s also very important is the extent of Willy’s influence over the narrator. Who are these kids really? We have very little background, especially considering the narrator’s self-admitted inability to understand and remember things.
The ending is very interesting and exciting. I couldn’t stop reading. Dunbar has done a masterful job of pulling us along through this sinister and suggestive world using a narrator that never really tells us what’s happening.
I have theories, but how can I be certain? Loved it!
The foreboding atmosphere early on and suggestions of evil, especially in the forest, I believe, are very important to the story as a whole. What’s also very important is the extent of Willy’s influence over the narrator. Who are these kids really? We have very little background, especially considering the narrator’s self-admitted inability to understand and remember things.
The ending is very interesting and exciting. I couldn’t stop reading. Dunbar has done a masterful job of pulling us along through this sinister and suggestive world using a narrator that never really tells us what’s happening.
I have theories, but how can I be certain? Loved it!
July 7, 2013
I'm not sure how to describe this book.
I loved it.
I loved the creepiness of it, the atmosphere, the haunted, heavy feeling it gave me as I read.
The unknown-ness of the narrator, how he didn't even know himself...
...and Willy. What about him? Why did the narrator love him so much--who was he, why was he at the school?
What was the school? What kind of place was that, that the teachers didn't care at all, and the other students all seemed to not care either?
What was the ending? I feel like there was much more than the other students wanting the narrator to build a snowman, but what...?
I loved this book. I'm having a hard time talking about it, because to talk about it would be to spoil the plot. There are so many things I want to quote, so many moments that are beautiful in a dreadful way...
I loved it.
I loved the creepiness of it, the atmosphere, the haunted, heavy feeling it gave me as I read.
The unknown-ness of the narrator, how he didn't even know himself...
...and Willy. What about him? Why did the narrator love him so much--who was he, why was he at the school?
What was the school? What kind of place was that, that the teachers didn't care at all, and the other students all seemed to not care either?
What was the ending? I feel like there was much more than the other students wanting the narrator to build a snowman, but what...?
I loved this book. I'm having a hard time talking about it, because to talk about it would be to spoil the plot. There are so many things I want to quote, so many moments that are beautiful in a dreadful way...
July 2, 2011
Terrific stuff. A thought provoking story, with characters that just jump of the page. I loved it start to finish, and Robert Dunbar's use of language is a delight. A full five stars.
June 6, 2012
Dunbar's writing style is intentionally obscure.
As a horror afficionado, my imaginings went down dark twisted paths. Maybe that is the genius of Willy. It takes you where you are willing to go.
As a horror afficionado, my imaginings went down dark twisted paths. Maybe that is the genius of Willy. It takes you where you are willing to go.
March 30, 2012
A masterpiece, unique and brilliant writing.
February 20, 2014
Excellent from page one. Highly recommended. Very few authors on my 'must buy' list, Robert Dunbar will be one.
September 30, 2013
I finished this beauty a couple of weeks ago but wanted to let it sit a while before writing a review. Well, I'm still engaged, still haunted and still a big fan of this gorgeous and mysterious piece of work.
A nameless protagonist narrates this story from fractured start to swirling end and his voice, well, talk about character arc! We first meet him as he sits in a bus that's barreling down a frozen road in the middle of the night, headed for what seems like the latest in a long list of reform schools. Traumatized by his past, he is compelled to write down his mangled thoughts in a notebook. This notebook is Dunbar's novel, and he does an incredible job capturing the fragmented and dissociative twists of a distressed young mind. When our boy is deposited at his new school, a gothic treat of a place, and finally meets his roommate, Willy, we get to see a remarkable process of integration as Willy nurtures our boy into being, not only comprehensible, but poetic.
I'm not one for regurgitating plot in a review, so let me get to the point. Dunbar is a master at creating place and his plot is solid. But where, for me at least, he really excels is his treatment of character. He writes with so much compassion that I couldn't help being profoundly impacted by our protagonist. He's so damned vulnerable and such a perfect picture of the Outsider that I wanted to reach inside the book, rip him out and stuff him under my wing. But, thankfully, Willy did that for me.
Willy is a charismatic, brilliant kid, the perfect subversive and wickedly creative. Some would see him as an antagonist, but I sure didn’t. If anything, he is an ally, a creature of unknowable origin and nature. What unfolds between the boys is intimate and full of mystery. Much is left to the reader’s imagination when it comes to exactly how intimate, which is a classy move on Dunbar’s part. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that there’s a nice reversal in the end.
Overall, a taut, beautiful and evocative read. Looking forward to following Dunbar’s career.
Nganga
A nameless protagonist narrates this story from fractured start to swirling end and his voice, well, talk about character arc! We first meet him as he sits in a bus that's barreling down a frozen road in the middle of the night, headed for what seems like the latest in a long list of reform schools. Traumatized by his past, he is compelled to write down his mangled thoughts in a notebook. This notebook is Dunbar's novel, and he does an incredible job capturing the fragmented and dissociative twists of a distressed young mind. When our boy is deposited at his new school, a gothic treat of a place, and finally meets his roommate, Willy, we get to see a remarkable process of integration as Willy nurtures our boy into being, not only comprehensible, but poetic.
I'm not one for regurgitating plot in a review, so let me get to the point. Dunbar is a master at creating place and his plot is solid. But where, for me at least, he really excels is his treatment of character. He writes with so much compassion that I couldn't help being profoundly impacted by our protagonist. He's so damned vulnerable and such a perfect picture of the Outsider that I wanted to reach inside the book, rip him out and stuff him under my wing. But, thankfully, Willy did that for me.
Willy is a charismatic, brilliant kid, the perfect subversive and wickedly creative. Some would see him as an antagonist, but I sure didn’t. If anything, he is an ally, a creature of unknowable origin and nature. What unfolds between the boys is intimate and full of mystery. Much is left to the reader’s imagination when it comes to exactly how intimate, which is a classy move on Dunbar’s part. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say that there’s a nice reversal in the end.
Overall, a taut, beautiful and evocative read. Looking forward to following Dunbar’s career.
Nganga
July 5, 2011
Full review and interview with Robert Dunbar, at the site http://flyingwithredhaircrow.wordpres...
At a home for troubled youths, a young man struggling with his own emotions becomes integrally involved with Willy, another young student with problems of his own, both internally and externally, past and present. I found the narrative to be admirably in character at all times, yet the style didn't work for me. For me it very difficult to move through the book though certain descriptions and ideas did stand out, and I understood the method and reason behind the choice.
The language used was very visual, often intense yet believable in an ordinary way so that when you realize the suspense has built, it's almost a surprise. You're surrounded, and find yourself entirely immersed in the drama the main character is experiencing.
Personally, for the homo-erotic content some readers or reviewers mentioned, I must be eclectic or very open-minded or it's a Berliner thing, but the interaction that happened seemed entirely normal to me (that's a good thing) and representative of adolescent exploration that simply isn't often admitted by those who may feel threatened by the spectrum of sexuality after they become adults. For the dark psychological aspects, perhaps because I'm a Psychology major and have worked with severely troubled children and adolescents in the past, the story didn't seem overly heavy or dark to me. Seen too many things far worse.
I found "Willy" to have a unique voice and perspective that certainly would appeal to many readers.
At a home for troubled youths, a young man struggling with his own emotions becomes integrally involved with Willy, another young student with problems of his own, both internally and externally, past and present. I found the narrative to be admirably in character at all times, yet the style didn't work for me. For me it very difficult to move through the book though certain descriptions and ideas did stand out, and I understood the method and reason behind the choice.
The language used was very visual, often intense yet believable in an ordinary way so that when you realize the suspense has built, it's almost a surprise. You're surrounded, and find yourself entirely immersed in the drama the main character is experiencing.
Personally, for the homo-erotic content some readers or reviewers mentioned, I must be eclectic or very open-minded or it's a Berliner thing, but the interaction that happened seemed entirely normal to me (that's a good thing) and representative of adolescent exploration that simply isn't often admitted by those who may feel threatened by the spectrum of sexuality after they become adults. For the dark psychological aspects, perhaps because I'm a Psychology major and have worked with severely troubled children and adolescents in the past, the story didn't seem overly heavy or dark to me. Seen too many things far worse.
I found "Willy" to have a unique voice and perspective that certainly would appeal to many readers.
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