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The Captive Condition
A seemingly idyllic Midwestern college town turns out to be a nexus of horror in this spellbinding novel—emotionally and psychologically complex, at once chilling and deliciously dark—from a thrilling new voice in fiction.
When Emily Ryan is found drowned in the family pool, pumped full of barbiturates and alcohol, a series of events with cataclysmic consequences ensues. Emily’s lover, a college professor, finds himself responsible for her twin daughters, whose piercing stares fill him with the guilt and anguish he so desperately tries to hide from his wife. A low-level criminal named The Gonk takes over the cottage of a reclusive elderly artist, complete with graveyard and moonshine still, and devises plans for both. His young apprentice, haunted by inner demons, seeks retribution for the professor’s wicked deeds. The town itself, buzzing into decadent life after sundown, traps its inhabitants in patterns of inexplicable behavior all the while drawing them toward a night in which the horror will reach its disturbing and inevitable conclusion.
Delving into the deepest recesses of the human capacity for evil, Kevin P. Keating’s masterful novel will captivate readers from first to last.
When Emily Ryan is found drowned in the family pool, pumped full of barbiturates and alcohol, a series of events with cataclysmic consequences ensues. Emily’s lover, a college professor, finds himself responsible for her twin daughters, whose piercing stares fill him with the guilt and anguish he so desperately tries to hide from his wife. A low-level criminal named The Gonk takes over the cottage of a reclusive elderly artist, complete with graveyard and moonshine still, and devises plans for both. His young apprentice, haunted by inner demons, seeks retribution for the professor’s wicked deeds. The town itself, buzzing into decadent life after sundown, traps its inhabitants in patterns of inexplicable behavior all the while drawing them toward a night in which the horror will reach its disturbing and inevitable conclusion.
Delving into the deepest recesses of the human capacity for evil, Kevin P. Keating’s masterful novel will captivate readers from first to last.
270 pages, Hardcover
First published July 7, 2015
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801 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
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July 14, 2015if you removed all the adverbs and adjectives from this book, it would be about 14 pages.
Some of them, I noticed, drank Belgian beer from frosty snifters and belched softly into palsied fists.
the beginning is very affected and self-consciously lovecraftian. i got as far as page 90 - i may or may not continue after i take a little break. i will wait for more reviews...
Some of them, I noticed, drank Belgian beer from frosty snifters and belched softly into palsied fists.
the beginning is very affected and self-consciously lovecraftian. i got as far as page 90 - i may or may not continue after i take a little break. i will wait for more reviews...
March 19, 2016
I think this is not a novel that suits everyone. Personally, I just found it too wordy, there were just too much and too lengthy descriptions that made me lose track of the story that and made me wonder where the point of the story was? And, that is too bad because in essence we have an interesting story with interesting characters, but they get lost in all the prattle.
I admit that I took I break from the book after I had read 60% and read some other books and then I returned to the book to see if the book felt better to read. And, it was still wordy, but it was a bit better because before it felt that nothing really happened to the story. I could read pages after pages, but the story felt that it didn't move forward. But after my break, at least, the story felt a bit better, things started to happen at least.
My native language isn't English, but I usually have no problem with reading English books. With this one was I happy that it was an ebook so that I could easily look up words that I didn't know and I'm used to it. A good way to learn new words, but I just don't like books that feel like the author is really trying to use as many difficult and less known words as possible. I don't even like to read that kind of books in Swedish.
I can't say I truly enjoyed reading this book. But it had its moments. I liked the story about the twins and Morgan and Lorelai. The professor, Martin Kingsley, and Emily Ryan's story was just not that interesting and that made everything involved Edmund Campion just as uninteresting to read. I like the background of the town as explained in the beginning of the book. But alas this was just not a book for me.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a blog tour at TLC Book Tours.
I admit that I took I break from the book after I had read 60% and read some other books and then I returned to the book to see if the book felt better to read. And, it was still wordy, but it was a bit better because before it felt that nothing really happened to the story. I could read pages after pages, but the story felt that it didn't move forward. But after my break, at least, the story felt a bit better, things started to happen at least.
My native language isn't English, but I usually have no problem with reading English books. With this one was I happy that it was an ebook so that I could easily look up words that I didn't know and I'm used to it. A good way to learn new words, but I just don't like books that feel like the author is really trying to use as many difficult and less known words as possible. I don't even like to read that kind of books in Swedish.
I can't say I truly enjoyed reading this book. But it had its moments. I liked the story about the twins and Morgan and Lorelai. The professor, Martin Kingsley, and Emily Ryan's story was just not that interesting and that made everything involved Edmund Campion just as uninteresting to read. I like the background of the town as explained in the beginning of the book. But alas this was just not a book for me.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for a blog tour at TLC Book Tours.
June 15, 2015
Let’s get this part out of the way: this is a breakthrough novel, one that makes a career. It’s a book that forces the reader to consider the author behind it, if only so that you can avoid him on the street. It’s so unrelentingly bleak you have to wonder about the mind that created it. You worry about the author’s mental wellbeing and feel a twinge of guilt because you’ve so enjoyed what he pulled out of there and set down on the page.
The plot of The Captive Condition is simple, deceptively so. A young woman named Emily Ryan drowns in her pool one night and a young man wonders why. Was it an accident brought on by too many pills and too much booze? Was it suicide? Was she murdered? The backdrop for this drama is Normandy Falls, a factory town somewhere in NE Ohio, barely hanging on after the factories have died. If the town had a welcome sign, it would read: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter.
This is a tricky book. A sly book. It appears to be told in the third person, as we get enter the minds of the town’s most depraved inhabitants a chapter at a time. But we eventually learn that the story is being filtered through the mind of that young man, Campion, who fell in love with Emily Ryan from afar. Campion is a graduate of a Jesuit prep school that is a dark reflection of St. Ignatius, where author Kevin Keating went to school. Campion moved to Normandy Falls to attend college but dropped out and joined the maintenance staff, instead. Campion is probably going insane. In fact, he believes Emily’s ghost is communicating through him, using his body as a medium, telling him the “truth” about Normandy Falls. As such, the circumstances and events presented to us in The Captive Condition read like a never-ending nightmare, the delusions of a schizophrenic. After all, no town can be full of so much despair, can it?
Everyone in Normandy Falls is damned. There’s Professor Martin Kingsley, who lives beside Emily, a lech who has been sleeping with her while her husband ships loads of iron ore across Lake Erie. There’s Emily’s twin daughters who watch her body float in the pool with a detached curiosity. Down at the town bistro, chef Xavier brews a rare and potent psychedelic carrot drink called jazar juice, which he sells out the back door so that he can earn enough cash to escape to Delacroix Cay. His waitress, Morgan, plans to steal his money, though, and run away with her lesbian lover. And let’s not forget “the Gonk” Campion’s boss, who blinds him in one eye during a new-employee hazing ritual.
The plot is juicy but it’s Keating’s wordplay that draws a reader in. Early reviewers have already compared his command of prose to Franzen or DFW. Consider the opening lines of the novel:
During the quiet hours after midnight on New Year’s Day, the ghosts of Normandy Falls, manacled like felons to the tomb, temporarily escaped the totalitarian scrutiny of heaven and the moldering prison house of death, and from the forlorn churchyard near the square and the untilled fields in the valley, they assembled under the light of a spectral moon and resolved to haunt those who had denied them love.
Nice, right? He’s got those nice long sentences and can always grasp the exact right archaic word like Franzen or David Foster Wallace. But anyone who’s read classic horror can quickly see he’s more influenced by the words of Poe and Lovecraft than those pretentious Writer’s Lab types.
I found myself marking the book up in red pen quite often because as the novel progresses, Keating drops in some fine life lessons for rust belt living:
Every man, no matter his station in life, is capable of ghastly behavior.
And
Sobriety is a myth. We all live at various levels of intoxication.
Also
We tend to treat our secret desires, our questionable impulses, our perverse proclivities as monsters. We lock them away, hopefully forever, in the dark dungeon of our soul and then throw away the key. But artists are different in that they keep the key close at hand. Thy become society’s dungeon masters and make the treacherous descent to visit those fearsome creatures, to marvel at their strange, hideous beauty, to listen to the filthy secrets unspooling from their souls, their leaky brains, their ruptured hearts.
And the title? What is the Captive Condition? To Keating, it is a haunting world view.
We dream that we’re awake, then art wakes us up from our dreams, but then we discover that we’re in a dream again, and so forth and so on, ad infinitum, until we arrive at the only logical conclusion: that we are all captives of a hallucination from which we can never truly escape.
This new novel is a hallucination and certainly reads like a terrible trip, like some early Cormac McCarthy. And it was a hallucination I was delighted to be captivated by for a while.
The plot of The Captive Condition is simple, deceptively so. A young woman named Emily Ryan drowns in her pool one night and a young man wonders why. Was it an accident brought on by too many pills and too much booze? Was it suicide? Was she murdered? The backdrop for this drama is Normandy Falls, a factory town somewhere in NE Ohio, barely hanging on after the factories have died. If the town had a welcome sign, it would read: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter.
This is a tricky book. A sly book. It appears to be told in the third person, as we get enter the minds of the town’s most depraved inhabitants a chapter at a time. But we eventually learn that the story is being filtered through the mind of that young man, Campion, who fell in love with Emily Ryan from afar. Campion is a graduate of a Jesuit prep school that is a dark reflection of St. Ignatius, where author Kevin Keating went to school. Campion moved to Normandy Falls to attend college but dropped out and joined the maintenance staff, instead. Campion is probably going insane. In fact, he believes Emily’s ghost is communicating through him, using his body as a medium, telling him the “truth” about Normandy Falls. As such, the circumstances and events presented to us in The Captive Condition read like a never-ending nightmare, the delusions of a schizophrenic. After all, no town can be full of so much despair, can it?
Everyone in Normandy Falls is damned. There’s Professor Martin Kingsley, who lives beside Emily, a lech who has been sleeping with her while her husband ships loads of iron ore across Lake Erie. There’s Emily’s twin daughters who watch her body float in the pool with a detached curiosity. Down at the town bistro, chef Xavier brews a rare and potent psychedelic carrot drink called jazar juice, which he sells out the back door so that he can earn enough cash to escape to Delacroix Cay. His waitress, Morgan, plans to steal his money, though, and run away with her lesbian lover. And let’s not forget “the Gonk” Campion’s boss, who blinds him in one eye during a new-employee hazing ritual.
The plot is juicy but it’s Keating’s wordplay that draws a reader in. Early reviewers have already compared his command of prose to Franzen or DFW. Consider the opening lines of the novel:
During the quiet hours after midnight on New Year’s Day, the ghosts of Normandy Falls, manacled like felons to the tomb, temporarily escaped the totalitarian scrutiny of heaven and the moldering prison house of death, and from the forlorn churchyard near the square and the untilled fields in the valley, they assembled under the light of a spectral moon and resolved to haunt those who had denied them love.
Nice, right? He’s got those nice long sentences and can always grasp the exact right archaic word like Franzen or David Foster Wallace. But anyone who’s read classic horror can quickly see he’s more influenced by the words of Poe and Lovecraft than those pretentious Writer’s Lab types.
I found myself marking the book up in red pen quite often because as the novel progresses, Keating drops in some fine life lessons for rust belt living:
Every man, no matter his station in life, is capable of ghastly behavior.
And
Sobriety is a myth. We all live at various levels of intoxication.
Also
We tend to treat our secret desires, our questionable impulses, our perverse proclivities as monsters. We lock them away, hopefully forever, in the dark dungeon of our soul and then throw away the key. But artists are different in that they keep the key close at hand. Thy become society’s dungeon masters and make the treacherous descent to visit those fearsome creatures, to marvel at their strange, hideous beauty, to listen to the filthy secrets unspooling from their souls, their leaky brains, their ruptured hearts.
And the title? What is the Captive Condition? To Keating, it is a haunting world view.
We dream that we’re awake, then art wakes us up from our dreams, but then we discover that we’re in a dream again, and so forth and so on, ad infinitum, until we arrive at the only logical conclusion: that we are all captives of a hallucination from which we can never truly escape.
This new novel is a hallucination and certainly reads like a terrible trip, like some early Cormac McCarthy. And it was a hallucination I was delighted to be captivated by for a while.
July 21, 2016
So word heavy I got tired just looking at the cover and thinking okay I need to read some of this. Fifty pages, please, let me get through fifty ... pages ...
The author wants you to know he can write. He wants to impress with his writing. He wants to load it on, adjectives, clauses, more adjectives, and hey throw in a couple dozen adverbs. I have no problem with this, actually, as long as it moves the narrative, the story, the meaning along. But it doesn't. These extra and unnecessary sentences, lengthy paragraphs, overbearing descriptions just weigh the book down and drag it like a dozen extra anchors on a dinghy.
I can't even tell what the story is about. I read at least a fourth in - okay maybe a fifth and felt like I was treading water all the way when I wanted to breast-stroke. In fact it wasn't water I was swimming through; it felt like mud. Or treacle.
This is prob. the worst review I've ever given a book. But the man CAN WRITE. Omg he knows the basics, the mechanics and he's got a story to tell and his characters can absolutely sing - and zing - with life if he'd only give them half a chance! Strip this puppy down! Show us what you can really do.
(I won this book, btw, from Goodreads and was excited to do so. The premise was wonderful; the fulfillment ... not so much.)
The author wants you to know he can write. He wants to impress with his writing. He wants to load it on, adjectives, clauses, more adjectives, and hey throw in a couple dozen adverbs. I have no problem with this, actually, as long as it moves the narrative, the story, the meaning along. But it doesn't. These extra and unnecessary sentences, lengthy paragraphs, overbearing descriptions just weigh the book down and drag it like a dozen extra anchors on a dinghy.
I can't even tell what the story is about. I read at least a fourth in - okay maybe a fifth and felt like I was treading water all the way when I wanted to breast-stroke. In fact it wasn't water I was swimming through; it felt like mud. Or treacle.
This is prob. the worst review I've ever given a book. But the man CAN WRITE. Omg he knows the basics, the mechanics and he's got a story to tell and his characters can absolutely sing - and zing - with life if he'd only give them half a chance! Strip this puppy down! Show us what you can really do.
(I won this book, btw, from Goodreads and was excited to do so. The premise was wonderful; the fulfillment ... not so much.)
August 8, 2015
I don't even know what I just read. I think I am possibly being generous by giving this 2 stars. This morning I realized at this point that I was just hate reading this book. Not really sure what the author was trying to prove, but the tone came across as pretentious for me. If one really looked at this book, there is maybe a meaty short story in here if you took out all of the BS, metaphors, and overwrought exposition.
I am disappointed and also plain old confused. Is it first person? Third person omniscient or limited? Just what the actual f....
I am disappointed and also plain old confused. Is it first person? Third person omniscient or limited? Just what the actual f....
August 4, 2015
I guess I missed something because, toward the end of the book, I realized the story was going nowhere but alas it was too late to stop reading.
August 11, 2015
This book is overwritten, underwhelming, and the opposite of captivating. I added it to my "to read" list based on the recommendation of an author I have enjoyed in the past and respected. Quickly I could tell that this book was not what it is marketed as. Filled with painful prose, conflicting plot points and dialogue that would be unthinkable in real life this is one to avoid, unless (like the author who recommended it on Goodreads) you are friends with the author. Every now and then I think it is good to read a "bad" book. I got mine for 2015.
Want to read
June 16, 2015This book looks so good. I cant believe I won a copy on Goodreads!
November 23, 2025
a dark book for dark times, both figuratively and literally.
August 25, 2015
REVIEW: THE CAPTIVE CONNECTION by Kevin Keating
A lyrical novel of literary horror, THE CAPTIVE CONNECTION centers in a tiny, downtrodden community beside a polluted river in America's Rust Belt. Home to a small, insular, college and an abandoned industrial district, Normandy Falls can't boast of much beyond grinding, abject poverty. But it does have ghosts and monsters, and more than one of those are human. It also has a wretched history of horror, and urban legends, surrounding 19th century "mad scientist" Nathaniel Wakefield, town and college founder.
I highly recommend THE CAPTIVE CONNECTION to readers who love the novels of Billy Mattingly and the Niceville Trilogy of Carsten Stroud, two authors I greatly admire.
A lyrical novel of literary horror, THE CAPTIVE CONNECTION centers in a tiny, downtrodden community beside a polluted river in America's Rust Belt. Home to a small, insular, college and an abandoned industrial district, Normandy Falls can't boast of much beyond grinding, abject poverty. But it does have ghosts and monsters, and more than one of those are human. It also has a wretched history of horror, and urban legends, surrounding 19th century "mad scientist" Nathaniel Wakefield, town and college founder.
I highly recommend THE CAPTIVE CONNECTION to readers who love the novels of Billy Mattingly and the Niceville Trilogy of Carsten Stroud, two authors I greatly admire.
September 16, 2015
I had high hopes for The Captive Condition. It looked to be a thrilling horror story that would hopefully suck me in right away. Sadly, there was nothing horrific or thrilling about the story. Have you ever read a thesaurus? I'm not talking about using it to look up a different way to describe something. I mean from cover to cover. No? Neither have I, but I sure felt like I was reading one when I started this book. I had the hardest time getting through this book. It was over written. Sometimes the best way to describe a scene is to keep it simple. I did not find a simple description on any page in this book. At least as far as I read because I ended up not finishing the book at about 30%. I think this story had a lot of potential, but the plot got lost in too many words.
August 31, 2015
Bleak, intellectual descent into the vagaries of the small town dynamics made insular and claustrophobic. X-Files and Twin Peaks without the charm of government employees, this novel contains the fetid darkness of a town resigned to profane distractions. Keating's prolix descriptions of the macabre class warfare and the various machinations of despair, vice, and grim pronouncements of terminally unvarying life weave a delightfully dark and erudite indictment of modernity in perpetuity.
August 6, 2015
umm, what? Who is the protagonist or even an antagonist? Hell, a consistent narrator would be cool! All I can say is thankfully I was reading this at a boring job, so I couldn't focus too intently and it only took me 2 days.
July 21, 2015
Do not fall captive to this book.
It will make you deplore the human condition.
It will make you deplore the human condition.
Read
June 9, 2017Like reading the written down experience of your strange dream. Fascinating and not for everyone. I enjoyed it.
September 10, 2015
Probably a 3.5 for me total--not quite a four for the over detail and complicated language that bogged it down but rounded up to a four for the talent of the author and second half of the book.
Review:
The Captive Condition is a tough book to put into one genre--it is smart, darkly humorous, more creepy and atmospheric rather than scary horror, and there are certainly some mystery, suspense and paranormal elements woven in. Normandy Falls is not the town you want to hang out in--and if you did you would surely want to drink and take hallucinogens frequently, as many of the characters seemed to. The Midwest college town and its citizens are offbeat and not very likable. There is a tense mix of locals and the college/academic crowd, it's a 'dry' town that has many buying illegal substances and moonshine from the back alleys, and there some very strange and unsavory characters--especially The Gonk. None of the characters we are introduced to would make my list of friends and fun people to spend time with. There are some spooky children--especially a set of eight-year old twins that give off a strong The Shining twins with an ADHD-vibe. While I usually need a character or two that I can like to both relate to and root for, I didn't really mind not having one here--it made it easier to sit back and enjoy their antics and the repercussions. What did distance me from the story and bogged down the first half of the book for me was the complex vocabulary and overabundance of detail that the author used. I truly love words; I scored fairly high on the vocabulary section of the SAT and I like 'big' and descriptive words in the right amount. For me, The Captive Condition employed so many complicated words and detailed descriptions that it made me concentrate more on the words themselves rather than the actual story, making my attention frequently wane. Maybe if I read an e-copy on my Kindle where I could get an immediate definition when there was a word I wasn't familiar with, I would have been able to appreciate the story more and not be so distracted. For some reason, (whether I picked up the rhythm of the writing or enough imagery was established that Keating leveled off a bit--I'm not sure), I got into the story and cruised happily through the second half as the pace picked up and more chills and action took place.
Probably not every one will find The Captive Condition to their liking. It wasn't quite what I was expecting based on the publisher's description. I enjoyed the dark humor of the book and certainly the promised depravity was there, but I didn't get the "dark nexus of horror" as described. There were interesting twists to the story and good suspense. For readers who like the Gothic, enjoy detailed descriptions, have an interest in words and/or a more sophisticated vocabulary (or a ready dictionary), and like dark and macabre humor, it will appeal.
You can see my review and pictures and recipe for the "The Red Death" cocktail from the book on my blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
Note: A review copy of "The Captive Condition" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
Review:
The Captive Condition is a tough book to put into one genre--it is smart, darkly humorous, more creepy and atmospheric rather than scary horror, and there are certainly some mystery, suspense and paranormal elements woven in. Normandy Falls is not the town you want to hang out in--and if you did you would surely want to drink and take hallucinogens frequently, as many of the characters seemed to. The Midwest college town and its citizens are offbeat and not very likable. There is a tense mix of locals and the college/academic crowd, it's a 'dry' town that has many buying illegal substances and moonshine from the back alleys, and there some very strange and unsavory characters--especially The Gonk. None of the characters we are introduced to would make my list of friends and fun people to spend time with. There are some spooky children--especially a set of eight-year old twins that give off a strong The Shining twins with an ADHD-vibe. While I usually need a character or two that I can like to both relate to and root for, I didn't really mind not having one here--it made it easier to sit back and enjoy their antics and the repercussions. What did distance me from the story and bogged down the first half of the book for me was the complex vocabulary and overabundance of detail that the author used. I truly love words; I scored fairly high on the vocabulary section of the SAT and I like 'big' and descriptive words in the right amount. For me, The Captive Condition employed so many complicated words and detailed descriptions that it made me concentrate more on the words themselves rather than the actual story, making my attention frequently wane. Maybe if I read an e-copy on my Kindle where I could get an immediate definition when there was a word I wasn't familiar with, I would have been able to appreciate the story more and not be so distracted. For some reason, (whether I picked up the rhythm of the writing or enough imagery was established that Keating leveled off a bit--I'm not sure), I got into the story and cruised happily through the second half as the pace picked up and more chills and action took place.
Probably not every one will find The Captive Condition to their liking. It wasn't quite what I was expecting based on the publisher's description. I enjoyed the dark humor of the book and certainly the promised depravity was there, but I didn't get the "dark nexus of horror" as described. There were interesting twists to the story and good suspense. For readers who like the Gothic, enjoy detailed descriptions, have an interest in words and/or a more sophisticated vocabulary (or a ready dictionary), and like dark and macabre humor, it will appeal.
You can see my review and pictures and recipe for the "The Red Death" cocktail from the book on my blog post here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
Note: A review copy of "The Captive Condition" was provided to me by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review. I was not compensated for this review and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
August 31, 2015
Normandy Falls is not a nice place to live. A dry college town with few job prospects, low average incomes, and very little to do, the locals are left with little to fill their time. But gossip still runs rampant and almost everyone must know about the affair going on between Emily Ryan and her next door neighbor. Well, everyone except their spouses. And when Emily turns up dead on her thirtieth birthday, it kicks off a series of events that leaves few in Normandy Falls untouched.
I've mulled over how to sum this book up and review it for some time and have yet to come up with the perfect solution. I fear my attempt won't be truly appropriate but barring a lightning bolt of brilliance this will have to suffice.
I had issues with the book, mainly due to my perceived, inappropriate, and possibly unfair expectations. See, the actual description of Kevin Keating's The Captive Condition somewhat implied (in my mind) that this is a horror novel set in a town that's akin to Sunnydale or Castle Rock. Even the prologue of the novel sets it up as such, with our narrator being told of the horrid and unspeakable crimes rumored to have taken place in Normandy Falls in decades past.
In truth it's nothing of the sort. In fact, while some might fairly call The Captive Condition horror, it isn't a horror novel in the way you might think. Yes, horrible things happen there. The town is destitute and the characters are all facing pretty insurmountable odds - mostly thanks to their own actions. None of them are good people, they're motived by selfishness, obsession, superstition, and plain old stupidity in some cases. And yes, there are some supernatural events that do occur as well. In reality, though, the horror is pretty human.
To explain more might be to give away the story and I don't want to do that because Keating's work is quite enthralling. His prose is melodic and dark and the downward spiral of the characters is hard to step away from. But to approach the story with the wrong expectation likely won't lead to a satisfactory experience.
So no, folks. Don't make the mistake that I did in thinking this is going to be a gory tale of paranormal horror, odd experimentation, or a story set in a "nexus of horror." Instead, go into this story expecting to discover a new author with a unique voice and a tale of human crime and atrocity.
I've mulled over how to sum this book up and review it for some time and have yet to come up with the perfect solution. I fear my attempt won't be truly appropriate but barring a lightning bolt of brilliance this will have to suffice.
I had issues with the book, mainly due to my perceived, inappropriate, and possibly unfair expectations. See, the actual description of Kevin Keating's The Captive Condition somewhat implied (in my mind) that this is a horror novel set in a town that's akin to Sunnydale or Castle Rock. Even the prologue of the novel sets it up as such, with our narrator being told of the horrid and unspeakable crimes rumored to have taken place in Normandy Falls in decades past.
In truth it's nothing of the sort. In fact, while some might fairly call The Captive Condition horror, it isn't a horror novel in the way you might think. Yes, horrible things happen there. The town is destitute and the characters are all facing pretty insurmountable odds - mostly thanks to their own actions. None of them are good people, they're motived by selfishness, obsession, superstition, and plain old stupidity in some cases. And yes, there are some supernatural events that do occur as well. In reality, though, the horror is pretty human.
To explain more might be to give away the story and I don't want to do that because Keating's work is quite enthralling. His prose is melodic and dark and the downward spiral of the characters is hard to step away from. But to approach the story with the wrong expectation likely won't lead to a satisfactory experience.
So no, folks. Don't make the mistake that I did in thinking this is going to be a gory tale of paranormal horror, odd experimentation, or a story set in a "nexus of horror." Instead, go into this story expecting to discover a new author with a unique voice and a tale of human crime and atrocity.
June 29, 2015
The Captive Condition by Kevin P. Keating is a modern Gothic horror novel set in Normandy Falls a small Midwestern college town. Edmund Campion is pursuing a master's degree at the college while also working for the college growns-crew and physical plant. He notices that his professor, Martin Kingsley, is having an affair with his neighbor, Emily Ryan. One drunken night Edmund discovers Emily has drowned in her pool and he begins to obsess on the dead woman. Adding to the creepy mix is his boss called the Gonk; Emily's malicious twin girls (picture the hallway scene in the movie The Shining); Edmund's ex-girlfriend Morgan Fey who works for a chef/drug dealer Xavier D’Avignon (who supplies hallucinogenic carrot juice to the town), and an exotic dancer called Lorelei who has fish tattoos. The whole town is haunted by a strange history and many would say evil spirits who mean to harm the living.
This is a very dark, mysterious novel with an overabundance of drinking or intoxication of some variety. Although, at the beginning, there are glimmers of humor in descriptions, The Captive Condition quickly turns horrific and frightening. Keating writes in a very stylistic manner that is reminiscent of old Gothic horror novels, which adds to the bleak mood he creates. While I can't fault the writing or the plot for any drawbacks, as the novel progressed I wasn't quite as engaged with it as I expected to be and felt disconnected. There were parts where I admired the writing a great deal, but, as the novel descended into horror it left me behind. I would recommend it based on the quality of the writing alone and would highly recommended for anyone who enjoys complex, frightening Gothic horror novels.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday for review purposes.
This is a very dark, mysterious novel with an overabundance of drinking or intoxication of some variety. Although, at the beginning, there are glimmers of humor in descriptions, The Captive Condition quickly turns horrific and frightening. Keating writes in a very stylistic manner that is reminiscent of old Gothic horror novels, which adds to the bleak mood he creates. While I can't fault the writing or the plot for any drawbacks, as the novel progressed I wasn't quite as engaged with it as I expected to be and felt disconnected. There were parts where I admired the writing a great deal, but, as the novel descended into horror it left me behind. I would recommend it based on the quality of the writing alone and would highly recommended for anyone who enjoys complex, frightening Gothic horror novels.
Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Knopf Doubleday for review purposes.
August 11, 2015
I'm not quite sure what I just read, but I think I liked it. This story is odd and weird and strange, which are all good things. A prominent theme here is the effects of hallucinogens, mainly in that strange carrot juice and that freaky cocktail, The Red Death. The characters and the plot are hazy and twisted. I wasn't always sure what was really going on, which I think might be the point. I suppose the characters aren't the only ones who are confused and muddled.
One thing I am clear on in this odd story is the over-the-top prose style. The story can be a bit bombastic and lengthy at times, but I happen to like it this way. It's so Dickensian and obviously written by an English professor, which captivated me completely (pun intended).
***
"'I like to think of myself as a writer, and writers are not mad.'" ~ chapter 18
One thing I am clear on in this odd story is the over-the-top prose style. The story can be a bit bombastic and lengthy at times, but I happen to like it this way. It's so Dickensian and obviously written by an English professor, which captivated me completely (pun intended).
***
"'I like to think of myself as a writer, and writers are not mad.'" ~ chapter 18
August 3, 2015
Received through FirstReads giveaway...This book is pointless. Now, a book doesn't need to have a point to be good, but this was just bad. Filled with a bunch of one-dimensional characters, none of them the least bit likeable. All surface, no background. There is nothing explaining what makes these people tick, they're just there. Despite the authors attempt to interweave all the plot lines, each felt separate from the others.
September 3, 2015
This was really disappointing. I feel like the people who blurbed this book never read it, but all read the same talking points sheet from the publisher. It was described as containing the dark roots of early American writing and was compared to Poe, but it felt more like a light dark comedy/farce. Overwritten and clunky, perhaps to depict the grad school protagonist, but if so too inconsistent to work.
Read
July 8, 2015A perfect summer thriller about dark happenings in an idyllic Midwestern college town. Edmund Campion has suffered a series of personal setbacks when the body of Emily Ryan is found in her pool. Was it suicide? An investigation into her death will discover all kinds of evil.
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June 30, 2015
Not what I expected. Somewhat disappointed.
September 10, 2015
This book is an unmitigated disaster.
August 8, 2024
I finished this book, but barely. I went in expecting a mystery, and all I got was a twisted book. It was so wordy that it was hard to keep track of the main plot of the story, which in itself was severely lacking.
Read
August 1, 2019I won this book via Goodreads First Reads and gifted it to a fellow reader. :)
August 31, 2015
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Captive Condition was an interesting book, much different from books I normally read. The style of the writing was complex and poetic. This isn’t a book written for the masses, because it requires that the reader have an advanced vocabulary. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to look up every word I didn’t know. I did my best to construct the meaning of a lot of words through the context clues. However, I made note of a lot of the words, such as cantilevered, porcine, erudition, and lubricious. I will definitely be looking these up later. I honestly felt stupid, not worthy of my Master’s degree, when I was reading this book.
The writing style is much wordier than I am accustomed to. I think some readers will love the sophistication of the prose,while other readers will be like, “Hey, just give it to me straight.” Although more words were used than were necessary in many places, the author did do an excellent job of helping the reader visualize the settings.
There are a lot of points of view in this story. It also switches from third to first person frequently. I also felt that the first sixty pages or so did nothing to advance the plot. They were mostly set-up. Again, I believe this is something that not all readers will agree on–some will see this as necessary and some will see it as boring.
Above all, my biggest concern was that I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. I felt they were all well-developed. It’s just that none were likable or endearing, except perhaps the twins. When I read a book, I want a hero to cheer for and worry about. I couldn’t find a character like that in The Captive Condition.
Although what I have said so far sounds negative, it really isn’t. I didn’t have any strong feelings against this book. I think it wasn’t a good match for me; that doesn’t mean it was poorly written. I thought the author succeeded in creating a creepy atmosphere with disturbing characters. If you like Gothic-feeling books with antiheroes who have to deal with messages from the other side, you should check this one out.
The Captive Condition was an interesting book, much different from books I normally read. The style of the writing was complex and poetic. This isn’t a book written for the masses, because it requires that the reader have an advanced vocabulary. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to look up every word I didn’t know. I did my best to construct the meaning of a lot of words through the context clues. However, I made note of a lot of the words, such as cantilevered, porcine, erudition, and lubricious. I will definitely be looking these up later. I honestly felt stupid, not worthy of my Master’s degree, when I was reading this book.
The writing style is much wordier than I am accustomed to. I think some readers will love the sophistication of the prose,while other readers will be like, “Hey, just give it to me straight.” Although more words were used than were necessary in many places, the author did do an excellent job of helping the reader visualize the settings.
There are a lot of points of view in this story. It also switches from third to first person frequently. I also felt that the first sixty pages or so did nothing to advance the plot. They were mostly set-up. Again, I believe this is something that not all readers will agree on–some will see this as necessary and some will see it as boring.
Above all, my biggest concern was that I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. I felt they were all well-developed. It’s just that none were likable or endearing, except perhaps the twins. When I read a book, I want a hero to cheer for and worry about. I couldn’t find a character like that in The Captive Condition.
Although what I have said so far sounds negative, it really isn’t. I didn’t have any strong feelings against this book. I think it wasn’t a good match for me; that doesn’t mean it was poorly written. I thought the author succeeded in creating a creepy atmosphere with disturbing characters. If you like Gothic-feeling books with antiheroes who have to deal with messages from the other side, you should check this one out.
January 4, 2020
Keating’s Captive Condition is a mystery styled in the gothic-romantic tradition. Reminiscent of Twin Peaks and Donna Tartt’s Secret History, Keating's story follows the events, affairs, and circumstances following the death of the young lover of a college professor. The community is shaken, and the depths to which drugs, the local criminal underground, the college, and a salty fraternity all contribute to the stresses of this small town is slowly revealed to a stunning conclusion. Keating’s prose is what is most notable about this novel, reflecting a thick, highbrow tone that effectively transposes the audience to the academic world that the characters inhabit. While it can be a bit tedious at times when the language impedes communication and detracts from the story, it is clear that that was his point – and it seems to easily reflect his themes, characters, and actions of the plot through the atmosphere and tone of his words and structure. I remember a sentence that I went back to reread and count the number of commas (it was a lot).
I wouldn’t say this book is for all readers, but if you are an intellectually adventurous reader who wants to read a challenging mystery (and might be like me; I usually can’t stand the formula and how poorly most are written), you are going to find Keating’s novel refreshing and effective.
I wouldn’t say this book is for all readers, but if you are an intellectually adventurous reader who wants to read a challenging mystery (and might be like me; I usually can’t stand the formula and how poorly most are written), you are going to find Keating’s novel refreshing and effective.
September 23, 2015
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads. If Grand Guignol sends a thrill through your soul, then this story of a decaying college town and its deranged, delusional, and sometimes homicidal inhabitants might be just what you seek. Otherwise you may find the writing florid, the characters flat and emotionally stunted, and their dialog sometimes strangely ornate. The residents of Normandy Falls are thwarted, drowning, suffocating, buried alive, figuratively and sometimes literally. They dream of escape to far off places that are revealed to be equally hellish. They drink a hallucinogenic brew that includes embalming fluid (so subtle, right?). It's difficult to tell what's real and what's the product of drug-induced, or just plain garden variety, psychosis. As I read the story I began to think that it could easily be made into a season of American Horror Story. In other words, it's grotesque and bleak. Don't expect to be scared, though. It's not that kind of horror. It's more of an existential, soul crushing sort of horror. One of the characters is an artist, and I take her words as the core message of the story: "I believe art serves one purpose: to wake people from the world of illusions. To startle them out of their silly daydreams, fantasies, phobias, demented fixations. But this turns out to be something of a paradox...since art itself is also a kind of dream....We dream that we're awake, then art wakes us from our dreams, but then we discover that we're in a dream again....we are all captives of hallucinations from which we can never truly escape." Well, if that doesn't make you shrivel inside you're stronger than me. I was ready to binge watch cat videos when I finished just to remember that the world still includes cute, fluffy innocence. I personally did not care for this book, but I give it three stars because I think Keating is a clever writer and I know there is an audience for this sort of strange, dark little parable.
September 1, 2016
The Captive Condition has some intense Twin Peaks and True Detective vibes. The small town location is gritty and unsettling. The multiple characters the story jumps between are bizarre, harbor terrible secrets, and are always watching one another. Another similarity: There are a startling amount of surreal aspects that happen so quickly and casually, it's hard to tell what's reality and what's some character's dark hallucinations.
"The problem is this: Normandy Falls, in all its gruesome comedy, in all its colorful and agreeable horror, could never properly prepare me for the experiences that awaited me on the other side of those gates. Regrettably, the best I can do is render one version of that unhappy fiasco, and I must rely on my imperfect memory, a thing that, like the Wakefield River, flows with maddening predictability in one direction only, far from its mysterious and secret source."
The book is being narrated by a college dropout who fancies himself a writer. A lot of the language slowed down my reading of the book significantly. Not because I was too dumb to understand it, but because it would take a hefty paragraph to say something that could take a sentence. Whether or not this was a stylistic choice due to the main character's situation, the overload of adjectives, adverbs, and similes made the book more of a chore to read than I had wanted it to be. Oftentimes, because I would get lost in the flood of words, it was hard to keep track of what was going on in the plot or what exactly was motivating the characters.
With that said, the story really did pick up after 200 pages. It started to get pretty weird, with some potentially supernatural presences. The characters' stories started to come together to several very dramatic, slightly surreal conclusions. That level of strange darkness was really cool to experience. It just would have been great to have experienced it throughout the rest of the book.
Full review: http://outlandishlit.blogspot.com/201...
"The problem is this: Normandy Falls, in all its gruesome comedy, in all its colorful and agreeable horror, could never properly prepare me for the experiences that awaited me on the other side of those gates. Regrettably, the best I can do is render one version of that unhappy fiasco, and I must rely on my imperfect memory, a thing that, like the Wakefield River, flows with maddening predictability in one direction only, far from its mysterious and secret source."
The book is being narrated by a college dropout who fancies himself a writer. A lot of the language slowed down my reading of the book significantly. Not because I was too dumb to understand it, but because it would take a hefty paragraph to say something that could take a sentence. Whether or not this was a stylistic choice due to the main character's situation, the overload of adjectives, adverbs, and similes made the book more of a chore to read than I had wanted it to be. Oftentimes, because I would get lost in the flood of words, it was hard to keep track of what was going on in the plot or what exactly was motivating the characters.
With that said, the story really did pick up after 200 pages. It started to get pretty weird, with some potentially supernatural presences. The characters' stories started to come together to several very dramatic, slightly surreal conclusions. That level of strange darkness was really cool to experience. It just would have been great to have experienced it throughout the rest of the book.
Full review: http://outlandishlit.blogspot.com/201...
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