What do you think?
Rate this book
Arborescent
In the beltline of a run-of-the-mill metropolis, an apartment complex called Cambrian Court has become the focal point of an outlandish unfurling, where even the laws of physics are becoming questioned. Embroiled within this psychic plot are three neighbours who are strangers to one another—Nohlan Buckles, Hachiko Yoshitoshi, and Zadie Chan—and whose ordinary lives have become rife with bizarre an ogreish landlord, an ominous hooded group called the selfies, and a donkey-faced Saint Peter.
The deeper they are drawn into this otherworld the more reality becomes Nohlan is convinced he’s turning into a tree, Hachiko’s staging of a kabuki shockingly comes to life, and Zadie unwittingly begins to produce doppelgangers. Without even knowing each other, they come to realize just how dependent and intertwined their lives truly are.
In Marc Herman Lynch’s debut novel, some people explode, and others come back to life, but at the heart of it all are the fleeting yet indelible connections we make with one another. Darkly funny, lyrically charged, and gothically absurd, Arborescent is a raw and brilliantly imagined depiction of our disconnected contemporary world.
The deeper they are drawn into this otherworld the more reality becomes Nohlan is convinced he’s turning into a tree, Hachiko’s staging of a kabuki shockingly comes to life, and Zadie unwittingly begins to produce doppelgangers. Without even knowing each other, they come to realize just how dependent and intertwined their lives truly are.
In Marc Herman Lynch’s debut novel, some people explode, and others come back to life, but at the heart of it all are the fleeting yet indelible connections we make with one another. Darkly funny, lyrically charged, and gothically absurd, Arborescent is a raw and brilliantly imagined depiction of our disconnected contemporary world.
- GenresFiction
Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2020
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 29, 2021
So good that I didn't want to rush it and leave the increasingly creepy atmosphere, the eloquent writing, or the real everyday parts of humanity that no one really wants to deal with. Oh, and I know I went, "ewww" at least twice while reading and that's always a good sign of an immersive book.
February 22, 2024
For me this one read as bizarre, confusing, and overall a bit pretentious. I feel like this is the guy in your writing seminar who thinks he’s so damn clever but despite cool intentions this one bordered on unreadable. 3 stars for ideas, 1 star for execution. Sorry dude
Read
December 27, 2022so so strange so much to think about what it means to inhabit a body, i'll revisit one day when i can
July 10, 2021
A delightful surreal trip whose characters grapple with the meaning of life, spirituality, culture and identity in their world, mundane yet stranger than fiction.
Aborescent is defined as something which resembles a tree in growth and appearance, and in the opening chapters, protagonist Nohlan Buckles found himself quite literally turning into a tree.
The canopy of interweaved characters then branched out further to give us a glimpse of the context of Cambrian Court, a rental apartment building which will be the backdrop and then center stage for all that will go down.
This is my first time picking up a book which had me feeling like I was watching Mulholland Drive. The writing and pace matched the surrealism of the novel, slightly beyond my level of comprehension for I found myself looking up big words every few pages. Not complaining though
Really impressive debut novel from Lynch and I'm looking forward to more textured stories tapping upon his immigrant and cultural experiences
Aborescent is defined as something which resembles a tree in growth and appearance, and in the opening chapters, protagonist Nohlan Buckles found himself quite literally turning into a tree.
The canopy of interweaved characters then branched out further to give us a glimpse of the context of Cambrian Court, a rental apartment building which will be the backdrop and then center stage for all that will go down.
This is my first time picking up a book which had me feeling like I was watching Mulholland Drive. The writing and pace matched the surrealism of the novel, slightly beyond my level of comprehension for I found myself looking up big words every few pages. Not complaining though
Really impressive debut novel from Lynch and I'm looking forward to more textured stories tapping upon his immigrant and cultural experiences
April 22, 2024
Honestly, I have some issues with this book, but the fact that I read this book at such a fast pace, compared to how I usually read books, makes me want to let a lot of issues be.
This book was really interesting. The stories were well told, and there was a lot of intriguing in the narrative.
My main issues come down to the ending, which doesn’t really feel conclusive. I also feel that Zadie her arc was the worst worked out one.
And the book sometimes feels unnecessarily verbose. I’d argue my English is pretty good, but this book used a couple of words I’d never seen before in my life.
There are also a lot of descriptions that feel relatively unnecessary in the bigger picture.
Still gets 4 stars for the speed I read it with, and for being one of the first books I opened up again at the beginning, right after finishing it.
This book was really interesting. The stories were well told, and there was a lot of intriguing in the narrative.
My main issues come down to the ending, which doesn’t really feel conclusive. I also feel that Zadie her arc was the worst worked out one.
And the book sometimes feels unnecessarily verbose. I’d argue my English is pretty good, but this book used a couple of words I’d never seen before in my life.
There are also a lot of descriptions that feel relatively unnecessary in the bigger picture.
Still gets 4 stars for the speed I read it with, and for being one of the first books I opened up again at the beginning, right after finishing it.
April 12, 2021
Originally reviewed by Will Fawley for Prairie Fire's Book Reviews Program. prairiefire.ca
Marc Herman Lynch’s debut novel, Arborescent, is a magical romp through a strangely familiar world. The novel is set in a fictional version of Calgary called Moh’kins’tsis, which isn’t a made up name or place at all, but the traditional Blackfoot name for the region. In this city where true names are spoken, Lynch conjures the otherworldly and mysterious aesthetic of classic writers like Kafka and Murakami, or to use a contemporary Canadian example, Suzette Mayr’s Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall.
Arborescent opens with a prologue that introduces us to Jeb Buckles. Jeb is an eccentric old man who hates technology and builds a giant trebuchet that he uses to launch appliances. After we meet Jeb, the real story begins. The rest of the novel is divided into three parts, each focusing on a specific character.
Part One introduces Jeb’s son, Nohlan. Nohlan finds his father nearly frozen outside in the winter, and that’s when things start to get surreal. Jeb’s chest opens, and stars shoot out of it. Until this point, the characters and setting have been strange and eccentric, yet realistic, but it suddenly becomes clear that the novel is firmly rooted in the tradition of magical realism. This point becomes even clearer as the story progresses and a plant begins growing from Nohlan’s body.
Despite the magic, Arborescent is firmly rooted in the mundane. Nohlan works at Cyberia, a cyber café frequented by a handful of older patrons, and lives in an old apartment building called Cambrian Court. Cambrian Court is the first and most obvious connection between Nohlan and the other two main characters, because they all live in the crumbling building. We first catch a glimpse of one of the others, Zadie, in this first section. Zadie is sitting outside on a balcony, wearing an owl mask, when she meets Nohlan.
If the apartment building unites the characters, another common thread tries to divide them, from each other and themselves. That is their creepy landlord. He tells Nohlan that people often consider him an advisor rather than a landlord, and then proceeds to provide cryptic, but decidedly disturbing advice.
Part Two focuses on Hachiko, a young woman possessed by the character Oiwa, one of the three great ghosts of Japan, after playing the role in a kabuki production. Hachiko’s ex Michael stalks her throughout this section of the novel, and the ghost of Oiwa seems to grow more powerful within her as she confronts Michael and lets the ghost take control of her life.
As more characters are introduced, the characters’ lives begin to blend together. Jeb, Nohlan’s father, makes a brief appearance in Part Two, and of course, the creepy landlord is a recurring character throughout this section as well, telling Hachiko weird stories about his father and the artic that sound more like lies than anything else.
As the parallels between the characters begin to become clear, it seems the book is really about identity, what it means to be human, and how we are interconnected to the people around us, no matter how disconnected we may seem.
Part Three focuses on Zadie, and is a family story. Zadie’s mother Anna and her grandfather Gong Gong are concerned with their Chinese cultural roots in different ways. Her grandfather Gong Gong is afraid of losing culture. He says, “Everyone is crazy for superheroes! But when we abandon our roots for fantasies, we become ghosts” (143).
Meanwhile, Zadie’s mother has spent considerable effort trying to lose her culture. “Her mother, taught by her mother before her, showed Zadie these procedures to reduce the Asianness in her features” (146).
As things begin to escalate in Part Three, it becomes clear that Zadie’s struggle with identity is cultural, as it is with her mother and grandfather, but also deeply personal. The loss of identity and of culture seems to be a focus in this section. And the world of Arborescent is consistently strange, so of course that theme is presented in a surreal manner. Through a bizarre twist, Zadie watches herself come back to life, finds herself literally in pieces, and tries to put herself together again.
As different as Zadie’s story is from the first two, she is still connected to the other characters. In Part Three, we learn how Zadie got the owl mask she was wearing when she met Nohlan in Part One. The overlap between sections is a reminder that these characters all live in the same building, the same community, the same world.
And just as Zadie puts herself back together, so does the novel, piecing together the three separate but interwoven stories. The characters all unite in a bizarre finale that feels like an inevitable conclusion to the wild, magical identity crisis that is Arborescent.
Himself a first generation French Chinese immigrant, Lynch provides a fresh look at the Asian immigrant experience in Canada through a tapestry of characters. Both thoughtful and challenging, Arborescent is a vital novel from a fresh new voice in Canadian literature.
Marc Herman Lynch’s debut novel, Arborescent, is a magical romp through a strangely familiar world. The novel is set in a fictional version of Calgary called Moh’kins’tsis, which isn’t a made up name or place at all, but the traditional Blackfoot name for the region. In this city where true names are spoken, Lynch conjures the otherworldly and mysterious aesthetic of classic writers like Kafka and Murakami, or to use a contemporary Canadian example, Suzette Mayr’s Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall.
Arborescent opens with a prologue that introduces us to Jeb Buckles. Jeb is an eccentric old man who hates technology and builds a giant trebuchet that he uses to launch appliances. After we meet Jeb, the real story begins. The rest of the novel is divided into three parts, each focusing on a specific character.
Part One introduces Jeb’s son, Nohlan. Nohlan finds his father nearly frozen outside in the winter, and that’s when things start to get surreal. Jeb’s chest opens, and stars shoot out of it. Until this point, the characters and setting have been strange and eccentric, yet realistic, but it suddenly becomes clear that the novel is firmly rooted in the tradition of magical realism. This point becomes even clearer as the story progresses and a plant begins growing from Nohlan’s body.
Despite the magic, Arborescent is firmly rooted in the mundane. Nohlan works at Cyberia, a cyber café frequented by a handful of older patrons, and lives in an old apartment building called Cambrian Court. Cambrian Court is the first and most obvious connection between Nohlan and the other two main characters, because they all live in the crumbling building. We first catch a glimpse of one of the others, Zadie, in this first section. Zadie is sitting outside on a balcony, wearing an owl mask, when she meets Nohlan.
If the apartment building unites the characters, another common thread tries to divide them, from each other and themselves. That is their creepy landlord. He tells Nohlan that people often consider him an advisor rather than a landlord, and then proceeds to provide cryptic, but decidedly disturbing advice.
Part Two focuses on Hachiko, a young woman possessed by the character Oiwa, one of the three great ghosts of Japan, after playing the role in a kabuki production. Hachiko’s ex Michael stalks her throughout this section of the novel, and the ghost of Oiwa seems to grow more powerful within her as she confronts Michael and lets the ghost take control of her life.
As more characters are introduced, the characters’ lives begin to blend together. Jeb, Nohlan’s father, makes a brief appearance in Part Two, and of course, the creepy landlord is a recurring character throughout this section as well, telling Hachiko weird stories about his father and the artic that sound more like lies than anything else.
As the parallels between the characters begin to become clear, it seems the book is really about identity, what it means to be human, and how we are interconnected to the people around us, no matter how disconnected we may seem.
Part Three focuses on Zadie, and is a family story. Zadie’s mother Anna and her grandfather Gong Gong are concerned with their Chinese cultural roots in different ways. Her grandfather Gong Gong is afraid of losing culture. He says, “Everyone is crazy for superheroes! But when we abandon our roots for fantasies, we become ghosts” (143).
Meanwhile, Zadie’s mother has spent considerable effort trying to lose her culture. “Her mother, taught by her mother before her, showed Zadie these procedures to reduce the Asianness in her features” (146).
As things begin to escalate in Part Three, it becomes clear that Zadie’s struggle with identity is cultural, as it is with her mother and grandfather, but also deeply personal. The loss of identity and of culture seems to be a focus in this section. And the world of Arborescent is consistently strange, so of course that theme is presented in a surreal manner. Through a bizarre twist, Zadie watches herself come back to life, finds herself literally in pieces, and tries to put herself together again.
As different as Zadie’s story is from the first two, she is still connected to the other characters. In Part Three, we learn how Zadie got the owl mask she was wearing when she met Nohlan in Part One. The overlap between sections is a reminder that these characters all live in the same building, the same community, the same world.
And just as Zadie puts herself back together, so does the novel, piecing together the three separate but interwoven stories. The characters all unite in a bizarre finale that feels like an inevitable conclusion to the wild, magical identity crisis that is Arborescent.
Himself a first generation French Chinese immigrant, Lynch provides a fresh look at the Asian immigrant experience in Canada through a tapestry of characters. Both thoughtful and challenging, Arborescent is a vital novel from a fresh new voice in Canadian literature.
March 25, 2021
One of my upcoming segments for radio is a focus on debut authors from independent presses in Canada, because the Simon and Schuster acquisition by Penguin Random House is a scary one for many Canadians. Although it won’t be all bad for the reader, it will certainly make things harder for booksellers and authors, so I’d like to highlight some of the amazing talent that our indie presses are publishing in Canada, despite the challenges they continue to face. Arborescent by Marc Herman Lynch is a local-to-me book, as Lynch is a Calgarian (yay!), and he delights with numerous references to Calgary landmarks in this book, but I should also mention he does not call the city Calgary (although it clearly is), he refers to it as Moh’kins’tsis, which is the traditional indigenous name for Calgary. Lynch himself is a first generation, French Chinese immigrant, but I really loved the fact that he gives this not-so-subtle nod to the people who came before us. There are so many reasons to celebrate this book, including the creepy storyline, but I’ll get into that later…
Plot Summary
The prologue begins with a man named Jeb, who lives in the country and likes to catapult old junk into his field. The story quickly turns fantastical when his chest bursts open with stars and he dies. Then the book is split into three further sections, each a first-person perspective from different tenants of the crumbling Cambrian Court apartment building that boasts a creepy ogre-like landlord who eats only pistachios. First is Jeb’s son Nohlan, who leads a mundane life working at a cyber cafe and mooning after a self-professed psychic named Celine (she comes in and out of the storyline). But then Nohlan starts to notice strange things, like a leaf poking out of his belly button, and as the novel progresses we learn he is turning into a tree, which explains the strange title of the book. Next we meet Hachi who performs kabuki ( a form of Japanese drama and dance) and is slowly being inhabited by Oiwa, a murderous character that reminds one of that terrifying little girl from the Ring. Last is Zadie Chan who lives in Cambrian Court with her mother, who also happens to be hoarding a bunch of junk from a dead friend. Each storyline merges together at the very end, when reality as we know it becomes even dimmer, forcing the reader into a chamber of horrors with striking imagery to keep us up at night.
My Thoughts
I don’t normally read books like this; I hate when I don’t know exactly what’s going on so most fantastical storylines don’t appeal to me. But this book challenged me in a positive way, because although there were unexplainable occurrences, I still felt rooted to reality through the impressive characterization, which is truly the highlight of this book. Each section focuses the majority of its word count on establishing character; their current situation, what they are working against, who they interact with and why. It wasn’t until the very end of each perspective that reality started to unravel, so I found it easier to suspend disbelief for a few pages until we found ourselves back in the body of another, back into the mundane aspects of their life that I can’t help but find engaging. And like any good horror flick, the process of moving from creepy reality to outright fear is a well-trod and accepted one, so once I grew comfortable with this expectation, the book flowed easily for me.
The writing is fairly eclectic, with a mix of humour, social commentary, numerous similes and descriptions, and as mentioned above, horror. I was particularly impressed by Lynch’s female voice, enough to suspect that he had a few female readers give him some pointers on the internal remarks us women so often think, but rarely voice. Take this scene where Hachi is confronted by the male landlord:
“Hachi wasn’t sure if he was making a statement or trying to incite conversation. From what little she knew of him, she decided it was best to try to avoid contact entirely, but, like most men, he wanted an audience” (p. 83 of ARC).
Not only is Lynch sensitive to this gender imbalance that occurs regularly in conversations, but he really nails this general unease that younger women feel around older men, and the pressure to stay and listen attentively despite a lack of interest to do so. Of course this isn’t impossible for men to understand, yet the fact that it’s included in this relatively short book, along with other gender-specific references sprinkled throughout, was a welcome surprise for me.
The publisher of this book, Arsenal Pulp Press has enjoyed some increased attention of late due to the fact that two of their books were finalists in this most recent Canada Reads competition. Their book Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead won, which means I have yet another item to add to my huge TBR. It’s also a wonderful sign that small presses are being recognized more and more as critical to our literary landscape, especially when they introduce readers to unique new voices such Marc Herman Lynch.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
Plot Summary
The prologue begins with a man named Jeb, who lives in the country and likes to catapult old junk into his field. The story quickly turns fantastical when his chest bursts open with stars and he dies. Then the book is split into three further sections, each a first-person perspective from different tenants of the crumbling Cambrian Court apartment building that boasts a creepy ogre-like landlord who eats only pistachios. First is Jeb’s son Nohlan, who leads a mundane life working at a cyber cafe and mooning after a self-professed psychic named Celine (she comes in and out of the storyline). But then Nohlan starts to notice strange things, like a leaf poking out of his belly button, and as the novel progresses we learn he is turning into a tree, which explains the strange title of the book. Next we meet Hachi who performs kabuki ( a form of Japanese drama and dance) and is slowly being inhabited by Oiwa, a murderous character that reminds one of that terrifying little girl from the Ring. Last is Zadie Chan who lives in Cambrian Court with her mother, who also happens to be hoarding a bunch of junk from a dead friend. Each storyline merges together at the very end, when reality as we know it becomes even dimmer, forcing the reader into a chamber of horrors with striking imagery to keep us up at night.
My Thoughts
I don’t normally read books like this; I hate when I don’t know exactly what’s going on so most fantastical storylines don’t appeal to me. But this book challenged me in a positive way, because although there were unexplainable occurrences, I still felt rooted to reality through the impressive characterization, which is truly the highlight of this book. Each section focuses the majority of its word count on establishing character; their current situation, what they are working against, who they interact with and why. It wasn’t until the very end of each perspective that reality started to unravel, so I found it easier to suspend disbelief for a few pages until we found ourselves back in the body of another, back into the mundane aspects of their life that I can’t help but find engaging. And like any good horror flick, the process of moving from creepy reality to outright fear is a well-trod and accepted one, so once I grew comfortable with this expectation, the book flowed easily for me.
The writing is fairly eclectic, with a mix of humour, social commentary, numerous similes and descriptions, and as mentioned above, horror. I was particularly impressed by Lynch’s female voice, enough to suspect that he had a few female readers give him some pointers on the internal remarks us women so often think, but rarely voice. Take this scene where Hachi is confronted by the male landlord:
“Hachi wasn’t sure if he was making a statement or trying to incite conversation. From what little she knew of him, she decided it was best to try to avoid contact entirely, but, like most men, he wanted an audience” (p. 83 of ARC).
Not only is Lynch sensitive to this gender imbalance that occurs regularly in conversations, but he really nails this general unease that younger women feel around older men, and the pressure to stay and listen attentively despite a lack of interest to do so. Of course this isn’t impossible for men to understand, yet the fact that it’s included in this relatively short book, along with other gender-specific references sprinkled throughout, was a welcome surprise for me.
The publisher of this book, Arsenal Pulp Press has enjoyed some increased attention of late due to the fact that two of their books were finalists in this most recent Canada Reads competition. Their book Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead won, which means I have yet another item to add to my huge TBR. It’s also a wonderful sign that small presses are being recognized more and more as critical to our literary landscape, especially when they introduce readers to unique new voices such Marc Herman Lynch.
To read the rest of my reviews, please visit my blog:
https://ivereadthis.com/
Sign up for my newsletter here: https://ivereadthis.com/subscribe/
Or follow me on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ivereadthis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivereadthisblog
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivereadthis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6E...
June 17, 2021
Arborescent, the title of Marc Herman Lynch's novel, means tree-like but one does not need to know this to enjoy or be confounded by the twists and turns that the story takes. Although, Arborescent is labelled as a novel it's truly three interlinked stories that follow three residents of Cambrian Court, an apartment building in Moh'kins'tsis which is the Blackfoot name for the area where Calgary is located. The name of the court is perhaps a reference to The Cambrian Explosion a time over 500 million years ago when single-cell life evolved into multi-cell and complex animals. Multi-cell and complex, maybe a good description of the story told in Arborescent.
We first meet Nohlan, who has recently witnessed his father explode or more accurately the light of the universe explodes from him, out on a wintery Albertan field. Nohlan who appears to be a slacker type runs an internet cafe that has outlived its need in the community and is now mostly visited by pervs and the elderly. Other than taking care of his pet fish and longing for the attention of a local psychic, he is fairly unencumbered. Until one day he notices a tree growing from his belly button.
Then we meet Hachiko who seems to spend quite a bit of time resisting and avoiding the unwanted attention from a man at her church who feels he is the key to her salvation and becoming heterosexual. She would leave the church if it were not for the free space she uses in the church basement to practice her true passion. She is set on staging the play, Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan, one of the most famous Japanese plays ever produced. Hachiko plays Oiwa who is disfigured with poisoned face cream given to her by her husband's lover.
Then there is Zadie who feels to be the heart-wood of the story. She is stuck between her mother and beloved Gong Gong as peacekeeper and unsure of what she herself wants or needs. When Zadie is struck by a car and killed in an attempt to evade her pistachio munching landlord who may or may not be turning into a bear, the entire world seems to turn inside out. Zadie comes to life in zombie fashion and runs into Hachiko who takes her as the ghost Oiwa. Zadie is determined to find her mother but discovers that her mother has been consumed by tree roots that have threaded themselves through plumbing, floors, and walls of Cambrian Court. Zadie and Hachiko hunt the source of the roots and find Nohlan, shrivelled and consumed by the tree growing from his body. Zadie knows she must destroy the tree to stop it from consuming them all, and for her to be fully actualized and awake in the world. She chops at the trunk until the tree is severed from it roots. We are all at times victims of circumstance and sometimes we cannot get out of the way when our worlds explode and drown us in the cosmic dust of life. As Nohlan says, "Stability is the illusion."
We first meet Nohlan, who has recently witnessed his father explode or more accurately the light of the universe explodes from him, out on a wintery Albertan field. Nohlan who appears to be a slacker type runs an internet cafe that has outlived its need in the community and is now mostly visited by pervs and the elderly. Other than taking care of his pet fish and longing for the attention of a local psychic, he is fairly unencumbered. Until one day he notices a tree growing from his belly button.
Then we meet Hachiko who seems to spend quite a bit of time resisting and avoiding the unwanted attention from a man at her church who feels he is the key to her salvation and becoming heterosexual. She would leave the church if it were not for the free space she uses in the church basement to practice her true passion. She is set on staging the play, Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan, one of the most famous Japanese plays ever produced. Hachiko plays Oiwa who is disfigured with poisoned face cream given to her by her husband's lover.
Then there is Zadie who feels to be the heart-wood of the story. She is stuck between her mother and beloved Gong Gong as peacekeeper and unsure of what she herself wants or needs. When Zadie is struck by a car and killed in an attempt to evade her pistachio munching landlord who may or may not be turning into a bear, the entire world seems to turn inside out. Zadie comes to life in zombie fashion and runs into Hachiko who takes her as the ghost Oiwa. Zadie is determined to find her mother but discovers that her mother has been consumed by tree roots that have threaded themselves through plumbing, floors, and walls of Cambrian Court. Zadie and Hachiko hunt the source of the roots and find Nohlan, shrivelled and consumed by the tree growing from his body. Zadie knows she must destroy the tree to stop it from consuming them all, and for her to be fully actualized and awake in the world. She chops at the trunk until the tree is severed from it roots. We are all at times victims of circumstance and sometimes we cannot get out of the way when our worlds explode and drown us in the cosmic dust of life. As Nohlan says, "Stability is the illusion."
July 14, 2022
I picked this up while on a fantasy-horror kick after finishing Gus Moreno's "This Thing Between Us". With compelling characters, vivid descriptive language and some truly haunting scenes, it definitely meets the minimum requirements for me to call it a page turner. The story is built around three strangers, united only by their mutual tenancy in a Canadian apartment building that seems to be slipping into a unique and horrifying alternate universe.
While the pacing and structure were great, my issues with this novel mostly all come from the time-honored list of "ways that horror writers drop the ball in the third act"
A lot of themes are introduced between the three main characters (and the one show-stealing supporting character who lords over their apartment building), but most of them are left by the wayside almost immediately. The themes that do persist, like the futility and meaning of Nohlan Buckles' life (and rebirth), are only explored sparsely in conversations so vague and philosophical that they come across as vacuous.
This brings me to a few minor gripes I had with the writing style. I appreciate a book that enriches my vocab and keeps me returning to the dictionary at a reasonable pace, but Lynch's writing sometimes veered into deep-end thesaurus-itis when I felt it didn't need to. It can be a bit halting to encounter three esoteric words in one paragraph, and then again on the next page - I found myself zoning out occasionally and wondering if it was worth it to look up a word only to learn how exactly the character was describing a falling leaf. The prose also got a little swampy and tedious at times ("the lush smell of nouns").
Another "passable horror story" hallmark: there are some major narrative and storyline holes here as well. The entire prologue seems to completely disconnected from the story arc of Nohlan, to whom it is directly tied. The landlord exists seemingly only to become a hulking monster of questionable form and purpose (with an unexplained hang-up on some bear / rabbit metaphor). Right down to the one-scene-too-far concluding chapter with an unnecessary attempt at heartwarming resolve, this novel could have benefitted from more editing.
If you're big into fantasy-horror and don't mind (more than) a few lingering question marks after you finish a story, you'd probably like this book. At just over 200 pages, it's a quick read with more than one jaw-dropping moment and an acceptably climactic ending. Knowing that this was Lynch's first novel, I'll be keeping an eye on his more recent and future work.
While the pacing and structure were great, my issues with this novel mostly all come from the time-honored list of "ways that horror writers drop the ball in the third act"
A lot of themes are introduced between the three main characters (and the one show-stealing supporting character who lords over their apartment building), but most of them are left by the wayside almost immediately. The themes that do persist, like the futility and meaning of Nohlan Buckles' life (and rebirth), are only explored sparsely in conversations so vague and philosophical that they come across as vacuous.
This brings me to a few minor gripes I had with the writing style. I appreciate a book that enriches my vocab and keeps me returning to the dictionary at a reasonable pace, but Lynch's writing sometimes veered into deep-end thesaurus-itis when I felt it didn't need to. It can be a bit halting to encounter three esoteric words in one paragraph, and then again on the next page - I found myself zoning out occasionally and wondering if it was worth it to look up a word only to learn how exactly the character was describing a falling leaf. The prose also got a little swampy and tedious at times ("the lush smell of nouns").
Another "passable horror story" hallmark: there are some major narrative and storyline holes here as well. The entire prologue seems to completely disconnected from the story arc of Nohlan, to whom it is directly tied. The landlord exists seemingly only to become a hulking monster of questionable form and purpose (with an unexplained hang-up on some bear / rabbit metaphor). Right down to the one-scene-too-far concluding chapter with an unnecessary attempt at heartwarming resolve, this novel could have benefitted from more editing.
If you're big into fantasy-horror and don't mind (more than) a few lingering question marks after you finish a story, you'd probably like this book. At just over 200 pages, it's a quick read with more than one jaw-dropping moment and an acceptably climactic ending. Knowing that this was Lynch's first novel, I'll be keeping an eye on his more recent and future work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
January 20, 2021I totally get that this is a really interesting novel, and quite brilliantly constructed… but it just wasn’t for me. I really tried to like it, and there were moments where I thought I could keep going, but it was just too ‘out there’ and ‘off the wall’ - basically too chaotic - for my reading tastes.
I’m afraid I like a more ‘traditional’ narrative style… I’m not really a fan of the ‘absurd’ in life or in literature.
I was rather much more interested in the snow that continues to fall and the view outside my window.
DNF
I’m afraid I like a more ‘traditional’ narrative style… I’m not really a fan of the ‘absurd’ in life or in literature.
I was rather much more interested in the snow that continues to fall and the view outside my window.
DNF
March 29, 2022
I found this book to be poetic and mystical, and very nourishing to my vocabulary. A book that I'll likely read again, which I don't often do. The language, themes, characters and allusions were all quite complex and layered, which is why I will likely read it at least once again. Surrealism and poetic imagery were very forward in the book, and the three sections' plots overlap was enough to keep me curious about what happens next and how the characters relate.
January 11, 2021
Terrifying, wondrous, weird, lovely. READ THIS!!
December 15, 2022
Just wasn’t feeling this one for whatever reason
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews