Vidya’s Comments (group member since Oct 01, 2012)

Vidya’s comments from the ELEVEN READER'S CLUB group.

"Enter, Night” By Michael Rowe

Update # 1

1) Poignant Statement/Passage

“Jordan heard the brutal smack of flesh. He’d jumped out of bed and opened his parents’ bedroom door to find his mother bleeding from the mouth and his father standing over her, trying to pull her to her feet. Jordan smelled the liquor from his doorway. His father stank of it. “She’s fine,” his father was muttering. “She fell. It’s alright. Go to bed. Go on, get out of here.’” His mother was trembling. Her eyes were wide open and she shook her head imperceptibly, silently imploring him to do what his father said. ”

2) Vocabulary

Ambivalent: Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone
Variegated: Exhibiting different colors, esp. as irregular patches or streaks
Amiable: Having or displaying a friendly and pleasant manner

3) Rhetorical Devices

“The blood from her wounds-there seemed to be atleast two, apart from her torn throat, including a deep gash in the top of her skull from which a thick paste of brain, bone, and fragments was leaking like red oatmeal” – Simile

“As Jordan drifted over his body, he looked down at himself as he’d never seen himself in any mirror while he’d been alive. He saw the fragility of his body and he realized how tenuously human life was contained by such brittle shells of flesh and bone under the best of circumstances.” – Imagery


4) Statement

So much happened in the first 20% of this book. The author’s writing style in my opinion, completely blows my mind. This review does not sum up what happened in this chapter. This writing has so many powerful lines; it hurts to have to leave them out. I’m really looking forward to experiencing more of this torrent of horror, pain, and feelings.
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Update # 2

1) “Billy couldn’t decide if this restless cruising in the truck was some inherited hunter’s instinct, or if he was just delaying the inevitable, which was walking through the front doors of the police station in Parr’s landing and telling the constable in charge that something terrible had woken up, and was, even now, slouching towards his town.”

2) Apocryphal: Of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.
Beatifically: In a beatific manner
Appellatives: A common noun, such as “doctor,” “mother,” or “sir,” used as a vocative

3) “Mom, did grandmother tell everyone I’m illegitimate? Because it was weird, but the principal kept talking about ‘lifestyle choices’ that you and dad made back when I was born, and it was like everyone was walking on eggshells because my last name is Parr.” –Idiom
“I’m sure your mother looks immaculate, like she just fell out of Miss Chantelaine. Well, an old issue of Miss Chantelaine. A very old issue.”- Allusion
4) At this point, I believe the author has made clear who the story will mainly revolve around, and not get killed within the next two chapters. I hope I am correct. I feel deep sympathy for the characters. Their survival isn’t guaranteed though, not with the strange ongoing events about the small town…
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Update #3
1) “Through the windshield of the Chevelle, Jeremy saw the stars in the night sky over Parr’s Landing as though they were underwater, for he was weeping at this final and unalterable proof that his mother not only regretted his existence, as he’d known since he was fifteen, but actively wished him dead, at least if it would bring his brother back from the grave.”

2) Hyperborean- An inhabitant of the extreme north
Tenterhooks- A hook use to fasten drying cloth on a drying frame or tenter
Doornail- A stud set in a door for strength or as an ornament

3) “Dead as a doornail”- Simile
“Any human contact was a sorry substitute for the feeling of Sadie’s soft hair under his chin, the soft black fur tickling his neck as he held her body close to his and inhaled her warm dog scent, and felt her heartbeat.”-Imagery

4) Strange events indeed. Potential weapons of murder are found in the hills among caves dotted with strange images of mythical creatures. Furthermore, this bag may belong to the strange murderer introduced at the beginning of the book….who supposedly died a few months ago. I can’t stop reading. Strange, I don’t remember gluing the book to my fingers…



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Update #4

1) “The very last emotion Hank Miller would ever feel was a fear so desolate and hopeless that it was almost chemical. He felt a sudden kinship with every cornered animal he had ever hunted, in the moment right before he pulled the trigger. So this is what it feels like, he marvelled, as though from a great distance even as he felt the piss running down his work pants.”

2) Incandescent- Emitting light as a result of being heated
Ignominious- Deserving or causing public disgrace or shame
Benediction- The utterance or bestowing of a blessing, esp. at the end of a religious service

3) “The last thing Hank saw was before Richard Weal and Donna Lemieux tore him apart, splitting his spine between them like a wishbone…”- Simile

“...was the tall black robed man with the long white hair raising his hands in a gesture of benediction.”-Imagery
4) I’m astounded by what the author has done here. His style, again, really shines in this dark writing. The way the characters are presented, and having their back stories told, coloring them in, is beautiful. Then having some psycho come in and literally tear them to shreds. I feel as if I’ve lost someone I know on a personal level. With tragic timing rivaling that of Shakespeare’s, the author managed to play my heart strings like the harpsichord, and scared me out of my wits. This book is graphic, and meant for daytime reading if you enjoy falling asleep.
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Update #5
1) “But he wasn’t really threatening, was he? Not really. He was just cold. He just wanted to come inside. He’d been sleeping in the caves above Bradley Lake for a long time. It made sense he should want to come inside. It was a reasonable request, and one she could easily grant by saying Come in. You’re welcome in my house, enter freely. Those were the magic words. He was too much of a gentlemen to enter without an invitation from the lady of the house.

2) Mollified-Appease the anger or anxiety (of someone)
Denuding- Strip (something) of its coverings, possessions, or assets, make bare
Phalanx-A group of people or things of a similar type forming a compact body or brought together for a common purpose

3) “Images spun through her head like a rickety black-and-white silent film,”-Metaphor
“Christina made a sound high in her throat, somewhere between the whine of a trapped animal and a moan. “Adeline…” Adeline turned her crimson-smeared face towards Christina. She smiled as casually as a hostess who’d been disturbed in her embroidery, and spat her son’s genitals out of her mouth like an hors d’oeuvre”- (Graphic!) Imagery

4) This was definitely the harshest sections of the book. It goes into the history of the story. I thought the ending left a few things hanging, but most loose ends were tied up in a special “epilogue document”, as I see it. A letter from a dying priest a few centuries ago, explaining some of the mysteries in the book. I thought it was a creative and original way to end the tale.

The book I have chosen to read is “Enter, Night”, by Michael Rowe. The first thing I noticed was the title and the usage of the word “Night”. Due its increasing overuse in current pop culture, the first topic that sprung to mind was vampires. I recently had a discussion regarding vampire novels, and was told that there are a lot of “real vampire books out there”. Immediately upon review, I was amused by this book’s description on sunburstaward.org. The jury praises, “After the post-Twilight tsunami of toothless vampire fiction, this nightmare-inducing novel offers a decidedly welcome return to the emotional, physical, and spiritual hells invoked by the best vampire tales.” I have not read Twilight, nor plan on doing so,-ever- but I would like to experience the true vampiric “hells” woven within a promised substantial plot. The author attracted my attention directly as well, given that this is his debut novel. I have plans to write my own novel someday, preferably within the broad spectrum of the mystical; those dimensions most humans are blissfully unaware of. The publishing of this book be reminds me I can aim for the top early, and get there. As an enthusiastic bookworm and a novice at writing, I'm rapturous at the vision of having a cover with my name on it in the future. In terms of this book’s genre, I love mystery and ancient secrets, and with an element sinister supernatural thrown in, it shouldn’t take long for me to utterly immerse myself within this enticing world of darkness.