Thomas > Recent Status Updates

Early morning hours, Oct 3 - 3-6 AM.

Halfway through. I need to buy Strange Buildings soon.

Read all of this last night into 4:30 AM and it’s a total ride with killer momentum. Really fun mystery that leaves room for the reader to try and draw their own conclusions from the situation as they take it apart.

What a goddamn terrifying sequence.

Somehow incorporates these really unsettling stingers. The fact that it’s happening to a child automatically raises the stakes in a really discomforting way.

Holy shit this one’s amazing.

I see how this is probably in the same continuity as the Old House and We Used to Live Here. Definitely engages with the premise more than the former book. Really tense.

I bought this around the time I bought We Used to Live Here under the assumption that I was gonna enjoy Live Here and read more of his works. I did not enjoy Live Here. This one’s premise is also engaging and off the bat we seem to have more weirdness in a fun way though it’s genuinely taking a while to get to the action. Already almost a third into it and the setup was a bit slow. Hope the payoff is good.

Here Kliewer reuses a line from his other series, “The man in my basement takes one step closer every week.”

“…it looks as though somebody else jumped inside Andrew’s mind for a second, took a quick look around, then jumped back out.” (We Used to Live Here)

“Almost like someone had crawled into his mind, taken a quick look around, and jumped back out.” (Basement)

I don’t know how I feel about it.

Read the first paragraph of this page and paused, very scared that this chapter will just be reheating House of Leaves’ nachos.

I’m going to be honest, there’s this moment on pgs. 149-154 where you do a little (simple) decoding (unsure about the symbol codes but I assume those are solvable as well), and the result was eerie but didn’t actually satisfy me at all. Like, it was phrasing that I’ve seen thrown around in my own writing groups and snippets of horror that I already frequent.

Laying out pieces that form a better picture but still some things left to be desired. There’s something here that I really do like but it’s done in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s engaging with its own premise enough. Past the halfway point so I don’t know, I could be wrong and casting judgement too early while there’s still room for me to be impressed - waiting to see more.

The buildup is there but I’m kind of expecting more. Little details that I like so far that don’t feel like they’re fully being capitalized on, but then again I’m about to finish the first third. So it’s probably just buildup like I said.

Had to reread it from the beginning yesterday because I lost track and needed a refresher, very happy to dive back into it.

Kind of knew this was litfic when I grabbed it three years ago, did some more on and off research in recent months since I’m getting back into reading more. Really fascinating prose, can’t get over how the characters talk.

Why do I feel like there’s always a catch.

Just realized that there’s a chance Neugebauer might pull the same ambiguity that she did with her first novella and if she does that here I will be sick.

Hit Ch. 15 and this is exactly what I’m talking about. Oppressive in how it makes me want to just scream but also so clear in how it’s playing with people being locked inside their own heads/perceptions that that barrier just becomes the anxious horror in and of itself. Definitely more nerve-wracking to me than The Extra.

More of a painful reading experience than the Extra only because in the latter, you’re internally screaming because the situation is so difficult to parse. In this one, the dramatic irony makes you internally scream because you’re in the know of each perspective and can possibly actively see when there’s a character misstep.

Really fascinating to go into this after watching the movie. The way the stories seem to fall into place while also being effective as entirely separate tales is amazing. Love when you get a lot of moving parts that start to come together as a whole. Heard that Uketsu’s novels have similar aspects so I’m excited for those as well!

The short chapters and flowing prose really help pull you along. I simultaneously feel both distant from the characters while also being in their heads.

I love the language the author uses within the work, it really weaves this image of how the characters interact with each other. The insidious parts sink in really really well and are organically introduced at a great pace. Love the characters and the setting!

I like how the writing takes you on this convoluted journey through peoples’ thoughts and the setting and little tidbits of info in general.

The MC is my age (🤢🤮terrifying) and I just found out the author is the founder of the Mountain Goats. This Subaru Dealership is about to get interesting.

These illustrations are genuinely beautiful.

Something, something…