Euan > Recent Status Updates

Already not feeling this. We'll see if I can make it through by bookclub.

The Meat Garden by Craig Padawer (1996)- A surreal story about a nonsensical future war between a mechanical musically weaponized side and biological spore-wielding side.

The Stiff and the Stile by Stepan Chapman (1997)- A short nursery-style tale of a post apocalyptic wasteland in the style of The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.

The Snow Pavilion by Angela Carter (1995)- An interesting one, falling somewhere between fairytale and horror, and quite ambiguous in what exactly is going on. And, being Carter, exquisite writing and imagery.

Yeah, this is a weird one.

Now this is well written.

Though I don't understand yet why I've heard people say Humbert manages to make himself a sympathetic narrator; he's eloquent, sure, but everything he's describing is creepy af, and he admits it

"This book feels all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread."

It's a good premise... But I need more than an idea to keep my interest. Nothing's happening, and the main character or our picture of her isn't developing either.

The Delicate by Jeffrey Ford (1994)- A great short, surreal story about a strange, shapeshifting monster called The Delicate.

The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King (1994)- A man in his nineties recounting the story of how he encountered the Devil as a young boy while fishing.

The Country Doctor by Steven Utley (1993)- a short and interesting one about what's unearthed when a graveyard is exhumed

Last Rites and Resurrections by Martin Simpson (1994)- A sad but sweet one about a man who hears the ghosts of roadkill after his son dies

The Ocean and All of Its Devices by William Browning Spencer (1994)- A good, eerie one about a strange holidaying family and their rituals with the ocean.

Definitely self-published so far, with the writing quirks that implies (that it's written in present tense makes for some particularly jarring grammar sometimes)... But it's just fun. Extremely melodramatic and edgy, but in a way that works, even as it edges on campy. Very fast-paced and an interesting world being built.

Thinking how strongly this already reminds of The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati. Turns out, they're both inspired by the same poem; so off to read that.

Now this is good. First thing in a while that's fully meshed with me. Better than Thunderer so far (and Thunderer was really good), and is standing completely alone.

It's fun and somewhat funny (though some jokes get tired much more quickly than they stop being used). But the science is painfully inaccurate. It's in that realm of close enough to being right while still definitely being wrong that's more annoying than just being completely baseless.

So many words, and so little said. We're still in the territory of the blurb.

Oh, God, I'm already done with this writing. I get it she has seven freckles.

After the lines describing her father as "most at home inside his workshop" and being in a cart with "a pile of woodwares," I didn't also need to be told "He is a woodworker, her father."

On this one page there are FIVE whole sentences letting you know this is the first time she's left her home. Ffs

Replacements by Lisa Tuttle (1992)- A story about strange creatures which appear and disgust the male narrator, but seem to fascinate women.

The Diane Arbus Suicide Portfolio (1993)- A story about a crime scene photographer who photographs Diane Arbus' suicide, which leads to strange encounters for those photos