I picked this up thanks in large part to Megan Abbott’s review. It’s not her fault, though, that I didn’t like it.
For Goodreads, Abbott talked about tI picked this up thanks in large part to Megan Abbott’s review. It’s not her fault, though, that I didn’t like it.
For Goodreads, Abbott talked about the book’s similarities to Robert Altman’s movie The Long Goodbye, mostly in terms of aesthetics, a forgotten Los Angeles, as well as the narrator’s anxiety.
The Long Goodbye is one of my all time favorite movies, Chandler but better. So I had to grab this. And yeah, she is right that it gets the aesthetics well. I deeply felt the experience of early-80s Los Angeles while reading it. And the narrator’s anxiety was well-considered as he prowled around the city, following the classmate he thinks is a serial killer.
The problem is: it’s written by Bret Easton Ellis.
This is my third Ellis novel (American Psycho and Glamorama) and the one constancy is nothingness. Ellis consistently writes about living in a gilded void and hating every second of it. And he’s quite effective. What saves American Psycho from its brutal misogyny is Ellis’ portrayal of a vacuous Wall Streeter who can only fill the void with violence because he is so full of self-loathing and envy.
And that would be fine if this clocked in at around 250-300 pages. But there were almost 600 and halfway through, the book went from interesting to tedious, and tedious to exhausting. Finishing it was a chore, though I really liked the ending. There’s just not enough interesting material about a factional Bret Easton Ellis and his rich kid cohorts to make me invested for that much time.
I don’t really regret finishing it but like a lot of Ellis’ work, it left me wanting something different....more
As the Easy Rawlins series moves on, we’re seeing books that are more “Easy and Friends Save the Day.” Which I like. Mosley has given his Marlowe someAs the Easy Rawlins series moves on, we’re seeing books that are more “Easy and Friends Save the Day.” Which I like. Mosley has given his Marlowe some much needed maturity and focus. Thus, the family/friend elements are often more interesting than the mystery, though that’s fine too....more
Was prepared for the narrow interpretations of Japanese culture and got it. I'm sure samurai weren't around ready to ritually disembowel themselves atWas prepared for the narrow interpretations of Japanese culture and got it. I'm sure samurai weren't around ready to ritually disembowel themselves at a moment's notice. And a lot of the exchanges felt rote. But it's massive in scope and hits a lot of its reach. Parts of it got me emotional. Can't wait to watch the show. ...more
I knew very little about Hannah Davis going into this, which helped as it read like a page-turner. Barbara Chase-Riboud does a great job in story formI knew very little about Hannah Davis going into this, which helped as it read like a page-turner. Barbara Chase-Riboud does a great job in story form of presenting Hanna’s plight and the tough choices she had to make. The dialogue could’ve used some sprucing up, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this quality work of historical fiction, which read like a more competent, non-racist version of a Jackie Collins novel. ...more
Very mixed feelings on this one, to the point where I still don't feel like writing a review. I appreciate what Nicola Griffith is going for: this beaVery mixed feelings on this one, to the point where I still don't feel like writing a review. I appreciate what Nicola Griffith is going for: this beautifully detailed account of 7th century England with mysticism, political intrigue and other neat stuff. But man, she just can't quite make it.
I could never connect with Hild as a character; she kind of felt like more of a hologram of what the writer wanted her to be than someone actually human. And yet, Griffith does write some humanizing moments of her.
I couldn't fully immerse myself into the atmosphere of this world, despite Griffith's vast research. And yet, it also made me feel like I was in that world in certain moments.
I didn't grasp the political realities of the situation due to the obscene amount of characters with shifting motives. And yet, the politics are probably what I liked the most.
How I finished this behemoth with consistent frustration and conflicted feelings, I don't know.
Griffith obviously has some talent but there's a good story in here that needs to be extracted with better editing and focus. I never mind a long book; indeed I picked this up because of its "Game of Thrones without dragons" comparison. But I can't help feeling like it was one doorstopper of a missed opportunity.
And yet, there's some desire to read book two. I passed by it in Barnes and Noble last night...
Yeah I still don't know how I feel about this one. ...more
More typical Cornwell with this wonderful, frustrating series. Love how he writes this world. Love the historical detail. Battle scenes, court politicMore typical Cornwell with this wonderful, frustrating series. Love how he writes this world. Love the historical detail. Battle scenes, court politics both get the chef’s kiss. Just can’t stand how annoying and uninteresting Uhtred is. I don’t root against him per se but I wouldn’t mind seeing him killed in one of these books. Sadly, we have a long way to go so I guess I have to suffer him to get through the series. Most of the time, it’s worth it. ...more
An ambitious debut novel…and it mostly hits its reach. Scott Von Doviak does a great job juggling a loaded storyline and three times. My only real beeAn ambitious debut novel…and it mostly hits its reach. Scott Von Doviak does a great job juggling a loaded storyline and three times. My only real beef is the resolutions, which fell flat, including a weird and unnecessary coincidence. Still, most of the execution works and it’s a portent, hopefully, of good things to come from this writer. ...more
This was…not the book I was expecting. I figured it would just be three people questing their way through medieval horror episodes.
And it is that. TheThis was…not the book I was expecting. I figured it would just be three people questing their way through medieval horror episodes.
And it is that. The thing is: the horror is taking place during the bubonic plague, which has also apparently opened a portal to hell freeing the demons to do cosmic battle with the angels…hence the horrors on earth.
Yeah this book is a lot. And it’s really good.
The three main characters are cyphers for the larger story Christopher Buehlman is trying to tell but I was still deeply invested in their tales. As they go about their journey, dealing with one apocalyptic vision after another until the final great confrontation, I was sucked in to the rich writing. The dream sequences were incredible, some of which I don’t even have real words to describe. This book has a real power to it.
The horror is a bit of jump scare but really this is monsters and gore. However, what gave the story stakes and made the monsters feel real was the overarching references to the literal battle of good vs. evil. Yet in a world where everyone is already dying at the hands of the bubonic plague, it’s tough to suss out what is good and evil. God is absent and the devils are at hand. So where I would normally get bogged down in a story like this (big spooky monsters), I was drawn in deeper, all the way to the slam bang conclusion.
This is a violent, brutal, bloody book that examines apocalyptic literature in the most violent way. Wouldn’t normally be my thing but I loved it....more
Widows is one of my favorite movies from the last few decade, a criminally underrated mismarketed gem of a flick that should have not only got more coWidows is one of my favorite movies from the last few decade, a criminally underrated mismarketed gem of a flick that should have not only got more commercial love but awards love as well. I won’t say what it’s about, you should watch it. Don’t even Google the plot, just watch. It’s excellent.
Anyway, there’s a great tracking shot that is not only my favorite scene in the movie but one of my favorite scenes of all-time. Colin Farrell’s nepo baby city council candidate character gets in a limo with his campaign advisor after giving a speech on his success in supporting Black businesses in Chicago. The speech happened in a predominantly Black section of the city, one within Farrell’s political district. As he is arguing with his advisor in the car, the camera tracks only the limo as it drives through said district from the place in which he has campaigned to another, presumably his home. In that time, we see the transition from a working class neighborhood to a high end upper class neighborhood with all the glassy condominiums and high end boutiques a gentrifier’s heart can delight in. Both locations separated a few blocks geographically and many years socially by white supremacist politics.
Basically, that’s the premise of this book, only if it was set in Brooklyn, written by Jonathan Lethem, and ping ponging between years telling the story of a crime amidst the broader story of a neighborhood.
Yes, there is a crime at the center of it but the details of said crime are the least interesting part of the neighborhood. This is a hang out book in which you get to know the characters and the neighborhood. Using the postmodern meta-storytelling device I hate but works here, Jonathan Lethem is giving you the grand tour of the neighborhood he get up in, that weird space in downtown Brooklyn that didn’t carry a name for decades until real estate agents threw Boerum Hill on a brochure. You never get settled because once you interact with one, you’re immediately bounced to another. Or another story. It’s a panapol-istic (sic?) method and it works.
And thus the crime, when it takes center stage, is given added heft because you know how everyone got here. But even that is not told in a simple way.
In the hands of a lesser storyteller, this would come off as a smarmy gimmick. But Lethem is an experienced writer, knows his neighborhood to a t and tells the story with brutal honesty and wistful examination. It’s not the streamlined narrative of his classic Motherless Brooklyn but I liked it a lot more for what it is doing and how it does it. It’s not for everyone but it’s definitely for me and it’s one of the best things I’ve read this year....more
I remember why I never went back to this series after True Detective: interesting concept, uninspired execution with a protagonist I just can't connecI remember why I never went back to this series after True Detective: interesting concept, uninspired execution with a protagonist I just can't connect with. For all the faults of Max Allan Collins' Quarry novels, at least those have verve and energy. That's missing here. There were too many names to keep track of for a condensed book and while the mystery was interesting, I just couldn't get invested in the narrative itself. It's not bad but I'm in the minority on not being thrilled with this one. ...more
I only found out less than a month ago that James Ellroy was coming out with a new book. I keep my ear close to the ground as far as Ellroy is concernI only found out less than a month ago that James Ellroy was coming out with a new book. I keep my ear close to the ground as far as Ellroy is concerned so I’m not sure why the delayed announcement here. But I put it on reserve immediately and, despite some challenging life/work circumstances, finished it as soon as I could.
I haven’t been impressed with Ellroy’s recent output. This Storm was a jumbled mess, a karaoke version of his legendary LA Quartet novels (and a disappointment after Perfidia did a great job kicking off the new series). Widespread Panic was so uninspired as to be forgettable. Seriously, I read that book two years ago and can barely remember anything about it except Joi Lansing’s presence and the running gag of Orson Welles being the Black Dahlia murderer.
Part of the issue is Otash himself, a real life “Private Eye to the Stars.” Ellroy had wanted to write about Otash until he actually met the man and found him to be a self-glorifying dud. So he invented the character of Pete Bondurant in the Underworld USA trilogy as kind of a stand-in. But it’s clear he never got over Otash, which is why we’re getting these new books that…are part of a new series featuring Otash? I don’t think he’s counting these as part of the new LA Quintet (apparently, there will be five according to the list of published works in this one).
Also, James Ellroy writing about Marilyn Monroe is like William Shakespeare writing about King Arthur in that it never happened (at least for Shakespeare and until this month, Ellroy too) and I’m kind of surprised. Ellroy has a fascination with conspiracy theories, powerful men, glamorous and murdered women, yet Monroe has never rated in his works the way Joan Crawford has, or obviously poor Elizabeth Short. So it’s weird to see him take her on.
All that to say, this book is fantastic. It’s some of Ellroy’s best work.
I think because of the scattered nature of his first Otash work and the sloppy nature of This Storm, my expectations for The Enchanters were low. I figured it’d be a Monroe-esque version of Widespread Panic. But it’s quite good. The plot stays propulsive but I could kind of follow what was going on, it takes some interesting detours, puts a different spin on the Monroe myths (as only Ellroy can), and has a comprehensible ending.
A big piece of this is how Ellroy tones down the racial commentary and phallic obsessiveness. It still comes out; this is James Ellroy, after all. But it’s much more muted. This is a focused work, a quality work. I don’t know what compelled him to go back to the style that worked for Perfidia. One-person POVs are not usually his thing. But everything comes together nicely here. Also, the Dramatis Personae in the back of the book is hilarious.
So I guess I can be excited again for new Ellroy novels. Bravo....more
I don’t know what to say really. This trilogy wrecked me.
And to think, I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for journalist Max Read’s suggestion.
I readI don’t know what to say really. This trilogy wrecked me.
And to think, I wouldn’t have picked it up if not for journalist Max Read’s suggestion.
I read the last three books of David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet last year and you can look at the tag to see the progression on my reviews. I appreciated what he was doing. I even liked large parts of it. It demands a reread. But Peace, a Yorkshire native, is too close to the action. That was a personal story and even heavily fictionalized, I don’t know if there’s enough distance from the familiar Broken White Men that guys like Peace (and me and so many others) have been trained to write about with rapt fascination.
But this series…whew.
I reviewed Tokyo Year Zero at length; it’s one of my favorite reads of 2023 and maybe my favorite of this series. I gave Occupied City three stars and I’m regretting that. It was a frustrating read but a good one and I know I’ll love it again with the familiarity of structure and story.
This one brings it home with the hammer hitting the nail firmly and cleanly. I mean…whoo buddy.
Telling the real life murder of Shimoyama Sadamori in three different decades, Peace continues his examination of postwar rebuilding in Tokyo, broadening the scope for the last two to the 1964 Olympics and the 80s when Japan’s economy was at an all-time high. The first two stories feature your typical Broken Man detectives—one Japanese, the other American. The brokenness of the characters is the point and beside the point: they’re used to tell the story. And in typical Peace fashion, they get close to peeking behind the curtain without seeing it. All they’re left with is rumor, innuendo and suspicious characters in the battered-but-rebuilding city of Tokyo.
The third story…can’t say a word about it. There’s just no way. It would spoil the whole thing. It’s just…it’s brutal. But in the Peace-ian way of truths revealed.
These books…I don’t have more words. This review will have to suffice for now. Damn. ...more
Hixploitation (the author’s words, not mine) — like blaxploitation and other specified identity genres — hit a frenzied peak in the 70s. It was the erHixploitation (the author’s words, not mine) — like blaxploitation and other specified identity genres — hit a frenzied peak in the 70s. It was the era of the Film Brats and just as they influenced studio Hollywood, the Bs were changing as well. Whereas small budget, sad screen scifi and rip off gangster/detective movies had dominated the market, it was now saturated with crime and action films that fit a particular ethno and/or regional identity. Hence, hixploitation.
Burt Reynolds was the king of this genre with films like Gator. But whereas blaxploitation still lives on in works such as Black Dynamite and Proud Mary, no one is doing much on the southern front, save the abysmal Dukes of Hazzard remake.
Fortunately for those that are fans of the genre (I myself am not but I appreciate its impact), Scott Von Doviak does a great job bringing it to life in the span of 283 pages. This is a rip roaring crime tale in which the good ol’ boys try to outrun Johnny Law, with a few other interesting characters thrown in the mix.
Von Doviak could have easily let this veer into parody but he wisely choses not to. Instead, he imbues the characters with gravity so that the stakes feel real. There is plenty of caper wisecracks and silliness but you finish the book feeling like you spent time getting to know these people. A little sluggish at times for what the story is trying to be, it nevertheless is a fun callback to films of a different age. And you don’t have to appreciate that age to appreciate this one....more
This book is both brilliant and frustrating. Brilliant in its ideas, it’s concepts, many of its exchanges. Frustrating in its style, it’s choice of stThis book is both brilliant and frustrating. Brilliant in its ideas, it’s concepts, many of its exchanges. Frustrating in its style, it’s choice of storytelling device. I loved it and I hated it and I probably won’t forget it. Can only give it 3 stars because it comes on the heels of the excellent Tokyo Year Zero. ...more
A book like this has a hard ceiling so I can’t go above 3 cuz it is too silly and too derivative. But it’s also a lot of fun. Large parts of it read lA book like this has a hard ceiling so I can’t go above 3 cuz it is too silly and too derivative. But it’s also a lot of fun. Large parts of it read like a script from a 50s Sinatra movie, for better and worse. ...more
I’m going to give this book four stars against my better judgment. It was not a four star read. Let me explain.
For like 70-80% of these ratings, I takI’m going to give this book four stars against my better judgment. It was not a four star read. Let me explain.
For like 70-80% of these ratings, I take them seriously. I really do want people to know how I feel if they are considering whether or not to pick something up. Reading is awesome and we only have so much time in this life.
This is one that is a 3-star read. But I’m giving it 4 for a few reasons…
-I think it’s a good first effort and I usually give freshman efforts a 1-star bump. Writing a book is hard. -I think what Rosen is trying to do is interesting, if a bit too high concept for a first book. But I admired the effort. -There is a lot to like individually about the book: the hardboiled nature, the queer atmosphere, the ambiguity.
But the last line is part of the problem: Rosen’s book about the characters and his book about the mystery are two separate things. He cares a lot about the characters and wants us to do the same. The problem is, they’re all involved in a murder mystery so it’s hard to disassociate from them to consider whether they are or are not killers.
I really think Rosen wanted to write more about the people that populate this wonderful house where gay, lesbian and queer folks can feels safe than he did about the crime. So what happens is an overwritten tale with spotty prose that drags a lot. I found it hard to focus for large chunks of this book. But I really liked some parts of it.
So overall, it wasn’t the best reading experience but I think Rosen is on to something. He does need to pick a more streamlined story if he wants this to be an effective sequel for his protagonist, Andy Mills. ...more
Truthfully, I did not expect this to be as good as it was. I hadn’t liked Chuck Hogan’s last book and while I enjoyed the movie version of “The Town,”Truthfully, I did not expect this to be as good as it was. I hadn’t liked Chuck Hogan’s last book and while I enjoyed the movie version of “The Town,” I’m assuming the book version is chock full of stereotyped Bostonians doing One More Job. Maybe that’s unfair and I’m more inclined to give it a shot because this historical crime book was so well done. Hogan made the characters—real and fictional—come alive in an authentic Chicago setting with a gangster tale that hummed with verve and verisimilitude. I was drawn into Nicky’s story in ways I didn’t expect (and ways you probably won’t expect either). Great book. One of my favorite crime reads of the year. ...more
A great debut effort on the links of womanhood and how it forms a collective energy through generations (maybe literal?) to bond against the social anA great debut effort on the links of womanhood and how it forms a collective energy through generations (maybe literal?) to bond against the social and physical powers of men. I didn’t love it as much as the hype; one of the characters isn’t as developed and I would’ve loved a whole book around another. But it’s still a good rookie book, quite moving in spots. ...more
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