Trigger warnings - lots of gore. Rape. Suicide attempt.
We were promised a few things in the title: the South, a book club, and vampires. The South wasTrigger warnings - lots of gore. Rape. Suicide attempt.
We were promised a few things in the title: the South, a book club, and vampires. The South was there prominently, but the rest fell completely flat. I was waffling between 1- and 2- stars and finally I decided it committed enough crimes against me as a reader that it's getting the 1-star treatment.
Most of all it was just boring. There is the word "vampire" in the freaking title. This is a modern book! I think we can all assume the readers of this book know what a vampire is! But we spent a solid 300 pages on the hunt. Is he a vampire? Maybe not, let's waffle about it for another chapter.
I thought the book club would be full of strong female friendships. But it...wasn't? The blurb basically lies about that. Instead, the book club spends most of the time on petty infighting and disbelieving the other women. Someone talks about how she was raped and a woman in the book club walks out of the room because she doesn't believe her. Um?? I don't care if that was realistic "for the time," we are modern readers with different sensibilities.
Speaking of modern readers with different sensibilities...the black people in this. Holy cow. The only reason the caregiver character was introduced was purely so the white women wouldn't have to get their hands dirty. It was SO uncomfortable to read how she was stepping up and being awesome and they were like Great thanks bye.
Felt like it was written by a white man. And it was.
Audiobook narration note - I liked the narrator, she did a great job....more
I am blessed to live in a part of the world that has few insects. We hardly even see mosquitos unless you are close to a lake. I have tried to form anI am blessed to live in a part of the world that has few insects. We hardly even see mosquitos unless you are close to a lake. I have tried to form an uneasy truce with things like bees and spiders over the years as I know they do so much good for the environment and my garden.
But lemme tell ya about ants.
I do not like ants.
I hate ants.
Last year when I was moving I went into the back to grab the barbecue. The cover had been lying on the ground for a while. I picked it up and it exploded in ants. I ran away screaming and grabbed a hose and sat about 10 feet away still yelling. There is apparently a video of me yelling "DIEEEEE!!!!!!" I crept over after the flood to survey my handiwork and all the ants were dead except the fucking queen who was crawling away and I burst into tears but my friend was there and she stomped on it for me.
I saw a queen ant. I FUCKING HATE ANTS.
There are a lot of scenes with creepy crawly spiders. There are fewer scenes with ants. There is a lot of mention about falling asleep and never waking up and general infinity and time, my partner's personal nightmare. This was a book FULL OF NIGHTMARES.
I actually really liked the first third, even with the ants. The problem was it kept going...and going. There were a few too many problems for each storyline to solve. I was getting bored by the end and wanted the climax to happen already. Then the climax was freakin' awesome and terrifying, but I rushed through it because I was pretty done with the book by that point.
It was a unique idea and pretty well written. But there's a big dose of nightmare, realism, and sadness to go along with it, so just know that going in. I highly recommend it anyway, even with my star rating - it was so original. Also, there is a sequel, but this definitely functions as a standalone. I will most likely pick up the sequel anyway....more
I get the author has a lot going on. I felt like I needed an equal amount going on to “get it.” Instead I was just kind of grossed out and shamefully I get the author has a lot going on. I felt like I needed an equal amount going on to “get it.” Instead I was just kind of grossed out and shamefully thankful I have a life and personality that will never have this much going on.
Most of the book is gross/shocking. Imagine Carrie Bradshaw talking candidly about the kind of gross sex that happens in Game of Thrones. I don’t want that in my brain. I’m not a prude, we all like sex, but this goes a little far. I’m like keep that to yourself, damn.
That defeats the purpose of the book, which is to Let It All Out and then Feel Better About How Weird You Are. I guess I’m just not weird enough.
Which is too bad, because the last two essays were actually really good and touching. It was not worth wading through the cum and vomit and lots and lots of oral sex to make it there, though....more
I couldn’t put it down but also thought it was just ok. All the characters are terrible people and it was hard – impossible? – to want good things forI couldn’t put it down but also thought it was just ok. All the characters are terrible people and it was hard – impossible? – to want good things for them.
The “book within a book” has of course been done before but the editing here was key. It kept me reading, wanting to get to the next “book within a book” chapter. It reminded me of the diary from Gone Girl which was also my favorite part of a book that I couldn’t put down but didn’t really like.
The suspense/thriller aspect was great for the first 100 pages, but then I started to suspect the ending and it got less thrilling.
There is a lot of sex talk. LOTS. But none of it was sexy – probably because of that terrible people thing from earlier.
Recommended if you want a page-turner that probably won’t stick with you but is entertaining while you read it....more
I don’t find anything wrong with genres “meant for ladies,” like basically the entire romance and paranormal romance genres. I don’t always love them,I don’t find anything wrong with genres “meant for ladies,” like basically the entire romance and paranormal romance genres. I don’t always love them, of course. Sometimes they are straight up insulting to women (Who wants a stranger at their window watching them sleep?) and often insulting to men (Fabio-type covers are THE WORST). But I generally don’t find anything inherently wrong with a book that is meant for women.
This book is meant for men. And it is not good. I know that is a broad brush to paint half of humanity. I don’t care. Men deserve better than this.
It is toxic masculinity in all its forms. The writing is dense and faux-literary, giving you a wink and a nod when you pick up on something subtle. The entire book revolves around what penises want. There is so much gross sex and none of it adds to the story except to be gross. The main character, Tracker, hates every woman he comes across, and this is actually called out once by a woman. He shrugs and probably kills her (there’s a lot of killing, so this is a pretty good bet).
The mix of reviews on Goodreads is mostly people who DNF’d because of the first 70 pages (this was almost me) and 5-star ratings. I can’t tell you where you are going to fall on that spread. It wasn’t worth 620 pages to me to find out. I’m giving it 2 stars because I did finish it, I thought some of the love was very sweet, and it didn’t actively insult my mother....more
What mentions toilet paper more, this book or the COVID-19 coverage? We may never know...
Review 11/24/2018
There are a few things a bookUpdate 3/9/2020
What mentions toilet paper more, this book or the COVID-19 coverage? We may never know...
Review 11/24/2018
There are a few things a book should never do, and this book manages to do all of them.
The characters are insufferable.
We meet a large cast of characters and it is obvious which ones we are supposed to like and which ones we are supposed to hate. The ones we are supposed to like will see straight to the heart of the problem and try to fix it by calmly explaining to the apparently deaf people around them why they are right. The characters we are supposed to hate will complain incessantly, have a lot to say about mundane things we don't care about, and interject their thoughts in between lines so you are constantly reading two conversations at once (seriously, what was with that?). There is a group of Americans in the present-day storyline; as far as I can tell their sole purpose was to introduce characters that could complain. Like we didn't have enough already.
It is boring
The characters spend half the book looking for each other. We watch a character sit by the telephone to wait for a phone call while he mulls over where his boss could be, and I wish I were joking. It is a day-by-day account, sometimes hour-by-hour, of two pandemics. The insufferable characters will hold you hostage with words while our heroes try to solve the problem. It goes on and on and nothing happens in either story. I had no idea medieval Europe and future Oxford could be so awful but I want nothing to do with them.
It thinks you are stupid
Everything is repeated. Everything. The boring, insufferable characters will repeat their complaints. Over and over again. In case you missed it the first 5 times. The heroes will explain their process, then question it, then think on it again. Over and over. Certain words will be repeated so often you will start shuddering every time they come up, mainly "drop" and "fix."
I had to break up listening to this book with an audiobook lecture on the American Civil War because the lecture was MORE INTERESTING....more
I’ve heard nothing but good things about China Mieville so my expectations were high for my first foray into his writing.
It wasn’t for me.
It took abouI’ve heard nothing but good things about China Mieville so my expectations were high for my first foray into his writing.
It wasn’t for me.
It took about 200 pages for it to get interesting and those 200 pages were mostly spent trying to gross me out. It worked.
The female character that has the most screen time, Derkhan, has zero character development. I didn’t care about saving the city. Every thread was left unresolved – maybe to be resolved in a later book? But after reading the descriptions of the trilogy it doesn’t seem so.
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