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escape artist posted:Anyone heard of The Reformatory by Tananarive Due? It takes place in Jim Crow Florida... sounds pretty amazing honestly. I’ve heard good things about this novel, and actually have it in my to read list. I appreciate the Gollitok recommendation from here, as it really scratched all my Eastern European/apocalypse/the horror of the mundane society/Kafka buttons. The prose was great too, very dry but somehow made it more compelling in the same way Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfeg described her spiraling Bosch-Ian horror.
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Dec 22, 2023 21:10
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escape artist posted:I have been nagging my library to order this and When Night Cowers. Thanks for the review. loving love Bartlett's work, even though I've been priced out of a lot of his writing the way he releases it. I ended up finishing The Reformatory in an insomnia-driven drive from 1-5 am the day before new years and wow, yes, it is an amazing book. I also second the fact that I'm learning history. It's worth it to stick past to the author's acknowledgements about additional reading wrt race-based issues still present in modern society. While the ending really neatly wraps everything up in a nice 'they got their just desserts' sort of way, the author mentions this is based on a family relative whose bones were just unearthed and examined in 2015, and actually never made it off the boys 'reformatory' school he was sent to back in the 20s-30s. The fact that his remains weren't evaluated until just 2015 is mind-bogglingly sad. value-brand cereal posted:Badass! I love to hear that! Maybe this book would be up your alley too? It's not horror. More dystopian dark scifi kinda genre. It's certainly european and hopeless. And has political intrigue featuring a cog in the machine! Thank you! Having lived in a Western democracy, but having the chance growing up to visit my parents' country where rampant corruption/class disparity is still sprawling makes this genre appeal to me. I suppose it's like Kafka meets Lovecraft, and that scratches some nostalgic memories I suppose
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Jan 4, 2024 18:56
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value-brand cereal posted:Badass! I love to hear that! Maybe this book would be up your alley too? It's not horror. More dystopian dark scifi kinda genre. It's certainly european and hopeless. And has political intrigue featuring a cog in the machine! Following up on this, about 80% thru this book and really liking it. I especially liked the (no spoilers) early world-building that really helped flesh out the characters and intrigue, as well as the parallels to modern society. zoux posted:Nothing at all like BtF, and I'd agree that it's the weakest of his horror offerings. It's not bad, merely average. Lesser Dead/Suicide Motor Club are better. I will still maintain it's not a bad read, but it definitely is more of a slow-burn character study more than the stellar horrific medieval setting with hints of supernatural flair that BtF was. I liked the interplay of mythology. I really should take more notes because aside from that it's not as memorable a read compared to BtF definitely. I'd also rec the suicide motor club/lesser dead as better novels in his ouevre.
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Jan 17, 2024 22:33
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C2C - 2.0 posted:Yeah, that’s a good one. Procession of the Black Sloth is one of my favorite short stories ever written. Laird Barron is great because he does Lovecraftian cosmic horror alongside historical/covert ops stuff. Some of his stories are frankly terrible/meandering but they are run through with this gripping cosmology that works. I like that short story quoted above because it absolutely reminds me of the fever dreams I had with jetlag on business trips and some of the hallucinations I got up to with too much travel/caffeine/alcohol. I think he can be summed up by a quote I'm paraphrasing about "Nobody told me the CIA was so full of satanists" which is a great summation of some of the themes he works into his short-stories. https://lairdbarronmappingproject.com/ this was pretty good for keeping different stories together since it all vaguely weaves together. ( I went on a bender and read all his work on a bad insomnia flare a few months ago) I still think his short stories are the best but the Croning is good as a chaser once you get to know the universe more.
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Mar 12, 2024 20:47
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