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Title: The Other
Author: Thomas Tryon
Published: New York Review Books, 2012 (1971)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 309,720
Text Number: 1053
Read Because: apparently I'm reading books about creepy twins, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Injury and death seem to follow a pair of young twins, one sweet, one strange, wherever they go. This is a weird little book, sitting somewhere between a pulpy horror/thriller and a prosaic, almost-idealized depiction of Bradbury-esque childhood. After a horror-heavy hook, there's a section in the midpoint where the balance tips hard towards tedium, and I almost DNF'd. But Tryon picks out repeated elements from the protagonist's childhood—games, rhymes, images—to form a unique inner landscape. It's compelling and elevates standard tropes like creepy twins and unreliable narration/( spoiler ) reveals, and it's interesting. Other books have done similar things better, but rather than convincing or finely-wrought the effect here is a heightened, stylized twist on pulpy underpinnings; the plot has grown predictable, but the narrative trick holds up surprisingly well.
Title: The Driver's Seat
Author: Muriel Spark
Published: New Directions, 1994 (1970)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 120
Total Page Count: 309,840
Text Number: 1054
Read Because: from this list of "10 Essential Scary Books by Women", ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The final reveal of this brief novella is essentially its premise: a woman leaves for vacation, in search of a special someone—to kill her. I love death drives, and I think the text works better for anticipating this reveal: it makes visible the gallows humor and adds direction to the rambles of the plot. The narrative stands at a distance from the protagonist, observing her eccentric behavior and refusing to step into an interior view of her desires. It's interesting—but hard to like. The contrasting mundanity is mind-numbing and misdirects attention to dead-end plot elements; meanwhile, the murderer is a deus ex machina, introduced and compelled to violence with almost no effort by the protagonist. I want that relationship centered; I want to know how a hopeful victim recognizes and provokes a murderer, and what that dynamic looks like. The book is a study of autonomy, expressed through but limited by the protagonist's search for a gendered, objectified death; it's playful, evasive, provoking, but ultimately insubstantial.
Title: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut
Author: Jhonen Vasquez
Published: Slave Labor Graphics, 1997
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 170
Total Page Count: 310,010
Text Number: 1055
Read Because: reread, from my personal library
Review: This is a hot mess of a book, obvious id-writing with a distinctive but inconsistent style. The violence serves as hook, but it's less interesting than the mysterious speculative elements and their effect on the protagonist; unfortunately, the reveals when they come are less compelling than the build-up. Some of Vasquez's humor and social critique has aged poorly, either because it punches down or because the "so random" style now feels memetic and dated; but it comes with built-in critique because, like the over the top violence breaking the fourth wall to discuss violent media, the edgy and malcontent cast recreate the same behavior they condemn. It's cathartic but knowingly flawed, critical even of its reader, and the too-neat but effective downer ending reflects that self-awareness. This is the sort of success that only a hot mess cult classic can be: unique but flawed, and a little more than the sum of its bizarre parts.
Author: Thomas Tryon
Published: New York Review Books, 2012 (1971)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 260
Total Page Count: 309,720
Text Number: 1053
Read Because: apparently I'm reading books about creepy twins, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Injury and death seem to follow a pair of young twins, one sweet, one strange, wherever they go. This is a weird little book, sitting somewhere between a pulpy horror/thriller and a prosaic, almost-idealized depiction of Bradbury-esque childhood. After a horror-heavy hook, there's a section in the midpoint where the balance tips hard towards tedium, and I almost DNF'd. But Tryon picks out repeated elements from the protagonist's childhood—games, rhymes, images—to form a unique inner landscape. It's compelling and elevates standard tropes like creepy twins and unreliable narration/( spoiler ) reveals, and it's interesting. Other books have done similar things better, but rather than convincing or finely-wrought the effect here is a heightened, stylized twist on pulpy underpinnings; the plot has grown predictable, but the narrative trick holds up surprisingly well.
Title: The Driver's Seat
Author: Muriel Spark
Published: New Directions, 1994 (1970)
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 120
Total Page Count: 309,840
Text Number: 1054
Read Because: from this list of "10 Essential Scary Books by Women", ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The final reveal of this brief novella is essentially its premise: a woman leaves for vacation, in search of a special someone—to kill her. I love death drives, and I think the text works better for anticipating this reveal: it makes visible the gallows humor and adds direction to the rambles of the plot. The narrative stands at a distance from the protagonist, observing her eccentric behavior and refusing to step into an interior view of her desires. It's interesting—but hard to like. The contrasting mundanity is mind-numbing and misdirects attention to dead-end plot elements; meanwhile, the murderer is a deus ex machina, introduced and compelled to violence with almost no effort by the protagonist. I want that relationship centered; I want to know how a hopeful victim recognizes and provokes a murderer, and what that dynamic looks like. The book is a study of autonomy, expressed through but limited by the protagonist's search for a gendered, objectified death; it's playful, evasive, provoking, but ultimately insubstantial.
Title: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut
Author: Jhonen Vasquez
Published: Slave Labor Graphics, 1997
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 170
Total Page Count: 310,010
Text Number: 1055
Read Because: reread, from my personal library
Review: This is a hot mess of a book, obvious id-writing with a distinctive but inconsistent style. The violence serves as hook, but it's less interesting than the mysterious speculative elements and their effect on the protagonist; unfortunately, the reveals when they come are less compelling than the build-up. Some of Vasquez's humor and social critique has aged poorly, either because it punches down or because the "so random" style now feels memetic and dated; but it comes with built-in critique because, like the over the top violence breaking the fourth wall to discuss violent media, the edgy and malcontent cast recreate the same behavior they condemn. It's cathartic but knowingly flawed, critical even of its reader, and the too-neat but effective downer ending reflects that self-awareness. This is the sort of success that only a hot mess cult classic can be: unique but flawed, and a little more than the sum of its bizarre parts.
