Categories
Books

Bring Me Flesh, I’ll Bring Hell: A Horror Novel by Martin Rose

An interesting novel, told from the perspective of a… mostly dead protagonist. He’s in a rough world, a victim of a horrific experiment… and it gets personal and twisted from there.

It’s a horror book, and successfully triggered disgust frequently, but rarely creeping horror. I was sympathetic to the protagonist, but… and it’s exactly that but that’s the issue. It read quickly and kept my interest, but it’s not one I’m likely to return to.

Categories
Books

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

A good, dark book, not quite a children’s book, but closely related. The main character is drawn very well, as is the world he tumbles into. There are a number of interesting similarities to other books; crossing into a fantasy world initially made me think of Narnia, but this world is darkly twisted.

The crooked man is the villain of the piece, and while he’s sometimes over the top, he’s an excellent tempter and driver of plot. Near the end he jarringly becomes somewhat more– but it’s in service to making him and interesting foe. The wearing down of the king, the land’s limited hopes, and the Loups are all great twists.

The book ends with a number of pages still left; he reprints several fairy tales and explains their tie to this book. It’s a nice peek into his thought process, and interesting to read the source stories after seeing what he’s done with them.