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grimscribe114's review
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ezrasupremacy's review
3.0
an edgelord-incel’s dreamscape.
[Edit]
This was the second book by B.R. Yeager that I have read, with Negative Space being the first. I don’t usually tend to seek out other works by authors I read unless their work really wows me, and that was definitely the case with Negative Space, which I would surely rank in my Top Ten Horror books. I was also very intrigued by the premise of this book, as it reminded me (though only in the farthest sense) of The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, as well as the general obsession I have with the internet culture that existed before we were all herded into the same five to six social media sites and to sanitise our content and behaviour.
(Do not get me wrong, I think having policy guidelines and stuff like that on social media is very important, I work as a Content Moderator for one of those five to six social media sites so I know just how needed it is)
This book was definitely not on the same level as Negative Space, but it was still definitely interesting and a good way to spend some time. I found the plot rather confusing, but when I attempted to read the introduction after I had read the book I actually just felt like I was reading gibberish, so I kinda gave up on that. Maybe I will give it another try at some point, but for now I’m just kinda accepting that this was a fun but puzzling read. Thank God I don’t feel the need for everything I read to be fully logical and comprehensive.
I found the parts that detailed forum activity pretty interesting, seeing this collection of people I would never wanna meet in real life spew some pretty awful shit, and I thought the variety of topics that was handled and discussed really interesting. Cannot say anything for accuracy because I was born in 2001 and by the time I got around to the internet the wildest shit was just LiveLeak.
The parts that talked about our main character’s life though… lost me a little. I found that part of the plot rather confusing and everything that I thought would be an important part turned out to be kind of pointless, unless I missed something, which I might as well have. I think I would like to re-read this just to better understand what the hell was going on, but I also don’t know if I care enough to spend my time re-reading this when I have another 600+ books on my tbr I could get to instead, ya know?
Well, nonetheless I will continue following B.R. Yeager’s writing most likely, and eventually get to his other works.
[Edit]
This was the second book by B.R. Yeager that I have read, with Negative Space being the first. I don’t usually tend to seek out other works by authors I read unless their work really wows me, and that was definitely the case with Negative Space, which I would surely rank in my Top Ten Horror books. I was also very intrigued by the premise of this book, as it reminded me (though only in the farthest sense) of The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, as well as the general obsession I have with the internet culture that existed before we were all herded into the same five to six social media sites and to sanitise our content and behaviour.
(Do not get me wrong, I think having policy guidelines and stuff like that on social media is very important, I work as a Content Moderator for one of those five to six social media sites so I know just how needed it is)
This book was definitely not on the same level as Negative Space, but it was still definitely interesting and a good way to spend some time. I found the plot rather confusing, but when I attempted to read the introduction after I had read the book I actually just felt like I was reading gibberish, so I kinda gave up on that. Maybe I will give it another try at some point, but for now I’m just kinda accepting that this was a fun but puzzling read. Thank God I don’t feel the need for everything I read to be fully logical and comprehensive.
I found the parts that detailed forum activity pretty interesting, seeing this collection of people I would never wanna meet in real life spew some pretty awful shit, and I thought the variety of topics that was handled and discussed really interesting. Cannot say anything for accuracy because I was born in 2001 and by the time I got around to the internet the wildest shit was just LiveLeak.
The parts that talked about our main character’s life though… lost me a little. I found that part of the plot rather confusing and everything that I thought would be an important part turned out to be kind of pointless, unless I missed something, which I might as well have. I think I would like to re-read this just to better understand what the hell was going on, but I also don’t know if I care enough to spend my time re-reading this when I have another 600+ books on my tbr I could get to instead, ya know?
Well, nonetheless I will continue following B.R. Yeager’s writing most likely, and eventually get to his other works.
hakimbriki's review
5.0
Amygdalatropolis is hard to review. It is also very hard to read. I have been doing a lot of open source intelligence at work for over a decade, and yes, a lot of the message board content in this book is reminiscent of rhetoric found on chan and alternative forums. Nothing here is far-fetched or amplified.
That said, those fragments lack the gripping essence found in this book; it's the main character arc that truly held my attention. His narrative is as bleak and grim as they get, and despite his outright malevolence, it's hard to not feel some empathy for his predicaments. And that's powerful. The author explores the darkest recesses of his mind with sagacity and eloquence. I am fond of the poetic, dreamy parts, which I found very vivid and haunting. They served as a sort of palate cleanser after all the disturbing bits. I also want to give props to Edia Connole for her introduction. It introduced me to a lot of concepts and doctrines, and her analysis is insightful and deep.
I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone, certainly not the faint of heart, but if you enjoy transgressive fiction, modern Internet culture, nihilism, and existentialism, this book might be for you.
That said, those fragments lack the gripping essence found in this book; it's the main character arc that truly held my attention. His narrative is as bleak and grim as they get, and despite his outright malevolence, it's hard to not feel some empathy for his predicaments. And that's powerful. The author explores the darkest recesses of his mind with sagacity and eloquence. I am fond of the poetic, dreamy parts, which I found very vivid and haunting. They served as a sort of palate cleanser after all the disturbing bits. I also want to give props to Edia Connole for her introduction. It introduced me to a lot of concepts and doctrines, and her analysis is insightful and deep.
I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone, certainly not the faint of heart, but if you enjoy transgressive fiction, modern Internet culture, nihilism, and existentialism, this book might be for you.
minyall's review
3.0
I'm not sure what I just read. None of it shocked me which is probably more a matter of concern than anything else.
mayasnchez's review
1.0
extremely disturbing and hard to get through. i only finished this book to say i read another but beyond the terror, the character is unlikeable (by design, i believe) and the entire story lacks structure making it hard to follow. i didn’t know what was going on half the time. yeager is def an interesting author and has different stylistic choices than the average writer but this was a complete miss for me and i enjoyed Negative Space much more
geneticallyugly's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
floorsalad's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Homophobia, Animal death, Death of parent, Incest, and Misogyny
mass's review
dark
reflective
sad
5.0
a book consisting of longing for an existence beyond the physical, corporeal realm, abandoning the flawed human body and becoming something different; whether 1404er ultimately succeeds at becoming something else, or is just a "centipede grasping for nothing" is left to the reader to decide. an extremely cold book, where genuine humanity is almost nowhere to be seen. there is no genuine connection in amygdalatropolis, only matter, algorithms and plastic.
the internet by design does not encourage sincerity or genuine connection, but instead enables people to engage in depravity through anonymity. amygdalatropolis is unflinching in its portrayal of this, going into great detail in portraying the worst of what humanity has to offer, depicting actions so vile that i probably couldn't mention them in this review even if i wanted to. amygdalatropolis documents a certain internet subculture in which lonely, disillusioned young men propagate their nihilistic views in an endless echo chamber/feedback loop. they join the internet partly due to a fear of external reality, the computer encourages to stay locked in their rooms, their parents enable them, etc... to this extent, this is probably the most accurate depiction of chronic internet indoctrination that ive ever engaged with. as the novel progresses 1404er becomes more and more of a husk, by the time his conscious nags at him, or when he's kneeling at his father's dust and recognizing the importance of his love, it's all too late.
the shadow of death is written everywhere in amygdalatropolis. both of 1404er's parents suffer and die due to failures of the body, 1404er orders decayed teeth from the internet, corpses are posted online and only live on through algorithms, etc. the nihilistic internet subculture 1404er finds himself in contributes to his jaded worldview and his total rejection of any real human connection.
this brings us to the video game sequence that even makes 1404er uneasy. in it, 1404er controls a dementia stricken farmer named henry. henry's wife suddenly dies one night and he can no longer recognize his own son. the sequence highlights the failings of the physical body, and calls into question the nature of free will and the amount of control we have over our own fate. we are just the byproduct of synapses and algorithms firing in our own brains and, depending on your viewpoint, this could mean that true free will doesn't exist at all. this outlook could potentially inform nihilistic internet subcultures and encourage their users to become mere husks, the receivers of info and stimuli. after all, if we're all merely puppets to things like external circumstances, our bodies or our consciousness, then why try to form deeper connections or engage with other people at all? we are no different from the computer, all we are is matter and plastic. the only answer is to succumb to total annihilation or surrender to stimuli and assimilate with the algorithm. amygdalatropolis obviously isnt advocating for this worldview, however acknowledging it gives the novel an extra layer of philosophical depth and addresses why people may come to these radical conclusions in the first place.
amygdalatropolis shows us how the internet may encourage an individual to discard their humanity. in the final chapter 1404er attempts to take his own life and wrestles with his conscious (i.e the "ghosts" in his head) before giving up and returning to his computer. the last scene really takes this idea of rejecting your humanity up a notch, eluding to some sort of transcendence beyond the flesh and becoming a being that exists purely through digital space or perhaps somewhere even greater. "a space perfect and vacuous, encasing him and his world and all that had ever belonged to it."
the internet by design does not encourage sincerity or genuine connection, but instead enables people to engage in depravity through anonymity. amygdalatropolis is unflinching in its portrayal of this, going into great detail in portraying the worst of what humanity has to offer, depicting actions so vile that i probably couldn't mention them in this review even if i wanted to. amygdalatropolis documents a certain internet subculture in which lonely, disillusioned young men propagate their nihilistic views in an endless echo chamber/feedback loop. they join the internet partly due to a fear of external reality, the computer encourages to stay locked in their rooms, their parents enable them, etc... to this extent, this is probably the most accurate depiction of chronic internet indoctrination that ive ever engaged with. as the novel progresses 1404er becomes more and more of a husk, by the time his conscious nags at him, or when he's kneeling at his father's dust and recognizing the importance of his love, it's all too late.
the shadow of death is written everywhere in amygdalatropolis. both of 1404er's parents suffer and die due to failures of the body, 1404er orders decayed teeth from the internet, corpses are posted online and only live on through algorithms, etc. the nihilistic internet subculture 1404er finds himself in contributes to his jaded worldview and his total rejection of any real human connection.
this brings us to the video game sequence that even makes 1404er uneasy. in it, 1404er controls a dementia stricken farmer named henry. henry's wife suddenly dies one night and he can no longer recognize his own son. the sequence highlights the failings of the physical body, and calls into question the nature of free will and the amount of control we have over our own fate. we are just the byproduct of synapses and algorithms firing in our own brains and, depending on your viewpoint, this could mean that true free will doesn't exist at all. this outlook could potentially inform nihilistic internet subcultures and encourage their users to become mere husks, the receivers of info and stimuli. after all, if we're all merely puppets to things like external circumstances, our bodies or our consciousness, then why try to form deeper connections or engage with other people at all? we are no different from the computer, all we are is matter and plastic. the only answer is to succumb to total annihilation or surrender to stimuli and assimilate with the algorithm. amygdalatropolis obviously isnt advocating for this worldview, however acknowledging it gives the novel an extra layer of philosophical depth and addresses why people may come to these radical conclusions in the first place.
amygdalatropolis shows us how the internet may encourage an individual to discard their humanity. in the final chapter 1404er attempts to take his own life and wrestles with his conscious (i.e the "ghosts" in his head) before giving up and returning to his computer. the last scene really takes this idea of rejecting your humanity up a notch, eluding to some sort of transcendence beyond the flesh and becoming a being that exists purely through digital space or perhaps somewhere even greater. "a space perfect and vacuous, encasing him and his world and all that had ever belonged to it."
atllanta's review
dark
2.0
too much for me i'm afraid.. i realistically only finished it because it's so short. i don't think it was bad, but the stuff that is talked about and the overall feel of the book just really was not easy to get through. it felt kind of horrible and wrong to be reading it, i couldn't in good faith recommend it to anyone.
the like last 25% of the book was a bit easier to get on with because there weren't so many forum posts, but still not pleasant by any means. the internet is a scary place...
b.r. yeager is a fantastic author despite my rating; i enjoyed negative space a lot.
the like last 25% of the book was a bit easier to get on with because there weren't so many forum posts, but still not pleasant by any means. the internet is a scary place...
b.r. yeager is a fantastic author despite my rating; i enjoyed negative space a lot.