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hauntedtesty's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I really enjoy the writing and some of the stories. The idea of a mountain consuming men of greed was fun. Bit thrown by the use of the wendigo in one, thought that was considered out of bounds for fiction now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, Body horror, Cannibalism, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, and Rape
Moderate: Rape
raforall's review
4.0
Review in the June 1 & 15, 2022 issue of Booklist and on the blog: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2022/06/what-im-reading-blood-mountain.html
Full review at link.
Three Words That Describe This Book: strong sense of place, possession, unsettling
This is a new voice and I was impressed. The collection is really a mosaic novel, a composite collection of stories set in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. She kinda makes it into her Castle Rock. The premise and structure are also interesting. 12 stories [4 previously published] with interludes between.
Overall this is a very good book. Some of the stories are excellent: "Blood Mountain," to open the book, "Black Gold," sorta in the middle, and "Ink Poision," near the end.
The interludes, the thoughts of Undersheriff Blackwood, in his car across one evening as he contemplates his part in the madness, violence, and possession, anchors the entire book-- unites it ass well. His recollections bridge the time and space of this place-- allowing the reader to see the weird and awful history from the 1880s to the present [Covid included]. Elevates this from just a collection to a novel in pieces.
Also increases the pacing, because each interlude/recollection leads to the next story, guiding the reader to just try one more....
His presence also makes the Mountain-- and her evil spirit that possesses people and does harm to all in service to herself and herself alone-- at the heart if the novel feel more real. He is there standing witness to her in the book's present. He is struggling to reckon with her and his complicity in her reign of terror and the reader watches him struggle as we get the stories that haunt him. They are well constructed horror stories, but then he returns and we see him dealing with the consequences and it feels as though it all happened. Extra layer of unsettling.
In a sentence this is a novel in stories, conveying a horror that is rooted to a placed, and it all feels real.
Definitely a voice I will look out for more from.
For fans of Horror with a strong sense of place, stories that are rooted in the mythology of a people and a place, tales that are lyrical and violent, intriguing and terrifying like those written by Gabino Iglesias and Stephen Graham Jones.
The focus on women and dead and missing women in the SW in particular reminds me of the upcoming debut Shutter by Ramona Emerson.
Full review at link.
Three Words That Describe This Book: strong sense of place, possession, unsettling
This is a new voice and I was impressed. The collection is really a mosaic novel, a composite collection of stories set in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. She kinda makes it into her Castle Rock. The premise and structure are also interesting. 12 stories [4 previously published] with interludes between.
Overall this is a very good book. Some of the stories are excellent: "Blood Mountain," to open the book, "Black Gold," sorta in the middle, and "Ink Poision," near the end.
The interludes, the thoughts of Undersheriff Blackwood, in his car across one evening as he contemplates his part in the madness, violence, and possession, anchors the entire book-- unites it ass well. His recollections bridge the time and space of this place-- allowing the reader to see the weird and awful history from the 1880s to the present [Covid included]. Elevates this from just a collection to a novel in pieces.
Also increases the pacing, because each interlude/recollection leads to the next story, guiding the reader to just try one more....
His presence also makes the Mountain-- and her evil spirit that possesses people and does harm to all in service to herself and herself alone-- at the heart if the novel feel more real. He is there standing witness to her in the book's present. He is struggling to reckon with her and his complicity in her reign of terror and the reader watches him struggle as we get the stories that haunt him. They are well constructed horror stories, but then he returns and we see him dealing with the consequences and it feels as though it all happened. Extra layer of unsettling.
In a sentence this is a novel in stories, conveying a horror that is rooted to a placed, and it all feels real.
Definitely a voice I will look out for more from.
For fans of Horror with a strong sense of place, stories that are rooted in the mythology of a people and a place, tales that are lyrical and violent, intriguing and terrifying like those written by Gabino Iglesias and Stephen Graham Jones.
The focus on women and dead and missing women in the SW in particular reminds me of the upcoming debut Shutter by Ramona Emerson.
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