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cmwilso3's review
1.0
I am writing this review after the second time that I read this book. I didn't remember reading the book before (which may indicate how impressive I found it), but once I got into reading it a bit more, I started to remember it vaguely and remembered that I didn't particularly care for it the first time. Anywho, first, the petty:
Everyone in the town says "flush-centered" as if that is a common phrase. I have never heard anyone else use this phrase in my life, but this book makes it seem like I have never been around people before with how often different characters say it.
Now for the not-so-petty:
The protagonist, Michael, is awful.
1. He's a rapist. He diagnoses his roommate Isobel as a nymphomaniac when they have honestly only had two or three sexual encounters. Then, when he decides he wants to have sex with her, she repeatedly says no, but he forces himself on her because he wants to.
2. He killed half of the town, who happened to be some of the most prominent minds in the world and could have saved the lives of countless people if they had been allowed to continue to exist as ghosts.
3. When he discovers that his motivation for destroying the town (that his girlfriend had seemingly committed suicide) was not true, he had NO remorse for taking away the afterlives of the people who lived there. He had zero remorse for those lives at all and the potential that they had for helping others in the future.
4. He treats women horribly. He treats Isobel as a live-in maid, cook, and sex doll. You really don't know anything about her outside of his assertion that she's a nympho and that she likes to quote famous authors. He continually makes fun of her for enjoying soap operas. Honestly, the author did a disservice to this woman who is supposed to be a brilliant author. We never see her writing anything. It seems like her whole afterlife is dedicated to having sex with Michael and cooking him meals. His girlfriend is two-dimensional and has no motivation outside of Michael. In fact, I would say that she has no motivation at all for the majority of the book, which is chalked up to her having brain damage. He literally killed her. He killed her because he was selfish and didn't care about her actual, living and breathing body.
One thing that really bothered me about this book is that Michael faces NO repercussions for his actions over and over again. He gets his happy ending. Not only that, but I have no idea why the community wanted him in the first place. Was he a great soil conservation guy? We never really know. I assume that they wanted him as a living companion, but like others have said, wouldn't it be easier to advertise the job rather than go to the expense of causing major brain damage to people on HOPE that they will survive in order to become companions to the geniuses?
I know this is rambling, but I really wanted to try to get out some of my thoughts on this book. It has kind of turned me off from reading any other books by the author.
Everyone in the town says "flush-centered" as if that is a common phrase. I have never heard anyone else use this phrase in my life, but this book makes it seem like I have never been around people before with how often different characters say it.
Now for the not-so-petty:
The protagonist, Michael, is awful.
1. He's a rapist. He diagnoses his roommate Isobel as a nymphomaniac when they have honestly only had two or three sexual encounters. Then, when he decides he wants to have sex with her, she repeatedly says no, but he forces himself on her because he wants to.
2. He killed half of the town, who happened to be some of the most prominent minds in the world and could have saved the lives of countless people if they had been allowed to continue to exist as ghosts.
3. When he discovers that his motivation for destroying the town (that his girlfriend had seemingly committed suicide) was not true, he had NO remorse for taking away the afterlives of the people who lived there. He had zero remorse for those lives at all and the potential that they had for helping others in the future.
4. He treats women horribly. He treats Isobel as a live-in maid, cook, and sex doll. You really don't know anything about her outside of his assertion that she's a nympho and that she likes to quote famous authors. He continually makes fun of her for enjoying soap operas. Honestly, the author did a disservice to this woman who is supposed to be a brilliant author. We never see her writing anything. It seems like her whole afterlife is dedicated to having sex with Michael and cooking him meals. His girlfriend is two-dimensional and has no motivation outside of Michael. In fact, I would say that she has no motivation at all for the majority of the book, which is chalked up to her having brain damage. He literally killed her. He killed her because he was selfish and didn't care about her actual, living and breathing body.
One thing that really bothered me about this book is that Michael faces NO repercussions for his actions over and over again. He gets his happy ending. Not only that, but I have no idea why the community wanted him in the first place. Was he a great soil conservation guy? We never really know. I assume that they wanted him as a living companion, but like others have said, wouldn't it be easier to advertise the job rather than go to the expense of causing major brain damage to people on HOPE that they will survive in order to become companions to the geniuses?
I know this is rambling, but I really wanted to try to get out some of my thoughts on this book. It has kind of turned me off from reading any other books by the author.
sarkenobi's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Body horror, Blood, and Car accident
alllys's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
m3l89's review
2.0
Disappointing. I was expecting to be scared but wasn't. There was a lot of sex in this book, which I didn't think was enttirely necessary and didn't add anything to the plot development.
si0bhan's review against another edition
2.0
Graham Masterton is a name I have heard often, and I finally decided it was time to give one of the author’s horror books a read. After reading this one, I’m confused about the rave reviews. Perhaps I picked up a bad example of the author’s work, but this one didn’t work for me.
Community had me hooked enough to read the book quickly, wanting to see how the pieces came together, but there was no connection to the story. It was curiosity and a hope for a twist, not an interest in the characters and the events. As it was, the characters were bland, and the story failed to shock me.
I’ll probably give one of the author’s more popular books a read in the future, but this one didn’t work for me.
Community had me hooked enough to read the book quickly, wanting to see how the pieces came together, but there was no connection to the story. It was curiosity and a hope for a twist, not an interest in the characters and the events. As it was, the characters were bland, and the story failed to shock me.
I’ll probably give one of the author’s more popular books a read in the future, but this one didn’t work for me.
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