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billymac1962's review
4.0
Hooboy, does this book look stupid.
I pride myself in not caring what people see me read. I would proudly display each and every cover of Brian Lumley's Necroscope series (although I'll put myself on record as saying I thought those covers really kicked ass), but to quote the Tragically Hip in Thugs, "Everyone has their breaking point", and with me it was this cover and title.
But, this is Gary Braunbeck, so I knew this was going to be pretty good. Actually, the first 100 pages or so were excellent, and just the type of writing I was expecting from him: poignant, suspensful, and a protagonist you can care for.
I loved the opening, where a stranger walks into a bar in a small town (where "weird shit happens", and tells his tale to a couple of interested locals. This is the perfect setup to a scary story.
Now, the story doesn't get to where the title and cover of the novel suggests for over a 100 pages, but this the part of the story where Braunbeck excels. Once the tale takes the expected supernatural turn, his writing still maintains the same quality, but for me, I much prefered Ronnie's story over where Mr. Hands comes in.
Overall, it was a fine read, and Braunbeck continues to be an author on my 'A' list. I'm looking forward to more of the "weird shit" that happens in Cedar Hill.
I pride myself in not caring what people see me read. I would proudly display each and every cover of Brian Lumley's Necroscope series (although I'll put myself on record as saying I thought those covers really kicked ass), but to quote the Tragically Hip in Thugs, "Everyone has their breaking point", and with me it was this cover and title.
But, this is Gary Braunbeck, so I knew this was going to be pretty good. Actually, the first 100 pages or so were excellent, and just the type of writing I was expecting from him: poignant, suspensful, and a protagonist you can care for.
I loved the opening, where a stranger walks into a bar in a small town (where "weird shit happens", and tells his tale to a couple of interested locals. This is the perfect setup to a scary story.
Now, the story doesn't get to where the title and cover of the novel suggests for over a 100 pages, but this the part of the story where Braunbeck excels. Once the tale takes the expected supernatural turn, his writing still maintains the same quality, but for me, I much prefered Ronnie's story over where Mr. Hands comes in.
Overall, it was a fine read, and Braunbeck continues to be an author on my 'A' list. I'm looking forward to more of the "weird shit" that happens in Cedar Hill.
bmacenlightened's review
4.0
Oftentimes when I read a novel, I find myself wishing that the book was shorter than it was written as it seems that a lot of unnecessary filler is added. This surprisingly was different, I actually wished there was a little more meat on the bones. I got through the pretty significant beginning portion that was fantastic, a lot of heart-felt emotions and dealing with terrible things, but when I got to the point with the title character there just didn't seem to be enough. I know that at some level the author might've used little time with that to keep the focus of the story on those emotions and those feelings, on the real people who everyone can sympathize or empathize with rather than some creature outside our respective perspectives. However as someone who loves a little bit of the creature-feature/big-bad I gotta say I would've liked a little more about it. Despite that though, I did really enjoy this book, and it made me think some things that had never crossed my mind. A true rating would be right about a 3.5, but I rounded up to 4 because there were some pretty great parts.
paperbackstash's review
3.0
I've owned this one years; finally read during a buddy/group read with Horror Aficiandos group.
It's been years since I've dived into a world weaved by Braunbeck - I remember him as serious, sobering, and depressing. I also remember him as creative with his plot structure, hard to put down, and good with blending dark-fantasy horror. This book fits my memory of his others - a complex story that isn't merely about a killer figurine as I figured. In fact, the back cover is so vague based on what the story is really about (who writes these lazy blurbs?)
I won't fill review space laying out all the plot here, I'll let you find out yourself if you read this one, but let's just say there are different structures that tie together about midway through. Not really a straight protagonist to follow, this one has grey characters who are bordering on black most of the way through. Tragedy forms their motivations and and downfall, for they're tainted by cruelties of the world that aren't fun to read about. Child abuse, child neglect and abandonment, isolation in grief, all sobering stuff. Mr. Hands makes the point of getting a sort of vigilante justice that goes upside down on the misled crusaders.
Pacing stays focused and the story never grows boring. I especially liked the bar where certain characters gather - the shelf with the objects that all hold stories was a nice touch. I got a small fairy tale vibe from this story, from Mr Hands and the man at the carnival, to childlike wishes for very adult situations, to mystical ways of solving things. Bleak but interesting. Braunbeck writes well and spends plenty of time in the characters heads with effective inner monologue, even if sometimes the characters can seem a little straight-forward and simple in their thought processes.
It's certainly not a tale that exists to use shock value, violence for violence sake, and senseless gore. It's an emotional punch wrapped around an intriguing story, not a simple horror tale, but a sobering one of the sad realities of the world of which there is no right or wrong solution.
It's been years since I've dived into a world weaved by Braunbeck - I remember him as serious, sobering, and depressing. I also remember him as creative with his plot structure, hard to put down, and good with blending dark-fantasy horror. This book fits my memory of his others - a complex story that isn't merely about a killer figurine as I figured. In fact, the back cover is so vague based on what the story is really about (who writes these lazy blurbs?)
I won't fill review space laying out all the plot here, I'll let you find out yourself if you read this one, but let's just say there are different structures that tie together about midway through. Not really a straight protagonist to follow, this one has grey characters who are bordering on black most of the way through. Tragedy forms their motivations and and downfall, for they're tainted by cruelties of the world that aren't fun to read about. Child abuse, child neglect and abandonment, isolation in grief, all sobering stuff. Mr. Hands makes the point of getting a sort of vigilante justice that goes upside down on the misled crusaders.
Pacing stays focused and the story never grows boring. I especially liked the bar where certain characters gather - the shelf with the objects that all hold stories was a nice touch. I got a small fairy tale vibe from this story, from Mr Hands and the man at the carnival, to childlike wishes for very adult situations, to mystical ways of solving things. Bleak but interesting. Braunbeck writes well and spends plenty of time in the characters heads with effective inner monologue, even if sometimes the characters can seem a little straight-forward and simple in their thought processes.
It's certainly not a tale that exists to use shock value, violence for violence sake, and senseless gore. It's an emotional punch wrapped around an intriguing story, not a simple horror tale, but a sobering one of the sad realities of the world of which there is no right or wrong solution.
acknud's review
3.0
Points started falling off toward the end. It started out strong then I felt like the author was at a loss as to how to end it or how to further develop it. I felt the ending was very weak.
xterminal's review
4.0
Gary A. Braunbeck, Mr. Hands (Leisure, 2007)
Understand, first, that the horror of Gary Braunbeck is not the horror of the splatterpunks, or of Stephen King, or of Clive Barker, or of Dean Koontz. If I had to compare Braunbeck's writing to anyone's, it would be that of Charles L. Grant, except that Braunbeck's writing is far more immediate than Grant's ever was. Things may jump out of the dark at you in a Braunbeck story, but any disembowelling is probably going to happen offstage. The horror, also, comes less from the monster involved than it does from the characters; hell, as Jean-Paul Sartre so memorably remarked, really is other people, and Gary Braunbeck gets that. I'm not sure why it took me over twenty years after I first heard Braunbeck's name to finally get round to reading one of his books. It will certainly not take me another twenty years to get to the second.
Two stories here. The title piece is the longer of them, about a serial killer who acts out of the goodness of his heart. I know, I know, you've heard that before, but our Ronnie is kind of touched in the head, as well as supernaturally gifted; when he looks into someone's face, he can see all the pain they suffer. Thus, what he sees himself as doing is freeing these kids from bondage, right? But because he's touched in the head, sometimes he mixes things up. All well and good, and the serial killer is finally wounded in turn, and then goes off to die... until being resurrected in the form of Mr. Hands, a scary doll who is one of the beloved playthings of a child gone missing, and whose mother is consumed with a desire for revenge. Once the power of Mr. Hands is unleashed, though, sometimes he mixes things up... Second story, “The Mudman”, will probably remind you a decent amount of King's “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band”, though with added mudman goodness.
Braunbeck is a solid writer. In less skilled hands, “Mr. Hands” could have come off as a Lifetime Original Movie script with an added supernatural element. (For that matter, “The Mudman”, which takes place in a church shelter, isn't that far off the path, either.) But Braunbeck resists the temptations for easy answers and soundbite-style lines. Maybe if Japan had a Lifetime Movie Network, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed movies for it, something like “Mr. Hands” may have popped up at some point. In any case, as long as you don't go into this expecting the ultra-fast-paced gore novels that have become more popular of late, it's a good'un indeed. ****
Understand, first, that the horror of Gary Braunbeck is not the horror of the splatterpunks, or of Stephen King, or of Clive Barker, or of Dean Koontz. If I had to compare Braunbeck's writing to anyone's, it would be that of Charles L. Grant, except that Braunbeck's writing is far more immediate than Grant's ever was. Things may jump out of the dark at you in a Braunbeck story, but any disembowelling is probably going to happen offstage. The horror, also, comes less from the monster involved than it does from the characters; hell, as Jean-Paul Sartre so memorably remarked, really is other people, and Gary Braunbeck gets that. I'm not sure why it took me over twenty years after I first heard Braunbeck's name to finally get round to reading one of his books. It will certainly not take me another twenty years to get to the second.
Two stories here. The title piece is the longer of them, about a serial killer who acts out of the goodness of his heart. I know, I know, you've heard that before, but our Ronnie is kind of touched in the head, as well as supernaturally gifted; when he looks into someone's face, he can see all the pain they suffer. Thus, what he sees himself as doing is freeing these kids from bondage, right? But because he's touched in the head, sometimes he mixes things up. All well and good, and the serial killer is finally wounded in turn, and then goes off to die... until being resurrected in the form of Mr. Hands, a scary doll who is one of the beloved playthings of a child gone missing, and whose mother is consumed with a desire for revenge. Once the power of Mr. Hands is unleashed, though, sometimes he mixes things up... Second story, “The Mudman”, will probably remind you a decent amount of King's “You Know They Got a Hell of a Band”, though with added mudman goodness.
Braunbeck is a solid writer. In less skilled hands, “Mr. Hands” could have come off as a Lifetime Original Movie script with an added supernatural element. (For that matter, “The Mudman”, which takes place in a church shelter, isn't that far off the path, either.) But Braunbeck resists the temptations for easy answers and soundbite-style lines. Maybe if Japan had a Lifetime Movie Network, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed movies for it, something like “Mr. Hands” may have popped up at some point. In any case, as long as you don't go into this expecting the ultra-fast-paced gore novels that have become more popular of late, it's a good'un indeed. ****
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