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zraitor's review
5.0
In You Shall Never Know Security the author J.R. Hamantaschen tells tales full of depression, the mundane, inner thoughts, and Lovecraftian beings. It's no exaggeration in the intro that tells you these stories weren't written on the quick for the money, they aren't very long, but each takes its time to tell what it wants to tell. They are never concerned with how a story "should" be told, the author does what he wants and makes them his own. I don't want to get into any such obnoxious claims about how SPECIAL AND UNIQUE this makes the collection, but when you mentally compare it to other things you've read you can clearly see the contrast, and this makes it at the very least, refreshing ... and also super weird.
The title of the collection, and the quote at the beginning set up the main theme of this, you will always fail. Life is just a losing game, no matter how true your love the newness will fade and turn into apathy towards one another, no matter how well you are doing at your job you're just always fighting to maintain your position or improve but one day you'll lose it, friendships will always drift apart, etc, etc... The characters are always thinking about their version of these things in each story, it's just really depressing. It's taking the Lovecraft cosmicism and instead of looking at things on a big scale and looking at all of humanity, puts it down on our mundane, normal lives, and our battle to live and get by in society, that's all of course just utterly pointless. Also depressing.
Quite a few of the stories get very gory, and gross.. the author has a bit of thing with having to go with the bathroom. You'll see in one story, and if you're like me you'll fail to start the story after that a few times because you're thinking, "did I really just read that?". You did. The descriptions of the gore and beings causing them are very imaginative, and also never that clear about what they are, so you're left to fill in some crazy and weird blanks. If you enjoy this type of thing, you'll happily do that.
Reading J.R. Hamantaschen for the first time was very jarring for me, he's very wordy, or verbose if I were fancy enough to say that word, .. I'm not but he clearly is. Here's a quick look at my kindle vocabulary builder after reading this collection: "dragooning, stentorian, ignominy, encomiums, sequacious, syncopation, dysphemism, ebullition, uxorious... okay I'll stop there but seriously. I'm sure you're all smarter than me out there, but I was doing some serious long pressing on words.
The stories here just stick with you, they're weird in a good way and depressing which is never good, but it's easy to relate to and nice to see how well it's dealt with. To do this review I've had to read the collection a second time, and in doing so I enjoyed it more now being used to the author's style, and the themes. I wouldn't look down on anyone who finds this hard to read, or isn't interested in the horror of depression that this tackles over and over, but if you're willing to give it a shot you'll find some great writing and plots you certainly haven't seen before. Strongly recommended.
The title of the collection, and the quote at the beginning set up the main theme of this, you will always fail. Life is just a losing game, no matter how true your love the newness will fade and turn into apathy towards one another, no matter how well you are doing at your job you're just always fighting to maintain your position or improve but one day you'll lose it, friendships will always drift apart, etc, etc... The characters are always thinking about their version of these things in each story, it's just really depressing. It's taking the Lovecraft cosmicism and instead of looking at things on a big scale and looking at all of humanity, puts it down on our mundane, normal lives, and our battle to live and get by in society, that's all of course just utterly pointless. Also depressing.
Quite a few of the stories get very gory, and gross.. the author has a bit of thing with having to go with the bathroom. You'll see in one story, and if you're like me you'll fail to start the story after that a few times because you're thinking, "did I really just read that?". You did. The descriptions of the gore and beings causing them are very imaginative, and also never that clear about what they are, so you're left to fill in some crazy and weird blanks. If you enjoy this type of thing, you'll happily do that.
Reading J.R. Hamantaschen for the first time was very jarring for me, he's very wordy, or verbose if I were fancy enough to say that word, .. I'm not but he clearly is. Here's a quick look at my kindle vocabulary builder after reading this collection: "dragooning, stentorian, ignominy, encomiums, sequacious, syncopation, dysphemism, ebullition, uxorious... okay I'll stop there but seriously. I'm sure you're all smarter than me out there, but I was doing some serious long pressing on words.
The stories here just stick with you, they're weird in a good way and depressing which is never good, but it's easy to relate to and nice to see how well it's dealt with. To do this review I've had to read the collection a second time, and in doing so I enjoyed it more now being used to the author's style, and the themes. I wouldn't look down on anyone who finds this hard to read, or isn't interested in the horror of depression that this tackles over and over, but if you're willing to give it a shot you'll find some great writing and plots you certainly haven't seen before. Strongly recommended.
ebees's review
3.0
I received this book via Goodreads Giveaways and am providing my honest review. I actually received this copy in early February, however it is now mid-March and I am reading it finally. Why? No particular reason other than the obligation to get through some titles on my NetGalley list first. I kept thinking about this book though and wanted to read it sooner.
It's a collection of thirteen short stories, categorized as 'horror,' but I wouldn't consider it that. 'Weird fiction' and 'bizarro fiction' are more accurate terms. Some stories are chilling, concerning and/or uncomfortable, but others are thought-provoking, supernatural, and/or hauntingly familiar.
There were times when I really liked the writing and other times when I thought it needed more editing and revision, but it rarely distracted me from the story. I'm only mentioning it because I know there are people who are particular about that.
I did enjoy the collection, I think I would have rated it a 4 if it weren't for one thing. That being that most of the male narrators seemed too similar: angsty and full-of-themselves with similar thought processes and even similar phrasing. One example can be how they describe women - classifying them as "pretty girls" or "fat girls". The narration became worn out and a bit annoying mid-way through the because of the repetition. Also, much of it is left to the readers interpretation and imagination, which helped me to add in the details which would make the story spookier to me as an individual reader, but sometimes I felt there just wasn't enough information for me to really feel the chills I was meant to. Maybe it was just me though.
Here are the ones which stand out to me
It's a collection of thirteen short stories, categorized as 'horror,' but I wouldn't consider it that. 'Weird fiction' and 'bizarro fiction' are more accurate terms. Some stories are chilling, concerning and/or uncomfortable, but others are thought-provoking, supernatural, and/or hauntingly familiar.
There were times when I really liked the writing and other times when I thought it needed more editing and revision, but it rarely distracted me from the story. I'm only mentioning it because I know there are people who are particular about that.
I did enjoy the collection, I think I would have rated it a 4 if it weren't for one thing. That being that most of the male narrators seemed too similar: angsty and full-of-themselves with similar thought processes and even similar phrasing. One example can be how they describe women - classifying them as "pretty girls" or "fat girls". The narration became worn out and a bit annoying mid-way through the because of the repetition. Also, much of it is left to the readers interpretation and imagination, which helped me to add in the details which would make the story spookier to me as an individual reader, but sometimes I felt there just wasn't enough information for me to really feel the chills I was meant to. Maybe it was just me though.
Here are the ones which stand out to me
A Lower Power - Pages of description of one character, nothing really happens in this one, but because it was written very well I was still engaged. A bit of a supernatural romance.
Endemic - The scariest, for me, as a woman. As the story is about a way to catch rapists in the act, part of it was from the rapists perspective and it was so raw and so real that it truly did scare me to be in the rapists mind.
A Paraside Inside Your Brain - The best, in my opinion.
Come In, Distraction - I wasn't super into this one honestly and the narrator was a bit of a jerk, but I liked the twist and how it was delivered.
Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction - court document of a horrific first-degree murder.
Sorrow Has Its Natural End - A young guy develops extreme myopia (his retinas are scarred) and because of this, becomes angry, bitter and jealous.
Jordan, When Are You Going To Settle Down, Get Married And Have Us Some Grandchildren? - Funny and weird as hell.
writersbeard's review
5.0
You can listen to part 1 of my book review by heading over to:
http://www.thedailypawn.com/2015/09/episode-30-you-shall-never-know.html?m=1
http://www.thedailypawn.com/2015/09/episode-30-you-shall-never-know.html?m=1
charshorrorcorner's review
5.0
This book is a kick ass collection of weird and dark stories. In the very best tradition of weird tales, Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti among them, this collection stands tall.
There's some nihilism here, there's some Lovecraftian angles here and then almost smack dab in the middle, there's some major laughs. I think the lighter story was perfectly placed, because my main complaint about the last Ligotti collection I read was that it was too nihilistic, resulting in the urge to kill myself about halfway through. Mr. Hamantaschen wisely avoids this.
Nearly every story in this collection worked for me but my favorites were:
Endemic An imaginative tale about a creative way to catch perpetrators of a certain type of crime.
There's Always Something in the Misfortune of Our Friends That Doesn't Displease Us Focused on IT,(Something Gleeful), and its focus on the horrible patterns we humans get into in our daily living and then using those patterns to achieve its horrible goals. The storytelling style here was absolutely perfect and I loved it.
Nothing This one worked well for me and that's all I'm going to say.
There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere The last story in the collection and the longest. Some killer descriptions here of horrific events (the girl's back? WTF was that?) and the guilt (?) that plagues the survivors. A powerful story, both in description and creativity.
Lastly, the aforementioned funny story: "Jordan, When Are You Going To Settle Down, Get Married and Have Us Some Children? I don't even know what to say. Horrifically funny doesn't seem to cover it, but there you have it, just the same.
Overall, I adored this collection. I feel like I do need to mention that there were a number of small errors in the edition I received. Normally that irks me, and it did here, but the stories were just so damn good, I was able to overlook them. That's the ONLY complaint I have about this sublime collection.
I HIGHLY recommend this book for fans of weird tales, such as those by Ligotti and Aickman, and to fans of short stories, in general. Bravo J.R. Hamantaschen! Bravo!
There's some nihilism here, there's some Lovecraftian angles here and then almost smack dab in the middle, there's some major laughs. I think the lighter story was perfectly placed, because my main complaint about the last Ligotti collection I read was that it was too nihilistic, resulting in the urge to kill myself about halfway through. Mr. Hamantaschen wisely avoids this.
Nearly every story in this collection worked for me but my favorites were:
Endemic An imaginative tale about a creative way to catch perpetrators of a certain type of crime.
There's Always Something in the Misfortune of Our Friends That Doesn't Displease Us Focused on IT,(Something Gleeful), and its focus on the horrible patterns we humans get into in our daily living and then using those patterns to achieve its horrible goals. The storytelling style here was absolutely perfect and I loved it.
Nothing This one worked well for me and that's all I'm going to say.
There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere The last story in the collection and the longest. Some killer descriptions here of horrific events (the girl's back? WTF was that?) and the guilt (?) that plagues the survivors. A powerful story, both in description and creativity.
Lastly, the aforementioned funny story: "Jordan, When Are You Going To Settle Down, Get Married and Have Us Some Children? I don't even know what to say. Horrifically funny doesn't seem to cover it, but there you have it, just the same.
Overall, I adored this collection. I feel like I do need to mention that there were a number of small errors in the edition I received. Normally that irks me, and it did here, but the stories were just so damn good, I was able to overlook them. That's the ONLY complaint I have about this sublime collection.
I HIGHLY recommend this book for fans of weird tales, such as those by Ligotti and Aickman, and to fans of short stories, in general. Bravo J.R. Hamantaschen! Bravo!
ctgt's review
4.0
3.5 bumped to a 4. Only three or four stories here that didn't really move me.
Really liked Wonder, Endemic and Jordan..... but my favorite was There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere.
Really liked Wonder, Endemic and Jordan..... but my favorite was There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere.
ld2's review
4.0
Horror doesn't always deal with brain sucking zombies or crazed serial killers. As scary as those concepts are, they barely scratch the surface of where the real horror lies. What's so wonderful about Hamantaschen's anthology is that the real horror of his stories deal with what lies underneath, nestled within a person's personality and actions. He mixes surreal and disturbing sci-fi images and plot lines that unearth the mediocrities and vices that lie within.
A big theme that I picked up throughout all the stories was this idea of what is genuine. The characters were all faced with a problem that requires them to figure out and separate between their own true feelings on the matter and the more passive, societal norm of acting and feeling.
Hamantaschen's writing is a shade too rough to be considered elegant, but this works very well for the genre of his horror stories. His vocabulary is rich and I would recommend using a dictionary while reading. I quite enjoyed his writing style and use of description. It reminded me of a Dali painting: intellectually stimulating and eerily lovely despite the horrificness of some of the scenes.
I would suggest this book to readers who don't mind a higher caliber vocabulary along with horror that's more subtle then just a gruesome death.
I am very happy that I got the chance to read these stories.
A big theme that I picked up throughout all the stories was this idea of what is genuine. The characters were all faced with a problem that requires them to figure out and separate between their own true feelings on the matter and the more passive, societal norm of acting and feeling.
Hamantaschen's writing is a shade too rough to be considered elegant, but this works very well for the genre of his horror stories. His vocabulary is rich and I would recommend using a dictionary while reading. I quite enjoyed his writing style and use of description. It reminded me of a Dali painting: intellectually stimulating and eerily lovely despite the horrificness of some of the scenes.
I would suggest this book to readers who don't mind a higher caliber vocabulary along with horror that's more subtle then just a gruesome death.
I am very happy that I got the chance to read these stories.
eyed's review
5.0
I loved this collection of stories. All well written and creepy in such a different way than what I am accustomed to reading. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to read something different.
My only complaint is the amount of spelling and grammar errors. I feel like this should have had much better editing prior to being released into the world.
My only complaint is the amount of spelling and grammar errors. I feel like this should have had much better editing prior to being released into the world.
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