Scan barcode
tasnim_2000's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, and Dementia
Moderate: Sexual assault and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide, Child abuse, and Child death
lennofspades's review
4.0
This was supposed to be just a 3-star read up until I reached the ending.
UPDATE:
I'm very grateful for chill weekends because that means I get to spend most of the free time reading. The past couple of weeks have been busy for me and the next couple of weeks will be as well! This is the only weekend that I get to spend at home, reading and just enjoying the peace and quiet. So! I made the most of it by juggling three books and I finished this one today.
In this novella, we follow the POV of Patrick, a graphic designer who is very much contented with the life he has. With a stable job that he actually loves, a beautiful wife, Sam, and a house by the river. He could never ask for me. But one night, things started to change and he doesn't even know why or how it happened, but she's not Sam.
This book was pretty enjoyable, and really got me thinking what's really happening in this household and why. While reading this, I am just as confused as Patrick. At some point, I feel like I hurt for Patrick and his longingness for his wife. This was more of a love story than horror for me, to be honest. And I say that in a good way.
This was a good book to read if you're looking for some quick reads to get you by! This was honestly supposed to be a 3 or 3.5-read for me, but turned out to be a 4 because of the ending. ♡
UPDATE:
I'm very grateful for chill weekends because that means I get to spend most of the free time reading. The past couple of weeks have been busy for me and the next couple of weeks will be as well! This is the only weekend that I get to spend at home, reading and just enjoying the peace and quiet. So! I made the most of it by juggling three books and I finished this one today.
In this novella, we follow the POV of Patrick, a graphic designer who is very much contented with the life he has. With a stable job that he actually loves, a beautiful wife, Sam, and a house by the river. He could never ask for me. But one night, things started to change and he doesn't even know why or how it happened, but she's not Sam.
This book was pretty enjoyable, and really got me thinking what's really happening in this household and why. While reading this, I am just as confused as Patrick. At some point, I feel like I hurt for Patrick and his longingness for his wife. This was more of a love story than horror for me, to be honest. And I say that in a good way.
This was a good book to read if you're looking for some quick reads to get you by! This was honestly supposed to be a 3 or 3.5-read for me, but turned out to be a 4 because of the ending. ♡
ameliareadsstuff's review
3.0
Boy, this is a hard one to give something as reductive as a star rating too. Pure psychological horror; easily the most uneasy I've felt reading a book in a long time.
I'm going to shakily give it 3.5 stars, with two caveats:
1. This is the sort of novel you could give any star rating too and I'd think, yeah, fair enough.
2. Some of the writing around women in this felt like it stepped slightly past being the point and into being 'Yeah, a guy wrote this'. I was glad most of it justified itself thematically by the end though. One delivered as a gut punch too.
I'm going to shakily give it 3.5 stars, with two caveats:
1. This is the sort of novel you could give any star rating too and I'd think, yeah, fair enough.
2. Some of the writing around women in this felt like it stepped slightly past being the point and into being 'Yeah, a guy wrote this'. I was glad most of it justified itself thematically by the end though. One delivered as a gut punch too.
alostarre's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
kmk182's review
5.0
Jack Ketchum seems to be the king of taking real life and scaring you with it. This is a simple little tale, but one that defiantly sticks with you.
horrorghoul's review
1.0
TW: Infertility, uncomfortable scenes, sex, language, dead parents, sexism, use of the r-word, Mention of c**t, child sexual abuse, rape
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Now I'm way beyond confusion.Now I'm scared.I've slid down the rabbit-hole and what's down there is dark and serious. This is not play-acting or some waking bad dream she's having. She's changed, somehow overnight. I don't know how I know this but I sense it as surely as I sense my own skin. This is not Sam, my Sam, wholly sane and firmly balanced. Capable of tying off an artery as neatly as you'd thread a belt through the loops of your jeans.And now I'm shivering too.In some fundamental way she's changed...
Release Date: January 1, 2012
Genre: Horror
Pages: 127
Rating:
What I Liked:
• Jack Ketchum
• Creepy sounding story
What I Didn't Like:
• Uncomfortable moments
• His sexism of her being tight from not having kids to ruin it
• Story is boring
• Tons of grammatical errors
• That ending
• What the story was really about
• Cows don't sleep standing up
Overall Thoughts: Well you certainly tell a man wrote this.
I am seriously stunned at the reviews of this book. It wasn't good. There is just so much wrong with it that I could scream.
I can't tell if this is a book that's about Littles. The creepy part of this book is that she keeps taking off her clothes and he keeps ogling her. I know she's still his wife but she's acting like a child and this is gross. I keep thinking... Is Jack Ketchum into girls that act like children aká Littles. It's just uncomfortable the way he's sexualizing her when she has the mind of a 5-year-old
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Now I'm way beyond confusion.Now I'm scared.I've slid down the rabbit-hole and what's down there is dark and serious. This is not play-acting or some waking bad dream she's having. She's changed, somehow overnight. I don't know how I know this but I sense it as surely as I sense my own skin. This is not Sam, my Sam, wholly sane and firmly balanced. Capable of tying off an artery as neatly as you'd thread a belt through the loops of your jeans.And now I'm shivering too.In some fundamental way she's changed...
Release Date: January 1, 2012
Genre: Horror
Pages: 127
Rating:
What I Liked:
• Jack Ketchum
• Creepy sounding story
What I Didn't Like:
• Uncomfortable moments
• His sexism of her being tight from not having kids to ruin it
• Story is boring
• Tons of grammatical errors
• That ending
• What the story was really about
• Cows don't sleep standing up
Overall Thoughts: Well you certainly tell a man wrote this.
I am seriously stunned at the reviews of this book. It wasn't good. There is just so much wrong with it that I could scream.
I can't tell if this is a book that's about Littles. The creepy part of this book is that she keeps taking off her clothes and he keeps ogling her. I know she's still his wife but she's acting like a child and this is gross. I keep thinking... Is Jack Ketchum into girls that act like children aká Littles. It's just uncomfortable the way he's sexualizing her when she has the mind of a 5-year-old
remivfoliage's review
4.0
Horror, here we go!
This isn't my to-go genre. Honestly, I think it's the first time I've ever read a contemporary horror novel, that is without any supernatural force.
The first 3/4 of the story follows Patrick. The last 1/4 of the story follows Sam the wife.
Since you couldn't get anything Mr from the description on the back of the book, I'll try my best to give you some idea of it.
One day Patrick wakes up only to find his wife Sam isn't Sam anymore. She claims that she is a little girl named Lily. Despite her body features, she thinks and does like a kid. What is Patrick gonna do about it? That girl Lily still has the curves as a grown woman. That girl Lily still has the same face as his wife Sam. Is Patrick gonna become a paedophile?
It's a very short story, around 100 pages. It's gripping and horrifying. What would you do if it was you stuck in that situation, a real life horror show?
This isn't my to-go genre. Honestly, I think it's the first time I've ever read a contemporary horror novel, that is without any supernatural force.
The first 3/4 of the story follows Patrick. The last 1/4 of the story follows Sam the wife.
Since you couldn't get anything Mr from the description on the back of the book, I'll try my best to give you some idea of it.
One day Patrick wakes up only to find his wife Sam isn't Sam anymore. She claims that she is a little girl named Lily. Despite her body features, she thinks and does like a kid. What is Patrick gonna do about it? That girl Lily still has the curves as a grown woman. That girl Lily still has the same face as his wife Sam. Is Patrick gonna become a paedophile?
It's a very short story, around 100 pages. It's gripping and horrifying. What would you do if it was you stuck in that situation, a real life horror show?
theremightbecupcakes's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
verkisto's review
5.0
I've said before that Jack Ketchum does his best work when he keeps his focus on one, maybe two characters. With I'm Not Sam, he focuses his microscope on two people, Sam and Patrick, who have been married for nine years. When Sam wakes up one morning insisting that she's not Sam, she's Lily, and acts like she's six years old, the story begins, and Ketchum leads us down the path of examination and discovery.
The story is powerful, not just because it makes the reader think, but also because Ketchum does a great job capturing Patrick, our narrator. He and Sam and Lily feel like real people, which is important because of how he tells us the story. Without them feeling realized, the story would fall flat. Instead, the story feels real, and takes us through the day-to-day life of a couple living in this strange situation.
The story is broken up into two sections, each a different chapter in the same story. The first section is the core of the story, and in the foreword to the book, the authors ask us to take time between the two sections to let the first one sink in. The second section is the resolution to the story, but it reminded me a little of the false endings in The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss; the story could end there and be complete, but you're given the opportunity to read further. If you dare.
With I'm Not Sam, Ketchum has made a departure from his usual fare of graphic, violent fiction, instead turning his look inward, into the lives of a happily married couple, though he doesn't shy away from showing us the darkness. The novella is an examination of personalities, and forces us to ask the question: What would we do in the same situation?
This novella is outstanding, and I would recommend it to just about any reader. Fans of dark fiction would probably like it best, but its lack of graphic violence and outright depravity tame it down enough to make it approachable for most readers. This is a great place for me to finish up reading the body of Ketchum's work, because it will keep me reading his upcoming works as he writes them.
The story is powerful, not just because it makes the reader think, but also because Ketchum does a great job capturing Patrick, our narrator. He and Sam and Lily feel like real people, which is important because of how he tells us the story. Without them feeling realized, the story would fall flat. Instead, the story feels real, and takes us through the day-to-day life of a couple living in this strange situation.
The story is broken up into two sections, each a different chapter in the same story. The first section is the core of the story, and in the foreword to the book, the authors ask us to take time between the two sections to let the first one sink in. The second section is the resolution to the story, but it reminded me a little of the false endings in The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss; the story could end there and be complete, but you're given the opportunity to read further. If you dare.
With I'm Not Sam, Ketchum has made a departure from his usual fare of graphic, violent fiction, instead turning his look inward, into the lives of a happily married couple, though he doesn't shy away from showing us the darkness. The novella is an examination of personalities, and forces us to ask the question: What would we do in the same situation?
This novella is outstanding, and I would recommend it to just about any reader. Fans of dark fiction would probably like it best, but its lack of graphic violence and outright depravity tame it down enough to make it approachable for most readers. This is a great place for me to finish up reading the body of Ketchum's work, because it will keep me reading his upcoming works as he writes them.