Reviews

Corpsemouth and Other Autobiographies by John Langan

rhuntern's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Corpsemouth is my favorite Langan collection so far. While it still has his trademark story-within-a-story style of writing (which, imo, weakens a lot of his narratives), a lot of what's in this collection is so inherently interesting and well written that it didn't quite matter as much. That said, I do think that whole style really does weaken the impact of plots in favor of what ultimately comes across as an "okay" twist in the frame. A perfect example would be the final story where the mother's remembrance would be far stronger as a story on its own outside of a frame.

That said, the collection is still a great read.

gingerswag22's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.25

defaultnamespace's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

dude_eternal's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

notanaardvark's review against another edition

dark mysterious

3.5

This short story collection didn't grab me as much as the other works of his that I've read - collection The Wide Carnivorous Sky, and the novel The Fisherman - but it is still a solid cosmic horror/weird fiction collection. Most of the stories in this collection touch on family themes and many have the feel of childhood recollections or feel as though you're listening to someone tell you some story they heard from our about their parents. The audiobook narrator was very good.

dkun's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

grimscribe114's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

kstatema's review

The horror wasn't cosmic enough for me to enjoy it. Was more unpleasant and graphic than I was hoping for 

wholewheatwhale's review

5.0

As magnificent a collection as I have ever encountered.

iley_bf's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Excellent horror anthology with a fun autobiographical twist! It was great reading the story notes afterwards to get a glimpse into the authors real-life inspirations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, and Body horror