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starrwad's review
4.0
The title and book cover alone grabbed me.
When you start this, it is a bit confusing until you get into it. Some chapters are in the present story time, some are past story time, and some chapter (in italics) are presumably the unrequited love's madness diary (if this doesn't make sense, it will soon). I almost DNF'd this because the time jumps were so confusing and I had to keep going back to figure things out, but glad I didn't DNF. Just stick with it.
It's creepy and haunting and subtle. A big thanks to the author, Meerkat Press, and NetGalley for a copy of the ARC
When you start this, it is a bit confusing until you get into it. Some chapters are in the present story time, some are past story time, and some chapter (in italics) are presumably the unrequited love's madness diary (if this doesn't make sense, it will soon). I almost DNF'd this because the time jumps were so confusing and I had to keep going back to figure things out, but glad I didn't DNF. Just stick with it.
It's creepy and haunting and subtle. A big thanks to the author, Meerkat Press, and NetGalley for a copy of the ARC
maddog500's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
whatemsreadingx's review
5.0
The shorter length of this book lends itself incredibly well to the story it has crafted for us to read.
I want to say I enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure if that's the right way to explain it, yes I thought it was a good read, but to enjoy something implies (to me) that it brought fun and delight to me while I was reading it. This book brought neither of those things, but in a good way...
Ariadne, I Love You was a haunting read, not in a scary way, but in a way that it will stick with me long after I'd finished reading it. It was as if someone had laid a blanket over you and wrapped you up in it to keep you warm, except the goal was to make you feel as haunted and as hollow as possible - that's how I felt when I finished this book.
Throughout the story we descended into madness alongside Jude, we felt his desperation and yearning for Coreen through the pages and you could feel the heartbreak that Jude felt for his lost love.
All in all, the emotions of this book started as a steady stream before bursting into the sea, with waves that crashed over you forcing you to feel the same way that Jude felt. It really got under your skin.
The ending of this book was something else, and it left me with this taste that there was more I wanted to read but I would be terrified of doing so because I just would not know what to expect.
I loved this one for how ambiguous it was, at several points it was open to our own interpretation as a reader and I liked that, it felt like it allowed us to put our own stamp on the story, and led me to enjoy it even more.
On the whole, Ariadne, I Love You was a truly atmospheric read, forcing emotions to crash over you until you had no choice but to feel every aspect of the story, and watch yourself as you crashed into madness alongside Jude.
I want to say I enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure if that's the right way to explain it, yes I thought it was a good read, but to enjoy something implies (to me) that it brought fun and delight to me while I was reading it. This book brought neither of those things, but in a good way...
Ariadne, I Love You was a haunting read, not in a scary way, but in a way that it will stick with me long after I'd finished reading it. It was as if someone had laid a blanket over you and wrapped you up in it to keep you warm, except the goal was to make you feel as haunted and as hollow as possible - that's how I felt when I finished this book.
Throughout the story we descended into madness alongside Jude, we felt his desperation and yearning for Coreen through the pages and you could feel the heartbreak that Jude felt for his lost love.
All in all, the emotions of this book started as a steady stream before bursting into the sea, with waves that crashed over you forcing you to feel the same way that Jude felt. It really got under your skin.
The ending of this book was something else, and it left me with this taste that there was more I wanted to read but I would be terrified of doing so because I just would not know what to expect.
I loved this one for how ambiguous it was, at several points it was open to our own interpretation as a reader and I liked that, it felt like it allowed us to put our own stamp on the story, and led me to enjoy it even more.
On the whole, Ariadne, I Love You was a truly atmospheric read, forcing emotions to crash over you until you had no choice but to feel every aspect of the story, and watch yourself as you crashed into madness alongside Jude.
jyan's review
4.0
Longing is a powerful emotion. Though if set upon a backbone of hope, or of anticipation, it can be a glorious whirlwind, without a solid backbone it can fester, becoming something dying, stinking, rotten.
In many ways, Ariadne I Love You, the latest novel from British-Australian writer J. Ashley-Smith, is an exploration of this rotting longing, the story of a man so obsessed with an unrequited love that his once successful, now failing musical career was based around it. For some time, this longing creates numerous opportunities for him, but as is often the case, it eventually eats him whole, until he finds himself in a lowly camper, outside a mysterious forest in the heart of Australia, where something dark is waiting, luring him in, calling to him, desperate to feed on that deep longing within him.
Perhaps what I most appreciate about Ariadne I Love You is how efficient it is with its storytelling. Often, outside of some of my favorite works of the format, I find that writers seem to have difficulties when trying to tell compelling, fleshed-out stories in under 100 pages, but Ashley-Smith has taken the “keep only the bones” approach, seemingly cutting out any fat until only a lean, mean, utterly engrossing sorrow machine is left.
This isn't a book for the gorehounds, or the fast-paced slasher lovers, or those wanting a quick fright before they turn out the light, this is something different entirely. Like so many of my favorite authors, here Ashley-Smith brings us the kind of horrors that more about chilling the blood than spiking the nerves, Ashley-Smith studies horror based inside the human soul, the kind of spirit-crushing horror that nibbles at you in the darkest corners of your psyche, the fear that if just one little thing leans just the wrong way, any of us could start spiraling down a hole of desolation, sorrow, and insanity that we may not be able to find our way out of out.
Sure, the novel takes too long to get to the supernatural, and sure, there were elements that might have hit harder had the novel been fleshed out a little more, and there's a twist at the ending that's a bit strange, but on the whole, Smith has created a tale of creeping dread, of slow-burn sorrow, the kind that studies the darkest parts of humanity that makes works of people like Chad Lutzke or Kathe Koja sing.
Thanks to Netgalley and Meerkat Press for the opportunity to review this work!
In many ways, Ariadne I Love You, the latest novel from British-Australian writer J. Ashley-Smith, is an exploration of this rotting longing, the story of a man so obsessed with an unrequited love that his once successful, now failing musical career was based around it. For some time, this longing creates numerous opportunities for him, but as is often the case, it eventually eats him whole, until he finds himself in a lowly camper, outside a mysterious forest in the heart of Australia, where something dark is waiting, luring him in, calling to him, desperate to feed on that deep longing within him.
Perhaps what I most appreciate about Ariadne I Love You is how efficient it is with its storytelling. Often, outside of some of my favorite works of the format, I find that writers seem to have difficulties when trying to tell compelling, fleshed-out stories in under 100 pages, but Ashley-Smith has taken the “keep only the bones” approach, seemingly cutting out any fat until only a lean, mean, utterly engrossing sorrow machine is left.
This isn't a book for the gorehounds, or the fast-paced slasher lovers, or those wanting a quick fright before they turn out the light, this is something different entirely. Like so many of my favorite authors, here Ashley-Smith brings us the kind of horrors that more about chilling the blood than spiking the nerves, Ashley-Smith studies horror based inside the human soul, the kind of spirit-crushing horror that nibbles at you in the darkest corners of your psyche, the fear that if just one little thing leans just the wrong way, any of us could start spiraling down a hole of desolation, sorrow, and insanity that we may not be able to find our way out of out.
Sure, the novel takes too long to get to the supernatural, and sure, there were elements that might have hit harder had the novel been fleshed out a little more, and there's a twist at the ending that's a bit strange, but on the whole, Smith has created a tale of creeping dread, of slow-burn sorrow, the kind that studies the darkest parts of humanity that makes works of people like Chad Lutzke or Kathe Koja sing.
Thanks to Netgalley and Meerkat Press for the opportunity to review this work!
fixatedonfiction's review
4.0
The mind of a man descending into madness after finding out the only woman he has ever loved has died. Weirdly wonderful and poetic novel.
voidedlux's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
crystals_library's review
4.0
Ariadne, I Love You is a creepy and beautifully written unrequited love story.
Washed up, alt-country musician, Jude has gone back to Australia for a reunion show with his bandmates. His only motivation for going is to see Coreen, his secret muse. What Jude doesn't know is that Coreen died a few years back. She was also married to his bandmate and old roommate, Ben. After learning the news of Coreen's death, Jude falls into a red wine, chain-smoking stupor. J. Ashley-Smith perfectly executes the depth and layers of Jude and his mental state.
Washed up, alt-country musician, Jude has gone back to Australia for a reunion show with his bandmates. His only motivation for going is to see Coreen, his secret muse. What Jude doesn't know is that Coreen died a few years back. She was also married to his bandmate and old roommate, Ben. After learning the news of Coreen's death, Jude falls into a red wine, chain-smoking stupor. J. Ashley-Smith perfectly executes the depth and layers of Jude and his mental state.
venneh's review
4.0
This is a neat, short spooky novella about yearning and the things it can conjure. Most of it centers around an alcoholic alt-country star, his infatuation with a woman who became his muse, and how he is dealing with her death. Fun fact - in looking the summary up, I found out that Jude is supposed to be a male POV, but because it’s first person, and Jude is never definitively referred to by other people in the story with pronouns, I thought Jude was a woman and this was a story of lesbian love/yearning. No offense to Mr. Ashley-Smith, and it’s entirely possible I missed something, but I’m going to stick with my interpretation. The spookiness comes in in the form of the Australian outback, and what can be summoned by something like, say, longing for your dead muse, the differences between the person she actually was and how you idealized her, and your own downward addictive spiral even before she died. Very gothic, and a solid read. Page through it if you get the chance.