Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Dream Houses is a well written story about surviving in space. It has some great moments and I liked the parts about music a lot. The horror slowly creeps in and by the way how Amadis reacts to her surrounding I felt a deep connection with her. The characters and the language are the greatest strengths of the novella and kept me hooked until the end.
I can't say that I fully understood what was going on and the inevitability of the events puzzled me. I wish the author had given Amadis the freedom to try out more things in the present instead of recalling so much from the past. And what is it with the dream houses? Maybe someone can enlighten me.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
I can't say that I fully understood what was going on and the inevitability of the events puzzled me. I wish the author had given Amadis the freedom to try out more things in the present instead of recalling so much from the past. And what is it with the dream houses? Maybe someone can enlighten me.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
Deeply, deeply creepy, in the way that being alone in the dark is creepy. I started reading before bed and had to get up to shut my door. It's the quiet horror of time and the self-- of the terror of love and hope. And it's in space!
A short novella that never lived up to its promise. It has an excellent premise, one that provided the necessary scaffolding to write an exceptional space horror book. But sadly that does not happen. An overuse of flashbacks and general lack of coherence in the narrative really held this book back.
This was a somewhat creepy read. It's isolation in 120 pages. It's claustrophobic. It's paranoid. But most of all, it's awash with memories that steal away sanity on a run to Gliese.
I did and did not like this. It was a bit dense and fragmented, which had me scrambling a bit for more information. I got a bit confused by the gender of Amadis Reyes and thought she was a he for most part. I also got confused right up until the part where it becomes clear she's the only one alive and there's a really dead Captain Lai mummified by the AI.
There's also a creepy AI that's less creepy but more unreliable.
And there's a long way to a very sad end, a long way from her brother back home.
All I can say that this was a very interesting but strange read. Thought provoking that's for sure.
I did and did not like this. It was a bit dense and fragmented, which had me scrambling a bit for more information. I got a bit confused by the gender of Amadis Reyes and thought she was a he for most part. I also got confused right up until the part where it becomes clear she's the only one alive and there's a really dead Captain Lai mummified by the AI.
There's also a creepy AI that's less creepy but more unreliable.
And there's a long way to a very sad end, a long way from her brother back home.
All I can say that this was a very interesting but strange read. Thought provoking that's for sure.
Maybe it's unfair to compare this to the author's two previous books, that is setting a high bar. It was a quick read (I read it while in line at passport control, about 1 1/2 hours) but I did not find the story as compelling as her prior books.
I don't think this is quite what I was looking for when I bought it. I was hoping for a different sort of story, and there's a part of me that's a little disappointed the novella went this direction instead. That being said, it's extremely well-written -- I mean, I was just pulling out quotes left and right -- and a particularly effective piece of psychological horror. (Psychological horror is interesting. It's not normally my favorite flavor of horror, but I can like it when it's very well done, and it is well done here. It's just that psychological horror often seems to be considered, like, the elite of horror, like all other horror is beneath it, and that kind of annoys me. Like when literary spits down at genre as if it's inherently better, not just different.)
There are a lot of things in this story that could easily go campy (and hey, I wouldn't knock it because I enjoy camp), but turn out to be unexpectedly and effectively disturbing instead because of Valentine's sparse, elegant prose. I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending at first (which is not unusual for me, with this type of ending), but I feel like it's really grown on me. The narrator is somewhat unreliable (it's not a spoiler), but because that's presented up front, it doesn't strike me as a cheat, so I'm okay with it. And I think that Dream Houses is the perfect length -- it needs some room to breathe, but a full length novel would probably have been a mistake. All in all, Genevieve Valentine manages to do a lot of things I normally don't like and make them work pretty well for me, which is actually a whole other level of impressive.
My only real problem with the story is that the main character makes a couple of choices or decisions that drive me nuts because I don't believe them. I can't really say what they are without getting into spoilers, but I found them pretty frustrating because -- even though they are relatively small moments in the story -- this character is such a practical survivor that I just expect better of her. Not that smart characters can't or shouldn't make mistakes, but these irked me because I just couldn't buy them.
I would still recommend it, though, especially if things like Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Moon were your jam. (If it helps, I like 2 out of 3 of those.)
There are a lot of things in this story that could easily go campy (and hey, I wouldn't knock it because I enjoy camp), but turn out to be unexpectedly and effectively disturbing instead because of Valentine's sparse, elegant prose. I wasn't sure how I felt about the ending at first (which is not unusual for me, with this type of ending), but I feel like it's really grown on me. The narrator is somewhat unreliable (it's not a spoiler), but because that's presented up front, it doesn't strike me as a cheat, so I'm okay with it. And I think that Dream Houses is the perfect length -- it needs some room to breathe, but a full length novel would probably have been a mistake. All in all, Genevieve Valentine manages to do a lot of things I normally don't like and make them work pretty well for me, which is actually a whole other level of impressive.
My only real problem with the story is that the main character makes a couple of choices or decisions that drive me nuts because I don't believe them. I can't really say what they are without getting into spoilers, but I found them pretty frustrating because -- even though they are relatively small moments in the story -- this character is such a practical survivor that I just expect better of her. Not that smart characters can't or shouldn't make mistakes, but these irked me because I just couldn't buy them.
I would still recommend it, though, especially if things like Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Moon were your jam. (If it helps, I like 2 out of 3 of those.)
our protagonist awakes alone on a 6 yr long deep space haul after the rest of the crew dies; a meditation on survival. intercuts with their childhood. i was expecting whimsical from the cover, what i got was grim and haunting.
warnings for cannibalism.
warnings for cannibalism.
I remember thinking that this book was fine. Unfortunately, I have forgotten just about everything that I read in this book, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Extremely creepy novella set in the depths of space. Is Amadis crazy? Is the AI? Both? Plenty of shivers to go around...
Extremely creepy novella set in the depths of space. Is Amadis crazy? Is the AI? Both? Plenty of shivers to go around...