Reviews

A Dark Matter by Peter Straub

misterintensity's review against another edition

4.0

In the 1960's four teenage friends entranced by a guru participated in a ceremony that changed their lives forever. In the present, the husband of one of the four investigates what happened that day many years ago. The strength of this book lies in the characters and how the shifting point of views add to the overall mystery. Straub is successful at slowly revealing what went on that night and how that night changed the individuals involved. What starts off as fragmented pieces of a puzzle makes sense in the end as the fate of each character is tied to aspects of that character's personality and background. While this is classified as a "horror" novel, it reads more like psychological suspense than howl inducing horror. The events of that night is horrific once fully revealed but Straub's focus is more on how that night affected the individuals involved than on the events of that night. Straub's biggest success is his ability to make the personal bond between these characters feel real.

twilight12's review against another edition

2.0

The subject matter (haha) was great but it was just so droll.

I really wanted to know what happened in the field but the climax wasn't what I was expecting.

I'm going to give Straub another chance because I've heard good things about him and this was the first book I've read from him. So, I think I just picked up a dud.

I will be giving this book away though.

slightly_devious's review against another edition

2.0

Not what I wanted or expected.

phronk's review against another edition

I'm trying a new thing where I don't force myself to finish every book I start. A Dark Matter was the first casualty of this mindset. The first quarter was a dull, rambling mess that didn't hook me enough to keep reading. More like Peter STOP boring me, am I right?

beardedandbookulent's review against another edition

1.0

Hated it. Was a complete waste of time. Maybe it was just above me, but I had a really hard time keeping up...hard time staying interested....hard time making myself read it. Typically, I"ll give a book up to page 100 before I give up on it, but I really wanted to like this one. It just never happened.

skateanddonate's review against another edition

1.0

Did not finish. Only got to page 85. Loved the beautiful, lyrical prose, but the story didn't hook me. I set it aside the middle of last month and haven't gone back to it...so back to the library it went.

hgatfield's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

3.0

alilovesbooks4170's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

1.5

okenwillow's review against another edition

1.0

J’avais raté l’info de la sortie d’un nouveau Peter Straub, je me suis donc jetée dessus lorsqu’elle a fini par m’arriver aux oreilles. Malheureusement, il se passe un truc pas net avec ce roman. Dès le départ la narration est confuse, quelques pages suffisent pour s’en rendre compte, et cela ne va qu’en empirant. La traduction est également assez pénible, [...]
[La suite sur mon blog, merci :)]

ghostroom217's review against another edition

2.0

Goes good for the first three-quarters then, with a few brief respites, turns into a slog. Like listening to someone describe a dream in tedious detail and tacking it on at the end of a book by way of explanation. Very unsatisfactory, but some really gorgeous prose along the way. I love most of the stuff Mr. Straub writes, but something went very wrong here.