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lethaldose's review against another edition
1.0
This is the second Peter Straub book I read and as much as I disliked it, I thought it was actually better than Shadowland. I am such a huge fan of the Jack Sawyer books he writes with Stephen King I can't understand why I hate his solo work so much.
Ok, there are a few things he does do very well in this book and first and foremost is he manages to tell the same story over and over again from different angles and it is always interesting and surprising. Second, there is some truly freaky imagery in this book, and if there was more holding this book together than freaky imagery and interest of seeing that one incident from all those different angles then this would have been a great book.
But the characters really stink, I mean really stink, no one is really likable you are not rooting for anyone, or even have the slightest concern for what happens to them. The narrator comes off as bland and makes himself unimportant in the story becasue even though he is the one telling the story and researching the incident he did not take part in it with his friends. The friends in question are a motley assortment of sadness and patheticness, culminating in his wife who everyone in the book deeply reveres and by the end you just want to slap, and I don't hit women, but I think I would make an exception for her and she is blind.
Oh and the final revelations about the incident you will be waiting for through the whole book, they are retardly stupid and enigmatic, if you like me are sticking around just for that then you will be deeply disappointed. Although after that bad of a book I don't know what would have been satisfying and made it seem worth it.
Ok, there are a few things he does do very well in this book and first and foremost is he manages to tell the same story over and over again from different angles and it is always interesting and surprising. Second, there is some truly freaky imagery in this book, and if there was more holding this book together than freaky imagery and interest of seeing that one incident from all those different angles then this would have been a great book.
But the characters really stink, I mean really stink, no one is really likable you are not rooting for anyone, or even have the slightest concern for what happens to them. The narrator comes off as bland and makes himself unimportant in the story becasue even though he is the one telling the story and researching the incident he did not take part in it with his friends. The friends in question are a motley assortment of sadness and patheticness, culminating in his wife who everyone in the book deeply reveres and by the end you just want to slap, and I don't hit women, but I think I would make an exception for her and she is blind.
Oh and the final revelations about the incident you will be waiting for through the whole book, they are retardly stupid and enigmatic, if you like me are sticking around just for that then you will be deeply disappointed. Although after that bad of a book I don't know what would have been satisfying and made it seem worth it.
hinesight's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting. Oddly confusing (the married couple at the center of the story had the same first name), really interesting last page; otherwise, pretty much what you'd expect from the genre plus some philosophy add-ons.
badseedgirl's review against another edition
2.0
No one in the world is completely evil. Even Hitler had a mother, and was once a child.
There Mr. Straub. I did it in eighteen words. Why did it take you 500 pages, and a completely boring story to say the same thing?
There Mr. Straub. I did it in eighteen words. Why did it take you 500 pages, and a completely boring story to say the same thing?
wes5000's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
matt357's review against another edition
4.0
A really good shot at a modern gothic horror, which I've struggled to judge as that's not really my cup of tea.
This book writes around the event, which feels right for the style, but as a change it comes at it from several angles. Properly this is the story of one person trying to understand an event that his friends shared in and that he turned down. So we get the same event, and some amount of build up from a lot of perspectives.
This makes the story seem a lot better then it really is, as the retelling and the worsening changes really help set up the tension of the story. The book works on the whole, but that's managed by the writer's skill rescuing a thin premise
This book writes around the event, which feels right for the style, but as a change it comes at it from several angles. Properly this is the story of one person trying to understand an event that his friends shared in and that he turned down. So we get the same event, and some amount of build up from a lot of perspectives.
This makes the story seem a lot better then it really is, as the retelling and the worsening changes really help set up the tension of the story. The book works on the whole, but that's managed by the writer's skill rescuing a thin premise
sandygx260's review against another edition
2.0
This wretched novel made me fear that Straub is just going through the motions.
chasrotramel2024's review against another edition
4.0
A fully enveloping experience of a novel. The territory covered includes how the past controls the present in a person's life, the 60s, mysticism and alternative universes, and serial killers. This makes it sound trite and overblown, but Straub does a great job of digging deep into his subjects without rehashing old work. The only weak point is a limp ending, but the amazing middle part of the book more than makes up for this. Highly recommended.
rbixby's review against another edition
3.0
Peter Straub is one of two modern writers who are so good that it is a physical pleasure to read his books. There is a scene in every one of his books where I have been drawn in so much that it is as if I'm actually there. From that point until the end of the book I cannot do anything but read the story. That's not to say everything in the book up to that point isn't worth the read, far from it, but it's as if everything leading up to that point is buildup, foreplay, anticipation, and the pivotal scene -- whatever it may be -- is the release, the moment in which the fiction becomes real.
I liked this book because I really like Peter Straub's writing. Having said that, I found A Dark Matter to be pretty average. It has a great hook and the characters are as real as any others Straub has created, but it didn't have the immediate visceral energy of The Throat or Shadowland. It didn't have that one scene that really drew me into the story. Straub is great at setting up a world of middle-class American normalcy and then twisting it JUST a bit to make you realized things under the covers aren't normal. In fact, they're pretty much batshit insane.
That didn't happen this time around. The creepy other worldly creatures surrounding the group of friends had the feel of secondary or tertiary characters and their impact was greatly diminished as a result. Reading this, I felt as if Straub was forced to leave a lot on the editing room floor. My feelings were confirmed after I found out about The Skykark, which is being released through Subterranean Press, and is a version of this story that Straub admits is an earlier, rougher, draft. Given that it's also about 200 pages longer than this one, I would venture to guess that's where all the classic Straub Creepiness went.
Read this if you're a fan. But if you're new to Mr. Straub, read Shadowland, Ghost Story, or his Blue Rose trilogy first.
I liked this book because I really like Peter Straub's writing. Having said that, I found A Dark Matter to be pretty average. It has a great hook and the characters are as real as any others Straub has created, but it didn't have the immediate visceral energy of The Throat or Shadowland. It didn't have that one scene that really drew me into the story. Straub is great at setting up a world of middle-class American normalcy and then twisting it JUST a bit to make you realized things under the covers aren't normal. In fact, they're pretty much batshit insane.
That didn't happen this time around. The creepy other worldly creatures surrounding the group of friends had the feel of secondary or tertiary characters and their impact was greatly diminished as a result. Reading this, I felt as if Straub was forced to leave a lot on the editing room floor. My feelings were confirmed after I found out about The Skykark, which is being released through Subterranean Press, and is a version of this story that Straub admits is an earlier, rougher, draft. Given that it's also about 200 pages longer than this one, I would venture to guess that's where all the classic Straub Creepiness went.
Read this if you're a fan. But if you're new to Mr. Straub, read Shadowland, Ghost Story, or his Blue Rose trilogy first.