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A review by sommerthe1st
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by Ian Duncan, James Hogg
3.0
So this book has two POVs. It starts off with the Editor, who claims to have found this book written by a dead man (Robert), and he is investigating what happened. It then jumps off to show us Robert's perspective, aka the religious fanatic. Ok as someone who grew up in Catholic school, this was awesome. Not because it's showing religious extremism in a bad light, but because it was such a cool theme and motive for the characters. People either love or hate Robert's religious ideas, probably because of how extreme they are. he takes Calvinist ideas to another level, believing that because his adopted dad/minister told him that he had been given "grace", aka a pass into heaven, that he is above morals, and is a servant of God, aka killing people that disagree with him. Yeah. Nuts.
We're reading this book for narration, and boy is the narration epic. This book reads like a detective novel. At first, you're thinking that the Editor would never lie to you, that he's a truly neutral POV. Robert is biased (he thinks a kid is a sinner because he's better at Latin than him so he ruins his life) towards himself, thinking all of his actions are correct. It's detective in the way that the reader gets two POVs and has to figure out what happened (spoiler: I don't know).
I'll be honest, the beginning is a bit slow and the language is a bit hard. Not because it's from the 1800s, but because part of the book is written in Scots, aka almost English but not quite. There is a dictionary at the back of the book, but as someone who struggles to even read old English, a dictionary didn't cut it when it came to old Scots. It's only 189 pages, but they are DENSE. So much stuff happens every paragraph that it's like slowly eating saltines without the hope of water. Slow. Overwhelming. Slightly dry but salty enough to keep going. Bland with the occasional salt flake of joy and mystery.
One of the debates in this book is whether Robert is mentally ill (yes), or if there is magic at play (yes). Let me set the record straight. This man is mentally ill, not because he's seeing things, but because he's either a narcissist or a psychopath. He constantly feels that his way is the only way and that he is far superior to everyone around him. There are moments when he has "blackouts" or doesn't remember that he did something/dates, but I have a theory. Robert has a BFF named Gil-Martin, but from the start, I KNEW he was the devil. Why? HIS FACE FUCKING SHIFTS AND ROBERT DIDN'T EVEN FLINCH. HIS FACE CHANGES BRO, HE'S NOT A RUSSIAN PRINCE HE'S A DEMON. Ahem. Excuse me. The devil posed himself as a friend and got ahold of Robert's soul. Aka of course he did, we all saw this coming. I SAW THIS COMING, which if you know me, I rarely see anything coming, especially balls. Scary things, balls are. Robert is all like, "I did nothing wrong, it was my devil BFF who I willingly went along with until he stopped helping me, omg what happened? I did nothing wrong, I have the blessing of God so who cares if I'm a decent person?". Yep. That's his character. That's the book.
Before I conclude, I just want to say something. This book is described as HORROR, like BOO. No. It's not. If you read horror books, you aren't going to find it scary. Sure, dark alleys, demons, and some suspense feels thrilling, but it's not spooky. If you don't read horror or read this when it first came out, nightmares are here for you. Me? I read a book about fungus infecting people's brains, this is light.
Why a three? Because while it's cool, it's not amazing. It doesn't deserve to be with my fours. But it's not bad. If you want a cool, figure-it-out-yourself, moral complex kinda book that's not easy but not hard, here you are. I'm hand-feeding it to you. Eat. Yum. Goodbye.
EDIT: For those following my tab journey, this was magical. My essay is gonna be so much easier to write. Ordered more tabs because I used up all the green and yellow from two packs. Yay.
We're reading this book for narration, and boy is the narration epic. This book reads like a detective novel. At first, you're thinking that the Editor would never lie to you, that he's a truly neutral POV. Robert is biased (he thinks a kid is a sinner because he's better at Latin than him so he ruins his life) towards himself, thinking all of his actions are correct. It's detective in the way that the reader gets two POVs and has to figure out what happened (spoiler: I don't know).
I'll be honest, the beginning is a bit slow and the language is a bit hard. Not because it's from the 1800s, but because part of the book is written in Scots, aka almost English but not quite. There is a dictionary at the back of the book, but as someone who struggles to even read old English, a dictionary didn't cut it when it came to old Scots. It's only 189 pages, but they are DENSE. So much stuff happens every paragraph that it's like slowly eating saltines without the hope of water. Slow. Overwhelming. Slightly dry but salty enough to keep going. Bland with the occasional salt flake of joy and mystery.
One of the debates in this book is whether Robert is mentally ill (yes), or if there is magic at play (yes). Let me set the record straight. This man is mentally ill, not because he's seeing things, but because he's either a narcissist or a psychopath. He constantly feels that his way is the only way and that he is far superior to everyone around him. There are moments when he has "blackouts" or doesn't remember that he did something/dates, but I have a theory. Robert has a BFF named Gil-Martin, but from the start, I KNEW he was the devil. Why? HIS FACE FUCKING SHIFTS AND ROBERT DIDN'T EVEN FLINCH. HIS FACE CHANGES BRO, HE'S NOT A RUSSIAN PRINCE HE'S A DEMON. Ahem. Excuse me. The devil posed himself as a friend and got ahold of Robert's soul. Aka of course he did, we all saw this coming. I SAW THIS COMING, which if you know me, I rarely see anything coming, especially balls. Scary things, balls are. Robert is all like, "I did nothing wrong, it was my devil BFF who I willingly went along with until he stopped helping me, omg what happened? I did nothing wrong, I have the blessing of God so who cares if I'm a decent person?". Yep. That's his character. That's the book.
Before I conclude, I just want to say something. This book is described as HORROR, like BOO. No. It's not. If you read horror books, you aren't going to find it scary. Sure, dark alleys, demons, and some suspense feels thrilling, but it's not spooky. If you don't read horror or read this when it first came out, nightmares are here for you. Me? I read a book about fungus infecting people's brains, this is light.
Why a three? Because while it's cool, it's not amazing. It doesn't deserve to be with my fours. But it's not bad. If you want a cool, figure-it-out-yourself, moral complex kinda book that's not easy but not hard, here you are. I'm hand-feeding it to you. Eat. Yum. Goodbye.
EDIT: For those following my tab journey, this was magical. My essay is gonna be so much easier to write. Ordered more tabs because I used up all the green and yellow from two packs. Yay.