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A review by professorfate
A Dark Matter by Peter Straub
3.0
Okay, I may be going into an area (literary analysis) with which I am not comfortable in this review.
I enjoy horror fiction. Stephen King and Peter Straub are undoubtedly two of the giants of the genre (along with F. Paul Wilson). When I see a new book by any of these three gentlemen, I usually get it the first day it’s out. I love almost everything Mr. King and Dr. Wilson put out. Mr. Straub, on the other hand, I have a more difficult time with, and I think that I finally figured out why in reading this book.
The setup for this novel is thus: in 1966, a guru-type named Spencer Mallon gathers together a group of three college students and four high-school students and seduces them so that they will help him enact a ritual. His intentions, as far as we can tell, are not evil in any way, but things go horribly wrong in the ritual, causing one college student to get ripped to shreds and another to apparently disappear from this world altogether. The narrator of the novel is a successful author who is having trouble writing his next book. Taking a cue from his editor, he thinks about tackling a non-fiction book, and decides to look into what happened in that meadow in 1966. As it turns out, the narrator was a friend of the four high-school students in the ritual, and was invited to take part, but he wasn’t taken in by Mallon and thus stayed away (in fact, he felt he was kept away by the other four). He spends the novel getting in touch with his four friends (one of whom is his wife) to find out what they all saw.
I find that part of this—the author being apart from the story—is an apt metaphor for how I see Mr. Straub’s books. Mr. King and Dr. Wilson’s books tend to get me involved emotionally: I almost feel like I have a stake in what happens to the characters and I feel compelled to read on to see what happens. With Mr. Straub however, I feel as though I’m standing apart from the story just watching. With this book (as I said in an early status update after 50 pages on goodreads.com), Mr. Straub had set a beautiful table and I was anxious for the feast. But when it came out, I found that the food, while good, wasn’t sumptuous like I would have expected after the setup.
This is not to say that I feel this way about all of Mr. Straub’s books. “Ghost Story” and “Shadowland” are two of my favorite books of all time, and I can still remember details of those books 25+ years after reading them (hmmm—I may have to reread them, actually). "The Talisman"? I have worn through two copies of the book from all the rereading of that I've done. But I find with some of his later books, like the Tim Underhill trilogy and others, that I get to the end and I’m either completely confused (not that hard, considering I’m not that bright) or I just feel an overwhelming sense of “meh”.
This book is good, close to great, even, but I wouldn’t call it excellent. It’s enjoyable, but it didn’t completely involve me.
3.5 / 5
I enjoy horror fiction. Stephen King and Peter Straub are undoubtedly two of the giants of the genre (along with F. Paul Wilson). When I see a new book by any of these three gentlemen, I usually get it the first day it’s out. I love almost everything Mr. King and Dr. Wilson put out. Mr. Straub, on the other hand, I have a more difficult time with, and I think that I finally figured out why in reading this book.
The setup for this novel is thus: in 1966, a guru-type named Spencer Mallon gathers together a group of three college students and four high-school students and seduces them so that they will help him enact a ritual. His intentions, as far as we can tell, are not evil in any way, but things go horribly wrong in the ritual, causing one college student to get ripped to shreds and another to apparently disappear from this world altogether. The narrator of the novel is a successful author who is having trouble writing his next book. Taking a cue from his editor, he thinks about tackling a non-fiction book, and decides to look into what happened in that meadow in 1966. As it turns out, the narrator was a friend of the four high-school students in the ritual, and was invited to take part, but he wasn’t taken in by Mallon and thus stayed away (in fact, he felt he was kept away by the other four). He spends the novel getting in touch with his four friends (one of whom is his wife) to find out what they all saw.
I find that part of this—the author being apart from the story—is an apt metaphor for how I see Mr. Straub’s books. Mr. King and Dr. Wilson’s books tend to get me involved emotionally: I almost feel like I have a stake in what happens to the characters and I feel compelled to read on to see what happens. With Mr. Straub however, I feel as though I’m standing apart from the story just watching. With this book (as I said in an early status update after 50 pages on goodreads.com), Mr. Straub had set a beautiful table and I was anxious for the feast. But when it came out, I found that the food, while good, wasn’t sumptuous like I would have expected after the setup.
This is not to say that I feel this way about all of Mr. Straub’s books. “Ghost Story” and “Shadowland” are two of my favorite books of all time, and I can still remember details of those books 25+ years after reading them (hmmm—I may have to reread them, actually). "The Talisman"? I have worn through two copies of the book from all the rereading of that I've done. But I find with some of his later books, like the Tim Underhill trilogy and others, that I get to the end and I’m either completely confused (not that hard, considering I’m not that bright) or I just feel an overwhelming sense of “meh”.
This book is good, close to great, even, but I wouldn’t call it excellent. It’s enjoyable, but it didn’t completely involve me.
3.5 / 5