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FLICKER by Theodore Roszak

November 17, 2022 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Theodore Roszak’s FLICKER is a tour de force journey through the history of cinema and Hollywood, sprawling and lavish and finely written with believable, expert detail. While I quibbled with the beginning and end, it’s a hell of a ride, blending film theory, history, and an ancient conspiracy theory through the lens of an unsung horror movie director.

The book is the memoir of Jonathan Gates, a student at UCLA who seeks out foreign films for their titillating erotic honesty. After he meets Clare, the proprietor of an underground theater who is a genius critic in the making, he begins a love affair with both her and film. This leads him to the discovery of Max Castle, an obscure German horror director from Hollywood’s golden age whose abominable B movies hold a certain power. Eventually becoming obsessed with finding and documenting Castle’s work, he ends up on a journey that reveals a secret history of film, Hollywood, and an ancient religious conspiracy.

What a sprawling, interesting novel this is. Roszak certainly takes his time building his ideas, showing himself to be a master of pacing, the slow reveal, and how to tease out a massive and bizarre conspiracy theory that on the page feels utterly real. Engaged by the colorful characters, smart language, central mystery, weird eroticism, and thick film theory and history, I couldn’t stop reading. I found myself as invested in Max Castle and going ever deeper into the larger mystery as the protagonist was. I absolutely loved the idea of movies being planted within movies within movies. This is the kind of novel where the ideas are as intriguing as the story. The characters are wonderfully colorful, from pure inventions like Zip Lipsky, Castle’s belligerent cameraman to a fictionalized Orson Welles and John Huston.

As to the quibbles, the protagonist is pretty passive, he’s really there to observe, which works well but took some getting used to. The novel also took some effort before I found myself investing in it; the writing and story comes off a bit pretentious at the start, and it takes some time to get going. Similarly, the ending didn’t really tie off in a satisfying way. With so much great stuff in between, though, yeah, these were just quibbles for me. This is a terrific novel. As a novel of ideas, it’s actually quite epic.

Recommended for readers with the kinds of brains that eat language, readers who love film, and readers who love a great sprawling mystery.

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

THE LAST STORM by Tim Lebbon

August 28, 2022 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Tim Lebbon’s THE LAST STORM depicts an America dying from climate change, focusing on a young woman who can either save or destroy it. I liked this one a lot, but as it’s Lebbon, that’s not surprising. He’s a craftsman with a knack for telling new and engaging apocalyptic stories.

It’s the future, and desertification and super storms caused by a warming planet are slowly destroying America. In this hostile land, Ash, a young woman, sets out to build a device she instinctively knows how to create and how to use as a gift passed down through her family. She is a rain maker.

Unfortunately, given the state of mind of the person calling down the rain, water isn’t the only thing that gets through. Creatures may come as well, hungry and monstrous. As she travels in search of the parts she needs for her apparatus, her parents, who well know the cost of rain making, pursue and try to save her and the world from herself. And a young man sets out on a similar path, hoping for revenge.

As with novels like THE SILENCE, Lebbon is a solid craftsman, matching likeable characters to a titillating apocalyptic premise with supreme stakes. The lore of the rain makers–what they can do, the apparatus they use, and so on–is great, the characters are all terrific, and the action is great. There is a satisfying blue-collar workmanship about how Lebbon writes; his stories read like workhorses. Probably my only criticism is the same as with THE SILENCE, which is the villain. In both, Lebbon decided to add a villain to enhance the dimensionality of the conflict, but as a reader I didn’t feel they were necessary. In THE LAST STORM, the parents who wants to save their daughter from herself are in themselves a terrific antagonist for Ash. And of course, the creature element in both stories makes a perfect villain.

Overall, I ended up liking this one a lot, which again wasn’t surprising given the author. Recommended if you’re looking for something new in apocalyptic fiction.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

HIDE by Kiersten White

August 28, 2022 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In Kiersten White’s bestselling HIDE, a group of fourteen contestants are brought to an abandoned amusement park to play a game of hide and seek for a big cash prize, only to find themselves playing the game for their lives. This had a fun premise, was very competently written, and has strong themes. I didn’t fall in love, but I enjoyed it.

The novel begins with Mack, an orphan who is the sole survivor of a horrific family tragedy. Guilt-ridden and with few prospects, she accepts a strange invitation to take part in a hide-and-seek competition hosted by a sporting goods company. Along with thirteen other contestants, she is taken to an abandoned amusement park. The rules: During the day, hide and don’t get found.

The writing is solid; White makes the pages fly by. The premise is great. Mack doesn’t have a lot of depth as a character, defined almost entirely by her tragedy and desire to disappear, but she’s likeable enough, and we get to know all the contestants more or less equally. There are themes criticizing capitalism that along with the premise are reminiscent of SQUID GAME.

There were a few aspects that kept me from falling in love. One is, well, hide and seek isn’t very exciting. Probably the biggest aspect was the mystery is fairly easy to unravel and ends up being at least partially explained early on. White does a great job tying together a lot of different parts to create a history of the town and park (there are a lot of moments where I said, “ah, so this or that makes sense”), but because the reader knows a lot of this stuff before the characters do, it robs quite a bit of tension; I was engaged with the characters but not always the plot.

Overall, HIDE is simple fun like hide and seek itself, a light summer horror read elevated by some punchy social themes.

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

THE NEXT CIVIL WAR by Stephen Marche

January 18, 2022 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

In THE NEXT CIVIL WAR: DISPATCHES FROM THE AMERICAN FUTURE, Canadian novelist and essayist Stephen Marche examines America’s crumbling political foundations and imagines a series of scenarios that could spark a civil war. As with DON’T LOOK UP, many reviewers tut-tutted about its tone and nitpicked its plausibility. Personally, I thought it was frank, honest, and accurate in its analysis of why America appears caught in a fantasy and unable to solve its problems. It did miss one important element, however, in my view, which I’ll explain in a bit.

First, let me describe the book. Marche evaluates several fictional near-future scenarios that could start a civil war. He regards a civil war as likely occurring everywhere, a war largely fought between rural and urban, which I totally agree with and used in my novel OUR WAR. In THE NEXT CIVIL WAR, we have a standoff between the Army and a coalition of hard-right militias at a bridge, the assassination of an unpopular president, climate change producing mass migrations from coastal regions, a dirty bomb blowing up in Washington, DC, and outright secession and breakup of the union. Each scenario is loaded with background information for context.

This background info is the real education in the book, information I’d consider essential reading for Americans wondering why the country seemed stuck in a hostile malaise even before the pandemic made everything ten times worse. How elimination of earmarks (pork spending) eliminated the only basis of compromise in the two-party system, resulting in hyper partisanship. How the electoral college, the Senate, and gerrymandering warps democracy such that it can scarcely be called democracy (62% of senators represent 1/4 of the population, while 6 senators represent another 1/4, Democratic presidential candidates regularly win the popular vote but lose elections, etc.). How gridlock means America is becoming incapable of enacting major policies and confronting the greatest threats to its existence, which are income inequality and climate change, and how this fuels the rise of the imperial presidency, as the executive branch claims more and more powers simply to get something done. How Congress can’t even properly investigate an assault on itself by violent protesters seeking to overturn a democratic election result, with one of its major parties (the GOP, obviously) essentially having a political and a militant wing that are starting to work together. How social media manufactures and refines rage, helping to fuel a right wing terrorist movement. How hyper partisanship means everything becomes politicized along tribal lines, from Trump’s big lie about the election being stolen to whether people should take the basic self-preservation steps of wearing masks and getting vaccinated during a pandemic. The story of the woman literally drowning in her own COVID snot and fighting nurses trying to intubate her in the belief COVID is a government hoax, based on “doing her own research” on YouTube, is pretty much a defining image of these strange times we live in.

As for the scenarios that Marche presents as trigger points, they seem fair enough as major stresses on the system. What I think the book is missing is a major Constitutional issue that literally breaks the country. Marche logically concludes a match and kindling are what makes fire, but bringing the US to a literal state of civil war would require a healthy dose of gasoline, to extend the metaphor. Secession would do it, or an attempted or successful hard coup. In my novel OUR WAR, the civil war starts almost by accident, as far-right groups take over government buildings across the country as an armed protest over an impeached president that snowballs into something much bigger. Far more likely as a result of the depicted scenarios in Marche’s book would be civil strife, terrorism, government impotence and de-legitimization, and continuing decline. Civil war is very unlikely when it’s so much easier to simply take over the government through elections and rewriting election laws, and then stack the courts with friendly partisan hacks as we’re seeing with today’s Supreme Court.

In its conclusion, Marche nails the idea that America is itself an idea, a dream that creates a nation from what is really just another of history’s multi-ethnic empires. Political tribalism has destroyed this idea, or rather created parallel ideas, parallel Americas with different interpretations of government, history, and even basic reality. He wonders if the only solution is a divorce, where different regions of the country can be freed of each other to pursue their own dreams.

Overall, THE NEXT CIVIL WAR is a powerful if unhappy read. Even if you don’t agree the country is headed to civil war, the way Marche depicts the fault lines in American stability is compelling, provocative, and eye-opening.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Politics, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

THE SECOND HISTORY by Rebecca Silver Slayter

November 5, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Rebecca Silver Slayter’s THE SECOND HISTORY tells the story of a young couple struggling to survive in the Appalachians after the world has irrevocably suffered due to climate change. I found it quite interesting and powerful, though the last act slows the pace considerably with secondhand conflict.

It’s sometime in the future, and humanity is much smaller than it was after decades of drought and tsunamis and pollution producing a widespread genetic defect. Now most of America lives in cities, while the rest stubbornly try to survive in the rural areas, which have grown increasingly wild. Living on their own, Eban and Judy, a young couple, eke out a living, though Judy is restless: Raised on stories about the cities and living among the ruins of the old world, she wants to discover that world for herself. Content with his life but unwilling to lose the partner he adores, Eban joins her in a journey of discovery. Along the way, they face increasing challenges that tests their humanity and their relationship.

It’s more of a literary read, with intense emotional detail, as this isn’t so much a story about environmental catastrophe as what that catastrophe does to human relationships, and an emotional journey between seeking out the old world and making a new one. In some ways, I was reminded of STATION ELEVEN, which meandered sometimes seemingly without goal between past and a post-apocalyptic pandemic future, though the meandering didn’t bother me much because of the beauty of the writing and the sense of nostalgia and melancholia it produced. While THE SECOND HISTORY has a tighter narrative focus, its last act felt diluted to me and not the best kind of meandering, as the protagonists are stripped of most of what little agency they had left, we’re told a lengthy historical conflict, and while some answers are revealed, they aren’t quite powerful enough to bring it all home, at least for me.

So overall, I liked Slayter’s novel. While it didn’t come together in a very satisfactory way for me as a reader, I have a feeling my appreciation for it may grow as I digest it.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, Books, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

THE SLEEP EXPERIMENT by Jeremy Bates

September 17, 2021 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

THE SLEEP EXPERIMENT by Jeremy Bates provides a sensationalistic retelling of the notorious urban legend about the Sleep Experiment in the Soviet Union, in which political prisoners were offered their freedom if they stayed awake for fourteen days, only to revert to murder, mutilation, and madness. The book is fun if a bit (intentionally) over the top.

In Bates’s story, Dr. Roy Wallis, a wealthy playboy psychology professor at UC Berkeley, sets out to recreate the experiment on two test subjects, aided by two assistants. The experiment becomes a nightmare nobody could have imagined–beyond Wallis himself, who has an ulterior research goal he wants to prove.

What I liked: The characterizations are strong across the board, from Wallis to his two assistants to the Australian backpackers who signed up to take part in the experiment. Bates does a great job balancing fascinating exposition about the still poorly understood phenomenon of sleep with thriller/horror elements and titillating sexual chemistry between some of the players. When things go wrong, the horror element achieves a satisfying if conventional gross out. Overall, the novel promises a sensational and titillating story about a sleep experiment, and you get it.

What didn’t quite work for me: Wallis’s characterization pivots as the plot requires, resulting in a forced quality as the tension builds, with plenty of scenes about problems that could have been easily avoided (which also included his congested love life). For me, the climax reaches for a good gross out and offers a decent twist reveal, but I wish it had been a little more startling. Overall, Bates made good choices to advance the story and bring it home, but as I’m so familiar with the original urban legend, I think I was expecting something more surprising.

Overall, this book was a lot of fun. THE SLEEP EXPERIMENT is surprisingly smart, a simple mad scientist story told in a titillating package.

Filed Under: Books, Reviews of Other Books, The Blog

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