@Loki
-
sheetsadam1 — 6 months ago(October 01, 2025 06:44 PM)
You're in Washington, correct? I read this one a few months ago and it's one of my favorites this year. It's largely centered around Tacoma and the author grew up in the area during that time.
Draft Barron Trump -
Cheeky — 6 months ago(October 01, 2025 07:12 PM)
Sounds good
I read Ann Rules book on Bundy, The Stranger Beside Me
If we take the time to see with the heart and not with the mind, we shall see that we are surrounded completely by angels ~ Carlos Santana -
Celestia Bloodshed — 6 months ago(October 04, 2025 12:06 PM)
my sister gave me a book to read from her shelf:
Cursed Bunny
by Bora Chung (2017)
Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.
Chung’s prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous. Winner of a PEN/Heim Grant.
3 stories in and so far so good!
i have also started reading another Patricia Highsmith noir,
The Two Faces of January
(1964), after i've been thoroughly blown away by her last novel that i've read,
The Price of Salt
, which became an instant favourite. this one is pretty good as well and i'm so back on that Highsmith kick, baby
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
Celestia Bloodshed — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 12:18 PM)
very good, it's definitely one of Highsmith' best noir thrillers that i've read so far. it's also a great sightseeing tour through Athens and the island of Crete. i would rank it just a tad below
The Talented Mr. Ripley
but above the Ripley sequels,
Strangers on a Train
,
The Blunderer
&
The Cry of the Owl
.
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 03:05 AM)
Finished
If You Could See Me Now
.
It's a little odd that Peter Straub - to the extent that he's known by to the general public at all - is inextricably linked to Stephen King. While the pair did indeed collaborate on two novels and were lifelong friends, they seem like the definition of an "odd couple." Where King was always unabashedly commercial, with his novels (particularly in his "golden era") sometimes seeming to be custom-made for inevitable film adaptations, Straub's work has been adapted to film only once and quite badly (Fred Astaire! Are you ****ing kidding me?). Where King is a lifelong small-town Mainer who used to write his books in the midst of coke binges with metal blaring, Straub was a world-traveling, Ivy League-educated sophisticate who probably enjoyed a gin and tonic with some jazz records. And while King was a child of the TV era, influenced in equal parts by late-night showings of old horror and sci-fi films and the postwar horror fiction of Bradbury, Matheson, et al., the older Straub's work harkens back to 19th century's literary horror.
I read Straub as a teenager, of course, alongside King, Barker, Anne Rice, Robert R. McCammon, and even authors like John Saul and Dean Koontz. But I'd be lying if I said that he was an easy read back then, the themes often going completely over my head. What I remember most from his novels was the creepy, slow-burn atmosphere and a prose style unmatched in contemporary horror fiction. I really should have returned to him sooner…
Last October, I re-read Straub's 1979 novel
Ghost Story
, which cemented that book as one of my favorite horror novels of all time. After finding that
If You Could See Me Now- published two years earlier - is every bit it's equal, I've decided to make a Straub novel an annual tradition (and if the rumors are true about King's next novel, I'll be revisiting
The Talisman
and
Black House
even earlier).
Truthfully, all I remembered going into this one was the prologue and the vaguely suspicious small town vibe. This allowed me to read it as if for the first time and the theme I really didn't pick up on back then was the desolation of someone approaching middle age and still held back by old ghosts. Straub's Miles Teagarden is a bit of
'Salem's Lot
's Ben Mears, a bit of
The Shining
's Jack Torrance (King was certainly reading Straub for years before they collaborated), but even more troubled than either. Police corruption, homophobia, religious trauma, and misogyny are among the many things touched on here - and handled very well - but it remains, at it's core, a very effective ghost story that leaves the reader wondering until the final chapter if the ghosts are real or figurative.
Two books into rediscovering Peter Straub and they're both 10/10. Stephen King was likely correct in stating of him that, "He was a better and more literary author than I was." Now if only somebody would slip his entire bibliography to Mike Flanagan…
Next up, I will be taking a slight detour from my horror reading but not from the seasonal vibes with this Agatha Christie novel, one of her Poirot series.
Draft Barron Trump - published two years earlier - is every bit it's equal, I've decided to make a Straub novel an annual tradition (and if the rumors are true about King's next novel, I'll be revisiting
-
Celestia Bloodshed — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 12:23 PM)
i'm currently 150 pages into
The Flamethrowers
by Rachel Kushner (2013) - phew this is definitely one of the strangest novels i've read in my life, but i really do like it so far. just 350 pages more to go tho!
The year is 1975 and Reno—so-called because of the place of her birth—has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art world—artists have colonized a deserted and industrial SoHo, are staging actions in the East Village, and are blurring the line between life and art. Reno meets a group of dreamers and raconteurs who submit her to a sentimental education of sorts. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, she begins an affair with an artist named Sandro Valera, the semi-estranged scion of an Italian tire and motorcycle empire. When they visit Sandro’s family home in Italy, Reno falls in with members of the radical movement that overtook Italy in the seventies. Betrayal sends her reeling into a clandestine undertow.
The Flamethrowers is an intensely engaging exploration of the mystique of the feminine, the fake, the terrorist. At its center is Kushner’s brilliantly realized protagonist, a young woman on the verge. Thrilling and fearless, this is a major American novel from a writer of spectacular talent and imagination.
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 12:28 PM)
I've actually had that one on my list for quite a while. I've read two of her other novels -
The Mars Room
and
Creation Lake- and "strange" seems like an accurate descriptor. She is an amazing writer though!
Draft Barron Trump
- and "strange" seems like an accurate descriptor. She is an amazing writer though!
-
Celestia Bloodshed — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 12:35 PM)
oh cool. well this is my first foray into Kushner's universe but from what i can tell right now, i'm interested in exploring more from her after Flamethrowers and
The Mars Room
seems like the perfect follow-up to this.
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 08, 2025 01:49 PM)
Yeah,
The Mars Room
is definitely my favorite of the two I've read.
Creation Lake
is very dense, but I enjoyed it once I'd done some rudimentary Wikipedia research on some topics she would bring up every few pages
Draft Barron Trump -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 09, 2025 01:17 AM)
So how I mentioned above that I was going to make a Peter Straub book an annual October tradition? On second thought, **** that. The year has 12 months last time I checked
Dude is gooood… Even better than I remembered!
Draft Barron Trump -
Celestia Bloodshed — 5 months ago(October 09, 2025 01:21 AM)
On second thought, **** that. The year has 12 months last time I checked
true lol
oh btw since you're here, there's one chapter in
The Flamethrowers
that is dedicated to Barbara Loden's film
Wanda
. just saying.
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 09, 2025 01:35 AM)
That is a promising touch for sure… I mentioned it the other day as one of the greatest Appalachian films.
1.
Harlan County USA
(1976, Barbara Kopple)
2.
Wanda
(1970, Barbara Loden)
3.
Matewan
(1987, John Sayles)
4.
Spring Night, Summer Night
(1967, Joseph L. Anderson)
5.
Lawless
(2012, John Hillcoat)
6.
The Devil All the Time
(2020, Antonio Campos)
7.
Coal Miner's Daughter
(1980, Michael Apted)
8.
Cold Mountain
(2003, Anthony Minghella)
9.
Where the Lilies Bloom
(1974, William A. Graham)
10.
The Deer Hunter
(1978, Michael Cimino)
Honorable mention:
Justified
(2010-2015)
Draft Barron Trump -
Celestia Bloodshed — 5 months ago(October 09, 2025 10:22 PM)
i've only seen 2, 6, 7, 8 & 9 from this list and liked them all pretty much. Matewan and Harlan County are the ones i really wanna catch up with tho.
back to
The Flamethrowers
tho, now that i'm 3/4 through it i can say that after a challenging start, the novel becomes much more accessible later on. maybe it's just that i got used to Kushner's style or whatever, but i can't put it down as it is. she's a great writer and i love the images she creates with her style which is really quite something else, but i'm not sure how much depth especially her main characters have here. as of now, i can't see or feel much of that and i'm finding myself not really caring about any of them tbh…
cursed, scarred & forever possessed -
sheetsadam1 — 5 months ago(October 09, 2025 10:51 PM)
Yeah, I sort of got that vibe with
Creation Lake
too. The lead character was kind of the least interesting of them.
I'm still working my way through
Halloween Party
. I set it aside for a virtual movie night yesterday evening, but should finish it pretty soon. Classic Agatha Christie so far!
After that… George R.R. Martin vampire book or revisit some Laird Barron short stories?
Draft Barron Trump
