Creepy and Depressing
929745
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a creepy sociopath very well. Aside from this the film is depressing and there is no, and I mean absolute no redeeming qualities to the plot. Dark.
2398269
I know this novel is allegorical, and I know the story has evolved out of the author's own violent family history. The premise sounded promising, and I thought I would be drawn into the characters' lives as they grappled with the central horror of the novel. But in the end, I did not much like this story, and I do not think I will be recommending it to very many people.

Is it art? Well, it left me feeling very disturbed and emotionally unsettled. So if "art" is a man-made work that moves you on a fundamental level, this fits that definition. But if "art" is supposed to elevate you to greater understanding or self-awareness--uh, no.

A lot of reviewers have noticed what I initially thought, too: this book is like "Lord of the Flies" meets "Deliverance." But also throw in "The Mission" and the weird/creepy Zen grandpa right out of a Sam Beckett play.

None of the five characters is likable, and that's probably what the author is saying--that at our core, none of us is likable. Or redeemable, for that matter.

Here we have the main character, the narrator, who describes events that happened on an annual hunting trip when he was 11. As his party approaches the family hunting camp, which is on a ranch they own, they see a poacher. The boy's dad invites him to take a look at the poacher through his rifle scope, and the boy instinctively also curls his finger around the trigger, and then shoots. He kills the poacher instantly.

This is the springboard for a lot of big questions: what is life, death, responsibility, evil, redemption, filial loyalty, etc.?

The boy's father decides that he is going to protect his son, no matter what. The grandfather, the most singularly unattractive fictional character I have run across in the past decade, continually tries to lead his son, and grandson, to accepting responsibility by realizing what they've done. The foil to the grandfather, the family friend Tom, is the Jiminy Cricket (add Pinocchio to the list of fictional influences) of the group, insisting that they return to civilization and turn in the kid.

There are some very harsh and disturbing scenes in this book. The victim's corpse is the fifth character--a nameless man who dies in the first pages but who remains part of the story until the last pages.

I did like that David Vann attempts to address our cultural heritage of violence, and that he doesn't shy away from bringing up religion--specifically Christianity, and by inference Catholicism. He incorporates the Real Presence of the Eucharist, even though what he has to say about it is not particularly respectful. But he does get points for acknowledging what Catholics believe is true.

This book comes out of a place of deep personal pain. Although there are elements of Vann's writing that I admire, there's also not a little pretentiousness.

But if this review piques your interest at all, go ahead and read it. You may get a lot more out of it than I did.
122895
The Family Fang may be a good read if you are into fantasy that doesn't make a lot of sense. I just don't like it because it's depressing and weird. The mother and father borderline on being child abusers and the children don't even seem like real people. I am giving it two stars because I did like the first chapter but then it lost me. I've read 75% of the book and I will not finish it. Too depressing, too unreal, too weird!
537463
It is so dark, depressing, and disturbing. And the part of making video art is unnecessarily pornographic. I guess the author is trying to expose the issues of mental illness and abuses, but didn't leave anything meaningful to the readers except a dark twisted void.
308647
I found this book for Kindle, looking for suspense and thrillers. I found this book to be disturbing to say the least. The characters were dark(even the 'good' guys), but with an underlying humanity that was reflected in their interactions. "The White Room" and the desire for "softness" I found to be very sad, and very scary. i found this book to be a fun ride and am impatient for the next book in this series.
4093025
This book continued the slimy, stitled, creepy vibe that had entered the second-half of the first book. As the plot ground on, the sensation of sick creepiness grew and the characters became less and less and less like people I could force myself to read about, and more like people that would show up in the news and give you a vague, clammy sense of the chills as you flipped to another channel. The plot got too weird in this book for me, and I finally decided to give up on this series, though there is promise in the plot. I just couldn't take one more book from this particular author.
2363785
After starting this book I almost walked away because it was soooo depressing. The concept is interesting but the storyline is a bit harsh, especially for anyone who has suffered any type of abuse. The ending was problematic; it's not really a happy ending at all. Very sad in many ways. But then again maybe it is meant to make you read the next novel to see if Rose ever finds happiness? I'll probably never know because I don't believe I will read the follow-up. I suggest finding a different book to spend time with. This one leaves you feeling very unsatisfied.
2542043
Stories like this one make me loathe children. They never listen, are attracted to the creepy, and are annoying little manipulators. Nice creepy story based on that island of dolls.
3567007
I didn't care for this novel. I wish I didn't have to say that since Chris Bohjalian has been one of my favorite authors ever since "Midwives." But this book just didn't work.

It would have been enough if it was a story of a pilot who suffered PTSD after his plane crashed and only he and a few others survived - the early part of the book which told this story was gripping and I was already writing a five-star review in my head. And it would have been enough to have a story about a couple with twins who were forced to move and ended up in a creepy house in a town with creepy residents. But the juxtaposition of the two seemed forced, as if Bohjalian wanted to try his hand at a new genre.

In addition, the story moved awfully slowly. I tried to stay with it in hopes of something happening besides the build-up of creepiness, but not much happened for much too long. Often, even if I don't care for a novel, I read to the end just to see how it turns out. In this case, I made it about two-third of the way and finally had to put it down. It was just too much of a slog. I concluded that either not much would happen in the remainder of the book or, if it did, I'd no longer care.

I expect many people will love this book, particularly those who enjoy horror stories. And the creepy factor could make this story into a good movie. Despite this book, Bohjalian will remain one of my favorite authors - his track record with me remains high -- and I'll watch for his next book.
4307574
What a depressing book! The author can obviously write well, has interesting characters and even an intriguing plot, but the book as a whole leaves much to be desired... Characters are introduced, developed and then just forgotten about or killed off randomly.  The main characters have struggle after horrible struggle and you keep hoping for some positive resolution, but it never comes (unless you consider the ending to be a "happy" one, which I certainly did not). Overall, I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading this and I won"t be recommending  it to anyone.
4061978
so depressing, dark and negative that I turned it off before finishing.
2291565
Chip Linton was pilot on a plane that lost both engines when geese got sucked into them; with no flat land close enough, he attempted a water landing a la Sully Sullenbergers Miracle on the Hudson. Sadly, wake from a ferry turned the miracle into a massacre and thirty nine people died. Trying to escape Chips PTSD, the family- wife Emily and twin daughters Hallie and Garnet- moves to a small town in New Hampshire, where the new neighbors are friendly, the women are named for herbs, and all the herb women have greenhouses like the one on Chips new property.

The Night Strangers is a truly creepy book. It was written only three years ago, but has a strong vibe like horror from around 1970, like Rosemarys Baby or Stepford Wives: isolation; never knowing if one is imagining things or really being threatened; weird neighbors; is the horror human or paranormal? It has multiple threads of horror woven through it: Chip is either seeing and hearing the ghosts of Flight 1611 or his PTSD has escalated; the herb women are taking an inordinate amount of interest in Emily and the twins and have already renamed them with herb names; weapons around found hidden throughout the house.

Sadly, horrific as it is, the story doesnt quite hang together. Weve got possible ghosts from flight 1611, possible ghosts from the house, possible evil witches- its too much and they don't mesh well. And the characters don't seem plausible- even dealing with a husband with PTSD who is doing some seriously weird things most mothers wouldnt let the just-met neighborhood herbalists basically take over their children anytime they aren't in school, going so far as to rename them. I found the ending unsatisfactory, but it is very much in the vein of Rosemarys Baby or Stepford; if that is what the author was going for, he hit the nail on the head with that touch.
2942357
The gist of this book is that teens can be "infected" with depression. And so many of them are being "infected" that they are committing suicide in droves. I think it said 1 in 3 teens committed suicide. That sounds like a really cool premise, except that... I didn't buy it.

The world of this book is SO DEPRESSING. All adults are so paranoid about the kids getting depressed that the teens can't display any emotion (even extreme happiness is frowned upon), can't disagree with anyone, and essentially they don't have any individualism. Who wouldn't be depressed in a world like that? If I had to keep such a tight leash on myself all the time I can actually see why suicide might seem like a viable option.

My best friend suffers from depression. And she's told me before that she knew she didn't have anything to be sad about, but she was still sad. Perhaps if the author had started earlier in the "epidemic" history. If we had seen teens who really did have nothing "wrong" with their lives get depressed and commit suicide in large amounts. But that's not what I saw. I saw teens in a crappy world with only one way out.

Because of this, everything else that happened in the book just seemed like a contemporary story. This was another one of those books where a good portion of it was told in flashbacks, and those flashbacks didn't have anything sci-fi or dystopian about them. I don't like contemporary romance. I find it dull. And yet when we would come out of the flashbacks we would get just enough of a glimpse into the sci-fi aspects of the book that I kept reading.

I didn't hate this book, but I was far from loving it. If there are more in the series I will not be reading them because I feel like there isn't enough sci-fi stuff to carry the story, and I don't care about the romance.
2395769
There is absolutely nothing likable about these characters.  The writer does a very good job describing two very shallow yet brilliant, beautiful people and their pathological relationship but it is hard to feel more than disgust and pity.
The set-up of the story is well-done, about the first 20% of the book.  Then it becomes tedious.  I almost couldn't read to the end.  Much better material out there.  You don't have to look very hard.
2312797
I would not recommend this book to anyone.  It was depressing, and should be reclassified as horror.  I rarely say that about any book, but this one was a total disappointment.
612431
The only words I can think of for the book is depressing and boring. I am struggling to get through this and have made it to Chapter 13. So far it has made me want to not finish but I am persistent in finishing a book no matter how bad it is. The two main characters are depressing in that "Nick" just does not want to find any joy by considering even dating the childhood girl that has now grown into a beautiful woman and has returned to her former beach hometown. SHe is rebounding from a bad marriage that left her penniless because her ex cleaned out their bank account including her designing career she had in New York. She meets Nick by getting pulled over for speeding since he is now the town cop. Every chance encounter starts out seemingly good and you hope one of them makes a move but for some strange reason something gets tossed into the mix and neither can or will not make a move toward happiness. Hanging in there till the bitter end on this one!
1159203
This story was entirely too depressing. Georgina and Adam get about 20 pages of happiness together. The rest of the story is dark and highlights the worst of humanity. I read to escape to a happy place in romance. No thanks!