Disturbingly brilliant
341209
I could not put this book down! It is so sad that this is a reality for some kids.
3290852
This hysterically funny collaboration of sick and twisted reality is filled with shockingly bizarre accounts of exploding bats and rats, human/goat fornication, and animal kingdom sickness that is so bizarre there are only two choices.  Either close the book and thank heaven that Fluffy is safely sleeping on the couch, or laugh your (name your own body part) off and discover the science behind exploding toads.  I don't mean to be judgmental, but just exactly why are these two guys so interested in exploding animals?  The best way to find the answer to that mystery is to read. Fear not.  Just when you think you can't take another moment of strange acts with animals, they move on to the human variety.
1671833
To be fair, the story is deeply disturbing. That said, it is also deeply engaging. The acting is among the finest I have ever seen. This is perfection in story telling.
4717898
This is the most bizarre book I've ever read. And I mean that in a good way. Clear takes paranormal to a whole new level. One I'm not quite sure how to explain. It often left me confused and feeling a bit crazy. I was constantly thinking "what the hell am I reading?". There were a couple of times that  I felt a bit awkward and unsure but I could not stop reading. From the very first page Clear sucks you right in and refuses to let you escape until you have reached the end. It's one wild ride full of emotions and chaos. Clear left me breathless and high on life.

I can't promise that you'll enjoy it as much as I did. This is one of those books that just isn't for everyone. But I do ask that you go in blind and give Clear a chance. Take a risk and you just might come out with a new favorite :)
978891
Monumental, unsettling, beautifully horrible stuff. Replete with references and clever devices, it will probably take decades, an army of imitators and adaptations each stealing piecemeal a jewel or two at a time before the genius of this work gets fully recognized. Miles and miles away from comics and often even more disturbing than the early twentieth century weird fiction it guides you through.
558211
I've never read any of Wallace's fiction before, and this thing is just crazy. It's got this really playful, almost freewheeling sensibility that is grounded by these long but agonizingly precise sentences, especially with the dialogue. It feels kind of like Donald Barthelme on crack. And my god, is it funny. Only A Confederacy of Dunces has ever made me laugh this hard while reading. I wasn't sure what to make with all of the little philosophical flourishes, at times they seem sincere, at times, almost tongue-in-cheek. The narrative sort of looses steam in the last hundred pages as things begin to resolve themselves in ways that are either dully predictable or (In my mind) wholly inscrutable. Though I think I can forgive its flaws since he wrote it when he was in his early 20's. A fact that only baffled (and quite often, intimidated) me the farther I got into it. Maybe if I read Wittgenstein it will all become clear...
4087733
What starts out as a strange and somewhat unnerving tale about a  disfigured woman who picks up strong male hitchhikers and then injects them  with something that knocks them out so she can dress them up in other men's  clothes slowly takes shape as a very clever and creative social satire. Of  what, I'm not going to tell you, as half the enjoyment of reading this book  comes about a third of the way through when you start to figure out what's  going on. Faber's point, while first striking me as mundane, actually  started to affect me by the end of the novel. Yeah, I've heard the argument  before, but this is actually a pretty effective (and certainly NEW) way to  put it. I highly recommend this book, although not for the weak of stomach  (as some of the scenes are pretty graphically violent). It's one of the  most unique books I've encountered in my lifetime. And for once, a satire  described as "Swiftian" on the back cover has actually lived up  to the adjective.
3056088
It is almost impossible to review this book without giving too much away. The book seems to have been written in three stages. The first stage is a humorous back story which sets the scene. The middle part reveals that these are real characters, and their seemingly humorous actions now have serious and sometimes heartbreaking consequences. The end of the story totally turns everything proceeding it on its head. At the end of the book, the reader will come to a startling and somewhat shocking realization. This book is such a strong mix of humor, horror, hopelessness and hope, that I don't think there is anything else quite like it. This beautiful book is bizarre in that it mixes feelings of dread and despair with such hope. What a powerful read.
3369952
Mind-altering sounds arose from my CD-player when I listened to this talented and, in its very own way, subtle piece of art.  Dream Theatre has taken instrumental and progressive rock to new, utmost heights (or depths - how could I know for sure?) of mesmerising and disturbing virtuosity.
The leading song is, no doubt, 'Strange dj vu'.  However, it does not come alone, for the whole disc is a great continuum of themes which do not tend to conclude until the story itself does.
Because this album tells a story.  And my advice is to learn about it in a quiet, gloomy room, having plenty of time and preparing to feel a rare set of sensations as this awesome opus comes to an end.
2944547
Slatsky's work is some of the most singularly weird fiction I've encountered in the field of horror or weird fiction, hands down, and this is much to his credit. By mining the outer limits of science and the occult to craft for us strange puzzle boxes of stories that make our heads spin and send us to other realms of reality, he cranks the weirdness knob to 11 without ever wandering into outright absurdity or the oftentimes parodic territories of the bizarro realm. Rather, Slatsky's stories in Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales introduce us to worlds of total estrangement, worlds in which the horrific rears its head not as a direct assault on the individuals trapped within them, but as a result of the implication that our reality may be entirely subject to the control of totally outre forces. What Alectryomancer provides for us, then, is a dark wonderland, a strange and disconcerting rabbit hole down which any of us can plummet. Written with a significant mark of erudition and in a confident prose style, this collection marks the coming on a shining new talent. Highly recommended.
4052988
It's very disturbing, to say the least, but well done.
2632207
This story is told quite brilliantly. All the characters are wonderfully drawn, and all are INCREDIBLY interesting. From Jed, the loner who lives on the top floor of the house and keeps his hawk in the garden. To Jarvis, the owner of the house who is obsessed by underground systems and is writing a book chronicling them. To Alice, the young mother who has run away from her humdrum life, leaving her daughter and husband behind. And then there is Tom, the busker who once aimed to study at a musical college, but is now content to play for the armies of people who walk through London's cavernous Tube. Then there is young Jasper, who, along with his friends, finds his thrills amid the bustle of the dangerous underground. And then, Axle. The enigmatic, strange man whom little is known about, and whose secret will cast shadows over all their lives.
The story is told brilliantly, as i say. All the charaters living in the old schoolhouses each have a different part in the story, and rarely do their own seperate stories interact, until the end. It is like watching several little planets revolving around the sun (in this story the sun is the london underground system). Their orbits do not cross, but still they revolve around the main body of the story, until they are finally drawn together.
Rendell skips between each persons's story (each persons story varies greatly) wonderfully, while the reader hardly notices the transition.
The climax is not completely unexpected, but i often find that that is the beauty of Vine/Rendell. You can sometimes see or tell what is going to happen, and you know that absolutely nothing any of the characters can do to prevent the inevitable awfullness.
At first i thought the ending was shocking, and powerful but anticlimatic. Then i realised it is shocking and powerful BECAUSE it is anticlimatic. (Rather like when we meet Hannibal Lecter...we are shocked by him because we were expecting a monster.)
2502960
This book, like its predecessor, is a stunning mixture of crazy, creepy, and deep; all cleverly concealed under a veil of dick jokes.  Absolutely amazing, and a must-read.
2878794
FOUNDLING is a delight - strange and gnarly, with a vaguely steampunk mentality.  The characters are incredibly vivid, physically and as personalities, and the worldbuilding is astonishingly deep.  Cornish takes a real delight in words - his language is fussy, prickly, onomateopoeic, as absorbing and tangled as his tale.

The twist in Cornish's world, the half-continent, is that it is on the eve of a technical revolution - but while ours was mechanical, theirs is biological.  It's an oddly believable theory, somewhere in between Dr Frankenstein and modern cloning techniques.  The result is both fantastic and ghastly - it's hard to call this world "magical" because the magic is so gruesome.

Rossamunde is small, and weak, and used to being bullied - in FOUNDLING, he must discover his courage.  It's hard to realistically transition a character from a meek beginning to a brave conclusion; Cornish does the job beautifully.  By the end, the reader sees in him a strength that has little to do with blustering and grandstanding; and has great hope for the man he will become.

The book reads like a fairy tale's evil twin.  Within the dreary, but safe, walls of his orphanage Rossamunde dreams of adventure - he idolizes the heroes who bravely sally forth to slay monsters and protect the realm.  But once he leaves the city, he discovers a very different reality.  The monsters are not all bad; and the heroes are not all good.  Which is not to say that there is any possibility of peace and cooperation between humans and the creatures who inhabit the wilds.  That would be too easy as well.

I thought often of Philip Pullman's HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy while reading FOUNDLING, and it's eerie, same-yet-different world.  I think Cornish's is better.  I look forward to finding out how the series evolves.
1145378
Murnau meets Dali meets Greenaway. Brilliant and deeply disturbing. Art house quality film; like being at The Angelika.
4969184
Like other reviewers, I found the film shocking and repugnant. However, I was mesmerized and couldn't stop watching. In a way it is quite clever, though nonetheless disgusting. Not for children!
318709
This book is not for everyone, but it's nonetheless amazing. Sometime hilarious, sometimes tragic, consistently thought provoking and beautiful.
Oh, and strange. Very, very strange, mixing bits of fabulism and the fantastic with cold, gritty reality, and mundane reality, and a healthy dose of lingual spice. Olsen plays on the page like no one else.