Unsettling in its accuracy
598477
I thought I was the only one thinking these things.  I'm 99% ambivalent about a relationship, having endured a horrid marriage and now having been single-again for +20 years.  I AM the person she describes who travels alone, likes things to stay where I put them, and who wakes up happy to have had the whole bed to myself for the last 8 hours.  HOWEVER I'm also the woman she describes who on occasion comes up with high-falutin', authentic-sounding worries about these 27 reasons..esp the "You're too Picky" which is what innumerable boyfriends and married/in relationship female friends always say.  Here's what this book has done for me: opened my mind to another perspective.  Thanks, Sara Eckel, wherever you are. May your marriage be joyous, enable mature communication and mostly peaceful.  I appreciate you writing this book.
287960
The Amityville Horror is the unnerving tale of 28 days spent in a house either haunted or possessed by some sort of evil spirit. What makes the book even more disturbing is its subtitle - A True Story. Whether or not the tale is actually true or a simple hoax to generate attention and cash (not to mention aid in Ron DeFeo's temporary insanity plea - "The house made me do it!") is still in debate after nearly thirty years. All true/false quibbles aside it must be said that Jay Anson has crafted a fairly decent haunted house yarn...My only quibble is that Anson embraces sensationalism in relating the spooky events. Everything that is the slightest bit unnerving, or perceived as mysterious, is stated with an exclamation point (!) which is the literary equivalent of shouting. Presenting the events in a quieter narrative tone would have, in my opinion, made them more realistic sounding and less like someone trying to convince me it is. Nonetheless the tale is now a legend and the book worthwhile reading, despite all of its narrative shortcomings.
3190906
Royal Henry Bleu, in 'Ach Tung', has picked a subject matter which is deeply disturbing, and Bleu presents a highly convincing account of a profoundly insane person in an unnerving manner, heightening the tension of this novel throughout. The novel however is not heavy and depressing to read. It uses post-modern techniques to create a psychological masterpiece, in which parody and pastiche may well be read into the portrayal of Dolph Shultz, these features being in constant juxtaposition with the serious topics embraced, furthering the unsettling effect of the novel...

It is a gripping and bold novel, and the psychology of the representation of someone who is not only self- deluded in the extreme but also who tries to convince others of his worldview is cleverly portrayed. An alternative reading of this novel could be one of lampooning the folly of such a twisted mind, through representing a dehumanised and morally deprave character in a way that shows the audience why he finds his actions legitimate. 'A Story of Redemption' seems like a hopeful title, but even the title is laced with irony as the evil cycle is perpetuated by the main character's deranged belief in redemption.

The central character views himself to be an aggrieved genius who has a master plan. The use of the first person throughout creates a narrative which goes hand in hand with being self- obsessed. The dominance of the word 'I' creates a convincing account of an insane person, whose reality is utterly subjective. The use of colloquial language at times, together with the deployment of occasional German, adds authenticity to this piece- the protagonist is not an educated person but someone who is driven by simplistic whims. Shultz is a law unto himself, and he does not absorb objective reality within his subjective and mad state of mind that is maintained throughout the novel, as he lapses into German from time to time, almost involuntarily...

Shultz is however at times surprised by people's reactions to him; he wants to dominate and feel that he is the most important person in the world, but cleverly, Bleu reveals that Shultz is confused by the response of others to him: ' No one said a word, and I was surprised, I figured that there would be yelling, screaming, running or even maybe laughing like crazy..'. He is inherently unable to understand the world around him, in view of his insanity. He is able to conquer reality, so he thinks, and he is a highly dangerous individual who likes to feel that people fear him through his wish to impose his own tyrannical world viewpoint on them.

As someone who has studied history, this is a fascinating read by an author who has blended some factual historical details with an trip into the wild, mad imagination of the main character. The reader is menaced by this character's madness but on the other hand, Shultz seems so pathetic that if he was not so dangerous, he would be ignored by people.

Astute observations resonate in this novel, and a great deal of research into not only history, but also this genre may well have motived Bleu to write 'Ach Tung!' This is a totally original and unique novel...

The fast pace of this novel takes the reader from one state of mind to another, the moods of the main character hovering over all of the action in a mercurial way. At one stage, Dolph Shultz says 'Klink looked into my eyes' and such commentary makes the reader wonder all of the time what others can make of this deranged person- his eyes no doubt betray the fact that he is enormously disturbed. The novel takes us into unnerving territory, yet the author, while probing the reader for reactions, cleverly guides the reader throughout, yet we are left to form our own opinions of Schultz. We know from the beginning though that Bleu will show us a world which is so highly idiosyncratic that few authors could pull this off. Bleu, has successfully used his vivid imagination, to make 'Ach Tung!' an unpredictable novel and chilling novel....
4132026
When five people are murdered in the rural village of Highfield, England, Inspector John Madden is sent from CID in Scotland Yard to oversee the crime scene. The First World War has just ended and in 1921 England is recovering from the terrible loss of lives in that endeavor; Inspector Madden has lost his wife and child as well, hoping for some peace now that the war has ended, but is quickly caught up in the senseless slaughter of a family, their maid and nanny. The weapon is a baffling choice and a cause for concern: all the victims were precisely stabbed with a bayonet.

There is one person the killer fails to notice, little Sophy Fletcher, who was hiding under her bed, wedged against the wall with her eyes shut tight. The village physician, Helen Blackwell, discovers the girl and takes her to recuperate in her home. Inspector Madden quietly speaks with the child; she is comforted by his calm mien and gentle manner. But it is Doctor Blackwell who introduces the more obscure approach to the case, psychology gradually introduced as a tool for solving criminal cases of this nature. Psychiatry is in its infancy, but Inspector Madden is inspired by a friend of Dr. Blackwell's, a Freudian who suggests a different protocol, working towards the killer's identity through his actions: "The soul of man is a far country, impossible to explore".

Just as Madden is making some headway, the Yard's bureaucracy intervenes and he is taken off the case in favor of a publicity-seeking investigator, Samson of Scotland Yard. The inquiry reaches a critical impasse. CID is divided between standard procedures and Madden's belief that this singular killer is driven by a unique ritualistic compulsion. Such an approach virtually unheard of at the time, the field of criminal forensics far removed from the psychology of a killer's motives.

The aftermath of war lies heavy on all the characters, especially Madden, scarred by physical and psychological injuries, Dr. Blackwell, who has lost a husband and two brothers and all the men returned from the service, changed by their experiences. The country is still reeling from economic deprivation and tragic personal losses. The murders are a grim reminder of the nature of violence, the quiet country villages decimated by the loss of soldiers. Into this nightmare, the ritualistic killer is born, a man whose soul was lost long ago, brutal fantasies his only preoccupation. Even as Madden focuses on the suspect, another slaying is planned, the innocent victims gathered in the family home, unsuspecting.

In quiet prose that carries the reader into the heart of the English countryside where murder lurks, a twisted mind evades the Inspector, a raptor with eyes fixed on his prey. Set in the early 20th century, these lawmen do not enjoy the refinements of current forensic science, yet Madden uses his battle-tempered wits to confound a predator as dangerous as any in the field. Luan Gaines/2005.
1539459
The key events in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE take place in Scotland in the unsettled time between the two World Wars. In a number of ways, the title character, a school mistress in an Edinburgh girls school, is a lot like two world figures she admits to admiring: Mussolini and Hitler. While being arbitrary and authoritarian herself, she exhibits contempt for all legitimate authority. While claiming to educate her students in the true sense of the word (i.e., to draw them out), she constantly labels and confines them by her preconceptions of what she believes their destinies to be. She also manipulates their trust, inappropriately shares adult information with them, and constantly tests their loyalty. Brodie's set, as the girls are referred to by the headmistress and other "outsiders", are a privileged elite, the creme de la creme. And privilege comes with both responsibilities and risks. Spark gives a subtle reading of what it means to bask in the not-always-healthy favor of an all-too-human leader. While the novel sometimes seems to be told from the point of view of one of Brodie's students (the second half seems to belong almost entirely to Sandy, the girl with piggish eyes who becomes a nun and author of a bestselling book of psychology called "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace"), it is really told by an omniscient narrator, one capable of bridging time and making judgments no individual character with a limited perspective could ever make. It leaves the reader feeling that there just might be a power greater than the most naive victim or the most desperate, self-serving bully. This is truly a deep and disturbing book, one that should not be approached lightly or taken at face value.
1675849
Creepy!  Or more technically, formicative (I think that's the right construction).  Ants, bioengineered ants, to be specific.

On the plus side, the science is remarkably good.  The book is set in the not-too-far over the horizon future, when bioengineering is just a bit more advanced than it is now.  We can currently create synthetic single-celled organisms, and the engineering of the really nasty ant species in this book is not at all difficult to imagine.

And the evildoers who engineer the creepy things are realistic.  We live in a world where the dividing line between terrorist and entrepreneur can blur, as can the dividing line between government and terror.  The ends do seem to justify the means for more and more of our world leadership, in both the public and private sector.

And, the heroine is realistic.  She has no real superpowers, she's tormented by realistic doubts and fears.  She's not the FBI, she's merely a consultant.  When she steps into the lion's den, you don't immediately know that she's there.

Now, to the negative:  Chuck Wendig is not writing an easy book here!  He develops a significant number of characters who he then kills, and the number of innocent bystanders killed off in this book is huge.

And, just to keep your stomach unsettled, the descriptions of the killing are fairly graphic.  I had to finish this book because it is well plotted and well told, but I had to put it down several times along the way because it was, well, so creepy.
3660966
I feel comfortable in my belief that few will find the characters in this novel anything other than despicable. The question is whether they are despicable in an ordinary way or in an extraordinary way.  Just how common are people like them?  I am certain, as you hopefully will be as well, that no one in my inner circle of friends and family would act this way.  But what about those just outside that circle? There lies the brilliance of this work.  From the first page the novel slowly summons a ground swell of dread that almost imperceptibly builds like a gathering storm. The dread comes with our uncertainty about those around usnot the people we know, but the ones we rub shoulders with, but don't know. That is what makes this such a compelling read.  Is it just possible that the people sitting at the next table might act this way? And if that is the casejust how safe are wejust how solid is the crust of civilization holding the chaos and darkness from seeping up from below?  So many of those who found fault with this book did so because they didn't believe the characters would act this way.  But I am fairly certain that the author pushed his characters outlandishness to the limit of credibility intentionally in order to make the reader ask themselves the question of plausibility.  I too had the frequent sense while reading this book that nobody would possibly act or think this waybut just when the I was about to give up on itthe author would restore just enough credibility to make me think that maybe I was being navethat just because I don't know anyone personally that would behave this way, does not mean that the world might not very well be populated with plenty of people who would.
1929135
When I first rated this book on Goodreads right after I finished it, I gave it  stars. I am chaning that rating mostly because I have not been able to stop thinking about it and talking about it with others who have read it. I fully intend to read it again and pay closer attention to each detail. While I felt like some aspects of it didn't quite work, I cannot remember the last time I found a book that unsettling and creepy without being able to put my finger on why. Mr. Reid's ability to create an unnerving, tense mood throughout the book is superb. Definitely worth a read (and re-read)
4260262
It's been a day since I've finished Taking Comfort, by Roger Morris, and I'm still not quite sure what to write here. It's not an easy book to sum up, nor is it easy to review.

I don't review books I can't consider five-star reads, and I have no reservations about reviewing Taking Comfort. It's just... Well.

The writing, to begin with, takes a huge chance. It's in present tense; it's full of Product Placement; it holds its characters at arm's length even as it assumes their points of view. Done badly, this could provide a great example of style over substance. However, Morris does it very well. So all this--at least in my readerly eyes--underlines the book's message: We live in a fearful world, in fearful times. We fear. To assuage this fear, to survive in this world, we find comfort where we must. We create our own talismans: be they ber-designed products that ease and decorate our day, the routines we tread, or even--as Morris' protagonist, marketing man Rob Saunders, knows too well--the souvenirs we collect from disasters that occur on our turf.

Or, sometimes, disasters on turf we have to make a special effort to reach.

This is Saunders' dilemma. He begins his collection almost accidentally, picking up the plastic notebook of a Japanese teenager who commits suicide in the London Tube. Yes, this is creepy; Saunders knows it. He acknowledges it to himself, even as he realizes that it brings him some strange measure of comfort. Doing such a thing once is creepy, but perhaps forgiveable. But then, there's the napkin with the tears of a jilted lover, the bloody handkerchief...and then, the disasters he must go out of his way to witness.  And a "normal" man, a businessman in a suit, becomes a furtive obsessive with a suitcase ("The Di Beradino Classic...crafted in beautiful vegetable tanned leather...") full of secrets.

How Morris plays with this, and with the fears and creepiness of others, and with all those marketing-copy-descriptions of the products of Saunders' sterile, disaster-filled world, keeps the pages turning.

This book, I might add, is not for everyone. It's not your average read. It's outrageous; it will provoke debate and, no doubt, some derision. Some will think it's trickery; some might even think it's shallow. I think it's neither; I think it's altogether too appropriate to our times. I think it's very good.

Susan O'Neill, author,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Don-t-Mean-Nothing-Short-Stories-of-Vietnam/dp/1558494421/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam</a>&nbsp;(of course, there's a product link..which rather reinforces Morris' point...)
3077795
Unusual story and well told.  Some of it very unsettling, but kept me reading.
1051771
I recommend this gripping paean to animal intuition, the `noble savage of the soul' as Eno might call it.  The instinct of danger, though the hero of the piece, nevertheless threatens to rout love and undermine the "grace" by which it is given.  That makes for some engrossing tensions as the protagonist's instincts pass seamlessly from life-saving presentiment to fears and suspicions that become violent and threaten to tear the Rider apart from his relationships.

There are psychological and even spiritual undertones to this minacious tale, whose most unbelievable detail is that which is intended to be most realistic: a newspaper corroboration of the menace from which the Rider and his drivers recoiled  and escaped.  From a strictly literary point of view, this detail unduly damps the most interesting question raised by this short intense story: the relation between instinct and violence, and love and hate.  The rider - and perhaps the writer - seems torn between the `Pagan' view that love and hate are ineluctably interlaced, that good and evil are conjoined twins, neither entirely detached from the other, and the Abrahamic (here, Christian) view that hatred and evil are parasitic perversions, and that love and goodness are self-sufficient powers with a source in an all-good and all-loving deity who gracefully cares for His creatures.  Can we have love without hate or the animal intuition that civilization starves and cages without fear and violence?

This problem is not quite framed as a problem; it rather skulks just beneath the surface.  If anything, the narrative inclines to the view that is more `Pagan' (for want of a better quick term), though the Rider feels the undertow of the more puristic vision, as does the writer.  Which is the truth and which is the superstition?

That the second half of the story is not quite a half, not fully developed, but left in the form of a sketchy journal, does not help.  It is not clear whether the journal form is intentional or a stop-gap, but this reviewer wishes that it had been worked into a more fully developed counterweight to the first part.  That would more effectively counterpoise the material about instinct and violence in the first part with the material about love and spontaneity in the second.  As is, the journal about coupling up with a fellow traveler is cynical ("tit for tat") and love is made to seem rather selfish and hedonic.  Perhaps it so seemed to the young Rider; maybe the writer intended to leave the section undeveloped because the young rider's sensibility was at the time similarly undeveloped.  If there is indecision here, if a question is to be posed to the reader, then there is all the more reason to have developed the second half more fully, to have let the reader wonder a little about the possibility of a loving spontaneity unmixed with fear and paranoia and violence.

Thematic and structural quibbles aside, this is a narrative by a guy who can tell a story, for whom the events are seething with symbolic meaning, and who is able to raise an existential question in short order.  For a first story to have an enthralling surface and at the same time to raise consequential human issues is no mean feat.  I sincerely hope the public will hear more from Mr. Ortiz.
3095808
At times I needed to re-read the occasional sentence or paragraph though in fairness I think this mirrored that the stories go deep.

Of all the stories, I don't think I'll ever be able to get the haunting story of "Family Tree" out of my head.

It's unsettling enough that the body of the stuttering Eddy's mother was found decaying at the roots of the ancient yew where the Glossop household's garden abutted on the municipal cemetery. But the way Nickford draws the confused and stammering lad himself, after the loss of his Mum, while every night he looks out of his bedroom window at the darkened trunk of the the yew where his mother's body was found with fungus and tree mould in it - that pulled at me.

There's nothing earth-shattering here but against the 'presence' of the old yew that comes uninvited to the stammering boy and even to his widowed father, the tensions and conflict which begin to grow between son and father have a  real tenderness.

Though the scenes in many of the other stories are  quite often vivid enough to be called cinematic  even 'Hitchcockian' in their plots, I'm still not sure I'd  really want to see this particular one of the selection turned into a film script, easy though that might be. I reckon the real satisfaction comes from the writing - as it is.
3768590
Great movie! A deeply unsettling and frightful musing on the effects of cruelty and repression in a society. The sense of vague and undefined evil slowly grows stronger and more permeating as the movie moves along. It's like hearing distant footsteps behind you that gradually get closer and closer as you walk home on a dark night.

The movie begins with a very old man narrating a series of disturbing events that occured when he was a young schoolteacher in a seemingly idyllic German village on the eve of World War I. The village doctor falls from his horse as he is returning from a call and is injured. Someone strung wire across the entrance to his courtyard causing the fall, but who could have done such a thing to the beloved doctor? The culprit isn't found. As the film unfolds we find that the doctor wasn't the man he appeared to be, secretly molesting his daughter and abusing his housekeeper. Other disturbing events soon follow.

A peasant women dies accidently while working for the local baron. But was it really an unavoidable accident? There are hints that the baron's disregard for worker safety contributed to the event, but such is his power over the lives of everyone that none, not even the woman's husband, will openly accuse him. This power is demonstrated later on when the woman's distraught son burns one of the baron's fields in an act of reprisal. The baron responds by banning the family from working in the fields, causing hardship which which will lead to suicide for the surviving husband. Later on, however, the baron's son goes missing and is found tied to a tree badly beaten, unable or unwilling to identify his abductors.

As the film continues other tragic events occur. Layers of apparent perfection are peeled away from the facade of both the village and the lives of other prominent people, revealing a rotten core of abuse and oppression hidden beneath the surface and kept in place by convention and tradition. The prominent and powerful do as they wish to those unable to resist, including the most vulnerable of all, the children.

Or are the children really so helpless?

See the movie!
180698
This is based on a true story, and the movie attempts to stick pretty close to reality.  Being set in reality has its piquing moments and also some nap time periods.  The actors give reliable performances, and everything looks convincingly real.  Despite the harrowing odds, one is apt to believe that all will turn out well in the end.  This is an odd estimation given the severe challenges involved, but something keeps telling you that the family has more than hope on their side.  The film is primarily engrossing, so I can recommend it for what it is.
2208217
Going Underground presents a possible future, which seems far too believable, in light of headlines about suicide bombers. In fact, some aspects were as disturbing as the reports about the Nazi concentration camps and disgusting experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele.
The story projected a dark and forbidding feeling throughout. The description, characters  and attention to detail were well done. While Jen could be very annoying, she is a teenager, so she was believable.
IMHO, this sentence captures the concept of the book, "You will never be safe from scrutiny remain vigilant at all times. Do not let the government bureaucrats bring you to your knees, and don't give them a reason to make you victims."
2655696
Reading this book is a gutting experience. Paul Tremblay has based his latest book on what  is perhaps any parents greatest fear: the loss of a child.  Elizabeth Sanderson wakes one night to find her teenage son, Tommy, missing. His friends say he just wandered off in the woods and no one can find him. Its as though he has just disappeared. Elizabeth comes to believe that his ghost is visiting her and leaving messages and there are rumors of a dark figure peering in peoples windows which corresponds to an old myth about the devil who inhabits the woods where he disappeared. But just like Tremblays novel A Headful of Ghosts, the true horror isn't the supernatural but what people are capable of and how a family can too easily come unraveled. As the police detective thinks at one point (Im paraphrasing): people tend to make surprisingly bad decisions and do so with surprising ease. This is no shockfest horror novel but a disturbing portrait of loss. I found this book hard to put down, I was so ensnared by its suspense. By not overplaying the supernatural, it made the events incredibly and terrifyingly possible.
If I had to complain about anything, it would be that a few of the characters that the narrator follows closely are ignored at the end and we don't get a glimpse of how they have been affected by the events. But that quibble aside, I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes horror that makes them think.
1000856
This tense thriller will keep readers guessing until the end with subtle clues and numerous red herrings introduced into the story by the narrator, whose perception of events may not be all that accurate. Although an interesting psychological portrayal of the inaccuracies of memory and the distortion of time, this is a dark and depressing book that will leave the reader unsettled even with its unexpected conclusion.