Literary Horror discussion

Woo hoo! *blows the vuvuzela*

Members of Literary Horror might be the first ones to rate this book on Goodreads.

I have picked this up on Kindle, looking forward to reading it...

Weird that there is so little interest in this book on Goodreads, considering Tartarus' rep. There is even a number of members whose ratings I tend to see on almost every single Tartarus release (and small press weird fiction in general), but here I'm not seeing their avatars even in the to-read section.

This is going to be a tricky one for me. The purchase options are Kindle (I don't own one) or an expensive limited-edition hardback (which is a big ask for an author I don't know).

Neutrino wrote: "There is even a number of members whose ratings I tend to see on almost every single Tartarus release (and small press weird fiction in general), but here I'm not seeing their avatars even in the to-read section."
I generally don't like to overload my to-read list; it's mostly a reminder of books I plan to look for. If I'm pretty committed to reading a book (like this one), I often don't put it on my to-read list.

Well, I'm still not exactly accustomed to GR, otherwise I probably would've known that this sort of thing is relatively common. Though, you'd think that people would be generally more open to newbie author releases from Tartarus given their track record (authors like Nike Sulway and Andrew Michael Hurley had their major debuts with Tartarus, for example).

Well, Tartarus did provide some cheap paperback editions for -some- of their releases. They do so rarely tho,

A breezy beginning, entertaining enough so far.

My Kindle copy has a number of extra blank lines in the middle of paragraphs. Is it just me? It's rather distracting.

Must go buy this now.

Bill, once I've loaded it, I'll let you know if my Kindle (Paperwhite) has the same issue.

Bill wrote: "My Kindle copy has a number of extra blank lines in the middle of paragraphs. Is it just me? It's rather distracting."

Just downloaded from Amazon. My copy also has odd spacing, starting right on the first page (after copyright, author acknowledgments, etc.) A full space between lines in the first sentence, and another one further down in the same paragraph.

Very odd. It almost looks like a bad conversion from PDF but this is a retail azw3 or mobi file. I've never experienced this with a Tartarus ebook before; they're usually very well-formatted. I may try side-loading the file tomorrow and see if that's better (I downloaded it directly onto the Kindle via wifi).

Eh, I guess this is one reason why trigger warnings really ought become a standard among publishers, no matter how much people love to make fun of that idea.
On the other hand, it IS a horror novel.

Well now, with horror, especially modern horror, disturbance and transgression is something that you have to expect. Not to mention something that fair chunk of readers seeks, in one form or another.

Question here is the context. Is the story using that device as a cheap ploy or is there more to it.

I'm a little over 10% in and the blank lines and odd formatting seem to have disappeared (never did delete and sideload-too busy on the weekend).

This isn't really appealing much to me so far but I hope it deepens and the authorial voice takes on more character as it goes along.

I really want to like this more. These are my pop culture references too. But McQueen is trying so hard; it's hard for me to forgive sentences that begin like

Fear is the perfect marinade...

(It is?) It doesn't help that, at the same time, I'm reading And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, which has so much charm and wit and clever language.

Bill wrote: "I really want to like this more. These are my pop culture references too. But McQueen is trying so hard; it's hard for me to forgive sentences that begin like
Fear is the perfect marinade...


Yeah, I hear you. I'm about 60% through and I just can't work up any enthusiasm for this book. Much of it reads like YA to me, except for the fact that the pop culture references are far too antiquated for that demographic. I don't get who this is supposed to appeal to. Certainly not me.

I'll probably post a review sooner or later. I am not enjoying myself, I keep going mainly because Russell and Parker obviously saw something more here, else they wouldn't have published it. I am certainly not seeing it though, this is not at all on par with usual Tartarus standard.

Marie-Therese wrote: "Much of it reads like YA to me, except for the fact that the pop culture references are far too antiquated for that demographic."
Good point. The writing is quite flat. While the opening sections were relatively intriguing, the mechanics of twin haunting were quickly overexplained. All pet peeves of mine when it comes to mediocre YA fiction.

Randolph wrote: "I’ll have to restart this. I made it about 15% but had to put it down due to travel, etc. I was confused anyway and my Kindle book is so bizarrely formatted I’m totally confused."

I had formatting issues at the start but they seemed to disappear just about when you dropped the book and didn't reappear in the remainder.

I generally hate novels with a lot of distracting cultural references but am thinking about putting together a soundtrack cd since I know/have most of these songs. Kinda fun.

Having finished the novel, I can honestly say that I suspect your CD would be a whole lot more fun.

More later, but I've finished this and just want to note that I found it deeply disappointing. I got a rather juvenile (New Adult rather than Young Adult, maybe?) mainstream urban fantasy vibe throughout the book, which is fine, I guess, if you like mainstream urban fantasy, but I don't and it's not something I generally expect from Tartarus.

The final chapters are actually eye-rollingly bad. I can't wait to hear what Bill thinks of them-if he makes it that far! ;-)

I tend to have low(ish) tolerance for these pop-culture overloads too. I couldn't stomach David Wong, for example.
Though, sometimes it can work. Recently I've read some of James Champagne's short stories, where it sort-of worked to their benefit. Also, he even provided detailed soundtrack for his stories, at the end of his collection!

Marie-Therese wrote: "The final chapters are actually eye-rollingly bad. I can't wait to hear what Bill thinks of them-if he makes it that far! ;-) ."
Nope.

As I mentioned earlier, reading And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe only magnified Mirror Dead's shortcomings. "The Clawfoot Requiem" starts:

When my sister Savannah set out to do something, she never failed to impress. So on the morning she opened her wrists and emptied what was left of her heart, the bathroom looked less like a butcher block and more like an altar.

Kind of hard to go back to Mirror Dead after that.

I was wondering if Spotify would have most of these tunes. Pretty easy to make a playlist there.

Anyway, I'll be interested to read your final take on the book, Randolph. For me, obviously, it didn't work. The "voice" just never set right (so often, it seemed like McQueen was working too hard to sound hip and youthful and punchy and she ended up sounding insincere and awkward), and the moving away from ghostly possession to some weird urban fantasy shtick killed my last bit of interest. The final pages read like the Bardo imagined by Lisa Frank-colourful and whimsical but not exactly horrific.

I also wondered if sequel bait was being set out. I could see this being the start of an urban fantasy style series. I just hope Tartarus isn't the publisher.

TBH, based on the blurb and the beginning, I expected some sort of clever subversion/commentary on the ghost story genre... This is really nothing of the sort.

That is awesome, Randolph! And pretty much exactly what I would have said about the book had I half your chutzpah.

The final chapters just floored me. For a few pages, I actually wondered if I was being pranked and Tartarus and the author were pulling my leg just to see how hard I'd let them tug before yelling, but then the story went on and on and I figured no one would be that devoted to trolling otherwise faithful readers. The epilogues were the worst. I really hope what I read there wasn't sequel bait because there is no way in hell I'm continuing with this author, beloved indie press or no.

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/...
"Put simply, this is by far the best written modern horror story I have yet experienced."
...
Really now?