Category: Book Review
The Metamorphosis
Warnings: Violence, Death
My Thoughts
The Metamorphosis follows Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who one day wakes up and finds that he has been transformed into a large insect. Before his bizarre transformation, Gregor was the head of his family who worked to support his aging parents and young sister.
The novel begins slowly, with the first part consisting of his horror at waking up in his new form. There is actually a lot of hysterics in the first part and it’s pretty strange but comedic. The reader gets a sense of who Gregor is as a character and his dedication, only thinking of how he can continue working and supporting his family despite his present condition. Absurd, right? This first part also drags a little bit while laying the foundation for the rest of the story which is a shame because it is the point where I’m sure the book will lose many readers.
The following two sections of the book then go onto cover how Gregor and his family adjust to the new situation. Because of Gregor’s condition, he can no longer work, so it falls on the family to go back to work and take care of Gregor. This is when the story transitions from a comedy to a nightmare. The true “metamorphosis” was not Gregor’s transformation – but instead how his “loving” family change over time. How familial duty can become a burden and lead to neglect. Gregor starts to feel ashamed of himself and hides, yet he also craves the love and acceptance that he used to have from his family. This book was just as beautiful as it is heartbreaking and a little horrifying.
There is a multitude of interpretations for this book, and Kafka intentionally left it pretty ambiguous. To me though, The Metamorphosis at its core is a story about how a family deals with illness. If you take away all the absurdity of Gregor becoming an insect and instead make him terminally ill, you’d get pretty much the same story. It delves into the meaning of family and how quickly loyalties dissolve. How much care is given to a person who is now considered useless? How quickly are they swallowed up and forgotten? The brilliant themes of this novel are still incredibly relevant to this day and it’s an issue that doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves. The Metamorphosis is an enduring classic and an important read about empathy and love, it continues to be one of my favorites.
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
Rating:
The Wendigo
Title: The WendigoAuthor: Algernon Blackwood
Publisher: Public Domain
First Published: January 1, 1910
Pages: 50
Genres: Classics, Horror, Paranormal
Format: Ebook
Source: Free, Public Domain
Rating: ★★★½
Synopsis:
The Wendigo is an influential horror novella by Algernon Blackwood, which was first published in a collected fiction book called The Lost Valley and Other Stories, in 1910. The story follows a doctor, his nephew, and their party on a moose hunting trip into the deepest wilderness of northern Canada. Things take a turn as the party split up and one begins to follow non-human tracks...
My Review:
Wendigos are some of the most terrifying specters of Algonquin folklore, a malevolent spirit that is often associated with winter, starvation, cannibalism, and death. The Wendigo reads like a campfire ghost story told around hunting circles about the unexplainable phenomena that can only be experienced in the farthest reaches from civilization.
The story follows a moose-hunting party on their trek into the woods near the end of the fall season. The untamed wilderness leaves the hunters struck with awe at the beauty and terrible loneliness of the Candian wilderness. The writing is a master craft of atmosphere, as the adventure displays the majesty of nature and the ever-powerful call that it has on the hearts and minds of men. The terrifying silence of the natural world feels oppressive, feeling like a monster that swallows up the hunting camp.
The one glaring issue that holds this classic down is the casual racism that is used to describe character traits. While understandable for the time period in which it was written, it is archaic and simply unpleasant to read. A blemish on an otherwise superbly written story, a terrible shame really.
Even so, this book stands as a classic that brought a part of First Nations folklore into the literary canon and influenced other horror writers and filmmakers in the decades after it was written. The Wendigo is a testament that the unseen horror can be just as effective without the excessive blood and gore of more contemporary fiction. A true delight for the senses as the tightly written prose evokes both fear and wonder in readers for generations.
“Men were sometimes stricken with a strange fever of the wilderness, when the seduction of the uninhabited wastes caught them so fiercely that they went forth, half fascinated, half deluded, to their death.”
Trigger Warning: Racism, Violence
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
My Thoughts
What blows my mind about this book is how incredibly readable and accessible it is, considering the fact that it was written over a century ago. Frederick Douglass was a fugitive slave and a prominent leader of the abolitionist movement. While in captivity, Douglass worked hard to teach himself how to read and write, viewing literacy and education as his means to freedom.
“Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will… Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get.”
The narrative discusses Douglass’s experiences as both a plantation slave and a personal family slave in the city, working skilled labor and paying his wages to his master. I never knew how drastically different the conditions were from plantation to city, and the book provides a lot of detail that is often lost in a general history of American slavery.
The appendix also contained an incredibly powerful criticism of how pervasive religion was among the Southern slaveholding populace, calling out slave owners on their hypocrisy. Everything about this narrative was just incredible, and it is a wonderful historical piece to study.
Frederick Douglass truly lives up to his reputation for having a gift for storytelling and his writing is powerful, I wish I could’ve heard him speak. He is one of the most admirable historical figures I’ve encountered and I regret not reading this book sooner. If there was one memoir I could ever recommend to anyone on the subject of slavery, it would be this one.
Warnings: violence, racism
The Perfect Nanny
Warnings: Child Death
I really struggled to put my thoughts together on this book, partially because The Perfect Nanny was not what I had expected and one of the more unique stories I’ve ever read. I feel that it is mismarketed as a mystery thriller when it was neither, to me this is a horror novel through and through. I think I would have liked this book better if I had known this beforehand.
The plot is slow and very intense as a portrait of Louise is formed from the point of view of other characters and their interactions with her. It occurred to me after a time that the shifting narration was important, because it presents the story of the “perfect nanny” almost like a ghost story, a witness statement to the police about the perpetrator.
The prose is taut and very precise, creating an uncomfortable, almost suffocating atmosphere for the reader. This is definitely an introspective novel, with a lot of commentary on the roles of women as caregivers and French society. It’s an interesting character study and I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially after I took some time to let the story sink in. If you’re looking for a traditional mystery with a cause and exciting climax you’ll find yourself disappointed.
Also a bit of trivia, but I found out after I had finished the book that the story is loosely based on a real tragedy that happened back in 2012. Just knowing this little bit of information makes the story that much more chilling.
“She gave the baby a bath and thought to herself that this happiness–this simple, silent, prisonlike happiness–was not enough to console her.”
The Road
My Thoughts
Where to start with this book. Well, first I can say that The Road is my first Cormac McCarthy book and I’m deeply conflicted about it. I was immediately surprised and rather frustrated by his writing style. There is a part of me that wants to read his other books to see what the fuss is about, but the other part of me is honestly hesitant because of how miserable my reading experience was with The Road. It is one of the most horrifying books I’ve ever read, both for its content and for the blatant disregard of anything that makes a book great but especially syntax.
The lack of punctuation, especially the total absence of quotation marks signifying conversation irked me. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that there was little to no notation as to who was talking, and conversation between all of the characters was so bland they were indistinguishable. I found it distracting having to go back and count lines to figure out who was saying what and this to me is just a waste of time. It was atrocious how poor the readability of the writing was and a less famous author would be slammed for writing this poorly. I had to take a star off of my rating purely for this reason.
Before McCarthy fans raise their pitchforks, I do want to acknowledge that I understand that McCarthy writes this way on purpose, that’s his own prerogative but I don’t have to like it. Reading this book made me appreciate grammar and punctuation afterward. Normally I don’t care if a writer has perfect punctuation or even a few spelling errors as long as things are readable but this was miserable.
“When we’re all gone at last there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road there with nothing to do and nobody to do it to.”
On the flip side, the story was actually pretty interesting and it kept me reading. The world is described in great detail and although the characters are flat, I still found myself caring at least a little bit about what happened to them. Many of the events in the book were truly unnerving, though I must say, by the end of the book it became extremely predictable. “Hey! People have been here! They were probably doing something horrible!” I get it, people become assholes when they’re hungry and the world is ending.
The book is pretty damn bleak, and while I have no problem with stories being dark and hopeless, it felt like there wasn’t much more to it than that. Perhaps I’ve just read too much existentialist fiction for any of this to be new or thought-provoking. I wasn’t surprised nor particularly moved, which makes me feel kind of callous considering the subject matter. I’ve cried my eyes out reading other books, but this one just didn’t hit me the same way.
Overall it was alright, I like it and don’t like it and the more that time passes I like it even less. There were moments where I was drawn into the story and had knots in my stomach with full-on dread, on the scale of one to ten for visceral horror it is a solid ten. It’s a book that could be great but comes in the worst package possible and there is just no good reason for it.
Warnings: extreme gore, violence, graphic cannibalism, child abuse
