Format: eBook

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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:

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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

five-stars
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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

two-half-stars
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The Great Gatsby: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

My Review:

The Great Gatsby is one of the classics that I somehow missed in high school, and though it is well-loved it was one that I never felt compelled to read. Maybe I just wasn’t that interested in the roaring twenties, but there was nothing about the various descriptions that I had read that pulled me in. I even skipped the film adaptations, I just can’t explain why I had no interest in this story.

Despite that, when I was offered the opportunity to read a graphic novel adaptation, and my husband expressed to me how much he enjoyed the novel, I decided to give it a try. Heavens how wrong I was to skip over this story for so long! I ended up flying through the graphic novel, I ate up the story and immediately ordered a copy of the novel as soon as I finished.

Since this is an adaptation of a piece of classical literature, I will not comment on the story itself since I have yet to read the novel. However, I do want to cover how well this graphic novel does at adapting the story.

The art is excellent, it reminds me of older drawing styles that are fitting for the time period. The pages are beautifully watercolored and are bursting with fun details and color, Gatsby’s parties look whimsical and wild. Where the adaptation suffers is in the format itself, where much of the story is shown to us in pictures instead of told through narrative. There is some dialogue to carry the story, and random blocks of narration, while artfully placed in the background, make the story feel like there are some holes. It makes the reading experience feel a bit like an abbreviated version of the story, showing the major events like a storyboard without any of the detail in between.

Despite this, I feel that a graphic novel adaptation is great because it introduces a wide audience to classic literature in a way that is easy to digest. It helped an uninterested reader like me to take an interest in reading the original work and that I feel is the major goal of any adaptation. In all, I’m thankful to this graphic novel for expanding my horizons, and it is one that I would gladly recommend.

“She was appalled by West Egg⁠—appalled by the two obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a shortcut from nothing to nothing.”

Trigger Warning: Mild Violence, Infidelity

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News of Transformations

Also by this author: There’s Nothing Wrong With Me, Prologue-Gymnopedies-

My Thoughts

Henshin no News is a collection of one-shot stories that explore human relationships and loneliness. It is an extremely experimental slice of life manga that comes to life due to Miyazaki’s unusual art style and expert storytelling in a relatively small package.

“It’s only when it’s time for goodbyes that I finally come to like everyone.”

Like most manga in the slice of life genre, many of the situations that the characters deal with are relatively mundane, but what sets this manga apart is that there is this element of the fantastical that removes the stories and the characters from reality. At times bordering on being absurd, Miyazaki weaves magical realism into her narrative smoothly and doesn’t compromise the central theme of relationships.

Each story has a character facing some form of a crisis and meditates on humanity’s propensity for loneliness and isolation. What is truly magnificent about this manga however is the way that humor is used to cut the tension, giving the collection a pure and dreamy feel. The last story in particular was fantastic for referencing manga legend Osamu Tezuka and it had me smiling from ear to ear.

While a little offbeat, Henshin no News is a hidden gem and I’ve never read anything quite like it. It subverted my expectations with every story and managed to make me feel extremely sad for each character while also making me laugh. It is a breath of fresh air and managed to be both serious and lighthearted at the same time.

four-stars
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The Dead House

My Thoughts

The Dead House is a chilling ghost story about a young woman’s descent into madness as she’s swallowed up by the wild Irish countryside. The prose in this novel is absolutely beautiful and paints a stunning picture of a countryside that feels stuck in time, still deeply connected to Celtic tradition. The land is haunted by the tragedy of the Great Famine, where over a million people died of disease and starvation.

When I had read that there was a ouija board in the synopsis I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes. I quickly found that I was mistaken in my pre-judgment of the novel. This book had some genuinely tense moments that made me feel uncomfortable. The writing style is suffocatingly atmospheric, like the land itself is evil, not just the house.

“Something about this landscape, beautiful as it was, inspiring as it must have been with its rare light and aura of ancient magic, troubled me at an almost primal level.”

My only major gripe about the novel was that Mike’s character felt inconsistent. The first half of the book makes such a big deal about how important Maggie is to him and how much he cares. Yet when it’s clear that she’s not well he’d sooner deny and run. Maybe this was intentional, but it just felt like it went against everything his character was built up to be.

Overall though this is a pretty decent read for horror lovers, especially those interested in a little bit of Irish mythology. I picked this book up on a whim and I’m glad that I did, I was enthralled by the story and flew through the pages wanting more.

Warnings: violence