Tag: poppy-brite • BookLikes

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review 2019-06-15 20:06

I read the Futura 1990 edition.

The Face That Must Die - Ramsey Campbell,Poppy Z. Brite,J.K. Potter

The story is told mostly through the perspective of an odious and most likely paranoid schizophrenic called Horridge. This entirely unpleasant man is hate-filled, self-aggrandising, homophobic and racist. He even has a limp and at times feels almost a Dickensian caricature. But the book doesn't let the reader off that easily. We are trapped in the mire of Horridge's psyche and even when we escape for brief respites we see echoes of similar paranoia in the fear or drug-heightened senses of others.

After reading Campbell's moving introduction it is unsurprising that the author has such a drive to explore various expressions of paranoia, looking in turn at how it can cripple or aid us. A powerful read, but not a pleasant one.

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review 2019-02-02 17:34

An exploration of death

Carmilla Reads

This book is hardcore in terms of violence and lust. The only comparable books I have read, ones as graphic and disturbing with vivid descriptions of dismemberment, disembowelment and bodily waste would be

Frisk, by Dennis Cooper and In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami.

Exquisite Corpse is told in first and third person. The first person narrator is Andrew Compton, a British serial killer who escapes prison by faking death. How he manages this is somewhat vague, magical and shamanistic, but we expect some suspension of disbelief in fiction, and this isn't too much of a stretch.

In this way the narrative and plot reflect each other as Exquisite Corpse is an exploration of death both of the narrator's own self and of others. Not only the violent murders that follow prolonged torture, lovingly described, but also more subtle and normal deaths. Death by disease - the AIDS epidemic has badly hit the French Quarter of New Orleans, and the deaths of relationships - familial and lovers, represented by Tran, the exquisite corpse of the title.

A lot happens in the story. Yes, it is shocking and grotesque, but it is also poignant and sad. Exquisite Corpse is by far the best book by Poppy Z Brite that I have read so far.

Horror serial killer LGBTQIA

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review 2018-09-02 02:19

The Amulet

BrokenTune

Jo stared at Sarah uncomprehendingly. She was not sure whether to believe her or not. It sounded like a story that Sarah was making up as she went along. “Then how come—” Sarah smiled then.

Oh, I think what we have here is a first - a pulp slasher story that I actually enjoyed!

This is not one of McDowell's best: there were large parts that I found repetitive but I know that they were necessary to show the extent to which the amulet's evil has spread throughout the small town of Pine Cone. Or has it? Has the evil always been there? Was the amulet really the source of the evil or was the source closer to home?

Parts of this story very really boring, which is why I'm docking it a couple of stars in my rating, but I love what McDowell was trying to do with the story: we have a 70s horror novel that starts with a young man being trained for combat in Vietnam being horribly injured during a training exercise near his home town in Alabama, whose main industry is a rifle factory, producing the very same rifle that caused the injury. What follows is a series of killings that seem to start with the man who denied the young man a safe job and exemption from military service, and then the killing just doesn't stop.

There are lots of questions in this but the main ones: are any of the inhabitants of really Pine Cone innocent? And where does evil grow from?

I liked this, but it just doesn't measure up to the other books I have read by the author.

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text 2018-09-02 01:29

Reading progress update: I've read 84%.

BrokenTune

Ok, I'm no longer interested in what happens to the townspeople, but I am on tenterhooks to find out how this ends for Sarah and her friend Becca, who are trying to track down the amulet and stop the killings.

Also, I hope Sarah's MIL will get her comeuppance.

Body Count: 16

Maimed: 1

Body count of deaths before the story sets in: 2+

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text 2018-09-01 21:58

Reading progress update: I've read 47%.

BrokenTune

The plot is becoming a little repetitive now. Still good, but not as gripping as at the start.

By the way, McDowell also plays with the reader in this one - one of the main characters keeps changing the story about how her husband died. It is quite funny.

Body Count: 11

Maimed: 1

With respect to Bingo categories, this would qualify for:

Southern Gothic, Slasher, Terror in a Small Town, Relics & Curiosities, Murder Most Foul, Amateur Sleuth, Genre: Horror, Classic Horror.

halloween bingo 2018