Disclaimer: This was a DNF at about halfway through.
As far as I got, I found no reason to care about the characters seeing as how they are ONLY intereDisclaimer: This was a DNF at about halfway through.
As far as I got, I found no reason to care about the characters seeing as how they are ONLY interesting in the specific environment their personal story gives them, outside of them, they're pretty lifeless and non-characters.
As far as I got, when the book (I think) wants to be serious, it comes off as weird, kinda blandly edgy, (I'm talking about the plot not the character stories here) and a little comedic. I mean come on, two weeks into being at the theater and they start cutting off fingers to make it appear like they've been tortured so that the outside world can market what happened to them as more interesting? Really? I don't think this was intended to be comedic but maybe I'm wrong.
As far as I got, a couple of the stories seem to be edgy and dark and queasy for the sake of it. (I want to put it out there that this is NOT why I stopped reading.) What do we really gain from learning the backstory of Director Denial in Exodus? Her department was full of pedos? She gets attached to inanimate objects easily? She can do something extreme and dangerous? None of these have come into play in the ongoing plot, and if they do at the end, it's a little late by then. I want to quickly compare and contrast Guts (or Saint Gut-Free's story) and Dissociative Skills by Jeremy Robert Johnson (If you want to read it it's in Angel Dust Apocalypse). So I guess spoiler warning for the next couple paragraphs.
I feel like witnessing one of the main cast as a thirteen year old kid *literally* getting his intestines sucked out of his ass at the bottom of a swimming pool and accidentally impregnating his sister should have more worth to the plot than pretend characterization. There is no point in learning the early life of Saint Gut-Free because it adds nothing to the story except he can't eat meat, he's skinny, he eats a lot, and he likes to jack off. Go figure. Does it make you feel a little sick? Yes, it does. Does it contribute to this book being on the most disturbing books ever list? Yes, it does. Does it make the Saint more sympathetic, likeable, UNlikable, interesting, or even more of a character at all? In my opinion, no. Does it make you feel like puking until the day you die of dehydration? Yes.
I feel like witnessing a sixteen year old kid take ketamine, cut his stomach open, and pull his intestines out makes for great characterization in the context of the story. My problem with Guts was it was only there for very light insight into who the Saint is in the story, but Dissociative Skills does the same thing right? No. The point of Dissociative Skills IS the characterization of the main character. What the story is about is how this main character with no control and a marriage between his parents falling apart, feels like he has to take control of his life and him doing so by doing things he knows he shouldn't. At the end of the story, his parents find him, freak out, (obviously), and start to connect again over their fear for their child. The ending is heartbreaking because you feel for the parents who have to deal with their child taking drugs and hurting himself. You know they'll be in fear for God knows how long that he'll do it again. And on top of that, the main character gets only positive consequences. In his mind, he successfully took just a little more control over his life AND helped heal his parents' marriage. Does this story make you a little sick? Yes, it does. Does it flesh out a small little world where you get a real feel into the mind of a teenager who does crazy shit to himself for just an ounce of satisfaction, thinking that he is now in control of his life? Yes, it does. Did it make me want to stare at a wall with a disgustedly shocked look on my face until the day I die of old age? Yes, it did.
But, after all this, did I, as far as I got, like the base for a couple of the stories in Haunted? Yeah. I kinda did, actually. Did I have somewhat of a good time? Yeah? No? Maybe. Uh... Sure. But I think I would have preferred this as a short story collection instead of as a novel that tries to connect all these short stories together through a plot....more
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