Hi,
I thought Heart Shaped Box was poorly written and the ending
was so padded I could barely finish it (I had to review it
for a newspaper. Otherwise, I'd have dropped it way earlier).
Judas Coyne was in my view a poor sketch of a character and
the whole premise was ludicrous even though I am also a fan
of supernatural horror. I hear Hill's collection of short
stories is good but after my disappointing experience I am
more wary than ever about over-hyped works.
Speaking of short story collections, what good anthologies
did you read this year? I think Richard Lange's Dead Boys was
simply spectacular. I am not including James Reasoner's Old
Times' Sake nor the Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps because I
haven't finished either yet.
-Gonzalo B. saddlebums.blogspot.com
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Brian Thornton"
<tieresias@...> wrote:
>
> I agree with Gonzalo, but was unsurprised by the
hype in light of
the fact that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. His name change
in order to "not trade on his father's name" was the most
poorly kept secret in publishing since the identity of the
"anonymous" reporter who wrote PRIMARY COLORS.
>
> Brian
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ron Clinton
> To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 11:39
PM
> Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: The best novel you read this
year
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:rara-avis-
l@yahoogroups.com] On
> > Behalf Of Gonzalo Baeza
> The worst: Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein, Joe
Hill's Heart-
Shaped
> > Box (never understood the hype),
>
> Boy, I couldn't disagree more with that one. While
I've already
put forward
> the best mystery/noir/etc. novels I read last year,
I thought
Hill's novel
> was the best horror novel I read last year, hands
down. Very
chilling
> stuff...and I don't get chilled very easily
anymore.
>
> Ron C.
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 30 Dec 2007 EST