Continuing my journey to make a dent in my to-be-read pile, I conquered John Hornor Jacobs' novella, The Sea Dreams it is the Sky. Man oh man, what a ride it was. The back cover blurb for the story reads as follows:
A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.
Here was my take:
What a wonderful read! This novella is a slow burn in the best way possible. By the time I reached the end I found I was devouring each sentence like a rabid dog placed in front of a gourmet feast. Jacobs gives you enough to make your skin crawl but hints that there's so much more in the miasma that if you knew what was there, your skin wouldn't just crawl, it would tear itself off and run as fast as it could. If you like slow horror that takes its time, then read this novella.
This story was well crafted. It was slow in the sense that Jacobs took his time ramping up the strange, weird, and supernatural in the book. However, I'm not saying this as a negative at all. It was somewhat refreshing and when the strange and weird do begin to occur, it has more impact because of his choices. Makes me double-think how I write my own tales as generally most of my stories start off with a bang and take off.
I won't spoil this one at all, I simply recommend if you like horror in the same vein as Lovecraft, or the movie, The Ninth Gate, then check this one out.
A brilliant mix of the psychological and supernatural, blending the acute insight of Roberto Bolaño and the eerie imagination of H. P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.
Here was my take:
What a wonderful read! This novella is a slow burn in the best way possible. By the time I reached the end I found I was devouring each sentence like a rabid dog placed in front of a gourmet feast. Jacobs gives you enough to make your skin crawl but hints that there's so much more in the miasma that if you knew what was there, your skin wouldn't just crawl, it would tear itself off and run as fast as it could. If you like slow horror that takes its time, then read this novella.
This story was well crafted. It was slow in the sense that Jacobs took his time ramping up the strange, weird, and supernatural in the book. However, I'm not saying this as a negative at all. It was somewhat refreshing and when the strange and weird do begin to occur, it has more impact because of his choices. Makes me double-think how I write my own tales as generally most of my stories start off with a bang and take off.
I won't spoil this one at all, I simply recommend if you like horror in the same vein as Lovecraft, or the movie, The Ninth Gate, then check this one out.
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