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Oct 16, 2011

Jenny rated it:

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Book review: "Castle"
by Jenny Shank

Posted: 05/30/2009 09:34:00 AM MDT

J. Robert Lennon's new novel "Castle" begins simply: "In the late winter of 2006, I returned to my home town and bought 612 acres of land on the far western edge of the country." The narrator, Eric Loesch, has come back to Gerrysburg, the town where he grew up in upstate New York, and for many chapters that's all the read More...

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Jan 05, 2011

Debs rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 30, 2010

Karissa rated it:

I got this book through Amazon Vine as an uncorrected proof; it actually isn't released until April '09

This book was not what I expected it to be. It starts as a chilling mystery. Eric moves to a secluded town and purchases 600+ acres of land there. He works to renovate the house and eventually learns that there is a small portion of land in the middle of his property that he doesn't own. Here starts the mystery on his journey to find out exactly what is out there on that land and who More...

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Apr 16, 2010

Vivek rated it:

Alright! This writer and this book completely blew me away.I did not know what to expect on reading the synopsis, however when I started reading the book, I was in awe.

The book peels itself like an onion – with layers and more layers to it. The protagonist, Eric Loesch is a loner – the typical brooder with poor social skills. He buys an old house with nothing around it for miles – just surrounded by plain good ol’ land. He decides to remodel it. Life goes on as usual, until Mr. Lenn More...

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Jun 08, 2009

liz rated it:

Of all the books I've read that have been described as "Kafka-esque," this one definitely is, or at least starts out like it. Straightforward, journalistic, about an alienated narrator who goes back and forth between being hurt and offended by the people around him and hurting and offending them. Then it goes more regressive-squishy, with a digression at the end about torture in the military that I think definitely weakens the book overall. In sum, though, I thought the book was ver More...

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Sep 13, 2009

Erik rated it:

The story in this book was interesting, fairly entertaining, and had the potential to be explosive, but instead it merely fizzled along with just enough action to keep me reading. And although I don't mind unhappy or unclean endings, the ending to this book was unsatisfying, rushed, and lame.

The writing in the early stages of the story felt compressed and clumsy. The main character spends the first half of the book wondering why he's doing the things he's doing even though he's full More...

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Jun 06, 2009

Librarianforhim rated it:

Eric Loesch arrives in his former hometown in upstate New York, Gerrysburg, with the purpose of buying and fixing up a run-down house. There is an air of mystery about Loesch and the reader immediately gets a sense that there is more to Loesch than meets the eye. He is defensive with the locals and is obsessed with exploring the woods that aren't technically part of his property. As his time in the town proreses, Loesch is forced to confront the events of his past from his choldhood to time spen More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Jessica rated it:

I have to say, I normally hate the label "psychological thriller" because there's so rarely anything "psychological" about them. But it's the perfect genre for this book.

The structure is unusual, but effective. The protagonist, Eric Loesch, is mysterious and lonely. We follow him through a series of unexplained decisions that don't seem to make much sense. But in the second half of the book, gradually things trickle out until everything is understood.

Perh More...

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Dec 02, 2011

Nicole rated it:

Eric Loesch returns to his home town in upstate NY and buys a dilapidated farm house on 600+ acres. A review of the deed shows he doesn't own one section of the property, and a climbing expedition that reads like a military mission (no coincidence here), he finds his way--guided by a solitary, mystical white doe--to what turns out to be a castle. Loesch is a disagreeable narrator--imperious, snitty, isolationist--which, unfortunately, could make the book difficult to stick with long enough to di More...

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Apr 20, 2011

Michael rated it:

I've thought many times what I would say for a review of this book. I can't emphasize how much I loathed reading this. It was 21 chapters of pure hell to be stuck "in the head" of the first person narrative of the protagonist. I wanted to scream and many times found myself audibly scoffing at him, shaking my head. How sad for me. Here's some great reasons to avoid this garbage:

1) The guy it's about is offended by anybody and everybody. Most pages are filled with his emotion More...

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Dec 26, 2009

Steve rated it:

I was tightly gripped through most of the book, reading it in almost a single continuous stretch. At first the character's affected, awkward voice was jarring, but as as the story progressed that voice and the narrator's forced, fragile self-deceit became enthralling. Unfortunately, as so many other reviewers have already said, the novel falls apart toward the end - the final chapters explain too much, too literally and too implausibly, so that the evocative, ambiguous richness of the rest of t More...

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Jun 24, 2009

Alan rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 27, 2011

Bea rated it:

I don't know how to rate this one. I'm giving it 3 starts because I couldn't stop reading it and liked the way the narrator sounded like a near crazy social misfit with a big ego, who is about to explode any minute. It starts out with a man buying a house on some forrested acreage that turns out to have a small section in the middle that he does not have title to. The name on the small plot has been blacked out on all the county records. It seems like it is going to be a haunting mystery with More...

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Oct 11, 2009

Theresa rated it:

This took me forever to read because of the narrator, who rambles on endlessly about everything. The gist of the story here is that Eric Loesch returns to his hometown of Gerrysburg, New York after years away because of a widely publicized bad career move. He buys a house and some land out in the middle of nowhere and then discovers that he doesn't own a portion of land in the middle of the woods. Even weirder is that the owner's name is blacked out on the papers he has received.

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May 14, 2010

Mary rated it:

I don't quite know what to make of this book. At first I had hopes of a spupernatural twist, a la House of Leaves, but that was not to be. "Psychological suspense" doesn't cover it, either. The story could just about be described as "psychological" but it lacked any "suspense" elements. The language is quite formal and the protagonist, Eric Loesch, is not especially likeable, but in an oddly dispassionate way. One does not seem to be required to have any strong feel More...

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Jul 30, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

"When it comes to psychological thrillers, even one like Castle that has literary aspirations, critics invariably judge a book's ability to suspend a reader's disbelief. And why not? While not flawless -- the author's plotting and a creaky backstory sometimes get in the way of a compelling character study, and unpredictable twists threw off some reviewers -- Lennon's latest novel, a weird m�lange of John Fowles and Silence of the Lambs, is worth a look. Pay particular attention to descriptio More...

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Jan 23, 2012

Andrea rated it:

"Castle" is not a book about the TV series. Rather, it's a story of a soldier, coming home in order to put down roots, re-discover himself, try to understand the family tragedy that keeps him wary of those around him? Nothing is ever simply given to us in black and white in this novel when it comes to the protagonist's life. Slowly but surely, we're given hints, suggestions, and finally, grim and disturbing answers. The story could have been better, but I'm not quite sure how...dif More...

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Aug 12, 2009

Michael rated it:

I would give this book 4 and a half stars. It is wonderfully written and full of emotion. I feel like a book is great if I actually feel the pain, dread,joy, anticipation of the characters and this book portrays these emotions and more to the point that they are almost palpable. The first part of the book kept me completely enthralled. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the resolution at the end seems abrupt and pointless. It also had somewhat of a political overtone that i didn't se More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Kim rated it:

A man returns to his hometown for no apparent reason. He proceeds to re-experience his past in increasingly violent and confrontational attempts to unravel a mystery on his new property. As the plot unfolds so too does the man's sociopathic and unbalanced state, with slow subtle reveals.

This book starts strong, descends into rather disturbing, and ultimately has a weak ending with a sort of muddled message/theme. It does, however, contain well developed, interesting characters who exhi More...

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May 12, 2009

Jim rated it:

J. Robert Lennon's fourth novel starts out in a familiar territory, but quickly strays from the path, following signs and markers from ghost stories and fairy tales. Eric Loesch has returned to rural upstate New York to renovate a house on a large parcel of land he has purchased. Although it's not clear why Loesch has come home, it quickly becomes apparent that something is very wrong. The forest behind his house beckons, but it rebuffs Loesch's efforts to explore it with inexplicable hostility. More...

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Oct 19, 2009

Robyn rated it:

I picked this book off the new titles shelf in the library kind of at random, though the story line seemed really familiar, so maybe I read a review somewhere. The first part of the book, I kept thinking, this is either really good or really bad. Really good in the sense of creating a first person narrator who at first you think is somewhat normal, but for whom huge cracks start to open up in his story and his life. But then at the end it gets bad and somewhat implausible, like Lennon just go More...

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Aug 20, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I enjoyed the suspense of this novel. It reminded me a little bit of Poe with the unreliable narrator and a little bit of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game." I thought the narrator's reactions to details that should have bothered him at the beginning were not as strong as they should have been as revealed at the end, and that bothered me. This was a book that my son randomly pulled from the library shelf and told me I should read it because there was a deer on the cover. I'm gl More...

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Sep 14, 2009

Jillian rated it:

I was in the mood to read something different and try out a new author so I picked up Castle based on a positive review. The book started out a bit slow, but with some promise of developing into an enthralling mystery/thriller. Although the protagonist was anything but likable (a hyper-masculine, socially awkward, military type) and the setting grim (a rundown farm house in the middle of nowhere surrounding by an impenetrable forest), I was nevertheless hooked within a few chapters. The mysterio More...

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May 27, 2010

Jason rated it:

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

It's always such a crushing disappointment to see a novel start great and then peter out by the end, like is precisely the case with J. Robert Lennon's latest, Castle; because I gotta admit, the first two-thirds of this deeply unsettling book is one of the best spooky stories I've ever read, w More...

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Sep 13, 2009

Matt rated it:

First 10 pages of this book are okay .. and then the next first 150 are amazing. The book works on withheld mysteries which can often feel like a kind of trick, but the absence of any clue to the narrator's story becomes creepy, vivid, and mind bending. The book degrades significantly when these mysteries are revealed. The writing uses the narrator's stuffy self-conscience to both ironic and oddly self-revealing ends, but once things are shown the story becomes a knowable trope. The book's conne More...

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Nov 17, 2008

Robert rated it:

I really wanted to like this book a bit more than I did, but I firmly believe it is worth checking out.

Its tough to talk about it without giving something away - but here goes. The questions and mysterious elements from the first section of the book do get mostly answered. But the way they change the reader's view of the protagonist is less than satisfying. The other problem is that the details and reveals of the final part of the book seem to make the framework of the initial narra More...

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Jul 31, 2010

Kara Rae rated it:

I found the premise of this book so exciting that I couldn't NOT read it, but I was disappointed with how it unfolded and the military content at the end. The main character was fairly unlikeable. I didn't feel he had learned anything by the end of the book. I also did not care for how the author kept so much from the reader. It became obvious pretty quickly that there was a lot we weren't being let in on and that annoyed me. It seemed dishonest in a way that fiction usually does not feel to me. More...

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Jun 16, 2009

Diane rated it:

The writing in this book felt a little formal and old-fashioned to me at first. However, the author managed to convey a sense of dark foreboding that kept me interested. The sense was that things were not as they seemed, and that there was a terrible secret from the past which would be revealed. There was, but the ending was a bit of a disappointment, and left me unsatisfied. I'm still not quite sure what was real. Still, an interesting read, and I would probably try something else from this More...

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Jun 28, 2009

Suzanne rated it:

I liked this book until the end. The end made me feel ripped off. It was unbelievable to me. Both the millitary parts (my husband is in the army, and been over there, and we know what it is really like), and the main character's eventual killing of his teacher, for which there was no good explanation for after so many years. The seeming supernatural element went nowhere either. Had that element been expanded and woven in to the story instead of being a useless detail, the book could have been More...

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Jul 27, 2011

John rated it:

Sick. This tale of memory and forgetting starts out as a nightmarish homecoming set in the dark backwoods of upstate New York, and ends as a very real critique of the collective memory loss that enables war time atrocities to happen again and again. Extremely creepy, mysterious and well-written, this psychological portrait illustrates how difficult, yet essential, it is to keep a focus on the past while moving ahead to the future.

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