last year, i carved out my own short story advent calendar as my project for december, and it was so much fun i decided toWELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, i carved out my own short story advent calendar as my project for december, and it was so much fun i decided to do it again this year! so, each day during the month of december, i will be reading a short story and doing the barest minimum of a review because ain't no one got time for that and i'm already so far behind in all the things. however, i will be posting story links in case anyone wants to read the stories themselves and show off how maybe someone could have time for that.
here is a link to the first story in last year's project,
which in turn links to the whole monthlong project, in case you wanna do some free short story reading of your own! links to the stories in this year's advent-ure will be at the end of each review.
enjoy, and the happiest of decembers to you all!
DECEMBER 10
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this is short story as manga, and it's a doozy. it's meant to be a horror story, and it is, but i have the mind of child, and whether it's because i have not read any monsterporn in such a long time, when it used to be such a staple of my literary explorations, or because i saw The Shape of Water today, which is basically Amélie + monsterporn, but this story is so utterly suggestive, i was giggling too much for the horror to register. this is a horror story centered around holes, and i would be lying if i said i did NOT laugh every time the word “hole” was used. everyone in the story is searching for “their” hole, the hole into which they fit perfectly, people are finding their holes. entering their holes, failing to re-emerge from their holes, etc...
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i mean, come on, guys, try to read any of this without innuendo:
-”A rescue squad is attempting to enter the hole.”
-”Is he still down there, writhing naked in that hole?”
-”Th-this is my hole! It was made for me! I have to go in! Tell my mom goodbye!”
-"I’m going to have to enter that hole. I’m going to die there, inside that hole!"
-”I’ll fill this hole up! Just watch me!”
-”Nothing could be lonelier than that hole.”
and by the way, “tunnel” is no better.
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it's not UN-creepy, but it's hard for one such as me to focus on the horror when there's people going into holes and poking things into holes all around me. you know how it is. it's a 3.5, but i'm rounding it up to 4 for all the wrong reasons.
oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2020! what will happen?
THIS HAPPENED:
CONGRATULATIONS, WINNER! goodreads choice awaroooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2020! what will happen?
THIS HAPPENED:
CONGRATULATIONS, WINNER! goodreads choice awards best MYSTERY & THRILLER 2020!
in many ways this is the exact same book as The Hunting Party—wealthy pals with dirty little seeeecrets partying in a remote location while a storm's a-brewing on the horizon, treating the help (and their less well-off pals) shabbily, smashing glasses here and there and THEN THERE'S A MURRRRRRDERRRRRRR.
BUT WHO? AND BY WHOM? AND WHY??
in fact, let me just steal the opening paragraph from my own review of The Hunting Party, amending where necessary:
i had huge, sky-high expectations for this one.
gimmie a locked room mystery in an unusual setting, gimmie a gathering of friends who have seeeecrets and one gets murdered, gimmie fast-paced, slow-reveal nonlinear psych suspense with the shifting POVs of unreliable narrators who're all mostly low-level shitty and any one of 'em could be the killer, gimmie tana french's name as a comp, gimmie red herrings and complications and an added wrinkle of not telling me which one of 'em is the victim and give. me. that. cover:
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yop. one size fits both.
The Hunting Party was maybe the very first book i read during NYFC quarantine 2020, and it was fine. i read it in a day, it took my mind off of the horrorshow developing all around me, but it was by no means great. this time around, my expectations were lower, i had just finished my first week back at work after months of interacting with one, maybe two people a day, and i was too exhausted—mentally and physically—to concentrate on much, so i grabbed this, knowing what to expect. it was another one-sitting read, and while it felt very familiar in construction, it was also…better.
it’s a very agatha christie type of book—more sex and drugs and brad pitt references than any of hers, but built with the same energy and setup: assemble a group of people, kill one and let the coincidence banners unfurl. there’s no preternaturally quick-witted detective in the group, so the reader takes on that role themselves, gleaning facts from the multiple POV characters, setting the clues aside for later, sifting through all the bad behavior and button pushing, the secret cutting, long-nursed resentments, passive-aggressive baiting, competitive one-upmanship, characters loud and intoxicated and unsubtle. some of The Hunting Party's weaknesses return—interchangeable background characters, grievances prolonged well past reason instead of having a potentially slightly awkward conversation (SEE ALSO: anonymous notes delivered instead of having a potentially slightly awkward conversation), along with plenty of contrived scenarios, genre cliches, and Very Dramatic Behavior.
but there are also improvements—there are more sympathetic characters in this one (if that matters to you. me, i’m fine with a passel of villains, but if you need someone to root for, this time you have options), there’s a slightly more layered resolution, with an unexpected wrinkle, and i gotta say, while jules’ mother is the laziest of all stereotypes, her father…there was something there—a mostly unexplored potential, but the sense that in a different book, with a less skimmy tone, he could have had some real weight as a character.
but that ain’t this book. this is a summertime loungin’ book that doesn't need you scrutinizing its beach body for flaws. is the sheer number of parties seeeecretly wronged by the victim unrealistic, as motive after motive leaks out, deepening the suspect pool? sure it is! but that’s what makes it fun! it’s a frothy melodrama you needn’t take too seriously, because the world is too much right now and we need a break.
and honestly, when it comes to murrrrrderrrr i'm fine with unrealistically large suspect pools.
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exactly the one-day leisure read i needed. review to come.
*******************************************
unexpected day off work and i'm gonna spend it reading something i'm told is not very good but that i think will be perfect for my attention span and this obscene heat and where my head's at. bring on the escapist thrillers and tiny chocolate chip cookies, i say!
oooh, goodreads choice awards finalist for best mystery & thriller 2020! what will happen?
THIS HAPPENED:
CONGRATULATIONS, WINNER! goodreads choice awards best MYSTERY & THRILLER 2020!
in many ways this is the exact same book as The Hunting Party—wealthy pals with dirty little seeeecrets partying in a remote location while a storm's a-brewing on the horizon, treating the help (and their less well-off pals) shabbily, smashing glasses here and there and THEN THERE'S A MURRRRRRDERRRRRRR.
BUT WHO? AND BY WHOM? AND WHY??
in fact, let me just steal the opening paragraph from my own review of The Hunting Party, amending where necessary:
i had huge, sky-high expectations for this one.
gimmie a locked room mystery in an unusual setting, gimmie a gathering of friends who have seeeecrets and one gets murdered, gimmie fast-paced, slow-reveal nonlinear psych suspense with the shifting POVs of unreliable narrators who're all mostly low-level shitty and any one of 'em could be the killer, gimmie tana french's name as a comp, gimmie red herrings and complications and an added wrinkle of not telling me which one of 'em is the victim and give. me. that. cover:
[image]
yop. one size fits both.
The Hunting Party was maybe the very first book i read during NYFC quarantine 2020, and it was fine. i read it in a day, it took my mind off of the horrorshow developing all around me, but it was by no means great. this time around, my expectations were lower, i had just finished my first week back at work after months of interacting with one, maybe two people a day, and i was too exhausted—mentally and physically—to concentrate on much, so i grabbed this, knowing what to expect. it was another one-sitting read, and while it felt very familiar in construction, it was also…better.
it’s a very agatha christie type of book—more sex and drugs and brad pitt references than any of hers, but built with the same energy and setup: assemble a group of people, kill one and let the coincidence banners unfurl. there’s no preternaturally quick-witted detective in the group, so the reader takes on that role themselves, gleaning facts from the multiple POV characters, setting the clues aside for later, sifting through all the bad behavior and button pushing, the secret cutting, long-nursed resentments, passive-aggressive baiting, competitive one-upmanship, characters loud and intoxicated and unsubtle. some of The Hunting Party's weaknesses return—interchangeable background characters, grievances prolonged well past reason instead of having a potentially slightly awkward conversation (SEE ALSO: anonymous notes delivered instead of having a potentially slightly awkward conversation), along with plenty of contrived scenarios, genre cliches, and Very Dramatic Behavior.
but there are also improvements—there are more sympathetic characters in this one (if that matters to you. me, i’m fine with a passel of villains, but if you need someone to root for, this time you have options), there’s a slightly more layered resolution, with an unexpected wrinkle, and i gotta say, while jules’ mother is the laziest of all stereotypes, her father…there was something there—a mostly unexplored potential, but the sense that in a different book, with a less skimmy tone, he could have had some real weight as a character.
but that ain’t this book. this is a summertime loungin’ book that doesn't need you scrutinizing its beach body for flaws. is the sheer number of parties seeeecretly wronged by the victim unrealistic, as motive after motive leaks out, deepening the suspect pool? sure it is! but that’s what makes it fun! it’s a frothy melodrama you needn’t take too seriously, because the world is too much right now and we need a break.
and honestly, when it comes to murrrrrderrrr i'm fine with unrealistically large suspect pools.
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*******************************************
exactly the one-day leisure read i needed. review to come.
*******************************************
unexpected day off work and i'm gonna spend it reading something i'm told is not very good but that i think will be perfect for my attention span and this obscene heat and where my head's at. bring on the escapist thrillers and tiny chocolate chip cookies, i say!
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