He just... overargues and overcomplicates a simple concept that had less direct impact on ancient Mexica culture than he wants to believe, and far lesHe just... overargues and overcomplicates a simple concept that had less direct impact on ancient Mexica culture than he wants to believe, and far less spiritual impact of the specific texture that he's trying to sell us on....more
So many people complaining about the characters, the ending, the whatever. My understanding is that there is only one character in this book, and all So many people complaining about the characters, the ending, the whatever. My understanding is that there is only one character in this book, and all the people moving about their stories, wondering, talking, doing or not doing, are all just faces of that one character, the only one that matters: the war itself.
The end didn't irritate me, it walked in time to the very real marching tune of emotional exhaustion, belligerent meaninglessness, and smaller, hometown violence that has been claiming every corner of America for over a decade. War has no closure - why should Scranton give us any? If he did, the book would have been one big lie.
I wanted to knock off a star for the second half of the book, which was somehow a little less powerful than the first. Like Wilson, like Matt, I wanted something, anything, to break the tension, but it never came. But I think that may have been the point, too. I experience the thing, and then what? Do I want it to pat me on the back and tell me I did a job well done? This is not one of those books. It makes you uneasy - "who decides things?" - and it leaves you there in the dust to sort it out on your own....more
Really wanted to like it, but the plot left me wanting in spite of being convoluted, and the writing style was wordy and precious.
The good:
It was a inReally wanted to like it, but the plot left me wanting in spite of being convoluted, and the writing style was wordy and precious.
The good:
It was a interesting take on a post-Ragnarok world and the powers that survived it. The action was fun, tensions and stakes high enough to keep you wondering what in the hell is going to happen next, and the main protagonist, Jesse, was actually likable! That's a rare treat for a character who starts off as whiny and convinced of his own inability to make meaningful decisions. As a man with nothing left to lose at the beginning, it's nice seeing him come into his own.
The bad:
(view spoiler)[The characters are many in this book, and Brom can't seem to make up his mind about which one is the protagonist, so he switches POV a lot. You get used to it, but after a while it starts to seem like an excuse for him to write more random details that are meant to "ground" the story in "reality", but really just serve drag down what little magic he manages to drum up with his supernatural characters.
Speaking of magic, Krampus himself is a lot less otherworldly and majestic than I was hoping. In fact, almost everything interesting that he did was because of the Santa sack. After a while you do get the feeling that he really was a low-caste spirit that was powerless without the tools of the old gods. Santa was not much better, and though you do get the feeling that he is more of a villain than Krampus (a little in the vein of Moore's Ozymandias), his arc is not adequately resolved or explored by the end; instead, Brom uses "God" as a sort of deus ex machina to hamfist those lose threads away.
The ensemble cast of humans is enjoyable enough, though many details we're given about them seem completely unnecessary and sometimes distract from what could have been an otherwise straightforward and enjoyable plot. For instance, the chapter with the meth cookers, and the subsequent chapters involving the rescued the little girl seemed like a complete waste of time. The subject of epidemic drug use in rural America could have been breached with far less ink, and had much more of an emotional impact if Brom hadn't taken a case study and obsessively laid it bare by showing us every little piece of grime and viscera.
Chet and Vernon are dragged along for the ride for reasons that are beyond me - Vernon spends the whole book complaining, and Chet's enslavement is more for revenge than anything. His arc peters out and he quite literally just disappears by the end.
Mostly, however, I just couldn't get over how many tiny meaningless details are contained in the book in true tell-not-show fashion. We're given names of things that don't need naming - streets, brands, medications, car make and models - and it feels like it's because the author is unsure of his worldbuilding capabilities. Instead of "shabby sedan", we're told Linda specifically drives a Ford Escort, to no particular end, and it feels like Brom has a hard time trusting the imagination of his readers.
Though I suppose, in a world where we're all enslaved by our screens like "lobotomy patients", perhaps that fear is not unwarranted. (hide spoiler)]...more
Was OK. I was hoping for more memoir and history, and less... chapter after chapter listing off the mission statements of NGOs and activist organizatiWas OK. I was hoping for more memoir and history, and less... chapter after chapter listing off the mission statements of NGOs and activist organizations she approves of. (I was able to skim about a third of the book thanks to that.) It's all very institutional and reformist stuff too - not a lot of hard questions or hard answers to be found in here, which is a shame. A lot of authors have been covering a lot of anti-capitalist ground lately; I wish she would have had something a little more unique to say given how much it's being discussed....more
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