Danger Slater

DNF @ 75ish%

If this is a kink thing, I absolutely offer critical support, but, beyond the fact that a book like this exists, was written, and people enjoy it, no aspect of it really did anything for me and I was more consumed with trying to fathom what the actual tone and angle the book was actually going for.

Until the moment I decided to call it I was feeling this:

I...really don't know how I feel. This isn't Braindead gonzo ridiculousness, but it isn't Gray Matter disturbing horror either. It's kinda caught in the middle and come off like an homage to The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill/ Weeds leaving me to wonder, how much they would pay for it up the college?

But then there was a very strange, gross, grossly, strangely sexual scene that was played for laughs that just didn't land for me. I'm totally willing to say it was me, but it feels like an attempt to be as edgelordy and shocking as possible, while hanging a lantern on it, of it being just a joke. All of which combined feels incredibly forced and unnatual.

I'm a granddaughter of Nurgle. I can absolutely get down with the ridiculous glee of rot and ruin, and I can equally revel in the utterly creepifying terror of disgusting body horror. I'm not adverse to going either way and I'm more than happy to suspend belief.

The thing I most struggle with when it comes to heightened genre, especially horror, is the uncanny valley between genuinely affecting and truly horrifying horror, and the ridiculous fun, silly, and awful of the comic horrors (intended or otherwise). There are absolutely stories that bridge this gap, Hellraiser comes to mind, but this was not enough of anything and then suddenly so very much all at once 3/4 of the way through.

I'm becoming quite sure it's a me/ autistic thing that, while I can totally appreciate the tone of a story changing across the narrative or when hinted at and/ or built towards, suddenly throwing out all the tone building and establishing vibes (without the about caveats) just make me incredibly frustrated. It's like some kind of jump scare and leaves me wondering why we all wasted so much time not doing the story the author wanted to actually tell.

Building on this, I can't help but feel this novella would have made a much better short story. So much of the set up is rote horror set up stuff that anyone reading a book like this is very familar with and is filled with incredibly unnatural and stilted dialogue that does nothing to disguise the hand of the author. A lot of this frankly feels like filler. If you're going to do the normal times and low horror build up, you need to be able to handle that and feh dialogue well enough. It's an issue in films as often as it is in books.

I absolutely don't want yuck anybody's yum (or rather yuck in this case). I just think everyone would have had more fun if we just got into everything a bit sooner and with more of a throughline.

It also, especially through the neighbour, feels an oddly mean spirited story, with the author/ narrator seeming to feel a real animosity to the seemingly fine couple, denigrating them unnecessary. (I didn't finish so maybe something is revealed).

Just not for me, but happy stuff like this is out there making other people happy.… (plus d'informations)

If there be such creatures in the world of bizarro fiction, Danger Slater's protagonists often caution readers to not seek meaning in what they've just ingested. Jimmy Watson Jr, son of the Impossible James of this title and narrator of this novel, tells you the same thing. If there is meaning, he says, it's been lost already. You can reread the book if you want, but the words and sentences do not change.

He has a point.

However, there is no denying that Danger Slater's Impossible James is a distinctly human tale at its core. It's a story about birth and rebirth, about the life of the father as it reflects against and ultimately overpowers and outshines the son.

Or it could just be one hell of an entertaining tale.

Danger Slater has proven once again that he has a unique ability to take a single individual's life and make it consequential not only to the entire world but also to the galaxy and beyond. As much as we'd like to be able to confine ourselves to our impossible rooms, all the while believing we're safe from what rolls behind the walls, that creeping gray tide eventually rolls right over us.

If you're not already familiar with Danger Slater's work, Impossible James would make a fine introduction. Wonderfully bizarre, funny, and absolutely entertaining.… (plus d'informations)