Dante wrote:
tiefly wrote:
Dante wrote:
A Dark Matter by Peter Straub.
Did Straub write "Ghost Story"?
Yes. Ghost Story is an excellent, excellent book. I'm about to re-read it soon. A Dark Matter is not up to the same level, but it's been interesting, so far. Definitely not a horror thriller in the sense of a Stephen King novel, so it would likely disappoint many. Nevertheless, my favorite thing about Straub is his ability to create both unique characters and atmospheres, and not so much the "what happens," so I've enjoyed it. Am about 70% of the way through it.
Finished A Dark Matter off tonight. It's really hard for me to decide how to explain my view on it, as it currently stands anyway.
First, if you are a fan of horror, and your idea of horror is predicated on gore or thrilling occurrences, I'm pretty sure you'd be upset if you paid a dollar for this book -- I don't mean that to disparage that way of looking at horror; I know that's what it is for many horror readers/watchers, though, so need to get it out of the way up front. That said, I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 for, I think, accomplishing what it intended to do. Perhaps it was marketed somewhat poorly, or perhaps some of the incredibly bad reviews I've read came from people who just expect Straub to automatically be horror and/or akin to King. Either way, the reviews seem to come in the variety of 4 - 5 stars, or "1 star and I wish I could give it 0".
I don't consider it substantially different in scope from Ghost Story, but far less actually happens in the book. It's more a voyage of a few character's mental voyage through ostensibly the same events. It really seems to steer more into a literary experiment in perspective and abstraction than it functions as a proper novel.
All in all, I'd recommend it as a fictional read, but if you're looking for something superficially scary, or if absent of that you expect the philosophical payoff to be groundbreaking, I'd avoid it.