Setting up a mystery is easy, you just present an amount of threads, leaving it to the reader to guess the pattern before, in the end, all the threads are woven neatly together. But this weaving is, of course, the hard part, because the reader has followed all the threads with you and guessed at so many more patterns than the actual book can hold. Mr. penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore was a book with plenty of interesting threads; an old bookstore, mysterious google-stuff, new tech, […]
Humans Are Monsters
Public figures like Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein and our (not my) president make the news for being men who use their positions of power and privilege to abuse women; to demean them, to call them sluts and whores, to make them feel weak. The sad state of things though is this isn’t a privilege reserved for men of wealth and power. All men can wield this power, if they choose to (in some circumstances). I think most women can think of a time where […]
In which your hero is disappointed about his experiences with the Novel Book by Boz
This post is mostly punctuated by my disappointment with this novel. I should start by telling you two things about Young Vel Veeter. Oliver! is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was one of those movies that my family loved and we watched when I was young and impressionable. It was a big hit when it was out, but it felt like one of those things that were HUGE when I saw it based on how much I loved it and watching […]
a·sy·lum (noun): shelter or protection from danger.
This book is probably not what you’re expecting. It’s mostly photos, and it’s about closed “insane asylums.” Are there spooky photos of sweeping, ruined staircases? Yep. Rooms piled high with abandoned, old-fashioned medical equipment? You bet. Peeling paint? Pages of it. Overgrown grounds? Yes. That is what we’ve come to expect (or at least what I have come to expect) from books about defunct mental institutions, and this one technically delivers that. The difference is the entire tone. In the 10 or 15 dense pages […]