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Pretty dark and weird. I’m not sure I understood all of it, especially the ending, but I enjoyed it. And while I don’t love the title itself, it’s actually a really good dscriptor of what you get. It’s a perfect descriptor, to be honest, despite its generic-ness at first glance.. I’d say it’s firmly within the gothic genre and tradition. There are a lot of layers to it, like mental health, paternal fealty, gender roles, cultural identity, perception of reality, isolation, and the ways we face our own death.

There’s a lot to like in it, though my only complaint is that at some points, one character seems a bit too at ease with some of the circumstances(hard to generalize and not be spoilery.) It’s a minor issue, and didn’t detract from my enjoyment, though.

It’s not scary, but there is some horrific imagery and some of it …

I enjoyed this a lot. It’s hard to give too much detail, because a lot of the book is unraveling a mystery, but it’s got a bit of Irish folklore, a bit of family drama, some body horror, and even a little smattering of romance(though, it’s definitely not a supernatural romance book). Fun read.

Not at all my usual tastes. No spaceships, dismemberment, or monsters. I believe this is what you’d call a slice of life. And, it’s very good. I haven’t read any of her other works, but if it’s as solid as this one, I just might. It’s a setting that I don’t know anything about, so I have no idea how accurate it is, but the writing was very confident.

Peony and Ezra are the best, though Naomi is a good character as well, she’s just hard to like. Kueilan is pretty great, too, even with the ‘brain of a kitten.’ The only boring character is David, but he’s inoffensive, just kinda dull. On the other hand, one can definitely empathize with his crisis of faith, and his ultimate conclusion makes sense.

Anyway, good book.

I read this for free here: archive.org/details/MerchantsOfDeception/page/n1/mode/2up

Sheesh. A horror story, indeed. The author says he’s not a writer, and it’s pretty clear, but the strength or weakness of the prose isn’t the point. It’s his experience. And it is vile. I mean, we all know that MLMs, Direct Selling, Network Marketing – all double speak for Pyramid Schemes – are shit and exploitative. But we may not all know how identical to cults they function. And this poor bastard suffered a lot to tell us.

I briefly worked in the corporate offices of a short-lived MLM, and so a lot of it rang true, particularly the emphasis on wealth instead of the product, the pushing of training materials, the high pressure BUY NOW tactics, and the preying upon the vulnerable. Just wretched stuff.

Besides the actual events he experienced, some things did stand out to me. …

 Non-fiction books are hard to review, apart from ones that are just stupid self-aggrandizing fluff. Especially one dealing with a real life disaster. I wasn’t there, and I don’t know much about it, so there’s no way I can judge its veracity. However, I did think this was a well told horror story, and I’d recommend it. I like how honest Krakauer was with his own failings and his actions. There is also a lengthy rebuttal to accusations by another author that I found enlightening. 

All in all, it’s a good book. 

This was really neat. I haven’t looked at SCP in aaaaages- probably nearly a decade at this point- so it was all pretty fresh to me. It only felt serial in a few places, mostly just the episodic structure. The first half, and especially the opening scene, is the strongest, though there is a really neat sequence involving a giant monolith later on. Unlike a lot of other cosmic horror that I’ve read, this one has a rather uplifting and hopeful ending, and I appreciate that. As for the horror, I found it particularly effective, since it taps into an irrational fear that I have: <spoiler>memory loss.</spoiler>

I recommend it.

(don’t tell anyone, but I liked it more than the Southern Reach sequels)

 Yeah, sure, it’s good. If you like historical narratives, you’ll dig it. 

HOWEVER 

It never really fulfilled the promise of the premise, for me. What I mean is that the stories never intertwined. Neither was necessary for the other. It ended up just being two narrative threads that ran parallel to each other, each with it’s own set of characters and events- never really uniting, nothing shared save the time frame. 

And, unfortunately, one story is far more compelling than the other, but, really, how thrilling can you make architecture? Maybe if I was more into that field, I’d dig it a lot more, who knows. Actually, I would have liked to read a lot more about the exhibits and the technology on display. 

As for the Holmes stuff, so much of it is conjecture and supposition, which is necessary, because the …

A little bit more layered than a standard haunted house story, and I appreciated that. I think it will resonate(perhaps uncomfortably) with a number of readers, particularly ladies. The final act might be frustrating for readers who are invested in a particular interpretation of the events of the book, but I was okay with it. Recommended. 

 It’s getting weird. Pretty distinct from the game, with far less monster blasting and far more bizarre Mormon apologism, typos, and strange leering descriptions of a 14 year old girl. Very choppy and disjointed once Fly and Arlene reach Earth. Feels very first draft-ish. <spoiler></spoiler>