Lee Hunts

I just finished reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman. This is a . . . Young Adult Dystopian novel that I threw on my shelf after someone mentioned in a review that the concept of "unwinding" was incredibly disturbing. I knew that because this was a YA novel, that my enjoyment would be curbed, but I also knew that there was potential for creativity when it came to terror, given that they can't really rely on the typical avenues of horror, like excessive gore, SA, and other adult trauma. This can be really hit or miss. For this novel, the basic backstory is that the pro-life and pro-choice factions in America boiled over into a second Civil War. This culminated in a bloody stalemate, where both sides agreed to a compromise called "unwinding." Abortion is made illegal, but from the ages thirteen to seventeen, parents can choose to have their child "unwound." This means that they are disassembled and all of their pieces are used as organ donations. As long as...

I just finished reading Ten Little Ni—Ten Little India—And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. This will be a quickie. I normally prefer the deep, immersive novels—especially the character studies. What I want is something to make me think, as well. Novels like these are not usually up my alley, not because they don't make you think, but because they make you think in different ways. Christie is actually a master of making you ask questions and rethink things. Even if you think you've spoiled yourself, you might end up convincing yourself otherwise later in the story. While books like these are thin in the character department, and I especially felt that way in the beginning, they are a masterclass in taking advantage of what you could call underdetermined theories. There are multiple theories that fit the available evidence, and notably, these theories are incommensurate: they cannot all be true at the same time. You need to keep reading to find more evidence to learn whi...

I just finished reading Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Finally, finally, after countless years, I have come around to reading this book. This is the first time, and I have never seen the movie, even. I was spoiled on the major twist of the story, so I kept putting both of them off. Now, that said, I think the twist would have been quite obvious on a meta-level if only because I've read Flynn's two other novels—admittedly, she is a bit of a one trick pony. The good thing is that my assumptions about the context of the major twist were actually wrong, so there were a lot of unexpected things in this novel. It was a wild ride, to be sure. This book apparently kickstarted the domestic thriller craze that is now commonplace today. At the very least, it came at the very beginning of the trend. It begins with Nick Dunne, a very normal husband, waking on his fifth anniversary to speak with his wife, Amy. Later in the day, he returns home to learn that his wife is nowhere to be found. He ...

I just finished reading The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum. This is a widely known novel, infamous for its content, and for a variety of reasons. It often makes lists of "Most Disturbing Books That I Have Ever Read." It is also loosely based on the death of Sylvia Likens, an actual woman who suffered at the hands of an adoptive mother and a number of her adoptive siblings and even the surrounding neighbors. The book has aroused a rather interesting array of responses, so I want to talk about that as much as I want to talk about the book itself. The Response From the outset, many people who are critical of this book dismiss it as torture porn. It depicts a wide range of horrific acts of violence inflicted on the innocent victim in the story while she is tied up and defenseless. I disagree with this characterization, or I at least disagree that it is only torture porn; I will get into the details down below. All the same, the book takes you to places physically, even sexually,...

I just finished reading Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. For reference, I read the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, which is apparently the most accurate translation. It replicates the rough syntactic structure of the original Russian text that other translations often try to smooth over for the sake of readability, and they also apparently selected vocabulary and turns of phrases that existed in English predating the original release of the book in Russian in 1866. The result is a fairly dense and very raw read, but one that is also very engaging, if you are willing to give it a chance. You have to push through paragraphs that last four pages, perhaps even longer, and infamously long rants from characters—but I actually got used to it rather quickly, and by the end, it was like reading anything else. This novel, rather famously, involves a man (Raskolnikov) who believes he is justified in killing a corrupt pawnbroker with an axe, on the judgement that she is an active dr...

I just finished reading The Devil All the Time, by Donald Ray Pollock. This is my second book by this author, having read Knockemstiff, which is a short story collection. All of his books fall firmly within the southern gothic tradition, with a gritty, stripped back prose used to tell the various stories of what are essentially villainous characters. These people have no self control, no compunction, and they all represent the worst of humanity. Just like the short story collection, this novel puts it all on display: we see everything from pedophilia to serial killers to necrophilia to animal sacrifice and worse. Pollock sits you down in the filth and makes you nestle in it. If that's your thing, then this might be worth checking out. Experience I thought for a moment about what I wanted to write in this review because I did not think I had all that much to say in a traditional sense. The characters are not the most interesting or deep. They are described easily in the beginning, a...