Lee Hunts

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 the Stone of Farewell, which is the middle book syndrome of the four book trilogy, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, by Tad Williams. This book picks up right where The Dragonbone Chair left off, and like the previous entry, it methodically moves forward, following the various characters as they trek to their new destination. We have Simon in the north, with the trouble that Binabik is facing. We have Josua and his ragtag people now fleeing in the wake of the events of the last book. We have Miriamele, who is, in turn, chased by Isgrimnur, traveling south on a fruitless mission. And we have Maegwin, who is a headstrong woman now leading a defeated people after the first book. There are other characters, as well, who are more sidelined, but these are the core of the novel. All in all, I think this book was quite rough. It was a serious step down from book one. This does not mean there aren't good aspects to the book, but from a storytelling perspective, the way the story co...

I just finished reading The Long Walk by the obscure writer Richard Bachman. This is my first novel by the writer. It is also apparently his first novel, though it is not his first published one. He wrote it when he was a freshman in college, and I found the project to be especially impressive given this background. The basic premise of this book is very simple: there is a totalitarian society that has replaced the American government, and it now hosts what is called "The Long Walk," which is a yearly event where one hundred young men compete to win a prize. However, the execution is far more straightforward, but also more brutal, than other dystopian fiction like the Hunger Games. In this game, they have to keep up a pace of 4 miles per hour. If they fall below this pace, they receive a warning; after three warnings, they are then shot and killed. The last one walking is then declared the winner. It is from this decidedly simple premise that a terrifying and brutal story fol...

I just finished reading House of Leaves, by Zampanò and Johnny Truant. This is a literary horror novel, and a postmodern novel that I bought probably over a decade ago, after watching a video about it. But I was quickly intimidated by it, and it remained on my shelf for that length of time. But finally, finally after deciding to put my foot down this year and read all the heavy books that need to be read, I finished this beast of a book after a month or two of reading. I didn't count the time, but it was a chore and I know that this is a good ballpark estimate. Borrowing the basic concept from a comment by Vince Gilligan, I did not enjoy reading this book, but I enjoy having read it. Let's explore what that means. No Spoilers Summary The inside cover description of the book starts with the following: "Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Inte...

Just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, something that has the potential to progress to grand mal seizures, meaning I could lose consciousness and convulse on the ground. That is a story of its own, I suppose. But this is a different story. After being diagnosed, I was put on medication, and I had to be switched to a new one after the doctors decided that the previous medication was not sufficient to address the problem. A few days ago, I experienced a mild seizure, or what you could call an aura, and the doctor increased the dosage of this new one. A couple days later, seemingly unrelated, I had to print, sign, and scan a document—and then send it to my doctor. I fulfilled this obligation. Or so I thought. That leads to yesterday. Yesterday was a completely normal day. I had the morning shift at work. I was not able to work on one of my projects that day, but I planned on working on the other that night, and there were several books that I was reading as well. Basically, ...

I just finished reading the whole Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. I decided to read the whole trilogy before writing this, in part because I am participating in a read along on Jason Fuhrman's channel. Regardless of my reasons, I think reading the trilogy in this way helps shape my perspective for the whole story and especially each entry in the series. I will cover each entry on its own and also talk about how my thinking has changed as I continued on into the later entries. Annihilation (No Spoilers) Premise The first entry is an incredibly interesting story in its own right, given the format that it takes. It is presented as a journal written by a woman who has been selected for an expedition into a place called Area X. This location is a mysterious place that has appeared from seemingly nowhere, and now an institution known as the Southern Reach is tasked with trying to understand it. The woman, known as the biologist, is now part of the twelfth expedition, entirely ...