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“This Book Hates You” – A Review

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“This Book Hates You” is a collection of short stories by David L. Tamarin intended to shock and disgust the reader. Unfortunately, even with the graphic but monotonously repetitive depictions of rape, torture, and murder, the majority of stories fall flat. The characters are interchangeable one dimensional paper people, the story lines are tedious, and the entire collection disregards one of the cardinal rules of writing: show, don’t tell.

The preface is a several page long manifesto declaring the subsequent works as “True Art” and “subversive”. The POV changes randomly, and it’s written in a scramble of past and present tense. This could be construed as establishing an unreliable narrator, but the whole thing reeks of self admiration.

The stories themselves are nearly indistinguishable from one another. There is no change in tone, style, or even characters, who are entirely without interests or any motivation whatsoever excluding rape, drugs, and murder.

In his attempt to shock and offend (an attempt that comes at the price of the book), Tamarin completely disregards all other aspects of storytelling, creating a final product that leaves the reader so disengaged and bored that the recitation of sadism and sodomy leave no impression at all.

There are a few comedic and well placed one-liners amid the sometimes detailed but always detached descriptions of atrocities, and I did find myself nearly laughing out loud a few times. The last line in “A Fistful of Tumors” was a particularly surprising show of wit. Unfortunately, I also found myself rolling my eyes at the adolescent attempts of the author to write “edgy” material. The vague but unrelenting criticism of Christianity, particularly in the first few stories, is so cliche it becomes grating. When the author declares “satanic death metal bands” like Slayer are what Satan himself prefers, I had to double check the year, because that reference was woefully outdated and pitiable. Wasn’t the whole “rock n’ roll is the Devil’s music” thing put to bed in the ’80s? And if it’s going to be used, wouldn’t Cannibal Corpse be a much more relevant reference?

This collection is filled with descriptions of supposed horror in such a passive voice, it amounts to pages filled with “and then this happened.” All in all, ‘This Book Hates You’ is difficult to get through because if Hell is repetition, then Hell can be found in this book. When, or rather, if, a reader finishes this book, it’s not likely to leave any lasting impression at all, and certainly none of the side effects the book flatters itself by listing in the preface (including but not limited to nausea, vomiting, anal rash, impotence, jaundice, immortality, and death).

That being said, I would love to know what other horror fans think. Get it on Amazon and let me know if I hit the nail on the head, or if I’m just an asshole.

 

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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