#James Han Mattson

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Reprieve: A Novel

By James Han Mattson.

Design by Ploy Siripant.

[wordsthatmattered]

10.13.2022

Pretty book cover. A social horror story based inside a full-contact haunted house. A necessary critique of "fear as entertainment" during this horror season.

[bones-clouds]

books i read in 2024:

"reprieve"

james han mattson

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️, 5

genre: horror/thriller, mystery, death game

synopsis:

A chilling and blisteringly relevant literary novel of social horror centered around a brutal killing that takes place in a full-contact haunted escape room—a provocative exploration of capitalism, hate politics, racial fetishism, and our obsession with fear as entertainment.

On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,” they’ll win a substantial cash prize—a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.

Those who were present on that fateful night lend their points of view: Kendra Brown, a teenager who’s been uprooted from her childhood home after the sudden loss of her father; Leonard Grandton, a desperate and impressionable hotel manager caught in a series of toxic entanglements; and Jaidee Charoensuk, a gay international student who came to the United States in a besotted search for his former English teacher. As each character’s journey unfurls and overlaps, deceit and misunderstandings fueled by obsession and prejudice are revealed, forcing all to reckon with the ways in which their beliefs and actions contributed to a horrifying catastrophe.

An astonishingly soulful exploration of complicity and masquerade, Reprieve combines the psychological tension of classic horror with searing social criticism to present an unsettling portrait of this tangled American life.

[morgan--reads]

Reprieve - James Han Mattson

Summary: In 1997, an escape room challenge at a full-contact haunted house ends in the death of one of its participants. Reprieve follows the lives of those involved in the years leading up to the tragedy to show how it unfolded. 

Quote: “Horror tests limits. Horror shows who we are. When we’re faced with a monster, or a ghost, or a serial killer, what we’re actually made of comes forth. I like to see what people are made of. Therefore, I like horror.”

My rating: 1.5/5.0  Goodreads: 3.40/5.0

Review: Trying too hard to be about universal human experiences without having the writing chops to back up those ambitions, the book often falls back on cliches, stereotypes, and gimmicks. The horror and tension of the plot is destroyed completely by the glut of everyday detail that fills each thread of the narrative. While billed as horror, it feels a lot more like literary fiction and, instead of fear, I mostly felt disgust at the ordinary nastiness of most of its characters—their misogyny, racism, and unhealthy obsessions making them distinctly unlikeable.

[theblob1958]

Al @ghostpunkrock and Jones @localpubliclibrary tagged me to talk about the books that stuck with me this year! yay!

Row 1: Moby Dick by Herman Melville; Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo; East of Eden by John Steinbeck Row 2: Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones; One the Dirty Plate Trail by Sanora Babb & Doulas Wixson; The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones Row 3: Zone One by Colson Whitehead; Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead; Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead

if you can't tell, I think you should read Colson Whitehead's books. i also just highly recommend everything on this list xoxo

i'm gonna tag @breedablejackles @legzeppelin and @saw09 if you guys want to talk about the books you read :)

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[filmnoirsbian]

do you have any horror book recs about fucked up houses? i just finished reading the haunting of hill house for the first time and im now in love with the idea of a building or house being a character in the story

House of Leaves is about so much more than a fucked up house but it is also in part about a fucked up house and I cannot recommend it enough. Also: A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Hörrorstor by Grady Hendrix, and Man, Fuck This House by Brian Asman. Reprieve by James Han Mattson's fucked up house isn't sentient but that book is also incredible. Likewise, the fucked upness of the house in In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado is abuse rather than architecture, but the book is very good. And Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff has a fucked up house, amongst other things.

[artigas]

summer reading 2023

in an effort to motivate myself out of a depression slump and enjoy some reading, i thought i’d share my summer reading list with ya’ll! i’m currently in a phd program for english literature so here’s a mix of fun reading and school reading that i’ll be doing until the end of august ♡ if ya’ll wanna talk books or have any recs for me through the summer, chat me up!!

Pet Semetary - Stephen King (5/5, fiction horror)

Dowry of Blood - S.T. Gibson (3/5, fiction, horror, queer rep) 

The Hacienda  Isabel Cañas (1/5, DNF) 

Motherthing - Ainslie Hogarth

Reprieve - James Han Mattson

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende 

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

The Devil Takes You Home - Gabino Iglesias

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole

Dracul - Dacre Stoker

Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

Imperialism at Home - Susan Lynn Meyer

[potatoleeksoup]

3, 4, and 13!

ty!!!

(3) what were your top five books of the year?

in no particular order i loved:

mrs caliban by rachel ingalls. this is SO good. ingalls went straight on my list of forgotten 20th century women that i want to become. actually it's an extremely short list but she's on it right behind my forever queen gina berriault look her up

what you can see from here by mariana leky. honestly this has faded from my memory a little bit since i read it in the spring but i remember being totally obsessed with the prose and narrative movement of this. id love to relearn all my german and read this in the original and also all leky's other books (i believe she has other novels but idk if any have been translated?)

a home at the end of the world by michael cunningham. is it boring to recommend michael cunningham maybe. did this book make me insane and do i frequently think about specific lines and phrases from particularly the first third of it YES. michael call me i just want to talk

the tree and the vine by dola de jong. being in secret unrequited love with your roommate is so scary and horrible ! this book is like a very very sharp gemstone !

all fires the fire by julio cortázar. cortázar is one of my favorites ever and this collection is just like completely complex and perfect like a box of bitter chocolates. right after german i will be learning spanish in order to experience these stories for the first time in a new way again

honorable mentions to:

reprieve by james han mattson. it's possible that this isn't good but i had SO much fun reading it. one of the only books i have read over the past few years that i found really and truly exciting. escape room novel!!!!

the glassy, burning floor of hell by brian evenson. good book! but MOST importantly my favorite title of the year.

anddddddd interview with the vampire. sorry. i loved this.

(4) did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

definitely rachel ingalls! i had heard of her but never read her and i am so pleased to have finally dipped my toesies into her work. maybe rivka galchen too... everyone knows your mother is a witch was good and i am excited to see if i like her other work even better. and dola de jong! i had never even heard of her! if any of her other work is ever available in english translation i will be sprinting to the library

(13) what were your least favorite books of the year?

ahh yes my favorite. hating. let's see...

the charm offensive by alison cochrun. unfortunately had to revoke the bisexuality card of the dear friend who recommended this to me. stupid and really bad in ways that matter (fetishistic strange representation of gay men) as well as ways that are just annoying (horrible prose and overtherapized emotional narratives)

a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan. sad that i broke my 11 year streak of never reading this but it was required for a class. the PULITZER PRIZE? for LITERATURE? are you SURE?

the snow queen by michael cunningham. goddamn the higher they climb the harder they fall!!!!!!! this was one of the worst structured and most sloppily and fluffily written novels i have ever read. and from the king of structure and perfect sharp prose himself. sad... well there's other fiction writers

how to find your way in the dark by derek b miller. a genuinely antisemitic book recommendation from the aforementioned formerly bisexual dear friend. horribly written and with a bad case of my protagonist is the specialest little boy in the world. special shoutout to this book for inspiring the novel i am currently working on by being so bad that i looked at it and thought even i could do a better job at this

the temps by andrew deyoung. no more clever little books by clever little guys. it is appropriate that the cover of this is green like toxic slutch because it gave me horrible indigestion. thinks it is so smart about the world and is so fundamentally mistaken about every single one of the issues it tries to tackle

and i COULD GO ON!!!!! there are bad books being published every day on this bitch of an earth!

this was so fun i love yelling

[proof1991]

tagged by @cctinsleybaxter two whole years ago to do this lol

last song: who are you by the tinderboxers (band from my old school)

last movie: i think we're alone now (2018)

currently watching: angels in america and dilbert

currently reading: just started reprieve by james han mattson

currently craving: some sort of cheesy pasta...

i'll tag @jewlw @lavendermarriage @rinafyde @ollieplimsolls and edmund if you want to do it again go ahead

[brigdh]

Book meme: 6, 12?

6. what books have you read in the last month?

I've been reading so many fewer books this year, because I've never been in a fandom with as much fic as OFMD, and I spend all my time reading it instead. But! I've been trying to make a point of reading more actual books in the last month or two. For November:

I'm currently in the middle of A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows, which is a m/m arranged marriage fantasy novel. I LOVE arranged marriage tropes, so I was pretty into the premise of this, but I'm not liking it at all. I'm so annoyed that I'll probably end up writing a whole review just to get the irritation out. But in short: the worldbuilding is SO DUMB and the characterizations are really shallow.

C.M. Waggoner's The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry, on the other hand, was absolutely DELIGHTFUL. Fantasy in vaguely Dickensian London with a f/f main couple and a strongly Wodehouse-influenced voice. Fire witch and part-time thief Delly was, as she says, raised in the dustbin behind a brothel, but she moves up in life when she gets a job as the bodyguard to a wealthy bride-to-be, and promptly spies a mark in one of the other bodyguards: sporty, rich Winn. At first Delly assumes getting Winn to marry her is a short path to the easy life, but then, oh no, Delly catches Real Feelings. What will happen??? I loved this, highly recommended. I need to check out Waggoner's first book, which I haven't yet.

At the beginning of the month, I was still finishing Reprieve by James Han Mattson, which I'd been reading in the spirit of the Halloween season. This is a literary novel (not horror, much to my chagrin since I'd been mistaken about that when I decided to read it) about a haunted house attraction so scary that no one ever makes it all the way to the end, and the team of four who finally beat it. The author clearly hates full-contact haunted houses: there are so many diatribes in the voice of so many characters about how they're immoral and sadistic and harmful, plus the owner and designer of the central house turns out to be the main villain. Which really confused me as to the intended audience of this book – who would read a 400 page novel about haunted houses if they don't at least like the idea of them? Surely the people who agree with them being fundamentally problematic don't pay $30 for a hardcover about them (which, yes, unfortunately I did). Also there's a dramatic twist at the end that the author tries to play as Black Lives Matter commentary, but to me it was poorly written and an absolutely tone-deaf, failed attempt at social analysis.

I also read the first few chapters of Babel by R.F. Kuang before getting distracted, but I love the premise and need to pick it up again.

12. did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings?

Some of them! We read Romeo & Juliet, and I adore that play. In my senior year, we read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and I was already in fandom at that point and inclined to become absolutely obsessed with it, which of course I did.

(the book ask meme)

[theresebelivett]

Bookworm asks: 1, 15, 23? 📚

thank you!!!!!

1.what are you currently reading: for maybe the first time in my life i'm allowing myself to read SEVERAL BOOKS AT ONCE, so i'm switching back and before between listening to the witching hour by anne rice and reprive by james han mattson and physicaly reading our share of night by mariana enriquez, i'm havin a great time lol

15. can you read anywhere? moving vehicle? rollercoaster? i am unfortunately extremely susceptible to motion sickness so thank the lord above for audiobooks (and libby and hoopla, use ur local libraries folks!!!)

23. genres you rarely read? i occasionally read nonfiction but not often, and almost never literary fiction lol. i need spec fic, i need it at all times

[fearsomeandwretchedandwrong]

Books I bought in August

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Whisper Network by Chandler Baker

Sparks Fly by Birdie Lynn

The New Neighbor by Carter Wilson

The Wicked Unseen by Gigi Griffis

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce

Reprieve by James Han Mattson

The Shadow House by Anne Downes

The Collective by Alison Gaylin

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

[joshuagjinsole]

Book Review: 'Reprieve' by James Han Mattson

For my twenty-ninth book of 2023, I picked James Han Mattson’s ‘Reprieve’ off my shelf. I’ve had a copy of this for a few months, as I couldn’t resist that cover while browsing in my local Tyrolia. When I read the blurb, I knew I had to have the book. Book therapy—it’s a real thing! Anyway, I finally finished reading this novel, and I loved it. The multifaceted story follows several characters…

[joanlattanzio]

When we’re faced with a monster, or a ghost, or a serial killer, what we’re actually made of comes forth. I like to see what people are made of.

Reprieve - James Han Mattson

[mickgaydolenz]

i was tagged by @sunflowerrboyy (thank you rogerrr!!! 💖) to do this fun little tag game :)))))

last song: i can’t remeber, but last fm says it was unforgettable by nat king cole so let’s go with that!

last show: my twin and my wife (who is not actually my wife) have been watching physical: 100! so technically that was the last show i watched, but if we’re talking shows i’ve finished then that would be move to heaven (the kdrama that had me bawling 25/7)

currently watching: i’m still making my way through monster 💪

currently reading: reprieve by james han mattson (not sure how i feel about it at this point tbh)

current obsession: girl you know it’s the monkees ✨💅

and i tag anyone who wants to do this💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖