thebanishedreader

[thebanishedreader]

[thebanishedreader]

Ongoing Book Review: Dead Inside (Chandler Morrison) Pt. 1

I take way too long to finish books since I read like 7 at a time, so I have decided to start posting my thoughts and reviews as I go along. Also, that way I can actually commit to posting these reviews once I finish the book, which is yet another thing the commitment devils have kept me from accomplishing.

Anyhow, though, here we go: the first ongoing review will cover what I have read so far of Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison.

(CW: mentions of necrophilia, cannibalism, and sex. NSFW I guess).

Description by Seller (amazon.com): "A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery while shattering societal norms and engaging in destructively aberrant behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive... And that it might not always be a good thing."

Here I am, 15% through the book. I know it's not far, but honestly, it's far enough. All I have to say is-- wow. Wow.

This book kinda sucks. Just an all-around drag. A bore, but not the pleasant boring drawl of a lecturer putting you to sleep. The harrowing, suffocating boredom of having to work a shift with that coworker that you hate, that makes you cringe so hard that it's not even entertaining to hate them anymore. Get me out of here. That's how this book feels.

For a book constantly boasting how readers say it's "not for the faint of heart," it's surprisingly underwhelming. I'm frankly disappointed, and yet this book keeps embarrassing itself so much within only 15% that I can't even be angry at myself for falling into its trap.

My reasoning falls into 3 categories: Let-Down, Cringe, and Excuses.

First things first - I was expecting something raunchy, something gruesome and disturbing. I'm not one of those people who shies away from Dead Dove content, far from it. I love that shit. Literature is a place to explore the dangerous, the taboo, the fucked up-ness of being a person. So, finding a book that pledged it was disgusting, disturbing, and medically horrifying? Sign me up. This book is... not that.

What was promised to be a horror novel that pushes the boundaries of what is too much horror, what toes the line between gratuitous and entertaining, this novel relies on one thing: shock value. And the biggest bummer for that tactic is this: if your audience is not shocked, then there is nothing left supporting the narrative.

Dead Inside relies entirely on the audience not being familiar with horror stories or even true crime stories involving necrophilia or cannibalism. The concept of a perverted security guard using his power to violate corpses is supposed to be mortifying, unbelievably despicable. Yet for a seasoned horror fan, it's nothing short of lame. Juvenile, almost. There is hardly any risk when our security guard goes into a morgue which he holds the key to, wherein there are no security cameras, where he can do whatever he pleases, lay on the floor afterwards, and go back to work-- in a tiny, unbusy hospital. It's boring, it's lame, who gives a shit if this weirdo gets his rocks off in weird ways; it's horrible to think of it happening in real life to the body of a loved one, certainly, but this is horror literature. Stephen King would have had worms crawling up the dude's dick and blossoming into a parasite that whispers in his ear until he castrates himself. Chandler Morrison just has our (I hate to even call him this) protagonist fuck a corpse. Cool, I guess.

2. Number Two. Let's talk Cringe Factor.

This narrator is unbearable. Unbearable. He sounds like the stereotype of a discord edgelord who is narrating this book with the sole purpose of scaring off the normies. He relishes in saying gross things, being gross, all while acting as if he is so much more sophisticated than he is.

It doesn't help that the book is narrated in first person. This goes back to how I described the experience of reading Dead Inside to be equivalent to working a shift with a coworker that is very much not your friend who disrespects you the same way a friend would tease. It's just plain oblivious. Our necrophiliac incel narrator is the epitome of the Riverdale meme where Jughead says "I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in. And I don't want to fit in." Like, Christ man, we get it, you don't shower and your hair is greasy and people don't want to be around you not because you're "weird", but because you're inconsiderate and unhygienic and put 0 effort into anything whatsoever. Having to listen to the narrator's commentary on how he's aware how disturbing his own actions are, how he knows the ordinary person would see him as a freak, it's just so lame. That's the only word I have for it, really. Just completely and utterly lame. This novel reads with the same tone as a Reddit incel jerk-off posting about Elliot Rodger. It's just pathetic, but there's no pity there. It's entirely self-induced patheticness that the narrator excuses as being "unique."

It's fine to have characters in books that are frustrating, irritating, that make you just want to smack them upside the head for yapping too long. But it's never a good sign when the person I want most desperately to shut the fuck up is the narrator. It's not good writing if my method of making the narrator quit talking is closing the book and contemplating whether or not it's even worth finishing. Extraordinarily poor quality character. But it's not intentional - we are supposed to find this character disturbing, threatening, and eerily fucked up. We're supposed to wonder why he got this way, and what it will take to break him. We are supposed to hate him, and relish in his demise. I feel nothing but exasperation from this man. The simplest way to resolve my hatred for him is to close the book and put it away. I don't give a fuck what happens to him. I don't think he even deserves my attention, and he's the narrator. This is bad.

3. And finally. Excuses.

This complaint is a short, but prudent one. The writing quality is mediocre at best. One of the biggest rules of any creative work, but particularly writing, art, and filmmaking, is that your audience is smarter than you think. Leave things open for interpretation. Leave opportunity for ponderance, and analysis. Show, don't tell.

Dead Inside is all tell, with nothing to show. Our narrator is a loser, but Morrison doesn't let us own it. Instead, excuses are made; the most infuriating example of this is after our narrator has finished fornicating with a poor, lifeless victim. The section goes:

"... but my lovers are all equipped with the best birth control the world can offer. As in, dead reproductive systems. I know that goes without saying, but I like to say it." (p. 21)

If it goes without saying, then don't say it. The segment would have been entirely fine without that last remark; if anything, it would have been better, and bolstered the narrator's character as a whole! And this is only one of the outright examples I have of this characterization.

The bitter, dark humor of our narrator would have been brilliantly given if the quote ended at "dead reproductive systems." We would have been left with the pure objectification and lack of emotion our narrator possesses, how he sees dead bodies purely as anatomical tools for his own peak control and pleasure, his own performance. We as the audience would have been victims of him as well, subjected to listen to the gross things he says and does and entirely unable to resist it-- pure puppets for his sick fantasies, just like the corpses he violates. It would have illustrated an actual level of mystique and unsettling nature to the relationship between narrator and narrated and audience. The novel's ongoing themes of fetish and object, the definitions of violation, it all would have been so interesting if only the narrator didn't say something so juvenilely self-aware every five seconds, like he's vying for our attention and approval. Look!!, Morrison makes our narrator constantly wave his hands in our face like a child, Look!! Isn't that fucked up!! Look at how fucked up I can be! Tell me I'm gross, tell me I'm weird!! Look at how gross that is, right!! That's scary, right??

No. It's annoying, and it gets old before it even got a chance to start.

Again, I'm 25 pages into a 191 page book. It's mid as fuck. I hope it turns around, but I don't think it will-- I can see from only 15% where this story is going, I bet I can plot out most if not the entire rest of the book. I think the concept is one spooky "what-if" that goes no deeper than that. Honestly, I'm really disappointed. I wanted to be disturbed. I don't have much motivation to keep reading this book except the pervasive nagging of my soul to finish most books I pick up. Plus, I want to know if I'm wrong about how dog this has so far turned out to be.

If you made it this far, holy shit. Congrats. You're running the Athens marathon by reading this. You're amazing. I'm giving you a small kiss on the forehead.

[thebanishedreader]

"You need ideas to be cruel and only men have ideas."

1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray (1984)

[thebanishedreader]

"Nature is nothing but a name for the universe and how it behaves."

~ 1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray (1984)

[thebanishedreader]

A small village in Wales I visited recently ~<3

[thebanishedreader]

The 18th century Gothic Revival Church of St Mary and St Finnan overlooking Loch Shiel, Glenfinnan, Scotland.

[thebanishedreader]

Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow.

[thebanishedreader]

bury me six feet in snow

[thebanishedreader]

[thebanishedreader]

"He says nothing; all that lies behind him; he is entirely alone now with his little life of nineteen years, and cries because it leaves him."

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)

[thebanishedreader]

"I stand there and wonder whether, when I am twenty, I shall have experienced the bewildering emotions of love."

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)

[thebanishedreader]

this quote from ovid’s telling of orpheus turning back to look at eurydice makes me crumble

[thebanishedreader]

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.

— John Green, via luciferifilia.

[thebanishedreader]

On the Burning...

"Alexandria is... a cautionary tale of the danger of creeping decline, through the underfunding, low prioritization and general disregard for the institutions that preserve and share knowledge: libraries and archives. Today, we must remember that war is not the only way an Alexandria can be destroyed. The long history of attacks on knowledge includes not just deliberate violence - during the Holocaust or China's Cultural revolution, for example - but also the willful deprioritization of support for these institutions, which we are witnessing in Western societies today. The impact that these various acts of destruction of libraries and archives has had on communities and society as a whole is profound."

- Richard Ovenden, The Story of the Library of Alexandria is Mostly a Legend, But the Lesson of its Burning is Still Crucial Today

[thebanishedreader]

Book Bans in Indiana

As of June 2023

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Brief Summary: The first novel of a fantasy epic following young art student Karou as she journeys to discover her identity, even if it means joining an otherworldly conflict.

Banned from libraries as of November 2022, based on a formal challenge.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's (UK)

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

Brief Summary: The riveting sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone follows Karou through embracing her newfound heritage and balancing the challenges and heartache of what that means.

Banned from libraries as of November 2022, based on a formal challenge.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's (UK)

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Brief Summary: Concluding the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, Karou and Akiva must join forces to determine the future of the worlds that collided once the celestial war is over.

Banned from libraries as of November 2022, based on a formal challenge.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's (UK)

Statistics Source: PEN America

Support the American Library Association!!

[thebanishedreader]

Pet-Related Ask Game for Book Blogs

Dog: Do you have pets? And if you do, are they ever in your pictures? If not, would you get a pet if you could?

Cat: What animal book did you grow up with and still impacts you?

Hamster: How often do you read nonfiction books?

Rabbit: If you got a bookish tattoo referencing a childhood book, what would you get?

Guinea Pig: Do you consider yourself a fast reader?

Bird: Are you in any book clubs?

Fish: What does your TBR look like right now? Is it spread out? Do you keep it in a stack?

Frog: Have you tried pressing flowers into your books?

Lizard: What is your most REread book?

Snake: Do you keep all your books after you’re done reading them?

Gerbil: What was your reading goal this year? Are you close to meeting it?

Tortoise/Turtle: If you could give a copy of your favorite book to someone on this site, what book and who would you give it to?

Insect: How many books would you need to have to consider your collection a “library”?

Spider: What nonfiction book has impacted you the most?

Chinchilla: What fiction book has impacted you the most?

Rat: Who are your Top Five favorite authors?

Mice: If you could invite three authors (dead or alive) to a meal, who would you invite and what would you cook/prepare?

Ferret: What do you normally use to mark your page in a book?

Farm Animal: Give us a quote from a book you read recently.

Plant (for those who struggle with animals): How many books do you think you have? If you’re really not sure, give a ballpark answer.

[thebanishedreader]

Friday Favorites: All Quiet on the Western Front

Today's highlight for @thebanishedreader's Friday Favorite is Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

Published in 1928, All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel that draws heavily from the experiences of its author in World War One. A German war veteran, Remarque projects his horrific memories of the war onto protagonist Paul Bäumer, a 17-year-old infantryman who, motivated by nationalism and naiveté, enlists into the German army with his schoolmates.

Paul is battle-worn and disillusioned from the moment readers meet him, but his trauma ebbs and flows, is emphasized and overshadowed, and carries on as a common thread throughout the novel with each new tragedy. Though young and harrowed, Paul's wisdom by experience haunts his narration, illustrating the horrors of war in a way no prior novel had ever captured; not all horror is found to be graphic, though, as the rotting ache of hope robbed from a young man culminates in this gut-wrenching masterwork.

My Goodreads Review:

"One of my favorite books of all time. I fear if I start writing this review in further depth, I will never stop. A horror story, a haunting tale. A poetic display of love, loss, and the meaning of life. An understanding of the despicable nature of war in a way I have never experienced in another novel since. I return to this book time and time again."

"It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is so often brought on by small men."

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell's (UK)