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Black Forest
Nathan has always been haunted by what he calls “deaders,” frightening, disfigured creatures—once human but now hungry and relentless ghosts. After a séance to banish them goes awry, Nathan escapes high school to start over at Waxman University in idyllic Garden City, Montana. But when young men begin to go missing from campus, Nathan finds that the deaders have returned, more frightening and hungrier than ever.
With the help of the mysterious Theo, Nathan seeks to learn the truth behind the disappearances. But something worse than the deaders begins to haunt Nathan . . . something with glowing yellow eyes and giant wings. As reality grows thin, things emerge from the cracks. Is Theo what he seems? Or could he be some kind of monster? Will Nathan learn the truth before he vanishes into the darkness?
With the help of the mysterious Theo, Nathan seeks to learn the truth behind the disappearances. But something worse than the deaders begins to haunt Nathan . . . something with glowing yellow eyes and giant wings. As reality grows thin, things emerge from the cracks. Is Theo what he seems? Or could he be some kind of monster? Will Nathan learn the truth before he vanishes into the darkness?
450 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
January 9, 2023
2.5 stars
Black Forest by Laramie Dean is a horror novel.
First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Inkshares and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
My Synopsis: (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Nathan sees ghosts, which he calls "deaders". He's seen them since he was a child. Up to this point, they've been somewhat harmless, but still scary. Now, as a teenager, they seem to be invading his mind, trying to come into his home, and showing up in the pictures he takes. He decides to confront them, using a séance to banish them. That doesn't really go as planned.
When he moves on to University, in addition to his deaders, he starts to see monsters. When students start disappearing from campus, Nathan fears the worst. Is one of his friends a monster? He decides to try and figure out the truth as to what has happened to "the lost boys". He gets assistance from Theo, who he has had a crush on since he first saw him. But he doesn't know much about the mysterious Theo.
My Opinions:
Okay, I struggled with this one. A number of times I just wanted to quit, but we all know the problems I have with quitting. My thoughts were confused. I mean it's horror, so how could I be bored? Why was I skimming? The premise sounded so good...a kid that sees dead people/monsters.... Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. And it was long!
At one point this book seemed to be more of a gay coming of age story, than a true horror novel. I'm not saying that it didn't have horror too, but sometimes it seemed more like Nathan's emotional journey through life. As well, neither Nathan, nor I, seemed to be able to tell what was real, and what was in his head. This made things interesting, if somewhat confusing -- I thought perhaps drugs may have been involved, but no. Then I considered mental illness, but no. Okay, so hallucinations? Not really. More science fiction meets fantasy meets fairy tale monsters. Once you get your head around that, it makes more sense. Either that or I didn't understand it at all.
I also had a problem with Nathan. I didn't really like him. It would have been better if he had been a little nicer to people. How many times did he regret what he had just said? Anyway, as I often wanted to smack him, it made it difficult to cheer him on. Not liking the protagonist makes for a difficult read.
Now, what the author did right. Again, the premise was wonderful. Nathan's story and background was very well-developed and his emotional turmoil seemed real. The author's descriptive prose was good. At times the creepiness of the forest came shining through, and that was very well done. The author definitely does a creepy atmosphere well. I liked the ending.
Anyway, I will start watching this author.
For a more complete review of this book and others (including the reason I chose to read/review this book, as well as author information and contact details), please visit my blog: http://katlovesbooksblog.wordpress.com/
August 31, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley for a e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The synopsis of this book really drew me in but unfortunately the book itself really wasn't for me. I was expecting a story more focused on the idea that the main character, Nathan, sees the dead and other creatures. I was eager to experience a creepy tale but instead I felt the book was much more focused on Nathan as a person and the struggles he dealt with on a whole. Plus i didn't warn to him as a character, I felt he was pretty whiney and frustrating for majority of the book. Even thought his book wasn't what i was expecting I did like the authors style of writing.
October 25, 2022
Told in first person, this story follows Nathan through parts of his high school experience and on to college. There are moments where I really enjoyed Nathan’s story, especially feeling out his relationships with others and trying to figure out just what he was seeing in the deaders and other things that go bump in the night. The time jumps were a little confusing. I also wanted a little more atmosphere. I think that it was there but got somewhat lost within the rambling narrative. Overall, it was a good story that just needed more focus.
Thank you to Netgalley and Inkshares for a copy provided for an honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Inkshares for a copy provided for an honest review.
May 14, 2022
As a work of horror — or one pertaining to “Montana Gothic”, a term cleverly coined by the author himself —
Black Forest
proves an intimidating beast to appraise. That’s because any attempt at outfitting the novel’s appeal with the structure demanded by a methodical argument can only ever end in groans of dismay. Nevertheless, an attempt will be made.
The story itself is a perpetually morphing entity, one that petrifies at the height of intimacy, and seduces in the wake of malicious defacement. Despite Nathan’s — partial — grasp of reality, shaped around the last vestiges of high school, college, and heart-coercing relationships, the novel’s eerie element is never fully sedated.
In fact, he proves a fascinating character to base a shape-shifting narrative around. Compelled by an inner wickedness he keeps defying, Nathan often experiences a combination of desire and frustration, dread and exhilaration. As a result, there’s a delicious, profoundly sexual undertone to the hauntings that mutilate his sanity.
Consumed by loneliness, disaffection, and a longing for the elusive and the ever-changing, Nathan falls prey to a transformation that leaves everyone, particularly him, blindsided. Its artful subtlety is aided by Dean’s writing, which is as exceptional as it is rousing. And so, with a voice that grips, beguiles, and consumes in the same breath, he manages to imbue the prose with a ferocity that scours the mind and the body alike.
The complexity of Black Forest’s countless parts is perhaps the very thing that elevates it beyond the limitations of horror. Just like Nathan, we’re never fully persuaded by the feigned stability of the mind. With sly references to his parents’ alcoholism, schizophrenia, the supernatural, magic, demons, folklore, as well as innate human depravity, no path of reasoning is ever awarded a higher status than the sum of its contenders. The result is, naturally, exhilarating.
What’s more, by suffusing horror with the air of a psychological thriller, Dean weaves a web of strained, painfully twisted relationships. Imitating the thin physicality of a nightmare, the story manipulates both time and sense, degrading the warm shine of a familiar face and the hunger of spoiled flesh with the same scathing incredulity. Everything, after a certain point, is dream-like and hazy, silently menacing and equally enthralling.
To top it all off, the author leaves us with a wounded sense of validity. That’s because, by allowing Nathan to step in and out of self-made realities, Dean exposes our tendency, and need, to create private worlds. We end up interpreting events in a way that renders life a bespoke creation, a by-product of overarching fear — both in terms of the space it offers, and the limitations invoked by such a release.
In Nathan’s case, fear feeds on the critical state of the only friendship he’s ever known, a shattered heart, as well as the melancholy and yearning brought on by change. That, and the “deaders” and other monstrosities that pursue him. Nathan’s interactions with them further illuminate Dean’s dexterity with the genre. He projects scenes of such violent atrocity that the margin between fantasy and the reader’s own reality is smeared to oblivion.
Thus, we’re never quite sure if we’ve given ourselves over to a supernatural tale, or one of mental deterioration. This sentiment is boosted by the people nearest to Nathan, who seem to nudge him closer to the edge with every violation of the construct of his happiness. This observation is sharpened by a prophecy that is gleaned early on in the tale, and which goes on to dismember Nathan’s present. It leaves him flailing around as he seeks to fit the fragments of reality within the framework of an already-formed experience.
And so, we’re aware of the direction the story will take, but never the rate of its disintegration. This process, as formless as it is voracious, flares out to engulf bodies, shapes, names, truth, and the illusion of distinctiveness. At its culmination point lingers a thing that surfaces and pulses to the beat of a deadened heart. The thought that arises before being swallowed up again is one of our lack of control, and our endless hunger for it.
Intoxicating, hallucinatory, sensual, and crippling, Black Forest defies the limits of the page to plague the psyche long after the last nerve has been severed.
First published on Delphic Reviews
The story itself is a perpetually morphing entity, one that petrifies at the height of intimacy, and seduces in the wake of malicious defacement. Despite Nathan’s — partial — grasp of reality, shaped around the last vestiges of high school, college, and heart-coercing relationships, the novel’s eerie element is never fully sedated.
In fact, he proves a fascinating character to base a shape-shifting narrative around. Compelled by an inner wickedness he keeps defying, Nathan often experiences a combination of desire and frustration, dread and exhilaration. As a result, there’s a delicious, profoundly sexual undertone to the hauntings that mutilate his sanity.
Consumed by loneliness, disaffection, and a longing for the elusive and the ever-changing, Nathan falls prey to a transformation that leaves everyone, particularly him, blindsided. Its artful subtlety is aided by Dean’s writing, which is as exceptional as it is rousing. And so, with a voice that grips, beguiles, and consumes in the same breath, he manages to imbue the prose with a ferocity that scours the mind and the body alike.
The complexity of Black Forest’s countless parts is perhaps the very thing that elevates it beyond the limitations of horror. Just like Nathan, we’re never fully persuaded by the feigned stability of the mind. With sly references to his parents’ alcoholism, schizophrenia, the supernatural, magic, demons, folklore, as well as innate human depravity, no path of reasoning is ever awarded a higher status than the sum of its contenders. The result is, naturally, exhilarating.
What’s more, by suffusing horror with the air of a psychological thriller, Dean weaves a web of strained, painfully twisted relationships. Imitating the thin physicality of a nightmare, the story manipulates both time and sense, degrading the warm shine of a familiar face and the hunger of spoiled flesh with the same scathing incredulity. Everything, after a certain point, is dream-like and hazy, silently menacing and equally enthralling.
To top it all off, the author leaves us with a wounded sense of validity. That’s because, by allowing Nathan to step in and out of self-made realities, Dean exposes our tendency, and need, to create private worlds. We end up interpreting events in a way that renders life a bespoke creation, a by-product of overarching fear — both in terms of the space it offers, and the limitations invoked by such a release.
In Nathan’s case, fear feeds on the critical state of the only friendship he’s ever known, a shattered heart, as well as the melancholy and yearning brought on by change. That, and the “deaders” and other monstrosities that pursue him. Nathan’s interactions with them further illuminate Dean’s dexterity with the genre. He projects scenes of such violent atrocity that the margin between fantasy and the reader’s own reality is smeared to oblivion.
Thus, we’re never quite sure if we’ve given ourselves over to a supernatural tale, or one of mental deterioration. This sentiment is boosted by the people nearest to Nathan, who seem to nudge him closer to the edge with every violation of the construct of his happiness. This observation is sharpened by a prophecy that is gleaned early on in the tale, and which goes on to dismember Nathan’s present. It leaves him flailing around as he seeks to fit the fragments of reality within the framework of an already-formed experience.
And so, we’re aware of the direction the story will take, but never the rate of its disintegration. This process, as formless as it is voracious, flares out to engulf bodies, shapes, names, truth, and the illusion of distinctiveness. At its culmination point lingers a thing that surfaces and pulses to the beat of a deadened heart. The thought that arises before being swallowed up again is one of our lack of control, and our endless hunger for it.
Intoxicating, hallucinatory, sensual, and crippling, Black Forest defies the limits of the page to plague the psyche long after the last nerve has been severed.
First published on Delphic Reviews
October 28, 2022
[I received a copy from PrideBookTours for an honest review]
He can keep me safe, he told himself at night. Whoever he is, or will be, he will keep them at bay.
Black Forest is a Queer horror by Laramie Dean. About a young man who see and speaks to ghosts, but doesn't know how or why. The story follows him as he tries to understand and find his place in a world, a world where he finds his perfect boy and feels loved.
I really don't know where to start with this. Did I enjoy it ? I think I did, yes definitely at times. All the characters, even our main character Nathan, whose POV is frequently unreliable. I think that's one of the things I liked about it, the fact that no one was blatantly good and everyone was a little bit dark in their own ways. I found the "deaders" and ghost creepy and chilling, their descriptions well done.
The story is broken into 4 parts and the writing is wordy, and it does drag at times, especially in part 2. Part two seemed quite unnecessary and didn't add much to the story. My favorite part was probably Nathan's last year of high school even though the time jumps in it were unneeded, I'm a big fan of telling a story linearly. The story as a whole lost me in the middle and by the time I was invested again, Nathan didn't know what around him was reality or not. It's trippy the way he sees something happening or does something or says something but then realizes it never occurred.
They want to eat me up, he thought distinctly. Until there's nothing. Until I break apart and dissolve and there isn't any Nathan. Until there's nothing left.
In the end, I was left satisfied..I think..by the way the story ended. However, I can see why this might not work for a lot of people. It had great potential that wasn't fully reached.
TW/CW: oh goodness there's a lot so sorry if I can't remember them all...violence, death, attempted sexualassault, homophobic slurs, alcohol, oral sex,
He can keep me safe, he told himself at night. Whoever he is, or will be, he will keep them at bay.
Black Forest is a Queer horror by Laramie Dean. About a young man who see and speaks to ghosts, but doesn't know how or why. The story follows him as he tries to understand and find his place in a world, a world where he finds his perfect boy and feels loved.
I really don't know where to start with this. Did I enjoy it ? I think I did, yes definitely at times. All the characters, even our main character Nathan, whose POV is frequently unreliable. I think that's one of the things I liked about it, the fact that no one was blatantly good and everyone was a little bit dark in their own ways. I found the "deaders" and ghost creepy and chilling, their descriptions well done.
The story is broken into 4 parts and the writing is wordy, and it does drag at times, especially in part 2. Part two seemed quite unnecessary and didn't add much to the story. My favorite part was probably Nathan's last year of high school even though the time jumps in it were unneeded, I'm a big fan of telling a story linearly. The story as a whole lost me in the middle and by the time I was invested again, Nathan didn't know what around him was reality or not. It's trippy the way he sees something happening or does something or says something but then realizes it never occurred.
They want to eat me up, he thought distinctly. Until there's nothing. Until I break apart and dissolve and there isn't any Nathan. Until there's nothing left.
In the end, I was left satisfied..I think..by the way the story ended. However, I can see why this might not work for a lot of people. It had great potential that wasn't fully reached.
TW/CW: oh goodness there's a lot so sorry if I can't remember them all...violence, death, attempted sexualassault, homophobic slurs, alcohol, oral sex,
October 2, 2022
The premise of the story is what drew me in. However I don't feel like it was really a horror book, which is what I thought it would be after reading the synopsis, and overall just wasn't for me.
We follow Nathan throughout his life, and while he does encounter some deaders, some scarier than others, we don't spend much time on them. Instead, it's more about Nathans's life as a whole. We follow his journey starting as a child, through high school, then when he arrives at college and some weird things begin to happen. I found the story kind of chaotic. We jumped from past to present with no warning, and the story itself just felt all over the place, and I struggled at times to follow what was going on.
We follow Nathan throughout his life, and while he does encounter some deaders, some scarier than others, we don't spend much time on them. Instead, it's more about Nathans's life as a whole. We follow his journey starting as a child, through high school, then when he arrives at college and some weird things begin to happen. I found the story kind of chaotic. We jumped from past to present with no warning, and the story itself just felt all over the place, and I struggled at times to follow what was going on.
October 13, 2022
The premise of this book really intrigued me along with the author coined phrase of "Montana Gothic" to describe it. Some early parts about the deaders really got me good and made me eager for the rest of the book. Somewhere along the way (around 40% or so) Nathan stopped being a person I cared to read about. He is insufferable and not in an enjoyable way. I honestly had to force myself to finish this book. I am not glad to leave a less than shining review most of the time but I wanted to voice my opinion.
I think this book 100% has AN audience for sure. I think a better synopsis ought to be compiled to better understand what you're getting to ensue the book is worth its while for the reader who picks it up.
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkworks for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I think this book 100% has AN audience for sure. I think a better synopsis ought to be compiled to better understand what you're getting to ensue the book is worth its while for the reader who picks it up.
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkworks for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 19, 2022
I received a free copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
You can't do this to me, Black Forest. You can't give me the best premise and the best ending ever and then - the rest of it.
Black Forest is a breathless, crazed run through the mind of a gay teenager who can see ghosts. After a multipronged failure of relationships in high school made worse by his terrible visions, Nathan starts university hoping for a fresh start. Unfortunately what little control he had over his mind starts slipping away as a heady stew of murder, supernatural mindbending, and old flames tear through his life. Love that. Love all of that. Loved the ending. But.
I need to introduce this author to the concept of In Media Res. There are three parts to this book. The first part is one hundred and sixty pages of backstory to the main plot. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY. In those one hundred and sixty pages, the mechanisms of the world are explained, Nathan almost wets himself, the barest details of his first date with Sebastian are painstakingly sketched, a Native character brings up sacred lore gifted to him by his ancient grandmother with no prompting. None of these pages are necessary. I guess a few of the scenes could have been excised and inserted in part two, or done away with in dialogue in part two. But those full 160 pages do not need to be there. They are, strangely, markedly worse written than the rest of the book just on a technical level.
And that's a shame, because the back two thirds of the book can sometimes hit incredible. The writing improves markedly and it becomes a hallucinatory trip down this young man's white-hot psyche. There's a bit at the beginning that I feel was rewritten because it's just so good. The section where Seb and Nathan hammer out sexuality and their own pasts is incredible; believable, written with an urgency and realism that is shocking. There are other flashes of brilliance coming in paragraph-length here and there, especially towards the back of the book. It's too bad these moments are swarmed by the anxious overwriting of the rest of the book.
I want to check in on this author in five years and see if they've sorted out their bad habits, or found an editor who was willing to beat back their bad habits. There is an incredible novel in here that maintains being hallucinatory rather than confusing. Unfortunately it's so overstuffed that the second character mentioned in the blurb doesn't show up til well after page 200.
Three stars, but effectively more like two and a half. The amazing parts are amazing, but more than a third of the novel is completely superfluous.
You can't do this to me, Black Forest. You can't give me the best premise and the best ending ever and then - the rest of it.
Black Forest is a breathless, crazed run through the mind of a gay teenager who can see ghosts. After a multipronged failure of relationships in high school made worse by his terrible visions, Nathan starts university hoping for a fresh start. Unfortunately what little control he had over his mind starts slipping away as a heady stew of murder, supernatural mindbending, and old flames tear through his life. Love that. Love all of that. Loved the ending. But.
I need to introduce this author to the concept of In Media Res. There are three parts to this book. The first part is one hundred and sixty pages of backstory to the main plot. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY. In those one hundred and sixty pages, the mechanisms of the world are explained, Nathan almost wets himself, the barest details of his first date with Sebastian are painstakingly sketched, a Native character brings up sacred lore gifted to him by his ancient grandmother with no prompting. None of these pages are necessary. I guess a few of the scenes could have been excised and inserted in part two, or done away with in dialogue in part two. But those full 160 pages do not need to be there. They are, strangely, markedly worse written than the rest of the book just on a technical level.
And that's a shame, because the back two thirds of the book can sometimes hit incredible. The writing improves markedly and it becomes a hallucinatory trip down this young man's white-hot psyche. There's a bit at the beginning that I feel was rewritten because it's just so good. The section where Seb and Nathan hammer out sexuality and their own pasts is incredible; believable, written with an urgency and realism that is shocking. There are other flashes of brilliance coming in paragraph-length here and there, especially towards the back of the book. It's too bad these moments are swarmed by the anxious overwriting of the rest of the book.
I want to check in on this author in five years and see if they've sorted out their bad habits, or found an editor who was willing to beat back their bad habits. There is an incredible novel in here that maintains being hallucinatory rather than confusing. Unfortunately it's so overstuffed that the second character mentioned in the blurb doesn't show up til well after page 200.
Three stars, but effectively more like two and a half. The amazing parts are amazing, but more than a third of the novel is completely superfluous.
June 13, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkshares for my DRC in exchange for my unbiased review.
For as long as he can remember, Nathan has been haunted by creatures he calls "deaders", disfigured and hungry ghosts. Nathan attempts to banish them with a seance that goes wrong and after which, Nathan escapes to Waxman University. Unfortunately for Nathan, young men begin to go missing from the campus. There is a bright spot; the mysterious Theo who helps Nathan in seeking out the truth of what's happening at Waxman and what is happening to Nathan. Can they figure the truth out before Nathan's reality fully breaks?
Honestly, the premise of this sounded promising; a young boy with the ability to see what others cannot and potentially using that ability to help others along with a dash of queer romance. Unfortunately, I was pretty close to DNF'ing this multiple times throughout the narrative. Dean spends A LOT of time focused on Nathan and his self-pitying love for his high school best friend, Logan, and bully Seb. It honestly was starting to read like an episode of "DeGrassi". I thought Nathan was a pretty sympathetic character and then, very quickly, I found myself annoyed with him. He just constantly waits until something happens to him rather than doing anything and it really slows down the narrative.
On top of not having a super appealing main character, the horror in this just did not pack any punch. There wasn't, at least to me, anything in the book that came across chilling, scary, visceral, etc . I think that because Nathan's internal monologue is so damn boring and the pacing of the narrative being already quite slow-paced, the bits of horror that Dean includes just fell REALLY short. And Dean does a lot of jumping around with Nathan's memories and time. I think in a different narrative and handled by a different writer, I think it would have been more effective but as it is this story and Dean's handling, it came across clunky and expository. This book could be a lot better if like 100 or more pages were edited out. There is so much time wasted on exposition and Nathan's whining.
Things do pick up around the 70-80% mark but by that time, I was speed reading and wanting to just be finished. I honestly couldn't even appreciate the ending because I was more happy with being done.
For as long as he can remember, Nathan has been haunted by creatures he calls "deaders", disfigured and hungry ghosts. Nathan attempts to banish them with a seance that goes wrong and after which, Nathan escapes to Waxman University. Unfortunately for Nathan, young men begin to go missing from the campus. There is a bright spot; the mysterious Theo who helps Nathan in seeking out the truth of what's happening at Waxman and what is happening to Nathan. Can they figure the truth out before Nathan's reality fully breaks?
Honestly, the premise of this sounded promising; a young boy with the ability to see what others cannot and potentially using that ability to help others along with a dash of queer romance. Unfortunately, I was pretty close to DNF'ing this multiple times throughout the narrative. Dean spends A LOT of time focused on Nathan and his self-pitying love for his high school best friend, Logan, and bully Seb. It honestly was starting to read like an episode of "DeGrassi". I thought Nathan was a pretty sympathetic character and then, very quickly, I found myself annoyed with him. He just constantly waits until something happens to him rather than doing anything and it really slows down the narrative.
On top of not having a super appealing main character, the horror in this just did not pack any punch. There wasn't, at least to me, anything in the book that came across chilling, scary, visceral, etc . I think that because Nathan's internal monologue is so damn boring and the pacing of the narrative being already quite slow-paced, the bits of horror that Dean includes just fell REALLY short. And Dean does a lot of jumping around with Nathan's memories and time. I think in a different narrative and handled by a different writer, I think it would have been more effective but as it is this story and Dean's handling, it came across clunky and expository. This book could be a lot better if like 100 or more pages were edited out. There is so much time wasted on exposition and Nathan's whining.
Things do pick up around the 70-80% mark but by that time, I was speed reading and wanting to just be finished. I honestly couldn't even appreciate the ending because I was more happy with being done.
November 23, 2022
I gotta be honest with you: I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, and I definitely didn’t expect it to be as freaky as it was. Maybe it’s because all the books people swear are scary aren’t scary to me or because I just have a very skewed perspective on the word “scary”, but this book is a trip and a half. It’s poetic, sad, angry, neurotic, tragic, disorienting, darkly romantic, fanciful (but not overly so), and deeply steeped in the darkest of fairy tales and American folklore. I guarantee you’ll spend most of this book wondering what the heck is truly going on, and that feeling only grows as the book goes on. In the end, you have to make a choice as to what you think really happened, and I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.
I’ll be frank with you in that there is a lot of homophobic language and behavior in this book, along with a lot of internalized homophobia. This appears both literally and metaphorically. If this behavior and the language surrounding it is a huge trigger for you, then be very aware that you will come across it multiple times in this book.
I found this book to be charming, in a way. Sounds unusual, I know, for a horror novel to be somewhat charming, but it sometimes was, with its bursts of Great Gatsby-like dialogue, small talk about mythology, ruminations on the original versions of fairy tales versus what Disney made of them, and shudder-inducing mentions of creatures from American folklore and Native American mythology that give even me the heebie-jeebees. It’s the kind of horror mixed with wonder that always makes me smile because it’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying all at once.
I will admit the story arc could be more solid. It’s not quite as well-plotted as it could be, but this isn’t a plot-driven novel. It’s a character-driven novel that could have been better supported with a more stable plot, but it didn’t need it to be a terrific amount of shivery fun. It’s not all fun and games either, let me tell you. There is a great deal of anger, sadness, and tragedy in this book too. And there’s also the eternal question when it comes to a novel like this (where our protagonist can see supernatural/paranormal beings): is it all in his head or not? Maybe it could even be both?
This book is a long, sad, horrible, freakish spiral into madness and desperation propelled by events that occurred before the book began and only perpetuated and/or accelerated by the protagonist’s mind or by events that happen during the book. It’s tragic, but the tragedy is a beautiful and angry mess. Well worth the read.
Thanks to NetGalley and InkShares for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: Genre Mashup/Ghost Story/Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Occult Horror/Psychological Thriller/Thriller
I’ll be frank with you in that there is a lot of homophobic language and behavior in this book, along with a lot of internalized homophobia. This appears both literally and metaphorically. If this behavior and the language surrounding it is a huge trigger for you, then be very aware that you will come across it multiple times in this book.
I found this book to be charming, in a way. Sounds unusual, I know, for a horror novel to be somewhat charming, but it sometimes was, with its bursts of Great Gatsby-like dialogue, small talk about mythology, ruminations on the original versions of fairy tales versus what Disney made of them, and shudder-inducing mentions of creatures from American folklore and Native American mythology that give even me the heebie-jeebees. It’s the kind of horror mixed with wonder that always makes me smile because it’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying all at once.
I will admit the story arc could be more solid. It’s not quite as well-plotted as it could be, but this isn’t a plot-driven novel. It’s a character-driven novel that could have been better supported with a more stable plot, but it didn’t need it to be a terrific amount of shivery fun. It’s not all fun and games either, let me tell you. There is a great deal of anger, sadness, and tragedy in this book too. And there’s also the eternal question when it comes to a novel like this (where our protagonist can see supernatural/paranormal beings): is it all in his head or not? Maybe it could even be both?
This book is a long, sad, horrible, freakish spiral into madness and desperation propelled by events that occurred before the book began and only perpetuated and/or accelerated by the protagonist’s mind or by events that happen during the book. It’s tragic, but the tragedy is a beautiful and angry mess. Well worth the read.
Thanks to NetGalley and InkShares for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
File Under: Genre Mashup/Ghost Story/Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Romance/Occult Horror/Psychological Thriller/Thriller
Shelved as 'dnf'
September 4, 2023Full disclosure. I didn't quite finish this book. I meant to. But life got busy, and I set it aside with the intention of coming back to it. That was last November. I've been shuffling it around my coffee table ever since. At this point, I just need to accept that I'm not going back. This is more circumstantial than a quality or dislike issue. If I finished it, I think I'd give it a 3-star, and I'd say this about what I read:
I’m torn about how to feel about this book. On the one hand, I'm enjoying it. I like the realness of it and Nathan’s unreliable self-destructiveness. I think the writing is purple as hell, which will probably bother some people, but I enjoy it. But on the other, I feel like (after a strong start) the book flags, and I got bored.
Plus, the blurb talks about Theo and disappearances, etc. Theo and Nathan don’t truly meet until well PAST THE HALFWAY MARK. So, I have to quibble with that being in the blurb as if it’s the most significant plotline. It’s important, don’t get me wrong. But if I have to read 200+ pages before I get to it, I can’t consider it prime real estate blurb-worthy.
All in all, this is atmospheric and mind-bending (if at times mind-numbing). But I am enjoying more of it than I'm not.
I’m torn about how to feel about this book. On the one hand, I'm enjoying it. I like the realness of it and Nathan’s unreliable self-destructiveness. I think the writing is purple as hell, which will probably bother some people, but I enjoy it. But on the other, I feel like (after a strong start) the book flags, and I got bored.
Plus, the blurb talks about Theo and disappearances, etc. Theo and Nathan don’t truly meet until well PAST THE HALFWAY MARK. So, I have to quibble with that being in the blurb as if it’s the most significant plotline. It’s important, don’t get me wrong. But if I have to read 200+ pages before I get to it, I can’t consider it prime real estate blurb-worthy.
All in all, this is atmospheric and mind-bending (if at times mind-numbing). But I am enjoying more of it than I'm not.
June 22, 2022
I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I have received this book by NetGalley and Inkshares, and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review. The Pub date of the book is 1st November 2022.
I don't think this book was for me.
I'm not going to say the story isn't good, but it was not for me. I realized that there was a specific narrative, and it had not reached me at all.
There's a lot of interest between Theo and Nathan - and maybe a little 'obsession' - but I didn't imagine there would be such a big focus on it and not on the story. It didn't make me fully understand this book.
I don't want to imply that it's not a good book and you shouldn't read it, far from it. I don't think I'm the "target", so I advise anyone interested to read it. Surely there will be someone who will appreciate what I didn't understand and will be able to enjoy it much more than I did - thus giving it the stars it deserves.
I had higher expectations given the synopsis, but other than that, it didn't raise me much more than a bit of curiosity, and then I got to the end of the book.
I liked the author's writing, though.
I don't think this book was for me.
I'm not going to say the story isn't good, but it was not for me. I realized that there was a specific narrative, and it had not reached me at all.
There's a lot of interest between Theo and Nathan - and maybe a little 'obsession' - but I didn't imagine there would be such a big focus on it and not on the story. It didn't make me fully understand this book.
I don't want to imply that it's not a good book and you shouldn't read it, far from it. I don't think I'm the "target", so I advise anyone interested to read it. Surely there will be someone who will appreciate what I didn't understand and will be able to enjoy it much more than I did - thus giving it the stars it deserves.
I had higher expectations given the synopsis, but other than that, it didn't raise me much more than a bit of curiosity, and then I got to the end of the book.
I liked the author's writing, though.
November 6, 2022
Nathan sees dead people. He's also terminally alone, confused, and wandering through life in high school and eventually college in fear of ending up that way forever. When a seance to contact the "deaders" goes awry, Nathan's life quickly deteriorates into a nightmarish haze which may or may not actually be happening.
Pros:
- Writing style is interesting and gets notable tighter as the book goes on.
- Emotional take on queer characters in a coming-of-age tale in high school and college.
Cons:
- Forgettable characters, dropped subplots, and confusing time jumps abound.
- Horror aspect isn't consistent enough to scare throughout the long run time of the book.
Three stars. I almost gave it two, but the writing style was quite good. Ultimately however, this is a book that doesn't quite know what it wants to be with a main character who is insufferable at best and infuriating at worst. It's not quite horror, not quite unreliable narrator, not quite thriller. It just is, and at its length, it becomes hard to justify at times.
FFO: confusion, the Sixth Sense, psychedelia.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Inkshares and Netgalley*
Pros:
- Writing style is interesting and gets notable tighter as the book goes on.
- Emotional take on queer characters in a coming-of-age tale in high school and college.
Cons:
- Forgettable characters, dropped subplots, and confusing time jumps abound.
- Horror aspect isn't consistent enough to scare throughout the long run time of the book.
Three stars. I almost gave it two, but the writing style was quite good. Ultimately however, this is a book that doesn't quite know what it wants to be with a main character who is insufferable at best and infuriating at worst. It's not quite horror, not quite unreliable narrator, not quite thriller. It just is, and at its length, it becomes hard to justify at times.
FFO: confusion, the Sixth Sense, psychedelia.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Inkshares and Netgalley*
September 12, 2022
This was dark and harrowing in a way I hadn’t anticipated, and I was here for it. The story itself was interesting and engaging, adding a supernatural layer on top of a queer coming-of-age storyline, itself awash with questions about mental health and narrative reliability. The story just revels in ambiguity, leaving the reader constantly doubting the veracity of the experiences as they are presented, and even asking bigger questions and leaving them somewhat open at the end. The ending does have some sort of definitive answers, in its own way, but they could easily be interpreted differently than the literal words on the page, and I liked that. It never felt like the novel was trying to evade or outsmart the reader, it just wasn’t willing to handfeed answers. Also, it’s worth noting there is some explicit sex and gore, but nothing too extreme or heavy-handed, and it never felt tawdry or exploitative, but instead was fitting for the story and the tone.
I really enjoyed the writing style. It flitted back and forth in time, not in a way to confuse the reader, and never being sneaky about it, but in a way that allowed for an interesting narrative flow that contributed to the sense of being overwhelmed, of not being able to keep up to the world outside of yourself. And the central character around which the whole story spins was incredibly detailed, complicated and felt very real. Similarly, the secondary characters all felt really. Some leaned a little on secondary character archetypes, but they all had a specificity about them that let me feel like I knew each of them, where they fit in the world, in the often-painful social hierarchy of high school and college life.
I did think the first part (the novel is divided into four sections, the first one being set in high school and taking up about 40% of the page length) dragged a little. It leaned more toward the “coming-of-age” side than the “weird supernatural stuff is going on” side, and since that isn’t really my preference maybe I just *experienced* it as dragging a little, and your mileage might vary, but I do think it could have been tightened up a little. The supernatural element was peppered throughout, it wasn’t absent, and the seeds for what was to come were well-planted, but the section just wasn’t as compelling as the rest of the story, and I could have done with a bit less of it.
The one other thing to say is that there were a handful of different pieces, whether they be subplots or secondary characters or whatnot, and at times it did feel very piecemeal, like things were dropped and ignored and then came back again somewhat arbitrarily. An ungenerous reading would suggest that the author was juggling lot of different ideas and wasn’t always successful at integrating them, so instead of the different pieces naturally working together and weaving in and out of one another they were just kind put side-by-side with the hope that the thematic continuity would hide the seams. However, a more generous reading would say that this entire story came through the lens of its main character, an emotional unstable teenager who is not only navigating what it means to finish high school and start college, itself a huge upheaval for many people, but is doing that while living with supernatural trauma that he has no understanding of or control over. So we experience the story the way he does, not in a linear or coherent fashion but one made up of vignettes, one looking at disparate pieces and slamming them into each other in the desperate grasp for meaning and value. There may be friends who are really important for a week and then you don’t think about them for a month, and so on, a lot of little pieces that are still learning where and how they fit. The writing does work toward this, as I mentioned, with the way time moves back and forth, and the way even the protagonist questions his own sanity and the reality behind his experiences as they are happening, not leaving us feeling comfortable in trusting the narrative as more than one of experience, if not fidelity. Considering the overall enjoyment I got from this story I am going to go ahead and adopt this second, more generous reading. But ideally this experience would be more seamless, I wouldn’t have to wonder if the author intended to evoke a certain thing or if the seams just weren’t as flush as they should be. Since that doubt was in my mind while reading it felt useful to mention.
Overall, this novel was a really fun ride. It was dark, it was visceral, and it was uncomfortable. The characters didn’t feel like tropes but like real people, even when they were behaving in stereotypical ways. And the writing and narrative styles were enticing, they really worked with the story. It definitely made me excited to check out Laramie Dean’s other work!
I want to thank NetGalley and Inkshares, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed the writing style. It flitted back and forth in time, not in a way to confuse the reader, and never being sneaky about it, but in a way that allowed for an interesting narrative flow that contributed to the sense of being overwhelmed, of not being able to keep up to the world outside of yourself. And the central character around which the whole story spins was incredibly detailed, complicated and felt very real. Similarly, the secondary characters all felt really. Some leaned a little on secondary character archetypes, but they all had a specificity about them that let me feel like I knew each of them, where they fit in the world, in the often-painful social hierarchy of high school and college life.
I did think the first part (the novel is divided into four sections, the first one being set in high school and taking up about 40% of the page length) dragged a little. It leaned more toward the “coming-of-age” side than the “weird supernatural stuff is going on” side, and since that isn’t really my preference maybe I just *experienced* it as dragging a little, and your mileage might vary, but I do think it could have been tightened up a little. The supernatural element was peppered throughout, it wasn’t absent, and the seeds for what was to come were well-planted, but the section just wasn’t as compelling as the rest of the story, and I could have done with a bit less of it.
The one other thing to say is that there were a handful of different pieces, whether they be subplots or secondary characters or whatnot, and at times it did feel very piecemeal, like things were dropped and ignored and then came back again somewhat arbitrarily. An ungenerous reading would suggest that the author was juggling lot of different ideas and wasn’t always successful at integrating them, so instead of the different pieces naturally working together and weaving in and out of one another they were just kind put side-by-side with the hope that the thematic continuity would hide the seams. However, a more generous reading would say that this entire story came through the lens of its main character, an emotional unstable teenager who is not only navigating what it means to finish high school and start college, itself a huge upheaval for many people, but is doing that while living with supernatural trauma that he has no understanding of or control over. So we experience the story the way he does, not in a linear or coherent fashion but one made up of vignettes, one looking at disparate pieces and slamming them into each other in the desperate grasp for meaning and value. There may be friends who are really important for a week and then you don’t think about them for a month, and so on, a lot of little pieces that are still learning where and how they fit. The writing does work toward this, as I mentioned, with the way time moves back and forth, and the way even the protagonist questions his own sanity and the reality behind his experiences as they are happening, not leaving us feeling comfortable in trusting the narrative as more than one of experience, if not fidelity. Considering the overall enjoyment I got from this story I am going to go ahead and adopt this second, more generous reading. But ideally this experience would be more seamless, I wouldn’t have to wonder if the author intended to evoke a certain thing or if the seams just weren’t as flush as they should be. Since that doubt was in my mind while reading it felt useful to mention.
Overall, this novel was a really fun ride. It was dark, it was visceral, and it was uncomfortable. The characters didn’t feel like tropes but like real people, even when they were behaving in stereotypical ways. And the writing and narrative styles were enticing, they really worked with the story. It definitely made me excited to check out Laramie Dean’s other work!
I want to thank NetGalley and Inkshares, who provided a complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 7, 2022
Thank you to the publisher for the eArc of this book, I am so grateful.
I was initially so excited to read this book because it sounded so interesting and right up my alley, so it's unfortunate to say that I had to dnf it.
From the beginning i found the book quite boring, which definitely shouldn't happen with a horror, and even as I tried to read on I kept wanting to put the book down and read something else.
The premise of the book is what initially caught my interest so it's unfortunate that the writing style wasn't for me! I also wasn't much of a fan of the MC, which normally for me makes or breaks a book.
There will definitely be others who will enjoy this book and I am so happy that they do! I wish I was one of them.
Again thank you to the publisher for the copy in exchange for my honest review.
I was initially so excited to read this book because it sounded so interesting and right up my alley, so it's unfortunate to say that I had to dnf it.
From the beginning i found the book quite boring, which definitely shouldn't happen with a horror, and even as I tried to read on I kept wanting to put the book down and read something else.
The premise of the book is what initially caught my interest so it's unfortunate that the writing style wasn't for me! I also wasn't much of a fan of the MC, which normally for me makes or breaks a book.
There will definitely be others who will enjoy this book and I am so happy that they do! I wish I was one of them.
Again thank you to the publisher for the copy in exchange for my honest review.
June 5, 2024
i have absolutely no idea what i just read but it was fun and frustrating and insane and beautiful.
September 28, 2023
What exactly did I just read? I was looking for a creepy horror story and instead I got a gay teenaged angst story with a touch of dark paranormal romance? Or is it all on his head? Regardless, I kept turning the pages.
December 30, 2022
Laramie Dean’s ‘Black Forest’ is a decent novel, but it struggles to understand what it wants to both do and be—is it a queer coming-of-age novel wrapped up in a horror story, or is it a teen melodrama with flashes of horror mixed into it? Are we supposed to sympathize with the main character, Nathan, or are we supposed to despise him? Do we believe that the world we see and read about through his eyes is real, or is his reality something wholly different than everyone else’s? And what do we do with the supporting characters that seem to flit in and out of the narrative with no clear role in the larger story?
The basics of the story are simple—we first meet Nathan, our main protagonist and narrator, when he’s a senior in high school. We read about his life up to that point and watch him interact with other kids in his grade, mostly his best friend, Logan, and a male bully-but-not-really named Seb. Both Nathan and Logan are gay, but the kids at school treat them differently—they look at Nathan like a freak and an outcast, and it mainly revolves around his obsession with everything dark and creepy. Logan, on the other hand, is the typical popular high school jock, and there’s a clear difference between the two of them, enough that their friendship is starting to fray. There’s also Seb, a kid who bullied the heck out of Nathan when he was younger, but there’s more to the relationship that Nathan and Seb share in the book’s present-day than that. Without going into full spoilers, just know that Seb is not just a bully to him anymore. Along with being introduced to the main characters, readers are also told that Nathan can see dead people, or ‘deaders,’ and they’ve followed him around since he was a preteen. Unlike some other horror novels or movies where characters can see dead people, these deaders can actually touch Nathan and interact with the real world, and they’re starting to take a mental toll on him.
After all of this information is gleaned in the opening pages, the next 150 pages are spent watching Nathan interact with his peers and wonder about the future. And when I say most of the pages are spent on Nathan talking to others, I mean we literally read, for pages upon pages upon pages, his conversations both with himself and his friends and frenemies. An editor was sorely needed for this part of the book, and there’s so much extraneous conversation that I found myself skimming over portions of the text when pages-long talks occurred. The actual plot at this point of the book is also a little thin, as it mainly revolves around Nathan figuring out who he is as a gay teenager and trying to get rid of the deaders while also delving in and out of a seemingly dual reality where the deaders come from.
Without much of a resolution to the first part of the novel, the latter two-thirds of the book then focuses on Nathan during his freshman year at college, and it’s much of the same—we watch him interact with new friends and professors/teachers and lovers, attend (or not) his new classes, and dig into a mystery that captivates his college campus. The biggest problem with this though is that the most interesting part of the book—students keep mysteriously disappearing across campus, and it seems like there’s a serial killer on the loose—is merely background noise while we instead watch Nathan befriend new peers and interact with a graduate student who then takes advantage of him later on. The plot is thin and doesn’t drive the narrative forward at all, and making it background noise in the larger context of the story doesn’t help the overall book. Add in an ending that was confusing, abstract, and left many plot points unresolved, and you get a book that’s a little bloated and could’ve been great if it either had a third of it cut out or it was split into two different novels—one of Nathan’s time in high school and one of his freshman year at college.
But, saying all this, I still enjoyed the book to an extent—Nathan as a character could be fascinating, and there are enough melodramatic moments and dynamics between him and his friends and lovers that I found myself never once putting the book down to read something else, and I think that speaks to Dean’s ability to shape well-rounded characters. Yes, the dialogue sounded the same for each character, which is a bit of a problem, but the situations that Dean put them in, and the way that he was pretty raw with his language and situational danger that he put Nathan in time and time again, helps to move the story along when the plot is almost non-existent. I think with a better editor, Dean could’ve had a tight, thrilling horror novel that is also a queer coming-of-age tale set in Montana.
And, speaking of Montana—there is a distinct lack of setting and feeling to the story despite where it takes place. There are occasional passages about the mountains that surround Nathan’s town and the ‘big blue Montana sky,’ but there is nothing in the story that made me feel like you couldn’t pick these characters and the loose storylines that connect them up and drop them anywhere else in the world and achieve the same results.
Overall, this is a decent novel. It has some great ideas that it tries to explore, and the queer coming-of-age portion of it was both entertaining and enlightening to read, while also something different than what most adult novels in the horror genre contain today. However, the lack of purposeful characterization and distinct dialogue, combined with the horror elements taking a backseat to the melodrama of Nathan and his supporting characters, causes the book to sag throughout multiple parts of it, and its 400-page-length is hard to justify. But, if you’re looking for a novel that mixes teen angst with some horror elements sprinkled throughout, look no further.
Thanks to NetGalley, Inkshares, and Laramie Dean for the digital ARC of ‘Black Forest’ in exchange for an honest review.
The basics of the story are simple—we first meet Nathan, our main protagonist and narrator, when he’s a senior in high school. We read about his life up to that point and watch him interact with other kids in his grade, mostly his best friend, Logan, and a male bully-but-not-really named Seb. Both Nathan and Logan are gay, but the kids at school treat them differently—they look at Nathan like a freak and an outcast, and it mainly revolves around his obsession with everything dark and creepy. Logan, on the other hand, is the typical popular high school jock, and there’s a clear difference between the two of them, enough that their friendship is starting to fray. There’s also Seb, a kid who bullied the heck out of Nathan when he was younger, but there’s more to the relationship that Nathan and Seb share in the book’s present-day than that. Without going into full spoilers, just know that Seb is not just a bully to him anymore. Along with being introduced to the main characters, readers are also told that Nathan can see dead people, or ‘deaders,’ and they’ve followed him around since he was a preteen. Unlike some other horror novels or movies where characters can see dead people, these deaders can actually touch Nathan and interact with the real world, and they’re starting to take a mental toll on him.
After all of this information is gleaned in the opening pages, the next 150 pages are spent watching Nathan interact with his peers and wonder about the future. And when I say most of the pages are spent on Nathan talking to others, I mean we literally read, for pages upon pages upon pages, his conversations both with himself and his friends and frenemies. An editor was sorely needed for this part of the book, and there’s so much extraneous conversation that I found myself skimming over portions of the text when pages-long talks occurred. The actual plot at this point of the book is also a little thin, as it mainly revolves around Nathan figuring out who he is as a gay teenager and trying to get rid of the deaders while also delving in and out of a seemingly dual reality where the deaders come from.
Without much of a resolution to the first part of the novel, the latter two-thirds of the book then focuses on Nathan during his freshman year at college, and it’s much of the same—we watch him interact with new friends and professors/teachers and lovers, attend (or not) his new classes, and dig into a mystery that captivates his college campus. The biggest problem with this though is that the most interesting part of the book—students keep mysteriously disappearing across campus, and it seems like there’s a serial killer on the loose—is merely background noise while we instead watch Nathan befriend new peers and interact with a graduate student who then takes advantage of him later on. The plot is thin and doesn’t drive the narrative forward at all, and making it background noise in the larger context of the story doesn’t help the overall book. Add in an ending that was confusing, abstract, and left many plot points unresolved, and you get a book that’s a little bloated and could’ve been great if it either had a third of it cut out or it was split into two different novels—one of Nathan’s time in high school and one of his freshman year at college.
But, saying all this, I still enjoyed the book to an extent—Nathan as a character could be fascinating, and there are enough melodramatic moments and dynamics between him and his friends and lovers that I found myself never once putting the book down to read something else, and I think that speaks to Dean’s ability to shape well-rounded characters. Yes, the dialogue sounded the same for each character, which is a bit of a problem, but the situations that Dean put them in, and the way that he was pretty raw with his language and situational danger that he put Nathan in time and time again, helps to move the story along when the plot is almost non-existent. I think with a better editor, Dean could’ve had a tight, thrilling horror novel that is also a queer coming-of-age tale set in Montana.
And, speaking of Montana—there is a distinct lack of setting and feeling to the story despite where it takes place. There are occasional passages about the mountains that surround Nathan’s town and the ‘big blue Montana sky,’ but there is nothing in the story that made me feel like you couldn’t pick these characters and the loose storylines that connect them up and drop them anywhere else in the world and achieve the same results.
Overall, this is a decent novel. It has some great ideas that it tries to explore, and the queer coming-of-age portion of it was both entertaining and enlightening to read, while also something different than what most adult novels in the horror genre contain today. However, the lack of purposeful characterization and distinct dialogue, combined with the horror elements taking a backseat to the melodrama of Nathan and his supporting characters, causes the book to sag throughout multiple parts of it, and its 400-page-length is hard to justify. But, if you’re looking for a novel that mixes teen angst with some horror elements sprinkled throughout, look no further.
Thanks to NetGalley, Inkshares, and Laramie Dean for the digital ARC of ‘Black Forest’ in exchange for an honest review.
February 1, 2023
Black Forest stands out miles ahead of the pack, considering that it is a crowdfunded debut novel, which nine times out of ten, means 'vanity publish'. This is a genuinely thoughtful and inventive tale. I harken back to a book club I was in where to celebrate pride month, we had to select a horror novel by a trans author, and it was the most gratingly awful narcissistic garbage I'd ever read (The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan). Well, Black Forest is nothing like that at all. This is a superb first novel. It might be the finest extremely gay horror novel of all time. I would be remiss to deny typical shortcomings, but first, let's bask in this grand accomplishment.
The setting is Garden City - an eidetic, distorted version of the idyllic college town, Missoula, MT, and so the narrative rings with nostalgia and the joy of just being in this beautiful world. Having finished the book, I now genuinely miss it, and I regret that we didn't spend more time just wandering around and partying in town. The tone and voice of the story are consistently superb, and combined with the setting and supernatural elements, certainly evoke Stephen King all around, although much more gay. Stephen Queen? The sexuality is ever present, but is never entirely gratuitous. It is far more to the side of sweetness and sexy but pathological romance than outright erotic fiction. I would have no issue with suggesting this book to a high schooler.
Dean is daring, original, and masterful where he combines romantic fantasy with the macabre, and if anything, I wish the author would double down on these elements. What I could do without is the identity twisting and sociopathic monologuing more typical of a Chuck Pahlaniuk novel, or a Shyamalan flick. In order for these elements to work, a novel would have to be considerably more tight, concise, and two dimensional, and so I personally felt that the Sleepaway Camp moments in the story were a betrayal to a more realistic, gripping, and cerebral telling of the gay experience meets paranormal spiritualism.
I can forgive the author's quirk (not trying to spoil it for you), that virtually every male character is eventually gay even if they are married, homophobic, or obviously straight. This is clearly a humorous and intentional drinking game delivered intentionally - because it knows its audience. And why not? In typical genre fiction, the man and woman always end up together, even if it makes no sense. This is payback. I am also not entirely bothered by unrealistic depictions of homophobia, where I'm pretty sure that if some rednecks in a college town coffee shop started shouting out F$gg$t bombs and threats, completely unprovoked, because two cute guys were on a date together, those guys would be in far more danger than their targets. And if not, they sure wouldn't back down and flee when one of the gay guys suggested they are the local serial killer. These moments are few and far between, but again, suggest a B-movie or amateur novel setting which betrays the more genuinely heartfelt, uncanny, and haunting moments.
The opening to this story hooks the reader instantly, and stays very compelling for the establishing chapters. The roller coaster of an ending is quite gripping as well. I read the last 100 pages in one sitting. It doesn't do EXACTLY what you're expecting, and as always, the voice and imagery soar. However, let's be fair. If I could edit this book, I would strike out roughly half of what is written; not because it's bad, particularly, but for pacing. Especially in the middle. At times, the narrative suffers from repetition, unnecessary detail, the dialogue tries to add jokes or be witty or reference Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland, and you get really, really tired of the protagonist being dishonest with himself and his friends, very often thinking one thing, saying another, and then contradicting both with his actions. You get tired of daydreaming. This novel should never stray far from the model of character-wants-this, but-this-happens, so-character-does-this. If a particular scene or moment or character doesn't very clearly have anything to do with anything, it really ought to be left out. The remaining 200 pages would be a masterpiece.
I will never forget this book, and I hope to see more books from this outstanding author. I hope that they are exactly half as long. I hope that they present several unique characters who all have their own very queer lives and interests and those are part of the story. I hope that it is clear whether the threats are real and what the stakes are. I want to explore Garden City, the halls of Royal High School, the woods around Waxman University, the paranormal underworld and the Lambda Dances and the whole everyone-is-gay subculture. And I would really prefer a more conventional plot architecture, at least for now. What about an anthology of short stories about Montana spooks, ghouls, and crypto beasties with tons and tons of homo love. I think that would be an ideal format!
The setting is Garden City - an eidetic, distorted version of the idyllic college town, Missoula, MT, and so the narrative rings with nostalgia and the joy of just being in this beautiful world. Having finished the book, I now genuinely miss it, and I regret that we didn't spend more time just wandering around and partying in town. The tone and voice of the story are consistently superb, and combined with the setting and supernatural elements, certainly evoke Stephen King all around, although much more gay. Stephen Queen? The sexuality is ever present, but is never entirely gratuitous. It is far more to the side of sweetness and sexy but pathological romance than outright erotic fiction. I would have no issue with suggesting this book to a high schooler.
Dean is daring, original, and masterful where he combines romantic fantasy with the macabre, and if anything, I wish the author would double down on these elements. What I could do without is the identity twisting and sociopathic monologuing more typical of a Chuck Pahlaniuk novel, or a Shyamalan flick. In order for these elements to work, a novel would have to be considerably more tight, concise, and two dimensional, and so I personally felt that the Sleepaway Camp moments in the story were a betrayal to a more realistic, gripping, and cerebral telling of the gay experience meets paranormal spiritualism.
I can forgive the author's quirk (not trying to spoil it for you), that virtually every male character is eventually gay even if they are married, homophobic, or obviously straight. This is clearly a humorous and intentional drinking game delivered intentionally - because it knows its audience. And why not? In typical genre fiction, the man and woman always end up together, even if it makes no sense. This is payback. I am also not entirely bothered by unrealistic depictions of homophobia, where I'm pretty sure that if some rednecks in a college town coffee shop started shouting out F$gg$t bombs and threats, completely unprovoked, because two cute guys were on a date together, those guys would be in far more danger than their targets. And if not, they sure wouldn't back down and flee when one of the gay guys suggested they are the local serial killer. These moments are few and far between, but again, suggest a B-movie or amateur novel setting which betrays the more genuinely heartfelt, uncanny, and haunting moments.
The opening to this story hooks the reader instantly, and stays very compelling for the establishing chapters. The roller coaster of an ending is quite gripping as well. I read the last 100 pages in one sitting. It doesn't do EXACTLY what you're expecting, and as always, the voice and imagery soar. However, let's be fair. If I could edit this book, I would strike out roughly half of what is written; not because it's bad, particularly, but for pacing. Especially in the middle. At times, the narrative suffers from repetition, unnecessary detail, the dialogue tries to add jokes or be witty or reference Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland, and you get really, really tired of the protagonist being dishonest with himself and his friends, very often thinking one thing, saying another, and then contradicting both with his actions. You get tired of daydreaming. This novel should never stray far from the model of character-wants-this, but-this-happens, so-character-does-this. If a particular scene or moment or character doesn't very clearly have anything to do with anything, it really ought to be left out. The remaining 200 pages would be a masterpiece.
I will never forget this book, and I hope to see more books from this outstanding author. I hope that they are exactly half as long. I hope that they present several unique characters who all have their own very queer lives and interests and those are part of the story. I hope that it is clear whether the threats are real and what the stakes are. I want to explore Garden City, the halls of Royal High School, the woods around Waxman University, the paranormal underworld and the Lambda Dances and the whole everyone-is-gay subculture. And I would really prefer a more conventional plot architecture, at least for now. What about an anthology of short stories about Montana spooks, ghouls, and crypto beasties with tons and tons of homo love. I think that would be an ideal format!
June 29, 2022
"We have to make our own realities because we live in so many of them."
Black Forest by Laramie Dean is a gothic queer horror in which Nathan can see ghosts, the outsiders, the lost boys, and the demon. Nathan is the worst kind of character. At first, there were things which made him interesting, but as the story progressed, his character grew vexing. Nathan is an insatiable creature. Nothing ever seems to satisfy him. He constantly denies the evil within him, and this denial comes out as sexual frustration and other bad things. Nathan, in his eyes, is always the victim. The first half of the book was a constant pity party with him complaining about how he was in love with his best friend, and how he let a straight guy fuck him. I was so relieved when his mom told him, "The world doesn't hang squarely on you, you know. The world, little man, it isn't all about you." 39.60% of the book's content was unnecessary and drawled on a narrative that held little relevance to the current story.
There was nothing visceral in the story in terms of horror. All we had was recurring sex scenes and Nathan's dislike of every other character except the bad ones. Everything else was pushed aside in the narrative.
The missing boys were not cared about, only the killer mattered. After Seb's death, Nathan was so happy it was cruel and made me want to slap him. As for Deborah, hers was a token death. She had done nothing bad, and yet the narrative made her look like an insignificant person. There was no mourning of her death. It was the worst thing I have read.
The narrative read like a fever dream, with no linear development. The author tried so hard to keep the reader from understanding the narrative that when it all came together; it had little impact. Not to mention the ending, the plotline was revealed in the synopsis itself. Overall, this book had no mystery, no appeal, and no one other than the main character was given space. Laramie Dean tried hard to hint to the themes of alcoholism, schizophrenia, manipulative relationships, folklore, and mental health, but it failed. The premise was interesting. The story could have done much better, but it did not, which is a shame.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of Black Forest in exchange for an honest review.>
Black Forest by Laramie Dean is a gothic queer horror in which Nathan can see ghosts, the outsiders, the lost boys, and the demon. Nathan is the worst kind of character. At first, there were things which made him interesting, but as the story progressed, his character grew vexing. Nathan is an insatiable creature. Nothing ever seems to satisfy him. He constantly denies the evil within him, and this denial comes out as sexual frustration and other bad things. Nathan, in his eyes, is always the victim. The first half of the book was a constant pity party with him complaining about how he was in love with his best friend, and how he let a straight guy fuck him. I was so relieved when his mom told him, "The world doesn't hang squarely on you, you know. The world, little man, it isn't all about you." 39.60% of the book's content was unnecessary and drawled on a narrative that held little relevance to the current story.
There was nothing visceral in the story in terms of horror. All we had was recurring sex scenes and Nathan's dislike of every other character except the bad ones. Everything else was pushed aside in the narrative.
The missing boys were not cared about, only the killer mattered. After Seb's death, Nathan was so happy it was cruel and made me want to slap him. As for Deborah, hers was a token death. She had done nothing bad, and yet the narrative made her look like an insignificant person. There was no mourning of her death. It was the worst thing I have read.
The narrative read like a fever dream, with no linear development. The author tried so hard to keep the reader from understanding the narrative that when it all came together; it had little impact. Not to mention the ending, the plotline was revealed in the synopsis itself. Overall, this book had no mystery, no appeal, and no one other than the main character was given space. Laramie Dean tried hard to hint to the themes of alcoholism, schizophrenia, manipulative relationships, folklore, and mental health, but it failed. The premise was interesting. The story could have done much better, but it did not, which is a shame.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of Black Forest in exchange for an honest review.>
November 22, 2022
Stephen King once wrote, about his haunted hotel, The Overlook, "This inhuman place makes human monsters". Was there ever a time or place more purportedly inhuman than early college years, cranking out human monsters with deliberate indulgence? Laramie Dean's 'Dark Forest' explores not only the external terror of a young gay man tentatively insinuating himself into a new world, alone & with almost no safety net, but also the internal horror of having lived in your own head for so long, how can you make sense of anything outside it? Protagonist Nathan, formed by the vast spaces and the ever-present winds of near-empty Eastern Montana, sees dead people. They follow him to school one day, across the state to Garden City, which ought to be against the rules. People around him at college begin to be added to their ghastly number. But are these wicked creatures real, are they his past catching up, are they premonitions? Or has he created them himself, because the true monsters around him (the failed loves, the drifting-apart friends, the "demon lover" he perhaps summoned, the powerful words which won't come through although he's SURE he said them aloud) are just that much harder to face down?
Although the book began a little slowly for me, I found Nathan's many human interactions & relationships to be the best parts of the story. Nathan's blade-sharp retreat into himself when longtime-friend-with-benefits Seb thoughtlessly rebuffs him; Nathan's bemused observation of the worn relationship between his professor & the professor's world-weary wife, who surely knows her spouse's proclivities well; Nathan's attraction to & simultaneous repellance of the fascinating Theo, who both is and isn't what he seems. And the ending? Surprising, but perhaps not all THAT shocking. Something inside us must admire those human monsters all around, or there wouldn't be so many of them in our heads, OR in our lives.
Bravo, Dr Dean! I can't wait to find out which other nightmare monsters will fall mercilessly from your brain to your written pages, to taunt us next.
Although the book began a little slowly for me, I found Nathan's many human interactions & relationships to be the best parts of the story. Nathan's blade-sharp retreat into himself when longtime-friend-with-benefits Seb thoughtlessly rebuffs him; Nathan's bemused observation of the worn relationship between his professor & the professor's world-weary wife, who surely knows her spouse's proclivities well; Nathan's attraction to & simultaneous repellance of the fascinating Theo, who both is and isn't what he seems. And the ending? Surprising, but perhaps not all THAT shocking. Something inside us must admire those human monsters all around, or there wouldn't be so many of them in our heads, OR in our lives.
Bravo, Dr Dean! I can't wait to find out which other nightmare monsters will fall mercilessly from your brain to your written pages, to taunt us next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2023
nathan -who has been seeing dead people and hearing voices in his head off and on since he was a child- is going off to college and becoming separated from his lifelong best friend and from the boy he's been secretly sleeping with; he thinks college is going to Fix Everything and is desperate to find The Love Of His Life and be happily ever after, however, the dead and the voices have other plans. ummmmmmm. I'm sort of at a loss with this one? some of the writing was lovely and striking. a lot of the dialogue was not at all the way young men talk to each other, which i always find uncomfortable to read - it doesn't flow, for me. the protag is at one point told exactly what's going to happen and then he somehow does not notice when the things he was told will happen begin happening exactly the way he was told they would, and he continues not noticing! the whole way through! that shit drives me NUTS! the majority of the book was very dreamlike, the protag (and reader) are never quite sure if what's happening is really happening -the author did this purposefully, i mean, it wasn't just, like confusing or poorly written, but i didn't care for it. i don't know, it all just felt, at the end, like ultimately nothing had happened, or mattered, or was tied up in any way. i didn't hate it. it frustrated me and left me feeling unfulfilled, but i wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it if they're interested. 3/5.
May 17, 2022
Nathan saw visions of the dead when he was a young child, then not again until his senior year of high school. Insecure, lonely, in love with his best friend, and out as a gay teen, he wonders whether these visions are real or whether or not he’s losing his mind. He seems disconnected from his family, and really had no one to confide in. His life seems to be a mess, and he’s hoping all this will change when he goes to college. But things aren’t much better there as mysterious student disappearances plague the campus, and he sees more “dealers”, as he calls them. Lonely and distraught, he performs a spell and “summons” someone to be his true friend. does meet Theo, a secretive student whom he falls for, but as they become more involved, his visions worsen and his grasp on reality seems to slip.
There are moments of great writing in the book, but also moments where I just wanted to finish the book as scenes just went on and on and on. Nathan recognizes his life is a mess and knows that he may be crazy, but never seeks help. Even his best friend who knows about these visions never suggests he seek psychiatric help, a point that kept nagging at me as I read the book.
I do have to say that the ending of the book caught me by surprise.
Overall, an uneven but interesting debut novel.
My thanks to Inkshares and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Black Forest.
There are moments of great writing in the book, but also moments where I just wanted to finish the book as scenes just went on and on and on. Nathan recognizes his life is a mess and knows that he may be crazy, but never seeks help. Even his best friend who knows about these visions never suggests he seek psychiatric help, a point that kept nagging at me as I read the book.
I do have to say that the ending of the book caught me by surprise.
Overall, an uneven but interesting debut novel.
My thanks to Inkshares and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Black Forest.
July 21, 2022
Nathan is a teenager who is having a difficult time. He's a senior in high school, he's gay, and he sees dead people. It all began at an old antique shop in Garden City where a boy without a shadow started teasing him and a woman with rips and shreds in her face chased him down the stairs. Ever since then, he's been able to see what he calls "Deaders" and hears these voices within his head. Black Forest is a story about Nathan's time trying to deal with the Deaders, while also trying to find love and maybe a little bit of sanity.
I had high, high hopes for this book and maybe it just wasn't for me. I quickly grew tired of Nathan and his inner ramblings. I know the book was intentionally set to jump through memories at times but found those times extremely annoying. It would have been better if there was just a beginning, middle, and end, not beginning, the past, the past again, the middle, the past, the past, and then the end. The horror parts weren't all that scary and were sometimes confusing. Nathan didn't seem to know what he really wanted. Did he want to stop the Deaders from coming? Did he want to find "The One"? Did he want to help solve the mystery of the missing boys?
I just wasn't feeling this, unfortunately.
Thank you NetGalley and InkShares for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
I had high, high hopes for this book and maybe it just wasn't for me. I quickly grew tired of Nathan and his inner ramblings. I know the book was intentionally set to jump through memories at times but found those times extremely annoying. It would have been better if there was just a beginning, middle, and end, not beginning, the past, the past again, the middle, the past, the past, and then the end. The horror parts weren't all that scary and were sometimes confusing. Nathan didn't seem to know what he really wanted. Did he want to stop the Deaders from coming? Did he want to find "The One"? Did he want to help solve the mystery of the missing boys?
I just wasn't feeling this, unfortunately.
Thank you NetGalley and InkShares for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
January 14, 2024
This story was more like a mindless read. You read it, but there really isn't any substance or value to the story to make it all that memorable. There is a lot going on, yet they just smush everything together and make it muddy to the reader.
Normally, I wouldn't read the description of a book. I find that if I do, I often end up talking myself out of reading the book or find it less interesting than it might be. In this instance, I did read the description. I thought a story about a boy who could see ghosts and monsters and solving a mystery would be interesting. It didn't live up to its promise.
On top of that, there were other problems with the story. The timeline was confusing to follow. I had a hard time with all the jumping around. Also, the teen viewpoint in this book did not help. Sometimes it helps tie everything together. In this one, not so much. The best it does is make you really annoyed with the protagonist. I was waiting for him to grow up. Which he really didn't do as much as I would have liked.
I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
Normally, I wouldn't read the description of a book. I find that if I do, I often end up talking myself out of reading the book or find it less interesting than it might be. In this instance, I did read the description. I thought a story about a boy who could see ghosts and monsters and solving a mystery would be interesting. It didn't live up to its promise.
On top of that, there were other problems with the story. The timeline was confusing to follow. I had a hard time with all the jumping around. Also, the teen viewpoint in this book did not help. Sometimes it helps tie everything together. In this one, not so much. The best it does is make you really annoyed with the protagonist. I was waiting for him to grow up. Which he really didn't do as much as I would have liked.
I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
May 31, 2022
I received an arc from netgalley for this review
This was a fun ride. I'll start by saying that I've bumped this up from a three star to a four star solely for the fact that its a queer story, and there's a dearth of horror books starring gay male characters. I need more, quickly please.
The horror itself is great, visceral and fun. It's haunting, and the slight unreliable narrator aspect of it really lends to that feeling of wtf is going on.
My biggest issue is that I feel like at last 100 pages could have been cut out of this book, or shortened significantly, and it wouldn't have messed with the outcome or story at all. There's a whole section that is just backstory that could have been conveyed in so many other ways than it was, and that part was a huge slog to get through.
The ending though. Damn.
I recommend it if you're into horror, just know that you're not going to get something that is a cookie cutter m/m story.
This was a fun ride. I'll start by saying that I've bumped this up from a three star to a four star solely for the fact that its a queer story, and there's a dearth of horror books starring gay male characters. I need more, quickly please.
The horror itself is great, visceral and fun. It's haunting, and the slight unreliable narrator aspect of it really lends to that feeling of wtf is going on.
My biggest issue is that I feel like at last 100 pages could have been cut out of this book, or shortened significantly, and it wouldn't have messed with the outcome or story at all. There's a whole section that is just backstory that could have been conveyed in so many other ways than it was, and that part was a huge slog to get through.
The ending though. Damn.
I recommend it if you're into horror, just know that you're not going to get something that is a cookie cutter m/m story.
May 22, 2022
Ah. Well, for me, it was almost a DNF.
But I persisted.
Laramie shapes a fine character with Nathan and his ongoing musings with the deaders (and the rest of the gang).
There are supernatural elements, but not in a horror kind of way (for me).
Some parts too long and bits jumping around in time. Jumping that caused a little confusion at times (many).
The writing improves over the book and I will revisit the author once they have a few books under their belt.
It's over. A 2.85.
Many thanks to Inkshare and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy.
But I persisted.
Laramie shapes a fine character with Nathan and his ongoing musings with the deaders (and the rest of the gang).
There are supernatural elements, but not in a horror kind of way (for me).
Some parts too long and bits jumping around in time. Jumping that caused a little confusion at times (many).
The writing improves over the book and I will revisit the author once they have a few books under their belt.
It's over. A 2.85.
Many thanks to Inkshare and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy.
July 19, 2022
Thanks to Netgalley and Inkshares for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This was almost my first DNF. The horror elements fall too short. The premise of the book was what it had going for it. It started out like it would be a good read but it dragged on and the main character became annoying.
This was almost my first DNF. The horror elements fall too short. The premise of the book was what it had going for it. It started out like it would be a good read but it dragged on and the main character became annoying.
August 4, 2022
I struggled to get into this one. The synopsis was really interesting, but getting into the story, I found it cluttered and chaotic and not in a good way. The pacing was distracting and hard to follow. Overall I just found myself not interested in the story.
Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 10, 2022
This was a book that was just ok for me. It took a lot of the book for me to really get interested in the story. Others may find it more interesting.
I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion
I received an ARC and this is my unbiased opinion
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