mkclldub's books

"He would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying."

i finished this book at exactly 11:11am. i'm not the most spiritual person, but i found that to mean something; i just don't know what. not yet.

rarely am i someone with the ability to finish a book in a day, let alone a single morning; i guess this book has already changed my being in a way. i picked this book up after years of wanting to read it, and thank god i did. my high school sociology teacher--the one who introduced me to the subject and impacted my degree path forever--talked about this book and how important it was her students read it someday. i remembered my instant interest in the novel, only now remembering to look for it and complete it as i wished to do for three years now. morrie sounds like he was--and remains--a wonderful teacher and person. i found myself invested in his philosophy, agreeing with his vulnerabilitiy, wanting to change the way i live because of his documented conversations with the author. this is truly a magnificent read, and any person would benefit greatly from engaging with it, regardless of their current position in society. this will remain one of my favorite books of all time.

access a pdf copy of the novel here

"'Is he possessed?' a woman in the back hissed. 'Is he a democrat?' one man gasped."

sadly, this book was a bit of a letdown. it has quite high ratings on goodreads and the kindle app, but i found the antagonist to be written cartoonishly; this could be personal preference, but the guy was juvenile, and became less intimidating and more irritating than anything. the book had many vile moments, and the end was objectively brutal, but i found myself continuing to read for the hero's journey rather than the intensity of the villain, which was a bit disappointing for a religious-horror novella.

i enjoyed the author's critique of religion and thought he wrote said critique well, but the point of the novella wasn't solely to relay a message--it, in part, exists to create dicomfort, disgust, fear, et cetera, none of which i felt a majority of the time. it could be because "woom" was so viceral and rancid that this book fell flat, but i enjoyed the small moments of comedy and irony more than anything else in this book as a i read. maybe it's my overinvolvelent in sociology (it's my major) and my years-long obsession with the occult, but i was kind of disappointed. i don't have anything else to redundantly state.

started this book believing it would be one of the most vile, nasty, gnarly reads of my life. while it's pretty gross and often vile, i'm a bit disappointed by the predictability of the plot. it could be my pattern recognition skills and/or neurodivergence, but i found myself knowing the end not even halfway through the read.

by no means, however, is this a bad book!! it's such an interesting take on splatterpunk--one i appreciate as it has a substantial plot and interesting progression. often, gore and nastiness in literature is deemed tasteless, especially when found in splatterpunk stories, but i'd say 75-80% of the nasty bits of this book were necessary for the reader's immersion.

i adored shyla as a protagonist and i found the characters quite realistic for how insane the plot of "woom" is. i initially discovered this book through youtube, and was going to watch a summary on the plot, but it was definitely a better read (and a short one, too!! i'm a slower reader, but 131 pages isn't bad at all with this work). i'm inspired to continue reading similar books to this; hopefully, i will discover less predictable plot lines.

original review here!