A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter

While I'm not one to review something only after reading 5 pages into it, but I feel compelled to with this particular book. First of all, I am a writer and author as well, so I understand the labor and passion involved with the process of writing, and I really hate to give another author such a low review - especially an author as prestigious, inspiring, and talented as Straub; however, I have no other choice here.And what is it that made me come to a complete stop and put the book down, and to write a review here about it? Well, I'll tell you: Grammatical errors!I have been seeing the same error on the web over the past year or so, and it makes me cringe every time I see it; so you can only imagine my angst and utter shock to see one of my all-time favorite authors making the same mistake. What is this error? The misplacing of "of" instead of the correct "have".This is what I mean: "he'd of been a better cop than any of those clowns on the city payroll. Only, he never wanted to be just a hard-ass with a gun."Well, that is more horrific to me than anything in the plot could possibly offer! How Straub could make such an error like that blows my mind! How any editor worth their salt allowed this error to pass by them is beyond my comprehension!For those that don't know what I am talking about, well, that sentence should read:"he'd have been a better cop than any of those clowns on the city payroll. Only, he never wanted to be just a hard-ass with a gun."Yes, it should be "he'd have", NOT "he'd of"! Wow! Yes, let's further dumb down everybody on the planet, because it's now no longer just a mistake made by common folks on the web, but now being made by professionals who should know better!Is the book good? Is it a good story? Did it have plenty of twists and turns? Was it horrific? Well, not really. I did decide to pick it back up and finish it, and other than a few exciting passages here and there, this really has nothing to offer in turns of what could be called great literature. It's not that strong on characterization, and also kind of weak on story, motivation, and overall plot.Sorry, Peter, I HATE to give a book of yours a bad review (especially after giving "A Dark Matter" a 2 star review), but I honestly can't rate this any higher. Thank you! :>)

Well , this one stays with you . It is probably in the " matter of fact " manner in which it is told that reverbrates so deeply . One thing with Straub , you will almost always get something original . Don't know to recommend or not because this one is chilling on deeper levels because of its honesty and straightforwardness approaching a dark matter . If you're a fan of Straub's , as usual , you'll get something fresh and special .

Good

Nothing special here at all. A quick and decent read, but nothing compelling happens in the least bit in this novella.

This book is weird & boring & not at all what I was hoping for. It had a terrible ending....the kind that makes you feel like you still need an ending.

That is a whole lot of emotion packed in such a small book.First of all, that cover is stunning. I was in love with it from the moment I first saw it.Now..This book was terrifying. It chilled me to the bone. Straub is a master weaver of tales and, most of all, characters. It's a novella, there cannot be much room for elaboration, but you can definitely tell that, after such a seemingly innocent set of a boy and his uncle perched on a tree stump having a conversation, something crucial is about to happen to our main character.You can see he is twisted from an early age, but as the story unfolds you also realize there are some tenuous remains of humanity left, and can see him struggle with it.The writing is superb. Even if I felt it dragged on a bit at times, it all served a purpose. The suspense kept me constantly on edge and the character development of Keith intrigued the heck out of me. There is psychological terror and there is physical one, but most of the latter is hinted at, not exactly shown. You know the characters are depraved, but never really fully to what extent.There isn't much more I can say about this book without spoiling it. It's one of those that you really need to slowly discover yourself. Also, as a prequel, there isn't much closure, so you need to read it for the ride. And boy, what a ride.A few thoughts: (view spoiler)A Special Place is an amazing, very disturbing novella. In the end, I could not help mourning for Keith, and wondering what his life would have been like without Uncle Till in it.For a full review with spoilers please check out my blog Ana's Lair.