WORST. PERSON. EVER. (Douglas Coupland) - January 17/14

Wow, this is really, really not good. Coupland seems to be trying WAY to hard to shake up his writing style but the entire book comes off as badly written and artificial. There's nothing here that rings even remotely true and the book feels like something an "edgy" 14-year-old threw together over a weekend. The story gets less and less interesting the wackier it gets, and I was honestly not involved in any of this for even a second. A true misfire. * out of ****

THE WOMAN (Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee) - January 9/14

This is just what I needed after The Double. Pure entertainment, from start to finish. There are a few lulls here, of course, but the authors do a fantastic job of establishing the title character and her oppressors. (It takes a while to wholeheartedly buy into the premise, though it's easy enough to swallow once we learn everything about this twisted patriarch.) The spectacularly violent climax is completely engrossing and it's clear that Ketchum has ended this trilogy on as high note as one could've hoped. ***1/2 out of ****

THE DOUBLE (Jose Saramago) - January 8/14

Obviously I wanted to read this because of Enemy but I was rather surprised to note that the book doesn't feature ANY of the weirdness of that movie (ie no spiders). Saramago's almost infuriatingly weird style - paragraphs go on for pages and are insanely descriptive and chatty - really does ruin what could've been a pretty great novel, and yet it's worth noting that the story picks up substantially in its final 50 pages or so. It becomes fast-paced and exciting, which I can't say it had been at any point prior. Still, it feels like a waste and I certainly won't be seeking out any more Saramago novels any time soon. ** out of ****