Horrorstör - Grady Hendrix

Pardon me, I might be slow, but what the hell are book trailers? I just came across this Horrorstör 'book trailer' on YouTube while finding photos of its book so I can rave about its design but now, chancing upon this weird trend that I not know of, I have this sudden stroke of epiphany.

Just like movie trailers, book trailers seem to function as a visual expectation of the piece of media. While movie trailers are constructed of spliced scenes from the actual movie itself, and therefore giving the viewer an accurate pre-show, book trailers on the other hand leave little room for the reader's imagination because all these scenes serve as spoonfed visual expectations. I mean, just think about it; I watched the Harry Potter movies before starting on the book series, and now whenever I pick up any of its books, I immediately construe corresponding scenes from the movies to aid my imagination, mapping the movie stars' faces onto the characters'. Thinking about it, there's actually nothing wrong with that, but don't you lose that element of visual creation and imagination that books offer?
But thankfully, the book trailers I've clicked around on YouTube so far like this and this are of such sub-par quality, they defeat their original purpose of advertising. Maybe they appeal to a younger audience? I don't know.

Absolutely love the design concept. From the covers, to a few pages into the book where they state their terms and policies and Orsk's motto (just like IKEA catalogues), and to chapter covers. Fine parody.

Actually, Horrorstör is my first horror novel. I mean, I've read Poe's short tales (which can be REALLY creepy if you use your imagination well), but never a book cataloged under the horror genre. [One of my favourite Poe tales: here.] I was curious how the author would try to sustain the feeling of fear within the reader for the entire course of the book, but I'm just dismayed because Horrorstör wasn't creepy, nor frightening. To "get in the mood" I went as far as to turning off the lights and searching "creepy music" on YouTube. Urgh, very lame, but all in vain.

The central theme of this 246 paged book is the inevitability of the daily grind that pawns of the economy, like us, subscribe ourselves to. So you have the skeptical Amy, a mere college drop-out, making both ends meet with her less than satisfactory work at Orsk, and Basil, who has already been insidiously indoctrinated by Orsk's phony taglines like "Approachable And Agreeable Attitude" to become a "Shop Responsible" store manager. I really can't help but have those "I KNOW RIGHT" moments and feel empathetic towards Amy when reading her private thoughts. Like you know you're not in line for customer service when you choose to display anti-social behaviour at work in bleak hope of scaring customers to seek help from your partner instead. And I'm not talking about Amy.

Back to the book. Think Running Man in Ikea (people chasing people), but in a horror setting. Someone is possessed, relinquishing an army of not-so-scary penitents who had similarly undergone mundane work. There were a few other characters in the book that seemed so convenient to exist that you realise that their presence is just a function for a gore spectacle - a horror story, some people just must die or get hurt or disappear. The book was bereft of emotion, or maybe I was, because Amy (or I) didn't have a deep enough connection with the aforementioned expendables.

Something I gleaned from the book was the ingenious purpose of IKEA's Orsk's showroom layout. Think about it! A maze of furniture in Swedish drag in an expanse of land, no windows or doors to suggest the time of the day. You don't get lost, though, because the handy directory will guide you through every section of the marketfloor even if you're in search of a pillow. You don't take the shortcuts because you cannot resist looking at those iconic showrooms brimming of cheap but stylish Swedish flair.

Seriously, read more here. To be honest, I feel a little stupid now that I realise I've been a tried and tested specimen in a psychologically manipulative retail machination. The worst thing is that I still really like the IKEA showrooms??? Horrorstör was just okay, 2.5/5, ok maybe 2.9 for its design. And didactic sidetrack to pull me out of today's voracious consumerism.

Unfriended + Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

Urgh, one of the worst horror movies ever. Actually, I have my reservations calling it a horror movie because it was NOT scary. It got really boring from the start because Unfriended is basically a  movie filmed through continuous screen video of a series of intermittent Skype chats, Facebook messaging, YouTube and music playlists. The entire portion of the movie was dedicated to just watching the faces of 5 people through low-resolution, occasional-freezing webcams. I understand they're trying to recreate a new horror concept, but nope, not working well. 

Speaking of new horror concept, I'm currently reading Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix. Unfortunately, because I've downloaded it into my Kindle, I'm unable to feel for myself its unique presentation conceptualised from the all-too-famous Ikea catalogues. The preface, chapter covers, design etc are modeled from the yearly thin-paper spreads. I chanced upon its cover while clicking around on Goodreads and did a double take, thinking no way a book can be based on, and/or parody the Swedish furniture retailer. 

Back to Unfriended. Basically the above is like 80% of what you'll see during the movie. Urgh, think ABC's Pretty Little Liars mated with Paranormal Activity Number Something (the one with the girl and webcam). Minus the scare factor, amp up sound effects during jump scares. There was hardly any supernatural involvement. It was more about betrayals and alot of screaming and crying. Annoying. 

Red Dragon - Thomas Harris

I'm only embarking the Hannibal book series seriously after reading one hit novel The Silence of the Lambs a few years ago. I was really quite interested in a cannibalistic psychiatrist manipulating another mentally unsound savant-sleuth, but realised that was the backstory and the prelude to The Silence of the Lambs, which was inspired by infamous Ed Gein murders. I then got sucked into the NBC drama Hannibal, WHOSE SEASON 3 WILL BE OUT ON JUNE 4 Yay omg will definitely update more on the Hannibal series!!! Can't get enough of my psychotic classy cannibal-psychiatrist turned fugitive. 

Red Dragon was good. Other than the title and book cover that may mislead people into thinking it's a disgusting spin-off of the YA series Inheritance Cycle (really don't know what it's all about. Except dragons), this crime thriller was appropriately paced - not too draggy, good sneak peak into the childhood of the serial killer to evoke just abit of sympathy. Amazing revelation at the end to shock readers. But I disliked the different locations of the crime investigation bureaus/forensic labs whatever which confused me a little because I'm not too well-versed with the different American states. Just like The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon puts Hannibal Lecter and his complex relationship with Graham as a secondary plot appendaged to the cat-and-mouse hunt of the psychotic killer. Red Dragon is the first of the Hannibal novel series, and I'll definitely be continuing it. As with the drama, of course.  

It's the end of May soon, and thinking about how my 7 or 8 month holiday is coming to an end before I get sucked back into the vortex of assignments, learning, grades, whatever, in the all-too-familiar system while upholding the demands of a $50K investment is terrifyingly exciting. Terrifying due to the onslaught of academic demands that I am confident in surmounting (as of now, lol, it may be too early to say), exciting because there's so many NEW opportunities and experience! The amount of positivity I have with regards to the future right now is not in line with my pessimistic, skeptical nature. I guess it says alot about my expectations of university life too. I guess I'll do up a proper update when I really mourn for the loss of my 8 months holiday when university officially starts.

The Lazarus Effect

One thing I hate more than cheap, expected scare tactics in horror movies is wishy-washy, weak supernatural backstory. The Lazarus Effect was a good sci-fi horror movie, but not without its blandly predictable, timely jumpscares and typical suspense scenes. I really liked the plot of this movie and it's very rare that I would like an angmoh horror movie. PLUS, omg it's rated PG 13 only.

According to Wikipedia, the "Lazarus Phenomenon" is the medical nomenclature for a "spontaneous resuscitation" - due to unknown causes - after a cardiac failure. Basically in layman's words, you die for a moment, then you resuscitate.

The movie was about a team of scientists working on a promising project using what they have extracted "Lazarus serum". Injecting it into the brain they end up resurrecting a dog which subsequently developed aggressive inclinations due to its heightened brain functions. To protect the authenticity and profits of their brainchild from the corporate world, they decide to replicate their experiment, only to electrocute one of the scientists, Zoe by accident.

After a series of jarring decision making in complete abandonment of ethics and scientific code of conduct, Frank resurrected "Zoe", pulling her out of her purgatory that was self-constructed upon a traumatic childhood remorse, thereby unleashing this weird demonic version of Zoe into their lab.I thought that the backstory and explanation of the movie plot was amazingly cogent, given that it's a supernatural horror story. Perhaps the sciency part about this medical resurrection which the movie centered around injected a bit of logic that is ever absent in horror films. I guess this was the number one thing which made the film stood out and be sadly underrated.

My only gripe about this movie is how terribly predictable the scenes were. Basic horror film tactics like flickering lights, perpetually dark hallways, sweeping your flashlights here and there... Well they do add suspense but they aren't original. For horror, it's really just those basic jumpscares which you can clearly foresee especially with the typical suspenseful buildup as mentioned. Nothing new. But that doesn't discredit the scare of the movie. I thought it was quite scary? Not the scariest, but it still qualifies as a horror.

Here is Evan Peters dying prematurely. NOOOOOO

Considering I felt a little need to relieve my bladder throughout the movie but still stayed on because I couldn't find a boring opportunity to do so, The Lazarus Effect is definitely something I'd recommend for anyone who seeks well explained sci-fi horror.

Haunted - Chuck Palaniuk

Tsk, doing a review on Chuck Palaniuk's Haunted is very difficult because I've never had so much mixed feelings for a book. It's either a provocative masterpiece, or a disgustingly showy story. I decided to give Chuck Palaniuk a go because I keep seeing his books around. 

Provocative because of its storyline; a "Writers' Retreat" promising 23 participants 3 months of hermitic living where they will write their next best-selling books. Food and shelter as promised, but these 23 people find themselves confined in a grand theatre, hermetically sealed from the outside world.

Structure-wise, the main story (about the happenings between the 23 people) is interspersed with poems and a short stories of each of the participants. You get to know the story behind nicknames the 23 people identify themselves as. 

The first short story, Guts, was on Saint Gut-Free, and after reading it, I initially thought this might be the most exciting book, ever. Though it's highly sexually explicit, it keeps you on your toes, it makes you uncomfortable, yet it urges you to pursue the next page and the page after. 

You can read Guts here.

I guess it speaks volumes for Palaniuk who has the guts (haha) to publish such a disgusting piece of text, because it's one of those things people would either love or condemn. The fact that the short story can evoke feelings of disgust and sympathy for the character takes it to a new level, in my opinion. Digging deeper into my reaction, I suppose the mark of good author is his ability to churn emotions from words, and on retrospection, I realise my favourite books are those that made me think and feel alot. While I do not fancy the detailed expository on "getting off", the amount of dark humor in the Guts is amazing.

I personally feel that Guts was the opening gambit to draw readers into reading Haunted. Sadly, the rest of the short stories fall short of expectations. They were dark and interesting, some were okay, but not as good.

Some good short stories:

Something's Got to Give by Countess Foresight

Dog Years by Mr Whittier

Exodus by Director Denial

The main reason I have mixed feeling for this novel is because of the amount of gross shit it has. Getting your guts sucked out, pulling your fingernails, eating a cat, ok fine, it's provocative, it's good. I felt things were spiraling out of hand in the later part with self-castration, hacking fingers and toes, and slicing a hunk of ass from a live being. That's not provocative, that's just trying too hard, it's bordering on perverse. But looking at the bigger picture, Haunted by Chuck Palaniuk is an excellent satire on human selfishness and greed. These people are resorting to self-mutilation because they want to frame themselves as victims under Mr Whitter's evil machination guised under a "Writers' Retreat", so that their next bestselling book would be about their 3 months torture. Omg, yes take a moment to soak up the insanity of it all.  

From reading reviews on Goodreads, it is said that Haunted defintiely loses out to Palaniuk's other works. Would absolutely try Fight Club. I would give Haunted a 3.5/5. 

Being a model student I am, I gave my brother's POP a miss 2 years ago because I didn't want to skip school or CCA (I can't remember which), LOL I'm not kidding. I was rather looking forward to seeing a collective group of men celebrating their first 2 months of service but when I was walking up to the seats on the platform I felt like I was gonna faint from the bloody smelly fumes emanating from the guys. I honestly had reservations on putting my arm around my army friends because they were so sweaty and smelly and disgusting but after awhile of walking under the sun, looking for people while clad in semi-long sleeves (such a genius) I think I had soaked up the smelliness of it all. But smelly guys are ok ah, at least to Thien who was eyecandying anyone in green. To quote: "You look in this direction, I look in that, we see got any good looking sergeants."

My friend HW, who didn't march at all but still as sweaty yuck

Congrats to all who have 22 more months to serve! :-)

Last Party - MIKA

The Lucifer Effect - Philip Zimbardo

It was my first time actually completing a non-fiction book. A few months back I was reading David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell but it was so damn dry and factual I just gave up halfway. I never liked giving up on books (and that was what made me toil through Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens a few years back, and I haven't touched a classic since), but non-fiction books are really not my thing. 

I deserve a pat on my back for finishing The Lucifer Effect by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. There were some parts where I skimmed through (will get to that) but I still made it to the end of the 500 plus pages YAY. 

The infamous Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971, at Stanford University. Actually, I feel this connection with this controversial psychology experiment because I had actually stood outside Jordan Hall (whose basement the SPE was situated at) back a few years ago on a school trip to SFO. 

I'm not gonna elaborate on the SPE itself because I assume everyone should have some knowledge of it. The Lucifer Effect details out the SPE through a day-by-day account, and then extrapolates its findings onto real-life prisons. It then attempts to explain the atrocities of the Abu Ghraib Prison (Iraq 2003) whose leaked photos of torture shook the world. The central theme of Dr. Z's magnum opus is that anyone can have the propensity to do evil ("Banality of evil") even if we think it's completely besides ourselves. But on the flipside, it also means that we are intrinsic heroes.

  

One main takeaway from this book is that we must be circumspect when making 'dispositional' judgement on someone (meaning that you see someone completely culpable for his actions, disregarding the environment, or 'situational' forces acting upon him). Like the apple analogy that Dr. Z uses throughout: Do bad apples exist because they are inherently bad , or because the barrel in which they reside in is bad? We like to use the former in judgement making because we like to believe that we have the willpower to resist any external situational forces that can alter our perceived "born good"-ness, and that bad apples are just one or two outliers that prove that oops, He makes mistakes too. 

No. The SPE shows that normal people can morph into sadistic, violent beings with just a flick of environmental switches. Authority, autonomy, appearance, duty etc. It's actually very, very scary to think about it. Like I know I'm not a sadist nor tyrant, but being aware that deep within my psyche lies a sleeping giant that may be aroused by things I do not have control over is really very scary. 

After the part on SPE was the extension to Abu Ghraib. I skipped the reports because there were too much military names to get mix up with. The photos (go google it) are really sickening, what with unnecessary thumbs-up and grins over  flagrant torture and abuse. Dr. Z highlights that though situational forces lies beyond the forces of our control, it cannot be used as excuses for our metamorphosis for the worse. 

Evil of inaction is something I always believe in. It's a reminder to not remain passive when you see something wrong.

And of course, if Man can fall from grace like Lucifer to Satan, we also can rise up to be one of those unsung heroes, because of "the Banality of Heroism". I loved how the book ended with a succinct quote from The Gulag Archipelago (whatever that is, idk, I just like the quote): 

"The line between good and evil is in the center of every human heart."

And yeah, reading this 500 paged non-fiction within a month is made possibly with my lovely piece of electronic. It's just really really convenient to bring my kindle around; on the bus, during work as opposed to the book (borrowed from the library prior to buying my Kindle).

I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted now. This page near made me choke on coffee: 

Kindle + Skios - Michael Frayn

I used to promise myself to never get one of those Ebooks because I prefer to identify myself as a no-frills, pen-and-paper person. Now that reading off a slab of electronic constitutes one of my daily tasks, I'm re-evaluating the merits of the Ebook. Expectantly, I had been too quick to disparage the worthiness of this gadget in the past and now I'm starting to regret why I have not given it a try earlier.

I got a Kindle 7th Generation!!! I didn't get Paperwhite or Voyage because I think the functions of the basic Kindle suffices.

I like the entire E-Ink thing, which, in layman's terms, is like one of those kid play toys which you draw/doodle on, and with a swipe, your screen becomes clean (idk what it's called). Basically, whatever print you see on the Kindle doesn't require additional battery or power to remain there. Each pixel has the ability to display varied shades of grey, and so concertedly, they conjure a letter, or a greyscale image, etc whatever.

Screen-Saver mode

The Lucifer Effect - Philip Zimbardo

The Kindle also automatically reloads where you last left off upon hitting the screen-saver button again. I don't off my Kindle because according to other readers on the net, repeated on and offing will deplete the battery more than how prolonged screen-saver mode does. The battery of the Kindle sustains for a protracted amount of time, so running out of juice is something I don't really have to worry about. 

I'm currently only 31% through The Lucifer Effect, and I'm determined it'll be the first non-fiction book that I'll ever finish!!!

Another great function is the highlighting of text so you can revisit your favourite excerpt. I would highlight actual books with a fluorescent Stabilo highlighter but I'd be defacing the book. Also, the best thing that the Kindle provides is probably the in-built Oxford dictionary; so with just a tap and hold, definitions will appear. Very, extremely, utterly suitable for lazy people like me who sometimes can't bother to lift my arms to reach for my phone's dictionary. Plus, the Kindle also automatically stores and compiles all your searched words in a Vocab list so you can review them as and when you like.

Upon receiving my Kindle, I fed it with all the Roald Dahl books that I have missed, a few of Hubert Selby Jr.'s to try out, and also Books 1 to 11 of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Recently, I picked up The Penultimate Peril (Book 12)(Only book 12 and 13 are in my possession) to resume the grim series but I can only vaguely remember Books 1 to 11 from my PRIMARY school days. I'm pretty bent on completing this series because it's so morbidly captivating, and the persona of Lemony Snicket that the author constructed through bits and pieces at the end of each book is very enigmatic and compelling. I love the narrative style of this series, it's like you're a part of the Baudelaires' dark and whimsical journey.

The Kindle also has Wi-fi to allow connection to Amazon and online dictionaries. But oddly, it doesn't have an "Off Wi-fi" option, so the alternative is to switch on Airplane mode. 

Great piece of gizmo, idiot-proof and straightforward. In addition, I can finally read really thick and heavy books while commuting to work, and DURING work. I mean, well, the company contract states that the phone is strictly forbidden, but it has no bearing on books and EBooks what. Plus my immediate supervisor turns a blind eye to phones so I presume it extends to other forms of gadgets ah. (Great working attitude, way to go NX)

I think it'll probably take me many months to finish all my EBooks (34, LOL), and I still have approx. 10 plus paperbacks in my cupboard. 

Skios - Michael Frayn 

Skios was an easy read. It's one of those light-reading stories that takes your mind off things, that sucks you into ludicrous situations. An eccentric man with a taste for risks switches identity with an academic in some sort of mid-career crisis spells an entirely impossible but funny plot, with dashes of screwball humour which makes it quite unforgettable. A messy cocktail of lost identities, lost luggages and fish-out-of-water experiences in a fictional Greek island, Skios.

Towards the end of the book there were many things going on at once - the activities of the 2 main characters and their tangled network of acquaintances (who played minor roles) - culminating to a very, very lackluster ending. I mean, since there were so many things going on, I expected the story to kind of end of with a bang, but I was sorely disappointed as it kinda left it hanging. 

But overall, an enjoyable read, purely for laughs, one of those books that seems to be written for a comedy adaptation.