A Clever Puppy Who Yips Loudly In Restaurants

Reading of 1951 novel.

I find the narrator’s voice dull and kind of annoying at the same time, and there are definite lulls in the material.

But I find MOST of the material at least somewhat interesting.

Docked a notch for blatant sexism and another for blatant repetitive-political-statement-over-sci-fi-entertainment.

Grade: D+

A newbie! Of course, every Cthulhu mythos fan wants to write Cthulhu mythos; some can, some can’t.

And so I listen…(gotta admit part of why is that I Luv the narrator’s voice and intonation).

Rule One: NEVER apply to Miskatonic University.
Rule Two: Leave Innsmouth well enough alone.
Rule Three: Follow advice to ignore anything smelling of Cthulhu at least as much as Denzel Washington’s character should (have) regarding Azazel in ‘Fallen’.
Rule Four: No Pickmans!
Rule Five: There is NO RULE FIVE!
Rule Six: No Pickmans.
Rule Seven: Allow the creepiness to wash over you.
Rule Eight: If you don’t follow Rule Seven, DON’T LISTEN TO IT, not worth it.
Rule Nine: Like most things Cthulhu-esque, not for the weak of heart.
Rule Ten: Nothing to see/hear.
Rule Eleven: No Pickmans.

Hmmmmm…gets better when it gets to the point. Surprisingly so, actually.

Nicely (and appropriately) wordy.

I was worried it would be a moody/wordy imitation of the best Cthulhu-esque-ness. Imagine my surprise when it got better as it went along, and I stopped thinking of how to say “meh” and how TO say “This is good stuff”.

The Puppy is a harsh critic. But this is good stuff.

Inspirational Quote: “We ‘Dreamswimmers’…took to the lands of dream like otters to a roaring brook…”

Grade: B+

Ok, so…really bad narration in the convenient version I listened to. Mechanical and with pause s in-the-wrong … places, at times.

And T does NOT equal I.

On the other hand, it’s got the text nicely printed out for you as well, if you’d like to inflate your view. It even simulates turning pages.

King goes with LOTS of exposition here. But the rather mundane and relatively boringly-normal lead-up doing the dueling banjo thing with the building horror aspects make them even *more* horrible (in a scary sense, I mean).

It’s also scarier as things get more and more unsettled in non-Cujo portions, knowing that the build is happening (and even more foreboding, that THE build is only paused…that for everything and anything that may happen, good or bad, to whatever degree…poor Cujo is suffering most of all).

Suffering from a painful and terrifying (to self and others) descent into intolerable pain – and then – insanity.

The disintegration that takes place is quite sad. He *IS* a good dog. But it happens nevertheless.

Interesting and well done, I think, in working the nominal plot with the under-plots.

Seems well-written in general, like King gives a sh1t (this time, at least).

Shock trauma, eh? Portent of ‘Survivor Type’?

Characters are fairly interesting, pretty well-defined, multi-dimensional.

Quite a bit of character behavior shows that some humans don’t require rabies to act with vicious/insane mental deterioration.

Yeah, I can still cry. Rarely, but still.

Inspirational Quote: “It was THE BOY, THE BOY, and THE BOY had never done him any harm. Once he had loved THE BOY and would have died for him had that been called for…The last of the dog that had been before the bat scratched its nose turned away, and the sick and dangerous dog, subverted for the last time, was forced to turn with it.”

Grade: A-

Love the narrator’s voice for the material (and also the basic subject), so very hopeful/eager for it to be good.

I find it interesting, when I’m in the right mood. Rather boring, when I’m not.

You want description? Talk about description. I mean, I find Tolkien’s (for example) verbosity mostly boring, but I enjoy a mild uneasiness through most of this (How long is it? That’s rather a personal question…about 4:49).

The best parts are in the beginning – a long lead-up that you know will lead to something odd and probably disastrous – and, after a long middle portion, a return to creepy insinuation and at last some payoff.

Good source of background info on the beginnings of various Cthulhu mythos ideas. So, if you plan on reading everything Lovecraftian, decide how much background info you want vs. how much total mystery you want.

This is more an extensive introduction to the Elder Ones, Shoggoths, Cthulhu spawn, etc… than it is a scary story. The lead-up to the scary story part is fairly interesting because you know something odd and nasty is going to happen. But after the odd and nasty happening, the speculation and evaluation go on for QUITE a while, serving the purpose of a biography for any further Lovecraft readings you may wish to do. So if you don’t want a whole sh1tload of that, you may find this rather tedious.

I think it’s worth listening to, once.

Grade: C+

Fairly boring in the beginning, but…you can’t get much more creepy and grotesque while still being listenable as it proceeds.
Unfortunately you can’t get much more petulant and annoying than the narrator.
But still, like…wow. I mean…it seems realistic.
Makes you feel better about your own life, even when you feel like sh1t. Boring parts, yes…parts that go on too long.
But the feeling of dread you’ll probably get is served by these at least.

Let’s eat!

Grade: B-

Creepy(pasta) story that I listened to several times before this review.

I had initially been a bit more negative to it, as I thought it over-rated, but I think I was over-reacting in the other direction because it’s not a work of sheer brilliance.

In the final analysis, it piques my interest with a natural morbid curiosity and somewhat-originality; disturbing descriptions, disturbing behaviors, and a rather disturbing descent into insanity. And the picture is worth several thousand words.

My only complaint is that the beginning is a bit slow.

Inspirational Quote: “Keep cutting.”

Grade: B+

From “Must Be Nice Studios”, it’s a good companion piece to John Carpenter’s 1982 movie ‘The Thing’.

Nice explanations/references here, of things you may or may not have cared about from the movie…unsure what’s what in terms of relevance or irrelevance to who or what or where or when or how or sometimes why? (Or who cares?).

But that’s part of the fun, isn’t it?

If you don’t like Carpenter’s film, this is probably not worth it. If you *DO*, it is, if only to compare little variables and check what’s really what and who’s really who.

One of the “things” actually argues INTELLECTUALLY for its own existence when it’s still – for most intents and purposes – “human”.

Inspirational Quote: “So it’s walkin’ around without skin. Maybe it’ll look better.”
IQ Cousin: “Maybe we at war with Norway.”

Grade: B-

The original novel was the planted triffid seed for John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’.

The narrator sounds far too much like Aldo Farnese to take the intro seriously. At least he doesn’t tell us about trade school.

At around 1:02 he sounds like the creepy-a$$ animated guy from one of the ‘From Beyond’ short subjects.

An UP! and down persistent volume warning is definitely in play here.

There is one thing about this version that I rather like: just think about the vague and also contrastingly *sharp* changes possible in perception. Wow man…what a trip.

Nice argument (possibility?) at 1:06:50 from MacReady…

Around 1:49: Hmmmm…the thing is a pacifist?

Ha ha.

Inspirational Quote: “…a flash of electric blue seared upward from beyond the granite wall.” (and inspired J.C.’s opening?)

Grade: C-

This is the audiobook of the original 1955 novel.

Alright…we’ll call it a draw.

The rampant sexism can be creepy and annoying at times.

Very interesting material, and it holds your attention for the most part.

Read pretty well overall, mostly convincing emotion as appropriate but a few too many cracks.

Scientific probabilities: Don’t care. It’d take all the mystery out of life.

The debate and explanation near the ending is pretty cool, very clinical and undeniable.

The ending itself seems really half-a$$ed, inspired by the times and drawn out of a hat. The 1978 movie has a similar but more likely (near) ending.

Inspirational Quote: “…tell you later.”

Grade: C+

The first chapter is decent but slow.

The rest is…slow.

I *have* to listen to the entire thing when I review one of these, but do yourself a favor and trust me: it ain’t worth it.

Kinda creepy, kinda silly, quite boring.

The main character/love interest relationship is emotionless and clinical…just like all the relationships. And, let’s be honest here, characters. There’s just very little to induce you to care about any of the characters and/amid the boring, incredibly-potentially interesting story about molluscs errr triffids.

There’s a great sexist rant at the end of Chapter Ten.

BTW: The idea that your life ends if you go blind is both offensive and absurd.

Inspirational Idea For A Good Sign To Wear: “I am sighted and submissive”.

Grade: D-

Audiobook.

With all due respect, this is as boring as the world that Bartleby seeks to escape from.

Much of the interest in this story is seeing the physical reactions, which is done much better with pictures.

It’s just…dull. Not “bad”…just *dull*.

DISCLAIMER: If you have no idea what to expect beforehand, it will be more interesting. If you know the quote, and the inevitability, there’s just no point in listening.

Grade: D (Upped a notch for newbies)

Short story by Richard Matheson. It’s interesting and quite sad.

A first-person “entry by entry” account of something/someone chained in their (supposedly?) parents’ basement.

By “its” own vague description and from what it says “mother and father” tell it, it is hideous in appearance, but that’s not made explicit.

Probably more interesting that way; leaves a bit to your imagination.

It’s a little TOO short, would be my only real complaint.

Grade: B