Penny Dreadful

Rating:
Summary: Dark Side of the Looking Glass
Review:
To read Penny Dreadful is to experience a surreal nightmare while awake. Seedy neighborhoods inhabited by ghoulish freaks and society misfits - lost souls without hope of redemption. If you are looking for a feel good moment, this is the wrong book. Nothing uplifting here. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has read Will Christopher Baer's first novel Kiss Me, Judas.

This time Phineas Poe starts in search of a missing detective Jimmy Sky. Through this endeavor Poe unwittingly becomes a participant in a bizarre game in which in the players possess dual personalities - one real, one fantasy. But in this game fantasy soon takes over reality as people become absorbed into their alter egos. Baer spares nothing as he graphically describes their descent into this slimy underworld. Creepy stuff here but, if you can handle it, Penny Dreadful will provide a mesmerizing read.

Rating:
Summary: dark, mesmerizing, genuinely creepy
Review: Amid the slick writing, the grimly fascinating characters, plots, and setpieces, it's easy to miss the literary intelligence that's at work here. Baer gives us not only an addictive mystery-thriller, which is genuinely creepy and disturbing, but also a submerged meditation on the slipperiness of identity. There's even some well-placed commentary on _Ulysses_ here. Baer's vision ain't pretty, but it's compelling, and I think he's one to watch.

Rating:
Summary: dark, mesmerizing, genuinely creepy
Review: Amid the slick writing, the grimly fascinating characters, plots, and setpieces, it's easy to miss the literary intelligence that's at work here. Baer gives us not only an addictive mystery-thriller, which is genuinely creepy and disturbing, but also a submerged meditation on the slipperiness of identity. There's even some well-placed commentary on _Ulysses_ here. Baer's vision ain't pretty, but it's compelling, and I think he's one to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric Amazing
Review: Enigmatic and sublime. This stark noirish nightmare is as good as they get. Baer makes what almost could be called a surrealist hardboiled novel. Without lossing control of the narrative, Baer does a superb job crossing the border between naturalist crime writing and heady phantasmagoria. Phineas Poe is one of the most interesting, beguiling anti-heros within the noir genre, a tight lipped drugged out sam spade caught up in a underground world of would be vampires.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I have just recently finished reading the second in Baer's "Poe" trilogy, "Penny Dreadful" --- sequel to the amazingly prolific, "Kiss Me Judas". This novel however creates a world all its own. Baer is certainly a great talent, and his second novel's detail and plot are superb. One can picture the dark, gritty nights in Denver when Phineas Poe, (our anithero,) returns to find himself losing his identity -- or what has become of his identity -- more and more each day. He becomes lost in a "Game of Tongues"...which ceases to blow my mind when I remember how rich in noir detail the "horrific" game was described. (I won't give anything away, especially of the game's nature, I despise reviewers who do this.)

All in all, Baer has great insight when it comes to the mundane, unoriginal surroundings we find ourselves in everyday. Whether it be his describing a homeless man on the street corner, with his nose bloodied, his fingernails bitten to the ends or his describing the dark, dank Denver alleys, he does it well. This novel is filled with everything a reader can long for. Baer pulls off noir with his own sense of style, and he does it with passion.

Writing at its best.

Rating:
Summary: Great Sequel to Kiss Me, Judas
Review: I just finished this book a day ago and it is definitely a worthy sequel to Kiss Me, Judas.

Following the story in Kiss Me, Judas Phineas Poe returns to Denver where it all begins and finds himself in a completely different world. People are playing a game called the 'game of tungues' which is slowly becoming real and reality is starting to slip.

This book is extremely different from Kiss me, Judas but not in a negative way at all. It mixes the noir genre from KMJ with sci-fi to create a great vibe and an incredible story. This book honestly had me on end until the last page.

I strongly recommend this book to any fans of: Will Christopher Baer, Chuck Palahniuk, Bret easton Ellis, Craig Clevenger, and any other author out there.

Rating:
Summary: The Book, The Gun
Review: In Penny Dreadful, Mr. Baer switches from smartly noir to sweetly nasty as we continue to follow along in the dreamsteps of the excellent Phineas Poe. This work ups the complexity quotient on Kiss Me, Judas, sending, as it does, the readers' minds spinning off into a glittering p.o.v. mosaic that tips it hat to the signal work of a certain J. Joyce. One can only hope that the third installment of the remarkable Poe Trilogy will not be too long in coming.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing sequel, but...
Review: Still wonderful. I was intrigued by the dark poetry in Kiss Me, Judas, and it still continues in Penny Dreadful. Baer has a way with words that is striking and sometimes surprisingly horrific.

The incontinuity of the books kind of threw me off at first, but I soon sunk into the little drugged up world where the "Game of Tongues" exists. There are characters from Kiss Me, Judas, but the tale takes a complete 180. Baer feeds you sparse tidbits about the game and the culture to keep you guessing about what exactly is going on in perfect, psychotic prose.

In retrospect, I don't exactly see the point of the book in the trilogy except maybe to tie up some loose ends, character development, but it still is lovely as a stand-alone book, or as something to improve your grasp on Phineas Poe.

Rating:
Summary: Dark Side of the Looking Glass
Review: To read Penny Dreadful is to experience a surreal nightmare while awake. Seedy neighborhoods inhabited by ghoulish freaks and society misfits - lost souls without hope of redemption. If you are looking for a feel good moment, this is the wrong book. Nothing uplifting here. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has read Will Christopher Baer's first novel Kiss Me, Judas.

This time Phineas Poe starts in search of a missing detective Jimmy Sky. Through this endeavor Poe unwittingly becomes a participant in a bizarre game in which in the players possess dual personalities - one real, one fantasy. But in this game fantasy soon takes over reality as people become absorbed into their alter egos. Baer spares nothing as he graphically describes their descent into this slimy underworld. Creepy stuff here but, if you can handle it, Penny Dreadful will provide a mesmerizing read.