A very sad and depressing book. It painted a bleak world with people just trying to survive. The writing was good but I am still not sure how I feel about the last 1/4 of the book. It left me thinking hmm. ( )

BAD GLASS is a strange and wonderful novel, written by Richard E. Gropp, which I finished a few nights ago.

This is a book worth reading. It inhabits the place somewhere between science fiction and magical fiction, with some horror thrown in. But not much. This is not a blood-and-guts book. The horror here permeates the air and surfaces in unexpected, stunning ways that are more psychologically upsetting than graphic.

Gropp has written a surprisingly and unexpectedly great book. It's set in Spokane. (Note: I love this choice. Not a big city like Seattle or Los Angeles, but a mid-size, out of the way city.) Something is happening. Phenomena are occurring that can't be explained.

A photographer, Dean, sneaks his way across the border (sealed by military blockade) to take some unforgettable pictures. And then the novel unfolds: Dean is our guide to the city, and he discovers it as we do. He stumbles across a group of young people, his peers. And he discovers, and we discover, just how awful it really is. And he takes pictures to try and capture the unfathomable. The device of the pictures is used brilliantly. Each chapter begins with a prose description of one picture. The chapter then unfolds to show the circumstances that led to that image. It's a great technique, and it draws you deep into the story.

But also, Bad Glass showed how fragile the human mind is, even the slightest changes to logic will cause the mind to shut down, perhaps some will still continue their live with their pain inside behind a hard, cold exterior outside like Taylor. Or worse, go completely insane, like others in the novel.

But in the end, it didn't matter; everyone was changed by Spokane, whether it was mentally or physically. Bad Glass showed its readers how we are so dependent on the world's logic, structure and its rules that even the slightest changes will conflict the human mind and eventually people will be driven to insanity or succumb to their fears.

The emphasis of the story was about the city of Spokane. It was the antagonist here, and was literally hunting the characters. Literally. I loved this usage of Spokane, and it was the perfect use of another type of character. It was a dynamic I cannot explain, which morphed itself to engulf the more static characters.

As for the actual characters? Taylor was your typical stand-offish girl that leads by example. Not unlikable, but she wasn't anything I warmed to. Then her character took a major shift towards the end and I don't think it quite fit. It was too out of character and felt more like a contrivance to catapult the story forward than anything else. I didn't mind per se because I was still interested in the story but it was a point of contention.

Amanda is one character one day, and then goes off the deep end the next without much segue, throwing another shock factor into the spokes of the plot. I guess with all the happenings going on, maybe she couldn't handle it all...? Charlie was endearing, being the youngest of the group. He was the techie, helping the rest of the gang keep in contact with the outside world all the while continuously searching for his parents whom he knows are still in town. Floyd is hung up on the death of his brother, & Mac's a clingy dick from the beginning. Dean was a photographer, who saw a lot. Experienced even more. And eventually, realized that the pictures weren't as important as he had thought, going in. But what's weird is this: He's there for less than a week, and put through all kinds of shit for the sake of his art, but won't simply walk away when things get really bad...and they do. He sacrifices his life for Taylor, whom he's known A WEEK. But she will not return the affection, nor even hint that it's reciprocal, and still, he just can't leave her? No. I don't buy that.

Spokane on the other hand was a living, breathing character consuming all the others. Mentally, physically, and even spiritually. The things that happen within the city, whether they just happen to the surroundings or to the people themselves, were so incredibly vivid that I could almost feel all of the panic and worry, and worry at what was going on. From the weird bodily mutations to nature bucking it's own trend, I believed it all. It was the most vivid part of the story. If it weren't such an integral part, or if the story focused more on the characters than on the surroundings, I would have lost interest pretty quickly. But I kept reading for Spokane. I wanted to see what the hell was going on with it. I HAD to keep reading.

As far as the ending goes, it's rather ambiguous, or at least it was for me. You get an answer - sort of - but it leaves a lot of whys hanging out there, and you still don't REALLY know what's going on by the time the story ends. You have an idea and I think it's enough to satisfy the curiosity that the plot brews but there's definitely room for more.

Bad Glass is, atmospherically, a great blend of horror and apocalyptic, the latter really just on the edge of the world about to go to hell in a Hand basket. There are some truly terrifying moments, and the way Gropp wrote all of the changes it really plays with your mind and you won't know what to think about everything that's happening. You'll start to second-guess things, and you'll be trying to figure it out right from the moment Dean gets into the city and starts seeing these things first hand. It's light on character development but the city itself is such a huge personality in the book that it'll just overwhelm everything else. Really I don't think there's room for much else in terms of the other characters. And I'm okay with that.

After thinking about the novel for a few days, I realize that it's a good choice that Gropp never explains why everything is happening in the book. It's always tempting to place an explanation at the end. He feints several times toward an explanation, but in the end, all that remains is the events themselves. And the events are memorable. They are peppered throughout the book, here and there, and Gropp conjures some doozies.

I wanted it to end, for the sake of the characters. Isn't that odd? I wanted them to find a way to escape the madness, but they can't leave the city. It never ends for them. I don't know if that was setting up a sequel, or if Gropp just wanted to let them go, forever trapped in a city gone mad. Either way, it was the right call. I loved everything about this book. I can't wait to see what he writes next. ( )

This book was a huge disappointment. It started off with a great premise, but it became a disjointed mess quickly. You never find out what the hell happened to the characters or even what was behind the happenings.

A total let-down of a book. ( )

Good, creepy stuff. Not at all like House of Leaves - but I'm pretty sure this manuscript belongs to the SCP Foundation. ( )

seems like it's trying to have a Blair Witch Project home movie kind of feel. I gave it 78 pages and disliked all the characters and nothing much was happening so did not finish. ( )