tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post3115754896341374989..comments2024-03-15T02:42:58.854-04:00Comments on The Hat Rack: Adam Nevill - The RitualNathaniel Katzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-26776719088372390982017-12-04T04:49:38.266-05:002017-12-04T04:49:38.266-05:00The Ritual will make you want to seek out some war...The Ritual will make you want to seek out some warm, well-lit place stuffed with the comfort of good food and friends, but will leave you still uneasily aware of the night outside.Why not see Goshen NY Maid Service visit sitehttp://www.housecleaning-maidservice-ny.com/goshen_ny_maid_servicestart.phpnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-82872856932510924732013-01-22T22:06:27.506-05:002013-01-22T22:06:27.506-05:00"The spell breaks in the divide between parts..."The spell breaks in the divide between parts one and two, and the novel goes from a momentous death march resplendent with isolation and death to an excruciating wait in a house of inanities."<br /><br />Exactly my reaction to the book.<br /><br />"The spell breaks." Just so.<br /><br />That said, the first part was quite good. Viscerally disturbing.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07433298832591968890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-64377925787356186752011-09-06T13:12:41.573-04:002011-09-06T13:12:41.573-04:00See the post!
http://scotspec.blogspot.com/2011/0...See the post!<br /><br />http://scotspec.blogspot.com/2011/09/but-i-digress-end-of-horror.html<br /><br />Ten years later I still don't know the HTML what makes links less ugly. Sorry. :/Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08713791516631476930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-76740373788640330602011-08-21T11:12:46.144-04:002011-08-21T11:12:46.144-04:00That'd be perfectly fine. Looking forward to s...That'd be perfectly fine. Looking forward to seeing the post...Nathaniel Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-72729515911610256972011-08-21T10:20:22.679-04:002011-08-21T10:20:22.679-04:00Would you mind terribly if I excerpted some of thi...Would you mind terribly if I excerpted some of this discussion for a post on the blog, mate?<br /><br />It's probably a few weeks off anyhow, so if there's anything you need me to sign, there's time... :PAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08713791516631476930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-16515958251759885502011-08-17T17:05:00.966-04:002011-08-17T17:05:00.966-04:00The Ritual's opening was indeed awesome, but I...The Ritual's opening was indeed awesome, but I wouldn't say it was Nevill's best. For me, I think he's actually best in his least ambitious works, odd as that is. While Ritual and Apartment 16 both had fantastic elements, they each had significant flaws too, at least in my opinion, while the far less flashy Banquet of the Damned made it from start to finish pretty much unscathed. <br /><br />I agree that there is a huge problem with endings in horror. Of course, one method's the obvious one - just letting the inevitably triumphing evil actually, you know, triumph. Ligotti, for instance, does that, and I know I would've loved The Ritual if, at the end of those two hundred pages, evil did triumph...<br /><br />But I'll admit that I'm not everyone, and that most people would no doubt hate that kind of ending in a novel. I can think of one or two horror novels that did end in a satisfactory manner - George RR Martin's Fevre Dream, for instance - but I can't think of any of the survivalist, great outdoors type that this is, save for The Terror, where I still felt the ending was by far the weakest part. Perhaps the subgenre can only really work in the short story form, where a darker outcome's okay. That'd be a pity, though, as these books do seem to start so well...Nathaniel Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12852939663324751332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024708439940556234.post-46317775333013189332011-08-17T06:04:39.639-04:002011-08-17T06:04:39.639-04:00Certainly Nevill's best, and I don't disag...Certainly Nevill's best, and I don't disagree with any of the points you make here, Ser Kats, but I didn't find The Ritual so utterly ruined by the last act, silly and piddling though it was.<br /><br />I'm coming around to thinking that you really can't win with horror along these lines. Either the author rationalises the creepy weird away, which invariably results in disappointment, or he (or she) cuts the narrative short with a dream or a hanging thread and an invite extended to one's imagination - as Caitlin Kiernan has a habit of doing - and that often rankles, too...<br /><br />I have no answers!<br /><br />Superb review though, mate, as ever.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08713791516631476930noreply@blogger.com