Alessandro Manzetti

Holy smokes

My new favourite book of horror verse. The poetry itself is skillfully written, as is the narrative; Any fellow Ripperologists will love the real-life references. The pacing was perfect, not too slow or too fast. The imagery is so incredibly vivid, it really transports you to Jack's twisted and filthy vision of London and Whitechapel. Also may I recommend reading Whitechapel Rhapsody while listening to Whitechapel the band- A great pairing.

My reason for not giving a full 5 stars: I found myself wanting more! The ending seemed to come suddenly and without resolution. Though to be fair that is exactly the case with Jack's killing spree, sudden and unsolved. So perhaps that was the intended affect.… (meer)

This is a very good short horror novel. The story takes place in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with a group of scientists working on a top secret project to create soldiers who are genetically engineered to be able to survive in a post-war nuclear apocalypse. The narrative is in the form of a diary written by one of the scientists, and Manzetti really gets into the character's head, creating an at-times overwhelmingly claustrophobic atmosphere. Overall, an excellent novel. My only real complaints are the numerous typos, errors, and omitted words throughout the text, which are distracting and present to some degree in almost every book I read nowadays. Where are all the good editors?… (meer)