What a messed up book. I mostly mean that in a good way, but it makes this a tough one to review.

On the one hand, you've got an author, and therefore characters who are obsessed with various things: technology, insects, North Korean films, body abnormalities, sex, 3D printing... the list goes on. There's not, what I would call a "relatively normal" character in this book. Again, not a bad thing, but whenever someone new was introduced, I found myself asking, "what's their obsession going to be?"

And I'm no prude--not by a long shot--but even to me, these characters seemed obsessed with sex.

On the other hand, you've got an author who's taking ridiculously disparate ideas and storylines and mashing them together in a way no one has ever done before, and creating something new and horribly beautiful. There's no denying this story is compelling as all hell, simply because it's so strange, you have no idea what's going to come out next.

And quite honestly, I was ready to give this a 4, maybe a 4.5 rating, but then I finished the novel. That is, I came to the end. And though it truly was the end, there were no additional pages to go, it feels like Cronenberg somehow lost power to his Mac, couldn't write any more, and decided to call it a day. Virtually every single plot point is left wide open, with only the central initial mystery somewhat resolved.

The reader is left with some answers as to what happened, but very, very little as to why?

And I hate that. ( )

I remember reading about Calvin Klein’s daughter. Every time she pulled down a lover’s pants, she was confronted by her father’s name on the band of his underwear. A total sex killer.

I should've known better. It was about this time last year that I stumbled into [b:Night Film|18770398|Night Film|Marisha Pessl|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397425352s/18770398.jpg|15182838]. There is something about the holidays which suggests or portends a post-modern rendering of the Uncanny. If my wife hadn't been sleeping, I would've screamed upon completing this. If I had been stupid enough to buy it, I would've thrown it out the front door and onto the rainswept street, allowing nature to pulp it appropriately. That's enough, I don't want to think about this anymore. Though it is coincidence that the novel's plot has a great deal in common with the recent hacking incident at Sony. ( )

Hörbuch, spotify

Cronenberg's debut novel features a disappointing lack of his signature depravity and body horror, and its severe shift in focus to a peripheral character's story make this a shockingly dull read from a horror legend. ( )

Cronenberg is obsessed with many of the same things he is fascinated by in his films - i.e., sex, bondage, death. This book especially resembles his film _Crash_ and is very cinematic. There is also a definite fascination with technology. Cronenberg seems to want to strand the reader in the midst of many unknowns - and then just sort of abandon them at the end without any satisfaction of a real ending. ( )