Creascriptum, $2.99, ISBN 978-94-92064-03-5
Fantasy, 2015

Marc Whitehouse met Chantal Dublanc at a train, and they both end up renting rooms at Totermann Inn. Strange things begin to happen to them in that inn, ooh, so…

Well, there is a staff of the inn named Charon…

Okay, one doesn’t need to even think hard. The synopsis of this thing straight out states that Marc and Chantal are dead, and this is the Story of them in some kind of purgatory; they will only be free after they realize and accept their fate.

When I open the story, the first few pages reiterate this to me.

So… why else would one want to read Louise Blackwick’s Reprobates then?

One, the person may be led into thinking, from reading the plot synopsis, that this is indeed “surreal novella of love, loss and the afterlife, written in the captivating, dreamlike style of André Breton”.

Honestly, I’ve read this thing, and I’m all “Meh!” I wish the author has at least tried to hide the fact that these two main characters are dead, so that I can pretend to be surprised by the last chapter.

Two, the person loves to read fancy words.

‘Can’t fight this awful feeling in my stomach, like… like I’m trapped in a catoptric cistula; a multiplied déjà vu of sorts. Haven’t felt well since the train’

Does it matter that the average person is unlikely to speak like this? Who cares. Let’s reread the whole thing again so that we can all feel very smart.

Three, this is the person’s first “dead man in purgatory” story and hence, they find the whole thing startling and frightening and ingenious. Me, I’ve read and watched many variations of this story, and I find this one pretty average, actually.

At any rate, the cover is lovely, I learned some new words from this thing, and I feel the story has been oversold as something profound and thought provoking when it’s actually a basic kind of pretentious.

I’ve really had better.

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