S. A. HUNT

Book Review: "The Grinding" by Matt Dinniman

7/30/2014

 
THE GRINDING may well be one of the first books I've ever read that manages to moonwalk into characterization. Dinniman kicks off the book with the love interest in trouble and THEN makes us care about her throughout the rest of the story, with well-placed anecdotes that serve to continually fill in the character. By the time the climax rolled around, I was nearly tearing my hair out in suspense. I was now the protagonist, I was in love with his wife, and it was all I could do not to shout in encouragement at my Kindle.

And what a climax it was! Jesus Christ, that one really came out of nowhere. The big twist blew me away and was so satisfyingly crazy that it might have even saved a badly-written book. But GRINDING didn't need that, because Dinniman's prose is so clean, efficient, and fierce that by the midpoint my eyes were just being dragged across the text as if I were tied up behind a truck. I literally had to slow myself down and take in every word.

There were a couple of internet Easter eggs peppered throughout the book that, coupled with the totally insane premise and the mindblowing twist, made me wonder if perhaps this book might have been a sort of crowdsourced dare from a website like 4chan. I saw an "over 9000" joke and a Three Wolf Moon shirt. In a lesser book, they probably would have knocked my immersion out, but with writing this good they're actually sort of a plus. I saw a handful of grammatical errors, but nothing game-breaking.

If the SyFy Channel has any sense, they'll option this for a film, because it beat the living hell out of Sharknado and all those other SyFy original movies. Horror fans, pick this one up. It does not disappoint.

Comments
    Picture


    ​Sign up for my Mailing List!

    Archives

    April 2024
    January 2024
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Contact Samara
  • ART
    • Fan Art
    • Cover Commissions
  • BOOKS
    • The Big Crunch
    • Burn The Dark
    • I Come With Knives
    • The Fear Suit
    • The Sky My Grave
  • SERIAL
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Contact Samara
  • ART
    • Fan Art
    • Cover Commissions
  • BOOKS
    • The Big Crunch
    • Burn The Dark
    • I Come With Knives
    • The Fear Suit
    • The Sky My Grave
  • SERIAL