Eleanor M. Ingram's The Thing in the Lake

BLOT: (22 Nov 2010 - 07:59:21 PM)

Eleanor M. Ingram's The Thing in the Lake

Note, like a lot of the book reviews that are about to be posted en masse this one was originally posted on Goodreads (link to original review). This version represents an edited and expanded rewrite. It is not expanded all that much, but a litte...

My history with this book starts with, I think, ManyBooks.net. I did not have the Kindle at that time, though I later went on to read it on the device, and so I was probably looking for ePubs to upload to Bookworm. This is neither here, nor there, really, besides to say I chose this book not for any particular reason outside of it was available and it had a cool sounding name.

I tried liking this book for some time, and it never gelled. In fact, after the plot stops being about "The thing from the lake" (5 pages in, and intimated mostly as plops and gurgles heard at night, though of course there is another thing in the lake, but who really gives a crap after you have spent two hundred hours hearing a man bemoan a piece of stupid hair...but I digress...) and is more about how this one lonely dude has a really big hard on for this long haired (I know, that's twice I mentioned hair, it's apparently really important) woman that visits him in the night...and how awesome that is...and how...you know...like, don't sacrifice yourself for me because I love you...and might be allegory about nocturnal emissions as much as anything and the euphoria versus guilt of having them... I started going off it.

There are about three scenes that are worth reading, but the conclusion really is par for the course. Oh, and the twist, which is a term I use ironically since it was much more of a "Oh, the thing you thought was happening, it is much more boring than that and there is no mystery". I spoiled it, maybe, not really, but screw it.You're welcome. Seeing as this is one of those books out in the public domain which doesn't seem to have a real in-print edition, it might be neat to see what kind of books didn't become popular. Outside of that, the biggest thing going for the book is that it's a very early example of the dark romance genre, technically.

Final rating? Blech. Thought about rewriting this book at one point in time, but now probably can't be bothered to think about it, anymore.

BY WEEK: 2010, Week 47
BY MONTH: November 2010