In Awe

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced, and exciting
Review: A great summer read.

Rating:
Summary: A GEN-X FAULKNER ON ACID WRITING HORROR
Review: As a fan of horror movies and overall 'eerie-ness' I thoroughly enjoyed Heim's second novel (after the also recommended MYSTERIOUS SKIN). IN AWE is certainly one of the most original, poetic, amd menacing gay novels outside of Dennis Cooper's work in recent memory. It's a moody and atmospheric horror movie with deep literary significance (Imagine a Gen-X Faulkner on acid writing a horror novel - and toss in equal parts Shirley Jackson, Dennis Cooper, and David Lynch). This meticulously crafted novel follows a season in the STRANGE lives of 3 Lawrence Kansas misfits. The completely absorbing and slightly surreal plot defies succinct description but includes mutilated mannequins, a vile of urine, and numerous other surprises. Suffice it to saw IN AWE is one hell of a ride. Demented, evocative, descriptive, deeply profound, and not recommended for the squeamish...big ole GORE ALERT...and I'm not talking former VP Al or his wife Tipper. The characters were a bit tough for me to get a handle on...but the strongest presence in this novel is that overall menacing mood and that holds it all together.

Rating:
Summary: A first novel, and it tells
Review: Black Swan is Scott Heim's first novel, and it tells. The main character - an orphan, gay, rootless, and trapped in small town and small ambition, geographically and emotionally isolated - is unappealing and ill-defined.

The descriptions of the landscapes, however, are amazing - the scene of the protagonists driving through towards the storm front in the opening chapter, for instance, is mind-blowing. Yet it is also hard going - there are strong, deep metaphor that demands one read at one tenth speed, bogging the reading down.

This is a novel that would be more appropriate at about a fifth of its current length. Life, after all, is too short for strung out description.

Rating:
Summary: This Interviewer Was Impressed
Review: I enjoyed reading Scott's book over the summer and hope others are as fascinated by his blend of horror and high literature as I was. To read an extended interview with the author, check out his recent appearance in Art & Understanding magazine at http://www.aumag.org/

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I was at Border's looking for a book to keep my company while I was grounded, and i picked this up. I was expecting another stupid, trashy suspense novel, and I was wrong. I read it in 2 days. (Couldn't put it down) The characters in this are so interesting, and Scott Heim makes you feel happy, sad, scared, and many other emotions at the same time. The ending was so shocking that i had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. I definitely recommend this book to anyone that wants an interesting, scary, funny, riveting, and engrossing read

Rating:
Summary: I'm Left Wanting More
Review: I'd not recommend this book. When I put the book down today for the last time I was angry. Angry that I wasted my time with a juvenile story of twisted desire and obsession. IN AWE did keep my attention with an interesting main character. However, the plot is ridiculous and reads like a made for TV movie. I'm ready for novels that say something new, and this one does nothing but entertain the masses. Skip it.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. Disturbing. Unlike anything ever written.
Review: In Awe is unlike anything in bookstores today. I fell in love with the three main characters; their sincerity, their faults and unrealized strengths. This is the ultimate contemporary novel, simply because it mirrors a horrorfying side of society. The horror is only accentuated by its contrasts; the beautiful countryside of Kansas, and its three endearing characters, Sarah, boris and Harriet. It is impossible to read this book and not feel immense concern for the three outcasts who are brutally terrorized by rednecked teens. Whether deliberate or not, the true-to-life characters reflect the Maiden, Mother and Crone archetypes. And, man, is it sweet too see the trio get confrontational with the creepy, homo-hating, ageist, misogynist bullys at the end of the book! If you love serious literature, you'll love this book.

Rating:
Summary: STUNNING & HYPNOTIC
Review: IN AWE will unquestionably leave you in awe and totally breathless throughout this haunting & disturbing tale. I used to love Stephen King and many other horror authors but Scott Heim's world is much scarier. At the same time, its also very beautiful and poetic. You will never look at the world the same way after reading this ultimate American masterpiece - GUARANTEED!!

Rating:
Summary: An Unfinished Mess?
Review: It's not until halfway through the book that one discovers the yellow stuff in the test tube on the cover is urine, and if the notion of that disgusts or outrages you, this book probably isn't for you. It's about a trio of misfits in Lawrence, KS: a teenage gay boy living in a halfway house for kids, a 30ish woman whose gay best friend (Marshall) dies from AIDS, and Marshall's 60ish widowed mother. Each has "issues" and is to various degrees an outcast in the heartland, and over a few months, the book weaves each person's problems with their persecution, climaxing in an unsatisfying showdown with their tormentors/issues. There's a subplot about two college girls who go missing and turn up dead, and excerpts from the boy's revenge-fantasy zombie novel-in-progress, both of which only serve to distract. Heim loads plenty of inconsequential detail in a attempt to give his writing a more haunting or literary tone than it can naturally achieve--he fails. There are a few nice elements here and there, but the book reads like an unfinished, unedited mess.

Rating:
Summary: An Unfinished Mess?
Review: It's not until halfway through the book that one discovers the yellow stuff in the test tube on the cover is urine, and if the notion of that disgusts or outrages you, this book probably isn't for you. It's about a trio of misfits in Lawrence, KS: a teenage gay boy living in a halfway house for kids, a 30ish woman whose gay best friend (Marshall) dies from AIDS, and Marshall's 60ish widowed mother. Each has "issues" and is to various degrees an outcast in the heartland, and over a few months, the book weaves each person's problems with their persecution, climaxing in an unsatisfying showdown with their tormentors/issues. There's a subplot about two college girls who go missing and turn up dead, and excerpts from the boy's revenge-fantasy zombie novel-in-progress, both of which only serve to distract. Heim loads plenty of inconsequential detail in a attempt to give his writing a more haunting or literary tone than it can naturally achieve--he fails. There are a few nice elements here and there, but the book reads like an unfinished, unedited mess.