Rating: 
Summary: BORING
Review: ... The horror of this book is how incredibly boring it is. But maybe that's the point.....This is a small book - just over 200 pages - but it took me nearly 10 days to read it - and I kept re-reading sections to make sure I hadn't missed something really devastating. I do not recommend this book - although the writing is probably very good. I don't read books for the writing, but for entertainment value - and believe me - there is nothing entertaining about this book.
Rating: 
Summary: stupid, you are
Review: anyone who doesn't like this book is stupid, stupid, stupid.
Rating: 
Summary: So Ordinary, It's Horrible...
Review: At about page 150 of this 230-page "horror" novel, I began to wonder if I was the victim of some terrible joke played by the author and publishing company, namely, that nothing horrible was going to happen. Oh, wait. At one point, the protagonist locks his keys inside his car. That's about as close to horror as this book comes. Clearly, a number of people who have already reviewed the it enjoy the writing style. I didn't. Paragraph after paragraph of descriptive prose, each between half a page to two pages in length, pushed the limits of my patience. And the almost total lack of dialogue or action didn't help, either. I wish the book had contained an actual horror story to support all the verbiage. As it stands, this feels like a 50-page short story, padded out to the length of a novel.
Rating:
Summary: EXCRUTIATING
Review: Everyone's a critic, but...this book was mind-numbing in its absurb detail and lack of coherent plotting. It started off so promising...I was so ready to like this book. The more convoluted it got...the more bored I got. By the end, the writing was just annoying, indulgent and stupid. Sorry...but this one's not at all worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Modern Man's Spiritual Death in Suburbia
Review: For a book categorized as a 'horror novel,' there's little action here. Mostly the book is a third-person narrator putting us inside the head of seventy-year-old widower Frank Delabano whose life consists of trying to isolate himself from his neighbors and who finds refuge in his roses, which are for him a sort of redolent drug, an intoxicant that he associates with serenity and safety. The roses have an underside or a demonic side as well, for they are not real. They represent the artificial kind of sanctuary we find when we're cut off from the human race. In many ways, then, Delabano is a picture of Dead Suburban Man who, unable and unwilling to connect with society, immerses himself in the false comforts of suburban life. In many ways 'Ordinary Horror' is a long essay or critique of suburbia disguised as a horror novel. Apart from the novel's slow pace, which gets bogged down, especially when we must go over lengthy expositions on horticulture, this approach works, showing us, like David Lynch's film 'Blue Velvet,' the hideous malaise that afflicts those of us who isolate ourselves in suburbia and infatuate ourselves with our own mythology of innocence. If you like the theme of Modern Man Dying in the Suburbs, you might want to take a look at Thomas Berger's classic and funny novel 'Neighbors,' which showcases Earl Keese, a spiritual cousin of Frank Delabano.
Rating:
Summary: Modern Man's Spiritual Death in Suburbia
Review: For a book categorized as a ???horror novel,??? there???s little action here. Mostly the book is a third-person narrator putting us inside the head of seventy-year-old widower Frank Delabano whose life consists of trying to isolate himself from his neighbors and who finds refuge in his roses, which are for him a sort of redolent drug, an intoxicant that he associates with serenity and safety. The roses have an underside or a demonic side as well, for they are not real. They represent the artificial kind of sanctuary we find when we???re cut off from the human race. In many ways, then, Delabano is a picture of Dead Suburban Man who, unable and unwilling to connect with society, immerses himself in the false comforts of suburban life. In many ways ???Ordinary Horror??? is a long essay or critique of suburbia disguised as a horror novel. Apart from the novel???s slow pace, which gets bogged down, especially when we must go over lengthy expositions on horticulture, this approach works, showing us, like David Lynch???s film ???Blue Velvet,??? the hideous malaise that afflicts those of us who isolate ourselves in suburbia and infatuate ourselves with our own mythology of innocence. If you like the theme of Modern Man Dying in the Suburbs, you might want to take a look at Thomas Berger???s classic and funny novel ???Neighbors,??? which showcases Earl Keese, a spiritual cousin of Frank Delabano.
Rating:
Summary: A huge disappointment
Review: From the first page I suspected 'Ordinary Horror' would, at most, live up to its title, and was certain it would never be extraordinary. For a novel that could easily have been a compelling drama, focusing on ordinary horrors like memory loss and old age, and WORKED, it did an amazingly bad job of being scary. The killer plants are perhaps the smallest of subplots in comparison to the other, more mudane problems our forgetful old friend is faced with- like dealing with creepy neighbors (we ALL have some of those) and pondering what dead animal lies rotting in the road. If you have to start skimming before the halfway point, you know you have a problem. The last thing I remember reading was (I think?) Delabano climbing up onto a rooftop to gaze at the sun hitting the snowy rooftops. A year later I discovered the book in my closet, and on the way to donate it to the library, I read the last page- apparently his garden goes up in flames, along with his buffoonish neighbor. Wow. What a stellar ending.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: Having read rave reviews of this debut novel, I was eager to dig in. What a disappointment. I'm embarrassed to say I read the entire thing simply hoping to see if something interesting would happen or if the vague imagery would actually take me somewhere. I am a huge fan of Shirley Jackson and Raymond Carver - two authors to whom Searcy is compared - and the comparison is an insult. Searcy's blurry mess of suburban snapshots is horrifying only in the sense of how unsatisfying and pointless it is.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: Having read rave reviews of this debut novel, I was eager to dig in. What a disappointment. I'm embarrassed to say I read the entire thing simply hoping to see if something interesting would happen or if the vague imagery would actually take me somewhere. I am a huge fan of Shirley Jackson and Raymond Carver - two authors to whom Searcy is compared - and the comparison is an insult. Searcy's blurry mess of suburban snapshots is horrifying only in the sense of how unsatisfying and pointless it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of problems, but still creepy.....
Review: Having read through all of the reviews, I can't really argue with them because they are correct: the book is hard to read, nothing is explained and you are left frustrated as a reader. Still, there is something very creepy about this book. If you can imagine Stephen King being re-written by Proust you might get some idea of what it's like to read this unusual novel. I would say that it is more of an experimental work of literature that borrows heavily from horror fiction. A mood of dread and fear is constantly being created. You get the feeling that something terrible is going to happen at any moment. Strange surreal David Lynch-like moments occur throughout the book that are very creepy and evocative. Unfortunately, the author has chosen not explain anything (at least anything that most people can understand) and not to edit the book, which leave a great deal of thorny prose to wade through. "Ordinary Horror" could have been a great horror novel if the author had been more generous to the reader. As it is, you are left feeling unsatisfied. Triffid fans in particular would be outraged.
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