Rating: 
Summary: where did the plot go?
Review: i agree with the prior reviewers that the story starts with promise. an elderly widower orders a strange plant to help rid his garden of gophers, and what starts as a promising story of the strange effect of these plants on the neighborhood (or is it all in his mind?)soon turns into a story full of the beginnings of menace and horror which NEVER pay off. i kept waiting for something happen and nothing ever did. save your money....my copy of this book ended up in a trashcan @ the airport.
Rating: 
Summary: An extraordinary book
Review: I am not a great reader of the genre, but this is no ordinary horror story. It is one of the most intelligently written books of its kind ever printed. (That is, if there are other books of its kind.) I found myself alternately drawn to and repelled by its characters, but I couldn't put it down. It is dense and eerie and wonderful. Without being obvious or grotesque, it quietly "gives you the creeps."
Rating: 
Summary: SMELLS LIKE BAD WRITING
Review: I can't remember the last time I was so repelled by a novel. I actually found myself disliking the writer (of whom I know nothing) as a human being. The book is impossible to follow. Unenjoyable to read. And not at all "scary." Ponderous in every regard...odious. (Nothing personal.)
Rating:
Summary: Oh, the horror...
Review: I couldn't help but think of Roman Polanski's film "Repulsion" while suffering through this meandering mess of a book. Yet where Polanski's film succeeds in portraying a woman's descent into madness, this book fails. This is one seriously tiring tome.
Rating:
Summary: EXTRAORDINARILY AWFUL!
Review: I don't usually give a totally negative review to share with fellow customers. However, David Searcy's "Ordinary Horror" is probably the worst book I have ever read, and I have read thousands in my estimable lifetime!First of all, there is no horror in this book at all. Searcy is obviously an intelligent, well-learned writer, but he has no idea how to communicate with his audience. Searcy rambles on with hundreds of run-on, compound sentences and establishes little credence in this far-fetched plot....which is WHAT? There is NO PLOT and the resolution is completely baffling!!! What is the point of a book that meanders about demonstrating nothing but the writer's command of the English language? The characters---Mr. Delbanano, the Getz's and any other subordinates, are total washouts, and merely cardboard expressions of humanity. I don't know if Spearcy is trying to satirize suburbia, television, senility, or what....if any other readers can figure this mess out, I would appreciate them letting me know what in the world I just read! GAG!
Rating: 
Summary: the primitive mind in kansas
Review: I enjoyed this story very much for its imagination, evocative prose and double plot. The imagery of edges, vertical solids confronting vast open spaces, conveys a sense of a Cthulhuan timescale wherein human activity can be directed by sounds and smells perceived only by the primitive brain. The quintessential suburbanite rose gardener meets the Amazon in his backyard and he and his neighbors are slowly and inevitably changed.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, but disappointing
Review: I found "Ordinary Horror" compelling at the outset. It draws the reader in immediately with a terrific first paragraph, vivid imagery, and a story that suggests an ominous, cynical adaptation of "Little Shop of Horrors." The first third of the novel reads well, has an unusual, well-drawn protagonist, and moves along at slow but tantalizing pace. I did not want to put it down. By the middle of the book I could not stop putting it down. Every chapter seemed like a challenge to finish, for the simple reason that Searcy never tightens the story's early sensation of creepy uneasiness. Instead he just draws it out, until every ominous symbol becomes watery-thin. It becomes boring, which is terribly unfortunate given the promising start. The book jacket promises a riveting climax as the payoff, but I found the finale confusing and artificial, tacked-on. There was no horror, no tension, no interest left for me at that point. Inertia alone led me to finish the novel. Searcy is a fine prose stylist, and much of the imagery in "Ordinary Horror" is memorably vivid. But there's too much of it, and too little emotion. One of the reviewers -- I think it was Russell Hoban -- compared him to Borges, and I think the comparison is valid. But Borges was a brilliant editor as well as an ingenious storyteller, which is why almost every story he published was less than 15 pages long. Had Searcy applied the same level of intensity to his own rewriting, "Ordinary Horror" might have been something special. Instead, it is a messy first novel by a gifted author. Despite my criticism, I look forward to reading Searcy's next book.
Rating:
Summary: Huh????
Review: I have absolutely no idea what the point of this book is...yes, it is very atmospheric, but an explanation of some sort as to what is actually going on would be nice. I soldiered on through it and was most disappointed. It's "The Emporer's New Clothes" of horror stories.
Rating:
Summary: All of the reviews are correct, and none of them are....
Review: I just finished Ordinary Horror, and I don't know what to make of it. It's a slim book, yet this was the second time I tried to read it. If you expect a good, old-fashioned creepfest, you'll get bogged down, or angry at the author, or both. The negative reviews all point to that.
But when you consider the various plot points of the story, and the mental state of the narrator, and the deliberate shift in tone about a third of the way through, I think there is something far creepier about this book. Searcy has employed experimental techniques to drop the reader into a genuine nightmare. The last forty pages of this book were jaw-dropping. I can't recall the last time I've been both angry (at the obtuse and confusing tone) and frightened (by the ultra-creepy actions unfolding).
The book is deceptively hard to read. It's challenging. And it doesn't go where you think it goes or where you might want it to go. But it sticks with you. And it's unlike anything else.
Rating: 
Summary: eh
Review: I liked the idea, but overall, this book is very boring. The author needs a better editor--it REALLY drags.
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