Rating: 
Summary: A Yin Yang combination
Review: A strange contrast in stories. I liked "Class Trip" for Nicholas's wonderful, if not morbid, imagination. I was slighty disappointed in his lack of action but most of the story takes place in his imagination anyway. He reminded me of the character Eugene in Wolfe's "Look Homeward Angel" "The Mustache" is a Kafka-eske novella, but not as much as the plug on the back of the book sets you up for. It is bizzare none the less especially towards the odd ending where the main character feels trapped in an existenstialist world. The shift is a bit ackward and the whole idea of everyone forgotting you had once had a mustache is a large stretch. I think it would be better if his wife and friends forgot who he was/ didn't recognize him when he shaved off his mustache. His paranoia is similar to Nicolas's but much worse. I recommend reading "Class Trip" but save your shaving cream for a different mustache.
Rating: 
Summary: Class Trip >> A Masterpiece of Psychological Terror
Review: Frist off, I've only read "Class Trip" so I can't comment on "The Mustache," sorry!This slim novel vividly explores the psychological terror of Nicholas, a sheltered adolescent who is sent to a two-week ski-camp. He is obviously the wimpy outsider, and every encounter with classmates or adults becomes an intense mental test, in which the wrong word could prove fatal. Carerre's understated prose masterfully depicts the terror experienced by an over-imaginative child on his own for the first time, but the suspense really develops when a child from the village near the ski-camp goes missing and is found brutally murdered. While astute readers will easily foresee the conclusion from earlier hints, the inevitable endgame is both gripping and crushing. Someone else compared the book's tone to that of the excellent Dutch film "Spoorloss" (aka "The Vanishing"--not the American remake). That's an apt comparison, although this book has also been made into a movie as "La Classe de neige."
Rating:
Summary: Class Trip >> A Masterpiece of Psychological Terror
Review: Frist off, I've only read "Class Trip" so I can't comment on "The Mustache," sorry! This slim novel vividly explores the psychological terror of Nicholas, a sheltered adolescent who is sent to a two-week ski-camp. He is obviously the wimpy outsider, and every encounter with classmates or adults becomes an intense mental test, in which the wrong word could prove fatal. Carerre's understated prose masterfully depicts the terror experienced by an over-imaginative child on his own for the first time, but the suspense really develops when a child from the village near the ski-camp goes missing and is found brutally murdered. While astute readers will easily foresee the conclusion from earlier hints, the inevitable endgame is both gripping and crushing. Someone else compared the book's tone to that of the excellent Dutch film "Spoorloss" (aka "The Vanishing"--not the American remake). That's an apt comparison, although this book has also been made into a movie as "La Classe de neige."
Rating: 
Summary: Existentialist Horror
Review: I found these two novellas to be disturbingly warped (but I liked that). Carrere imaginatively explores the dark side of the human mind, what our mind can do to us, in an interesting way. These stories are short, but they pack an emotional punch that you won't soon forget. Class Trip is about a young, hyperimaginative, lonely boy on a class skiing trip when something goes horribly wrong and the real world unfortunately catches up with the horrible world of his imagination. The Mustache is about a man who shaves off his mustache, only to have everyone he knows, including his wife, deny that it ever existed. Other bits of his world start vanishing without a trace and there is a clever ending. Both of these works are intriguing, eerie and fascinating. I would recommend them to anyone who wants a little sophisticated horror.
Rating:
Summary: Existentialist Horror
Review: I found these two novellas to be disturbingly warped (but I liked that). Carrere imaginatively explores the dark side of the human mind, what our mind can do to us, in an interesting way. These stories are short, but they pack an emotional punch that you won't soon forget. Class Trip is about a young, hyperimaginative, lonely boy on a class skiing trip when something goes horribly wrong and the real world unfortunately catches up with the horrible world of his imagination. The Mustache is about a man who shaves off his mustache, only to have everyone he knows, including his wife, deny that it ever existed. Other bits of his world start vanishing without a trace and there is a clever ending. Both of these works are intriguing, eerie and fascinating. I would recommend them to anyone who wants a little sophisticated horror.
Rating:
Summary: fascinatingly eerie and thought provoking
Review: I have always wanted to read a book/novella that was so fascinating I think about the issues it has presented to me for a long time to come. I have found that book. It is enjoyable, tense and quite intriguing. I recomend this book to anyone looking for a horror/suspenseful book that is a bit more deep and sophisticated than Stephen King or Dean Koontz but still easy enough to read and enjoy immediately.
Read it when you are in a dark mood.
Rating: 
Summary: a combination of Poe and The Vanishing
Review: I have to confess that my edition (from the library) only had Class Trip: A Novel. There is no listing for that book though, so I have to comment on this book minus the Mustache which was not in my edition. This story reminds me quite a bit of the European film, The Vanishing (Dutch) -- one of the scariest films every made. Like this story, the action is understated, but the horror lurks nearby. Nicholas' dad just happens to be a travelling salesman selling what else but articial limbs and body parts! If that doesn't get the shivers going, what will? On the surface, this is just the story of Nicholas and a 10 day ski trip, but all sorts of mysteries surface. The author includes some references to Poe stories -- clearly he aims for a Poe-like kind of horror, as understated as it may be. This book is not scary to read, but it packs a belated punch, much like the chilling last scene in the Vanishing. If you've seen the film, you'll know what I mean and there's even a thematic tie in. It's a quick read (more like a novella), but one that kept me turning pages. Good insights into the anxiety of a young boy's mind.
Rating:
Summary: Masterfully Gripping
Review: I highly recommend "Class Trip" on all levels. It was disturbing, suspenseful, and wholly believable. Nicholas and Patrick are wonderful characters. I thought about the story long after the final page. (This review pertains to the French Version, "La Class de neige.")
Rating:
Summary: Masterfully Gripping
Review: I highly recommend "Class Trip" on all levels. It was disturbing, suspenseful, and wholly believable. Nicholas and Patrick are wonderful characters. I thought about the story long after the final page. (This review pertains to the French Version, "La Class de neige.")
Rating:
Summary: Scary
Review: In my opinion, this is the perfect book to read, on a rainy day shortly after you have been dumped by your girlfriend who has been cheating on you behind your back and you can't sleep because in between nightmares of flying fanged demons you wake up to see her face hovering above you. I read this book and was scared. My friends read it and they were scared. It's a scary book. Scary. If you like Stephen King, and Clive Barker, and all those other modern 'horror' writers. Then you may want to look a bit harder for good fiction. This kind of stuff blows them right out of the water.
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