My First Impressions of HtU

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Jitto
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by Jitto » Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:56 am

I read through HtUD one more time. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it once again. Albeit the reader has to have an open mind when it comes to reading this particular undead or rather the reliving, story. Being a zombie film fanatic that I am, When I read the book the first time I always wanted to know on which chapter will the reliving be devouring human flesh. Its good to see that JAL has taken a different (and much more sound) approach to the story where the reliving have a psychological (emotional) impact. I'd have to say that, I came across a caveat in the story - it took a long while until the action started to kick in. One might argue that, its simply the case of developing a definitive background story to the main characters and to the central plot and I agree with this statement. However, If a little bit of the impact that was felt later in the book, was sprinkled somewhere earlier in the story it would have been evenly paced.

I must admit that, its "easy to critisize but its difficult to create". Following LTROI, I find that JAL has definitely made his mark when it comes to the horror genre. Rather than the typical gory take on horror, JAL, the genius that he is has proved that a horror story can have a similar impact on emotions. This way the "after-taste" is felt much longer and yearns for a second read-through.

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InfectedbyChoice
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by InfectedbyChoice » Mon Jan 24, 2011 2:19 pm

The reviews and comments in this thread have inspired me to buy and read this book!! It sounds fascinating, if not akin to Stephen King's "Pet Semetary".

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Wolfchild
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by Wolfchild » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:45 pm

InfectedbyChoice wrote:The reviews and comments in this thread have inspired me to buy and read this book!! It sounds fascinating, if not akin to Stephen King's "Pet Semetary".

InfectedbyChoice
Don't think Pet Semetary at all. Handling the Undead is much more subtle. It is not just another riff on The Monkey's Paw, which is basically what Pet Semetary was.
...the story derives a lot of its appeal from its sense of despair and a darkness in which the love of Eli and Oskar seems to shine with a strange and disturbing light.
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by Jitto » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:21 am

InfectedbyChoice wrote:The reviews and comments in this thread have inspired me to buy and read this book!! It sounds fascinating, if not akin to Stephen King's "Pet Semetary".

InfectedbyChoice
Go ahead and read it and I guarantee that you will love it!

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Ka Faraq Gatri
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by Ka Faraq Gatri » Sat Mar 05, 2011 8:08 am

I started reading the novel last night, i got up to page 61. i find it far more disturbing that JAL's last book, but i love the concept.
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Raven Eyes
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by Raven Eyes » Sat Mar 05, 2011 9:15 am

I just finished the book yesterday and thought it was brilliant. At first I didn't get the thing about the white caterpillars, but it made some sense by the end. I know some criticize this as being JAL's worst book, but it may be that he has set both himself and his readers a very high standard to keep up to (LTROI is a very tough act to follow : :))

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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by covenant6452 » Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:09 pm

Raven Eyes wrote:I just finished the book yesterday and thought it was brilliant. At first I didn't get the thing about the white caterpillars, but it made some sense by the end. I know some criticize this as being JAL's worst book, but it may be that he has set both himself and his readers a very high standard to keep up to (LTROI is a very tough act to follow : :))
This is true, all of it, but when you read the epilogue "The Final Handling" I think you will find things come together more comprehensively as a whole.
I think I would like to see a version of "HTU" with "TFH" worked into it one day. I would pay for that. :)
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danielma
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by danielma » Sat May 19, 2012 7:49 am

Wolfchild wrote:I need to read this novel again, but my first time through - particularly in the first third - it gave me a real sense of horror. The idea that someone you love can die - this is an uncomfortable and ever present reality. The idea that they can be taken from you and then come back - maybe - this to me is really horrific. When the dead come back, is it really your loved one and they are just unable to come back all the way? Is it just some shadow of your loved one? Is it just something else inhabiting the corpse of your loved one? Or is it just your loved one's corpse being re-animated with no real "soul" being present?

What do you do with your love? You can't love your re-living only part way. You desperately would want your loved one to return and either you believe it is them and love them in that fashion or not. The uncertainty of this would be excruciating for me. As I began to identify with the characters in this story, a real sense of horror crept into me.

I am still digesting the fascinating different "flavors" of love for the re-living that JAL portrayed in this story - the contrasts between how Mahler and his daughter loved Elias, and between how David and Elvy reacted to theior situations. It is mainly to study these things that I want to read this novel again.
Strangely enough, a big parallel I took was the Terri Schiavo case...at least in terms of Elias, Mahler and Anna...When you look at Elias throughout the novel, he is not the child Mahler so desperately wants him to be...same goes for all the reliving in the novel...there is something about them that is no longer the person they loved...the physical representation is very mechanical and is simply feeding off the energy of their loved ones. Deep down there may be apart of that person there (as can be seen in the telepathic moments between certain characters)...but for the most part, their physical being is not the same.

The Terri Schiavo case was a big parallel I thought about when reading this novel. Elias is essentially in a Vegatative state, physically he can only do the bare minimum of the physical things. Mahler so desperately wants to hold on to Elias and believe that he can develop over time (making him the Pro-Life argument) whilst Anna kind of knows deep down that it's not Elias, and I think apart of Anna knows that its very cruel to keep him here.

The dead in this novel don't feed off the flesh, they feed off our energy it seems. They exist because we want them to exist...but the sad truth in the novel is that you have to let go. Apart of them will live with you (as Anna, David and Flora end up finding out)...but their physical being is no more...

So I thought there was interesting parallel to this novel regarding the Terri Schiavo case...I don't know if that's the case or what JAL was going for in specific. But that's what I took from the novel
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gattoparde59
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Re: My First Impressions of HtU

Post by gattoparde59 » Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:27 pm

Wolfchild wrote:
I need to read this novel again, but my first time through - particularly in the first third - it gave me a real sense of horror. The idea that someone you love can die - this is an uncomfortable and ever present reality. The idea that they can be taken from you and then come back - maybe - this to me is really horrific. When the dead come back, is it really your loved one and they are just unable to come back all the way? Is it just some shadow of your loved one? Is it just something else inhabiting the corpse of your loved one? Or is it just your loved one's corpse being re-animated with no real "soul" being present?

What do you do with your love? You can't love your re-living only part way. You desperately would want your loved one to return and either you believe it is them and love them in that fashion or not. The uncertainty of this would be excruciating for me. As I began to identify with the characters in this story, a real sense of horror crept into me.

I am still digesting the fascinating different "flavors" of love for the re-living that JAL portrayed in this story - the contrasts between how Mahler and his daughter loved Elias, and between how David and Elvy reacted to theior situations. It is mainly to study these things that I want to read this novel again.
Yes indeed, the undead are these ambiguous creatures, trapped in some state between living and death, like "The Strange case of M. Valdimar" by Edgar Allen Poe. This novel is its own special kind of nightmare. :shock: I think the different "flavors" of love you refer to reflect the different ways people struggle to deal with death, with the death of a loved one in particular. (also represented are government bureaucrats, medical professionals, tv talking heads, stand-up comics, drunken mobs, etc.) One emotion that stuck out for me at least was guilt.
moonvibe34 wrote:I don't see personalities and souls as being two separate entities. I got the impression that when a re-living was in more of an isolated situation like Elias and Tore (when Tore came home) that the bodies were carrying out subconscious desires/thoughts from the soul inhabiting them. When significantly outnumbered by the living, the souls hold on the body seemed to diminish or disappear completely. It's almost as if the bodies of the re-living were vessels in need of thought to power them and the thoughts of the living were stronger than the thoughts of the souls. ofcourse these are just some immediate thoughts. more discussion will shed much light on these subjects I'm sure.
That seems like a reasonable explanation. The zombies become very sensitive receivers of some type animated by "soul-power," transmitted by the dead. They also pick up signals from the souls of the living and also seem to be a kind of relay station that allows psychic communication. Flora and Elvy are exceptional individuals that can see the spiritual side of things more clearly than other people do, and they provide us with a window into this part of the story. I get the sense from the novel that we all possess this "second sight" to a certain extent, but either disregard, or ignore the signals.

I'll break open the story and tell you what is there. Then, like the others that have fallen out onto the sand, I will finish with it, and the wind will take it away.

Nisa

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