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Slights
STEVIE IS A KILLER.
But she brings her victims back to life to demand of them: "WHAT DO YOU SEE?P"
Now she's about to find out for herself...
After an accident in which her mother dies, Stevie has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people - everyone she's ever annoyed. They clutch at her, scratch and tear at her. But she finds herself drawn back to this place, again and again, determined to unlock its secrets. Which means she has to die, again and again. And Stevie starts to wonder whether other people see the same room... when they die.
The most disturbing novel of 2010... read it if you dare.
But she brings her victims back to life to demand of them: "WHAT DO YOU SEE?P"
Now she's about to find out for herself...
After an accident in which her mother dies, Stevie has a near-death experience, and finds herself in a room full of people - everyone she's ever annoyed. They clutch at her, scratch and tear at her. But she finds herself drawn back to this place, again and again, determined to unlock its secrets. Which means she has to die, again and again. And Stevie starts to wonder whether other people see the same room... when they die.
The most disturbing novel of 2010... read it if you dare.
500 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2009
21 people are currently reading
1088 people want to read
About the author
Kaaron Warren
153 books195 followersI wanted to be a writer from a very young age, and wrote my first proper short story at 14. I also wrote a novel that year, called “Skin Deep”‘, which I really need to type up.
I started sending stories out when I was about 23, and sold my first one, “White Bed”", in 1993. Since then I’ve sold about 150 short stories, seven short story collections and six novels.
I’m an avid and broad reader but I also like reality TV so don’t always expect intelligent conversation from me.
I started sending stories out when I was about 23, and sold my first one, “White Bed”", in 1993. Since then I’ve sold about 150 short stories, seven short story collections and six novels.
I’m an avid and broad reader but I also like reality TV so don’t always expect intelligent conversation from me.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
July 17, 2017
Do not read the blurb or you will be disappointed!!
I think this book is one of those you either feel or don't feel. Read it a few years ago when I was going through a difficult time. Totally got it.
Gave it to someone who shares my taste in books and was told it was terrible.
Who knew?
I think this book is one of those you either feel or don't feel. Read it a few years ago when I was going through a difficult time. Totally got it.
Gave it to someone who shares my taste in books and was told it was terrible.
Who knew?
February 7, 2011
Angry Robot calls this a horror book, and so do the higher-up powers of Barnes and Noble. Who am I to disagree?
I bought this book thinking that it would be sort of like a Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer meets Flatliners kind of book. It wasn't what I expected. But that's more than a oh kay because I really loved this book, even if the sparse copy on the back of the book and the blurbs didn't seem too accurate.
But, maybe they are accurate and my outlook on the world is a combination of being misanthropically skewed and calloused by most of a lifetime spent ingesting fictionalized horrors through books and movies.
One goodreads.com friend was a bit disappointed in me when I told her I had bought this book. Apparently some other reviews for this book hark on it's depressing aspects. I'm sort of fascinated in knowing what goes on in the mind of someone who finds this book overly depressing, but not in any sort of condescending way, but because I'd be really interested to experience the world through the eyes of someone who this book would have that kind of affect on.
The book is the first person story of a very misanthropic and angry woman spanning from when she is eighteen years old and kills her mother in an car accident till she is thirty five. She's out of step with the world around her, never really fitted in anywhere, does awful things to people almost without thinking about them , alienates just about everyone who ever comes in contact with her, is covered in a variety of self and non-self inflicted scars and she even when she does feel like her life is shit she never thinks at all about doing anything positive to change anything. Even though she is so totally unlikeable I kind of loved her, but maybe it's just because I kind of saw her as a very dark version of myself. Maybe that should depress me, but I leave my depression for different types things (For the record here, I don't find Thomas Hardy to be personally depressing, although I know the books to be depressing they don't affect me in that way, instead I find the depressing aspects amusing (wrong word, but it will do here). Also for the record the most depressing book I think I've ever read was Hartley's The Go-Between, a book that I think most people, I imagine, would only rank as slightly melancholy but not full blown depressing). As a harmless example of her offensive ways one of the first things she does when she has her mother's house now all to herself is have a big pile of manure delivered because she thinks she will use it to grow a jasmine garden in the back yard. Instead she has the manure piled up in front of the front door of the house where it sits for the rest of the novel, smelling up the property and creating an eye-sore for the neighborhood (she has some additional manure delivered during the early parts of the book to make the pile even larger).
Steve (that is the girl's name) doesn't have the big pile of shit delivered originally to be an offensive barrier between herself and the world outside her, she meant to use it to start a garden but as she begins to dig for the garden in the backyard she begins to uncover things that point to dark 'family-secrets' and the shit is never used for it's original purpose, instead it serves to block people from interrupting her from her obsessive digging up of the back-yard. Besides searching for buried things in the backyard, her other on-going obsession in the book is a room where she has been to when she's been on the verge of death after her the car accident that killed her mother. This room is dark and disgusting and filled with all of the people who you've slighted in life and they are all there waiting to get their revenge when you die.
I love the idea of this room because it isn't filled with the people who you've really done awful things to but with the small acts of unkindness. The concept of an afterlife where you are punished for every time you were an asshole fits my own oppressive guilt feelings more a Dantean hell where it's the big sins that everyone knows are wrong get punished. But I'm probably just projecting again and would secretly enjoy the idea of people who mindlessly go through life acting like assholes are going to get theirs and in a way experience what goes on in my head on a daily basis. Oh projecting.........
I loved this book. It's dark and oppressive and it never lets up. I don't know who I'd recommend it to but it might just be something you too would find a pleasure to read. Or not.
I bought this book thinking that it would be sort of like a Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer meets Flatliners kind of book. It wasn't what I expected. But that's more than a oh kay because I really loved this book, even if the sparse copy on the back of the book and the blurbs didn't seem too accurate.
But, maybe they are accurate and my outlook on the world is a combination of being misanthropically skewed and calloused by most of a lifetime spent ingesting fictionalized horrors through books and movies.
One goodreads.com friend was a bit disappointed in me when I told her I had bought this book. Apparently some other reviews for this book hark on it's depressing aspects. I'm sort of fascinated in knowing what goes on in the mind of someone who finds this book overly depressing, but not in any sort of condescending way, but because I'd be really interested to experience the world through the eyes of someone who this book would have that kind of affect on.
The book is the first person story of a very misanthropic and angry woman spanning from when she is eighteen years old and kills her mother in an car accident till she is thirty five. She's out of step with the world around her, never really fitted in anywhere, does awful things to people almost without thinking about them , alienates just about everyone who ever comes in contact with her, is covered in a variety of self and non-self inflicted scars and she even when she does feel like her life is shit she never thinks at all about doing anything positive to change anything. Even though she is so totally unlikeable I kind of loved her, but maybe it's just because I kind of saw her as a very dark version of myself. Maybe that should depress me, but I leave my depression for different types things (For the record here, I don't find Thomas Hardy to be personally depressing, although I know the books to be depressing they don't affect me in that way, instead I find the depressing aspects amusing (wrong word, but it will do here). Also for the record the most depressing book I think I've ever read was Hartley's The Go-Between, a book that I think most people, I imagine, would only rank as slightly melancholy but not full blown depressing). As a harmless example of her offensive ways one of the first things she does when she has her mother's house now all to herself is have a big pile of manure delivered because she thinks she will use it to grow a jasmine garden in the back yard. Instead she has the manure piled up in front of the front door of the house where it sits for the rest of the novel, smelling up the property and creating an eye-sore for the neighborhood (she has some additional manure delivered during the early parts of the book to make the pile even larger).
Steve (that is the girl's name) doesn't have the big pile of shit delivered originally to be an offensive barrier between herself and the world outside her, she meant to use it to start a garden but as she begins to dig for the garden in the backyard she begins to uncover things that point to dark 'family-secrets' and the shit is never used for it's original purpose, instead it serves to block people from interrupting her from her obsessive digging up of the back-yard. Besides searching for buried things in the backyard, her other on-going obsession in the book is a room where she has been to when she's been on the verge of death after her the car accident that killed her mother. This room is dark and disgusting and filled with all of the people who you've slighted in life and they are all there waiting to get their revenge when you die.
I love the idea of this room because it isn't filled with the people who you've really done awful things to but with the small acts of unkindness. The concept of an afterlife where you are punished for every time you were an asshole fits my own oppressive guilt feelings more a Dantean hell where it's the big sins that everyone knows are wrong get punished. But I'm probably just projecting again and would secretly enjoy the idea of people who mindlessly go through life acting like assholes are going to get theirs and in a way experience what goes on in my head on a daily basis. Oh projecting.........
I loved this book. It's dark and oppressive and it never lets up. I don't know who I'd recommend it to but it might just be something you too would find a pleasure to read. Or not.
November 15, 2022
Fan-fucking-tastic. Absolutely phenomenal horror here.
February 6, 2021
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up the recent re-issue of Kaaron Warren’s 2010 novel, ‘Slights’. The book’s blurb gives very little away but presented an intriguing enough premise to lure me in.
What if, when you died, you didn’t go to heaven or hell, and you aren’t guided toward a bright white light? What if the afterlife is a room full of people you slighted in your life, there ready to enact revenge for the perceived wrong you did them?
The friend you lost touch with. The man you bumped into in the street. The neighbour you never spoke to. The exes and estranged family members. Your postman, your local shop owner. These are all people who felt slighted by you, even if only for a passing moment. These are the people waiting for Stevie in her afterlife following a traumatic near-death experience. It is an experience she finds as intriguing as she does troubling and one she finds herself irrevocably drawn to revisiting.
Although this is marketed as a horror title, the closest comparison I can liken the experience to is Iain Banks’ psychological masterpiece, ‘The Wasp Factory’. Both are challenging books, both in content and theme, and both feature unconventional and unlikeable narrators. To compare the two further would be to give too much about ‘Slights away and it is a book that is best read when you know as little as possible but, if you have read and enjoyed ‘The Wasp Factory’, then ‘Slights’ is a highly recommended read.
The story’s narrator is Stevie. An eighteen-year-old woman when we first meet her, the book is split into chapters that each outline a year of her life, as told in the first person. It soon becomes clear that Stevie has a skewed view of the world, and suffers from an antisocial personality disorder and what follows is a stream of conscious, memoir-style retelling of her life story, beginning at the point at which she has her first near-death experience. Stevie is a tragic character, but one that is difficult to empathise with, as her thoughts and actions are so utterly alien. The tone of the book switches between surreal, horrifying and hilarious, moving between full-on horror, family drama and tragedy effortlessly and while you may not sympathise with her, Stevie is a fascinating and unpredictable character to follow.
The build-up is slow and the story is so uniquely jarring and disjointed that you’re never quite sure where it’s going next, but it’s so gripping that you’re compelled to keep reading, and so relentlessly downbeat that you’re afraid just how far things will go.
Slights is a strange, darkly disturbing and thoroughly engaging character study and one that will polarise readers with its unrelenting bleakness. Love it or hate it, you will have a strong reaction either way, and that in itself makes it a book worthy of your attention.
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
I also promote indie horror via Twitter - @RickReadsHorror
What if, when you died, you didn’t go to heaven or hell, and you aren’t guided toward a bright white light? What if the afterlife is a room full of people you slighted in your life, there ready to enact revenge for the perceived wrong you did them?
The friend you lost touch with. The man you bumped into in the street. The neighbour you never spoke to. The exes and estranged family members. Your postman, your local shop owner. These are all people who felt slighted by you, even if only for a passing moment. These are the people waiting for Stevie in her afterlife following a traumatic near-death experience. It is an experience she finds as intriguing as she does troubling and one she finds herself irrevocably drawn to revisiting.
Although this is marketed as a horror title, the closest comparison I can liken the experience to is Iain Banks’ psychological masterpiece, ‘The Wasp Factory’. Both are challenging books, both in content and theme, and both feature unconventional and unlikeable narrators. To compare the two further would be to give too much about ‘Slights away and it is a book that is best read when you know as little as possible but, if you have read and enjoyed ‘The Wasp Factory’, then ‘Slights’ is a highly recommended read.
The story’s narrator is Stevie. An eighteen-year-old woman when we first meet her, the book is split into chapters that each outline a year of her life, as told in the first person. It soon becomes clear that Stevie has a skewed view of the world, and suffers from an antisocial personality disorder and what follows is a stream of conscious, memoir-style retelling of her life story, beginning at the point at which she has her first near-death experience. Stevie is a tragic character, but one that is difficult to empathise with, as her thoughts and actions are so utterly alien. The tone of the book switches between surreal, horrifying and hilarious, moving between full-on horror, family drama and tragedy effortlessly and while you may not sympathise with her, Stevie is a fascinating and unpredictable character to follow.
The build-up is slow and the story is so uniquely jarring and disjointed that you’re never quite sure where it’s going next, but it’s so gripping that you’re compelled to keep reading, and so relentlessly downbeat that you’re afraid just how far things will go.
Slights is a strange, darkly disturbing and thoroughly engaging character study and one that will polarise readers with its unrelenting bleakness. Love it or hate it, you will have a strong reaction either way, and that in itself makes it a book worthy of your attention.
You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...
I also promote indie horror via Twitter - @RickReadsHorror
July 9, 2015
A weird, sick, dark character study that's often disturbing/disgusting, frequently surreal, and definitely NOT for those who have a low tolerance for unsympathetic, misanthropic characters.
Stephanie (always known as Stevie or Steve) is a character so fucked up it's difficult to know where to begin. Each chapter of her story describes her life at a certain age, from 18 through to 35. The story begins when she's 18 because that's when her mum dies in a car accident - with Stevie at the wheel - and leaves her orphaned, her police officer father having lost his life in a shootout when she was a child. Stevie herself is badly injured and has a near-death experience: she finds herself in a room full of people taunting and torturing her. 'The room' becomes an obsession that spans the rest of her life. The idea is that the room is filled with those who, in life, you 'slighted'; small insults or annoyances - nobody who truly hates you appears there. They could be classmates from school, ex-boyfriends, or someone you didn't let into your lane on the motorway. And they don't have to be dead, either - Stevie attributes their presence to a chip of their soul that the slighter has taken away.
So Stevie becomes a serial attempter of suicide (though she doesn't want to die, just to revisit the room, to go right to the edge of death and be pulled back) and a murderer (though she doesn't mean to kill anyone; she wants to know what they see in the room... but pulling them back proves difficult). At the same time she digs up the backyard of her family home, a project spanning decades, uncovering long-buried secrets in a very literal sense. This leads her to re-examine her romantic view of her beloved father, and what she finds is the real plot twist, though it unfolds very slowly (and is signposted from the very beginning. The point is that we watch Stevie realise and come to terms with what is obvious to the reader (and other characters) over the course of a number of years).
Slights is billed as a horror story, but many reviews complain that it's not really horror. I can see why - it's over 500 pages long and, for much of that length, it concentrates on the often unsavoury details of Stevie's everyday life. Instinctively, I want to call it a murder story - not crime fiction, not a thriller or a mystery but a murder story. I think that fits it better. And in many ways it's a character portrait more than it is any of those. Stevie is to some degree a tragic character, so I found her more sympathetic than I'm sure many will, and I did actually like her, although some aspects of her personality and experiences are so exaggerated that it's impossible to do anything other than a) laugh or b) be disgusted. Maybe this worked well for me because I found myself more likely to laugh.
Stephanie (always known as Stevie or Steve) is a character so fucked up it's difficult to know where to begin. Each chapter of her story describes her life at a certain age, from 18 through to 35. The story begins when she's 18 because that's when her mum dies in a car accident - with Stevie at the wheel - and leaves her orphaned, her police officer father having lost his life in a shootout when she was a child. Stevie herself is badly injured and has a near-death experience: she finds herself in a room full of people taunting and torturing her. 'The room' becomes an obsession that spans the rest of her life. The idea is that the room is filled with those who, in life, you 'slighted'; small insults or annoyances - nobody who truly hates you appears there. They could be classmates from school, ex-boyfriends, or someone you didn't let into your lane on the motorway. And they don't have to be dead, either - Stevie attributes their presence to a chip of their soul that the slighter has taken away.
So Stevie becomes a serial attempter of suicide (though she doesn't want to die, just to revisit the room, to go right to the edge of death and be pulled back) and a murderer (though she doesn't mean to kill anyone; she wants to know what they see in the room... but pulling them back proves difficult). At the same time she digs up the backyard of her family home, a project spanning decades, uncovering long-buried secrets in a very literal sense. This leads her to re-examine her romantic view of her beloved father, and what she finds is the real plot twist, though it unfolds very slowly (and is signposted from the very beginning. The point is that we watch Stevie realise and come to terms with what is obvious to the reader (and other characters) over the course of a number of years).
Slights is billed as a horror story, but many reviews complain that it's not really horror. I can see why - it's over 500 pages long and, for much of that length, it concentrates on the often unsavoury details of Stevie's everyday life. Instinctively, I want to call it a murder story - not crime fiction, not a thriller or a mystery but a murder story. I think that fits it better. And in many ways it's a character portrait more than it is any of those. Stevie is to some degree a tragic character, so I found her more sympathetic than I'm sure many will, and I did actually like her, although some aspects of her personality and experiences are so exaggerated that it's impossible to do anything other than a) laugh or b) be disgusted. Maybe this worked well for me because I found myself more likely to laugh.
January 6, 2011
This is an exceptionally well-written book, with an original premise that’s solidly executed, but I could only give it three stars because it is such a dark, depressing, claustrophobic read that never lets up. Ordinarily that’s an amazing thing, but this time the darkness was too much, the unrelenting nature of this story falling in the vicinity of soul-numbingly exhausting. I need some light! some redemption!
I will say this: Stevie is a villain like no other I’ve read in a very long time. Getting inside her head is akin to cracking open a log on the forest floor and having all sorts of creepy crawlies come pouring out — beetles, centipedes, maggots, you name it. Horrible right? I wanted to feel sorry for her, find some reason for empathy, but she is just so completely rotten to her core that you can’t. I’m telling you, you can’t! I dare you to read this book and tell me you felt sorry for her in any way. Just when I felt myself starting to, my burgeoning empathy was squashed by a cruel or selfish word, thought or deed. It is quite an interesting portrait of evil, and Warren’s thesis seems to be that evil is born, not made, at least in Stevie’s case.
And it’s not just Stevie: no one is likable in this book. There is no one to root for and I hate that kind of post-modern existential reading experience. I need a hero, or at least an anti-hero, someone with one redeeming quality to hang my hat on. But everyone is horrible. Maybe it’s because they’re seen through Stevie’s eyes, but it doesn’t matter because the end result is the same.
The first half of the novel reads like a coming-of-age story with lots of jagged edges. It’s a slow build, and the real meat of the novel doesn’t come until 2/3 of the way through. Stevie’s reminisces are painful, ugly and awfully uncomfortable to read because Warren’s language is graphic, brutalizing, and scalpel sharp.
Through numerous near death experiences, Stevie manages to uncover the power of slights, the small insults we inflict in our day to day lives that leave others feeling miffed, pissed or otherwise “slighted”. These recipients of our slights are awaiting us when we die, ready to slice, dice, and carve to get their revenge. Interesting, ghoulish premise. That means you can be a really good person, do no real harm, but still have “slighted” people and have the Inquisition waiting for you when you die. Because let’s face it: it’s only easy to slight someone. Most of the time we don’t even mean to, it was never our intention, but that person is having a bad day and feeling hyper-sensitive.
This is a richly textured novel, quite literary, but also ruthless in its barbarity. This book will shock you and make you squirm, of that I am certain.
I will say this: Stevie is a villain like no other I’ve read in a very long time. Getting inside her head is akin to cracking open a log on the forest floor and having all sorts of creepy crawlies come pouring out — beetles, centipedes, maggots, you name it. Horrible right? I wanted to feel sorry for her, find some reason for empathy, but she is just so completely rotten to her core that you can’t. I’m telling you, you can’t! I dare you to read this book and tell me you felt sorry for her in any way. Just when I felt myself starting to, my burgeoning empathy was squashed by a cruel or selfish word, thought or deed. It is quite an interesting portrait of evil, and Warren’s thesis seems to be that evil is born, not made, at least in Stevie’s case.
And it’s not just Stevie: no one is likable in this book. There is no one to root for and I hate that kind of post-modern existential reading experience. I need a hero, or at least an anti-hero, someone with one redeeming quality to hang my hat on. But everyone is horrible. Maybe it’s because they’re seen through Stevie’s eyes, but it doesn’t matter because the end result is the same.
The first half of the novel reads like a coming-of-age story with lots of jagged edges. It’s a slow build, and the real meat of the novel doesn’t come until 2/3 of the way through. Stevie’s reminisces are painful, ugly and awfully uncomfortable to read because Warren’s language is graphic, brutalizing, and scalpel sharp.
Through numerous near death experiences, Stevie manages to uncover the power of slights, the small insults we inflict in our day to day lives that leave others feeling miffed, pissed or otherwise “slighted”. These recipients of our slights are awaiting us when we die, ready to slice, dice, and carve to get their revenge. Interesting, ghoulish premise. That means you can be a really good person, do no real harm, but still have “slighted” people and have the Inquisition waiting for you when you die. Because let’s face it: it’s only easy to slight someone. Most of the time we don’t even mean to, it was never our intention, but that person is having a bad day and feeling hyper-sensitive.
This is a richly textured novel, quite literary, but also ruthless in its barbarity. This book will shock you and make you squirm, of that I am certain.
August 28, 2011
2.5 stars
I'm really confused about how to review this book. I can't say I 'liked' or even enjoyed it, it was just too weird. I almost gave up about a third of the way through, it was getting tedious and since 'Stevie' is such a monstrous character, it's impossible to care about what happens to her.(It's at least 100 pages too long) I think I only persisted because I hoped I'd eventually understand what was going on. I never did find out for sure!
But, I suppose my persistence is evidence that it does compel the reader to continue, and it has to be in my 'Top Ten Weirdest/Most Disturbing Books of All Time'. Much of the time it was like being drawn into the mind of someone with severe antisocial personality disorder on the days when they'd forgotten their meds and I'd taken them instead.
So, in summation, it's tediously compelling narrative of a deeply unlikable mentally ill woman who attempts suicide periodically and kills people in an effort to understand an otherworldly room where everyone she's ever slightly pissed off waits for her. She's also exceptionally bad at housework. And gardening.
Makes perfect sense.
I'm really confused about how to review this book. I can't say I 'liked' or even enjoyed it, it was just too weird. I almost gave up about a third of the way through, it was getting tedious and since 'Stevie' is such a monstrous character, it's impossible to care about what happens to her.(It's at least 100 pages too long) I think I only persisted because I hoped I'd eventually understand what was going on. I never did find out for sure!
But, I suppose my persistence is evidence that it does compel the reader to continue, and it has to be in my 'Top Ten Weirdest/Most Disturbing Books of All Time'. Much of the time it was like being drawn into the mind of someone with severe antisocial personality disorder on the days when they'd forgotten their meds and I'd taken them instead.
So, in summation, it's tediously compelling narrative of a deeply unlikable mentally ill woman who attempts suicide periodically and kills people in an effort to understand an otherworldly room where everyone she's ever slightly pissed off waits for her. She's also exceptionally bad at housework. And gardening.
Makes perfect sense.
February 3, 2013
Perhaps one of the most disturbing psychological horror stories imbued with withering decadence and written as a memoir. This story haunted me and froze my blood in a manner I have yet to encounter.
A most grotesque mosaic of human debauchery and demoralization, whose beauty lies within the intricacy of its design. It builds painfully slow, but when “Slights” reaches its most potent state you will fear contact with strangers. I have more to say, much, much, but I want you to find all the surprises. Must-read.
A most grotesque mosaic of human debauchery and demoralization, whose beauty lies within the intricacy of its design. It builds painfully slow, but when “Slights” reaches its most potent state you will fear contact with strangers. I have more to say, much, much, but I want you to find all the surprises. Must-read.
August 20, 2011
It'd be weird for me to go indepth and talk about how awesome this is as much as I'd like to, since I'm the editor on a future Kaaron Warren project. But I can't read something like this and say nothing, so with that full disclosure thing out of the way, I'll be brief:
This book is everything I love about horror. It is honest and crushing and brutal. Reading it terrible and wonderful because, like all good literature, it shows you something about the world you don't want to think of -- maybe something about yourself, amped up so high you can still pretend its unrecognizable when you discuss it, but you know why it made you ill.
Stevie's narrative is amazingly rendered and totally gripping. It's not a story about development, it's a story about disintegration, inevitability. It's brilliant stuff, hands down. This goes on my list of favorite horror reads right now.
This book is everything I love about horror. It is honest and crushing and brutal. Reading it terrible and wonderful because, like all good literature, it shows you something about the world you don't want to think of -- maybe something about yourself, amped up so high you can still pretend its unrecognizable when you discuss it, but you know why it made you ill.
Stevie's narrative is amazingly rendered and totally gripping. It's not a story about development, it's a story about disintegration, inevitability. It's brilliant stuff, hands down. This goes on my list of favorite horror reads right now.
July 8, 2011
All right, Slights has a great premise, an interesting narrator, and Warren can clearly write, but I come out of this novel feeling cold. It's not the good kind of cold you get after reading something supremely creepy, rather the feeling that this should have been so much better.
The pacing is horrible, it would have been well served if it was about half as long. Stevie, though an interesting narrator got more and more dreary and whiny as the novel progressed. There are several tedious diversions into the writings of her Aunt that really don't seem to serve much for the plot.
It's a book filled with missed opportunities. Which is a shame because I really wanted to like this.
The pacing is horrible, it would have been well served if it was about half as long. Stevie, though an interesting narrator got more and more dreary and whiny as the novel progressed. There are several tedious diversions into the writings of her Aunt that really don't seem to serve much for the plot.
It's a book filled with missed opportunities. Which is a shame because I really wanted to like this.
February 25, 2025
A strange novel about a disturbed and antisocial young woman that tries to sell itself as a thriller but is more of a character piece about a borderline psychopath pushing everyone away and gradually turning toward violence. This could merit a look for lovers of novels about disaffected young women. But it isn't a narrative-driven story, it;s more of a fabric of scenes about a pretty/disturbed protagonist who may-or-may-not be responsible for her mother's death and who remains obsessed with her long-dead father, who might themselves have been a murderer. She hounds her brother as he tries to lead a normal life. She has a string of mildly upsetting friendships and a series of bad roommates and callous lovers. Her life is a spiral of verbal abuse and minor cruelties before turning to serial murder. Took me a little longer to get through as it is very well-written but doesn't have much in the way of driving force. Weirdly, I thought I might like to seek out the paperback to read again sometime, or, if anything, have a proper gift for someone on the verge of a breakdown.
February 6, 2017
Kaaron Warren is simply one of my favorite authors. She is hands-down one of the reasons I chose to write fearlessly, brutally, and honestly. I found this story a few years ago in the library looking for something unique, dark, and my favorite word "honest." When I read Slights it was like reading a memoir of a very deranged girl, which I can find very relatable (wink wink). It is thick with meaning much more than just the story you have at hand. It is about family, life, trust, and the unsightly little demons hidden in our subconscious minds. If you are one to want to always keep a rose-colored glasses on, then maybe this book isn't for you, but if you are hard core at heart and dare to get uncomfortably close to a killer, and enter her edgy, jagged mind, then definitely read this.
August 25, 2016
Offhand, this doesn't sound much like horror, and for the first third, I wondered why it had been categorized as such. Certainly it has a focus on death, and Stevie's visits to hell are pretty creepy, but it's not until later in the book that you realize there's a slow descent into darkness, with more than a touch of madness.
I've had a hard time reviewing Slights. It's no secret I'm highly character-driven as a reader, and this becomes even more important in a book that uses first-person narrative. Stevie, though, is a psychopath, and I mean this in the clinical sense of the word; I'm not using the term lightly. She has no morals, is at best apathetic to other people, is unable to learn from her past and cares only about serving her own interests. This makes her a remarkably unsympathetic and unlikeable protagonist, but that's part of the point of the book. You're not supposed to like her, and I'm pretty sure most people have issues relating to someone with Dissocial Personality Disorder. And hey, the folks who have it can't really relate to anyone regardless, because that inability is part of the disorder.
So what this translates to is that I can't really say I enjoyed reading the book. That doesn't, however, necessarily mean it's poorly written. It's written as a memoir, each chapter outlining a year in Stevie's life, starting at 18, when her mom is killed. The prose is natural, very stream-of-consciousness style, although that's sometimes as much a weakness as it is a strength. Stevie often stops mid-story to relate yet another story from her childhood, and all the jumping around makes the story feel very disjointed and is occasionally confusing. The anecdotes she relates are important to the story, but the constant back-and-forth sometimes had me wondering why the book didn't start in an earlier place. That being said, people do talk that way, and every word in Slights feels like it comes straight from Stevie's brain.
Most of the story deals with Stevie's day-to-day life as she sees it, but the subplot with her father is a fascinating one. Stevie does everything in her power to avoid the truth, although it's clear on some level she already knows (or certainly suspects) things she doesn't want to know. Unfortunately, what was wonderful and nuanced through most of the book culminates in a giant infodump at the end of the book, where all the answers are simply thrust at us, and after so many pages of slow reveals, it was a disappointing resolution.
I personally found the book an unpleasant read, but it was never boring and I was still driven to get to the end, if only to find out the truth about Stevie's dad. And the fact is that any book which can get such a strong reaction out of a reader is, in some form, a success. So if you're intrigued by taking a trip in the world of a woman with no morals or driving emotions, have at it.
I've had a hard time reviewing Slights. It's no secret I'm highly character-driven as a reader, and this becomes even more important in a book that uses first-person narrative. Stevie, though, is a psychopath, and I mean this in the clinical sense of the word; I'm not using the term lightly. She has no morals, is at best apathetic to other people, is unable to learn from her past and cares only about serving her own interests. This makes her a remarkably unsympathetic and unlikeable protagonist, but that's part of the point of the book. You're not supposed to like her, and I'm pretty sure most people have issues relating to someone with Dissocial Personality Disorder. And hey, the folks who have it can't really relate to anyone regardless, because that inability is part of the disorder.
So what this translates to is that I can't really say I enjoyed reading the book. That doesn't, however, necessarily mean it's poorly written. It's written as a memoir, each chapter outlining a year in Stevie's life, starting at 18, when her mom is killed. The prose is natural, very stream-of-consciousness style, although that's sometimes as much a weakness as it is a strength. Stevie often stops mid-story to relate yet another story from her childhood, and all the jumping around makes the story feel very disjointed and is occasionally confusing. The anecdotes she relates are important to the story, but the constant back-and-forth sometimes had me wondering why the book didn't start in an earlier place. That being said, people do talk that way, and every word in Slights feels like it comes straight from Stevie's brain.
Most of the story deals with Stevie's day-to-day life as she sees it, but the subplot with her father is a fascinating one. Stevie does everything in her power to avoid the truth, although it's clear on some level she already knows (or certainly suspects) things she doesn't want to know. Unfortunately, what was wonderful and nuanced through most of the book culminates in a giant infodump at the end of the book, where all the answers are simply thrust at us, and after so many pages of slow reveals, it was a disappointing resolution.
I personally found the book an unpleasant read, but it was never boring and I was still driven to get to the end, if only to find out the truth about Stevie's dad. And the fact is that any book which can get such a strong reaction out of a reader is, in some form, a success. So if you're intrigued by taking a trip in the world of a woman with no morals or driving emotions, have at it.
December 10, 2009
First published in 2009, Australian author Kaaron Warren’s debut full length novel ‘Slights’ followed on from a suitably impressive reception towards her previously published short fiction. The book’s cover purposefully avoids offering up any sort of detailed blurb on the novel’s storyline other than short quotes of praise for the novel and hints as to the general content with the intriguing “File Under: Horror – Real-life Terror/Damaged Lives/Family Secrets/Beyond Death”.
The tale is broken down chapter by chapter by the birthday years of our principal character and narrator - Stevie Searle. Written in the first-person-perspective, the storyline commences from when Stevie is eighteen and is thrust into the traumatic experience of a car crash in which her mother is killed. Stevie’s father, a cop for the local force, was killed whilst on duty during Stevie’s early childhood. Now, at the age of eighteen, Stevie is left alone in what was once their family house. Her brother, Peter, is now happily married to his wife Maria (who Stevie detests) with their two young children.
After experiencing no less than two near-death experiences as a result of the car accident, Stevie is now forming an understanding of what awaits her (and very probably others) after she passes away. During her brief moments of death, Stevie is subjected to escalating degrees of torture at the hands of everyday people who she has come into contact with and slighted for whatever reason. These grudges are of a purely trivial nature; however, the resulting torment that awaits her at their hands is an unjustifiably magnified response to such small misdemeanours.
Already harbouring a litany of behavioural problems that would keep Sigmund Freud busy for years, Stevie’s stance on life is an entertainingly simple one (from the outside), with her reaction to anything that does not follow her own unique way of thinking, often resulting in an outspoken rejection or sheer mockery. What from other people perspective would appear to be a string of endless (and perhaps even mindless) acts of anti-social behaviour, are instead shown from Stevie point-of-view as an entirely sane and acceptable response to an everyday occurrence. The outcome, as one would guess, if a vast array of slighted individuals lying in the wake of this unfortunately self-destructive character.
Stevie’s obsessive compulsive disorder (‘OCD’) dominates her day-to-day life, carving out a symbolic reflection of the young girl’s inner turmoil that remains hidden from her own eyes. Stevie begins to become less aware of the reality of life, and instead, more concerned with what awaits her and everyone else in the afterlife. In an effort to find out more and corroborate her own understanding, Stevie begins taking the lives of others to find out what is lying in wait for them at the moment of their death.
However, her past and that of her family is shrouded in secrets that are screaming to be heard. With each revelation comes a new emotional obstacle that threatens to swallow Stevie up once and for all...
Kaaron Warren’s creatively written tale allows for a uniquely intriguing perspective similar to that of Iain Banks’ debut novel ‘The Wasp Factory’. Although the character of Stevie is that of a truly disturbed and emotionally stunted individual, Warren successfully portrays a very convincing insight from behind the characters eyes.
The storyline utilises a constant backbone of sharp comedy from Stevie’s uninhibited and outspoken approach to life. Moments in the book, such as the various messages that Stevie leaves her brother Peter on his answer-machine, are nothing short of laugh out loud comedy. Everything that is said by Stevie is a straight-faced joke, designed to unnerve but ultimately amuse. Her brother gets her humour and basks in it for his own sanity (as well as the pretence of her own sanity).
Warren maintains a clouded level of mystery as to Stevie’s past, particularly to the events leading up to and ultimately surrounding her beloved father’s death. When Warren finally unveils the truth behind it all, the realisation is somehow more subdued than you would have thought it should have been. Each revelation is a stepping-stone along the pathway of the novel’s plot. Although these important events are still only a side-note to the depiction of Stevie’s deeply disturbed personality.
Warren offers up snippets of understanding to the underlying plot throughout the tale. Each one has its own unique subplot that carefully inter-weaves with the overall thrust of the tale. The subplots eventually find themselves calmly merging into one solid understanding, which has taken the reader through seventeen of Stevie’s years, to the final age of thirty-five.
The storyline is as complex as it is entertaining, with eventful subplots endlessly circling around the main thread of the tale. Each one of the characters is given a well developed personality, with unique and often wholly unflattering characteristics.
Although utterly disturbed and horrendously anti-social, the reader can’t help but feel a growing love and emotional bound towards Stevie. Like with Frank Cauldhame from ‘The Wasp Factory’ this is somewhat disorientating, as well as deeply thought provoking.
All in all, the tale is a truly inspired and analytically challenging read that will entertain as much as it will claw at your emotions. This is a truly intriguing but entertaining dissection of a damaged mind.
The tale runs for a total of 502 pages as well as including a bonus interview with the author entitled “Meet the Author: 20 Hasty Questions for Kaaron Warren” and a 10 page extract from the author’s up and coming novel ‘Mistification’.
The tale is broken down chapter by chapter by the birthday years of our principal character and narrator - Stevie Searle. Written in the first-person-perspective, the storyline commences from when Stevie is eighteen and is thrust into the traumatic experience of a car crash in which her mother is killed. Stevie’s father, a cop for the local force, was killed whilst on duty during Stevie’s early childhood. Now, at the age of eighteen, Stevie is left alone in what was once their family house. Her brother, Peter, is now happily married to his wife Maria (who Stevie detests) with their two young children.
After experiencing no less than two near-death experiences as a result of the car accident, Stevie is now forming an understanding of what awaits her (and very probably others) after she passes away. During her brief moments of death, Stevie is subjected to escalating degrees of torture at the hands of everyday people who she has come into contact with and slighted for whatever reason. These grudges are of a purely trivial nature; however, the resulting torment that awaits her at their hands is an unjustifiably magnified response to such small misdemeanours.
Already harbouring a litany of behavioural problems that would keep Sigmund Freud busy for years, Stevie’s stance on life is an entertainingly simple one (from the outside), with her reaction to anything that does not follow her own unique way of thinking, often resulting in an outspoken rejection or sheer mockery. What from other people perspective would appear to be a string of endless (and perhaps even mindless) acts of anti-social behaviour, are instead shown from Stevie point-of-view as an entirely sane and acceptable response to an everyday occurrence. The outcome, as one would guess, if a vast array of slighted individuals lying in the wake of this unfortunately self-destructive character.
Stevie’s obsessive compulsive disorder (‘OCD’) dominates her day-to-day life, carving out a symbolic reflection of the young girl’s inner turmoil that remains hidden from her own eyes. Stevie begins to become less aware of the reality of life, and instead, more concerned with what awaits her and everyone else in the afterlife. In an effort to find out more and corroborate her own understanding, Stevie begins taking the lives of others to find out what is lying in wait for them at the moment of their death.
However, her past and that of her family is shrouded in secrets that are screaming to be heard. With each revelation comes a new emotional obstacle that threatens to swallow Stevie up once and for all...
Kaaron Warren’s creatively written tale allows for a uniquely intriguing perspective similar to that of Iain Banks’ debut novel ‘The Wasp Factory’. Although the character of Stevie is that of a truly disturbed and emotionally stunted individual, Warren successfully portrays a very convincing insight from behind the characters eyes.
The storyline utilises a constant backbone of sharp comedy from Stevie’s uninhibited and outspoken approach to life. Moments in the book, such as the various messages that Stevie leaves her brother Peter on his answer-machine, are nothing short of laugh out loud comedy. Everything that is said by Stevie is a straight-faced joke, designed to unnerve but ultimately amuse. Her brother gets her humour and basks in it for his own sanity (as well as the pretence of her own sanity).
Warren maintains a clouded level of mystery as to Stevie’s past, particularly to the events leading up to and ultimately surrounding her beloved father’s death. When Warren finally unveils the truth behind it all, the realisation is somehow more subdued than you would have thought it should have been. Each revelation is a stepping-stone along the pathway of the novel’s plot. Although these important events are still only a side-note to the depiction of Stevie’s deeply disturbed personality.
Warren offers up snippets of understanding to the underlying plot throughout the tale. Each one has its own unique subplot that carefully inter-weaves with the overall thrust of the tale. The subplots eventually find themselves calmly merging into one solid understanding, which has taken the reader through seventeen of Stevie’s years, to the final age of thirty-five.
The storyline is as complex as it is entertaining, with eventful subplots endlessly circling around the main thread of the tale. Each one of the characters is given a well developed personality, with unique and often wholly unflattering characteristics.
Although utterly disturbed and horrendously anti-social, the reader can’t help but feel a growing love and emotional bound towards Stevie. Like with Frank Cauldhame from ‘The Wasp Factory’ this is somewhat disorientating, as well as deeply thought provoking.
All in all, the tale is a truly inspired and analytically challenging read that will entertain as much as it will claw at your emotions. This is a truly intriguing but entertaining dissection of a damaged mind.
The tale runs for a total of 502 pages as well as including a bonus interview with the author entitled “Meet the Author: 20 Hasty Questions for Kaaron Warren” and a 10 page extract from the author’s up and coming novel ‘Mistification’.
January 5, 2012
I’ll start with this: even for a book narrated from the serial killer’s point of view, the creepiness factor of Slights still manages to find its way far over the top. The unsettling starts as a niggle, like an ache mildly growling somewhere behind your eyes; page by page the suspense-tease grows into a full-strength migraine. What’s interesting is that the nature of narrator Stevie (aka Stephanie Searle) is never in question: she’s a lying, self-absorbed sociopath dedicated to casting herself in the best possible light, and her descent into serial murder and self-harm is unsurprising.
And yet while Stevie’s grotesque behaviour – manipulations, deceptions and sometimes vicious retaliations for offences both real and imagined – is the central narrative device, the story expands outwards in unexpected directions. During several near-death experiences, Stevie has a brush with an especially horrifying afterlife, haunted by the victims of her casual dissociative cruelty. But even this strange supernatural element ultimately becomes less disturbing than the corruption and secrets that Stevie unwittingly unearths about her past, her family and her neighbours. It all adds up to a chilling portrait of a social fabric almost as shredded and tainted as Stevie herself.
On occasions Stevie is almost a sympathetic protagonist, thanks in the most part to a well-observed narrative voice that highlights her childish wonder, an intense curiosity and her great capacity for wilful self-deception, while never letting you forget how dangerous she is. You can feel for her, sometimes, when you’re not actively repulsed by her grotesque impulses.
As a novel, Slights is a bit like that too; thoughtful and reflective, layered with metaphor but also with lies and sleight of hand. The horror is grounded in disturbing revelations more than overt violence, though there are a handful of hard-to-stomach scenes. At times it defies all expectation by being sad instead of nasty – I could never quite distance myself from some of Stevie’s woes. Slights is also funny – once or twice I found it laugh out loud hilarious. What I can’t quite be certain of is whether that wasn’t an overreaction to the relief of getting through some gruelling scene. It’s an intense story, disguised as a breezy tale of surburban life, albeit one set in a suburb with a suspiciously high rate of disappearances.
I liked it a lot. For fans of psychological horror and dark fantasy, I’d call it a must-read.
And yet while Stevie’s grotesque behaviour – manipulations, deceptions and sometimes vicious retaliations for offences both real and imagined – is the central narrative device, the story expands outwards in unexpected directions. During several near-death experiences, Stevie has a brush with an especially horrifying afterlife, haunted by the victims of her casual dissociative cruelty. But even this strange supernatural element ultimately becomes less disturbing than the corruption and secrets that Stevie unwittingly unearths about her past, her family and her neighbours. It all adds up to a chilling portrait of a social fabric almost as shredded and tainted as Stevie herself.
On occasions Stevie is almost a sympathetic protagonist, thanks in the most part to a well-observed narrative voice that highlights her childish wonder, an intense curiosity and her great capacity for wilful self-deception, while never letting you forget how dangerous she is. You can feel for her, sometimes, when you’re not actively repulsed by her grotesque impulses.
As a novel, Slights is a bit like that too; thoughtful and reflective, layered with metaphor but also with lies and sleight of hand. The horror is grounded in disturbing revelations more than overt violence, though there are a handful of hard-to-stomach scenes. At times it defies all expectation by being sad instead of nasty – I could never quite distance myself from some of Stevie’s woes. Slights is also funny – once or twice I found it laugh out loud hilarious. What I can’t quite be certain of is whether that wasn’t an overreaction to the relief of getting through some gruelling scene. It’s an intense story, disguised as a breezy tale of surburban life, albeit one set in a suburb with a suspiciously high rate of disappearances.
I liked it a lot. For fans of psychological horror and dark fantasy, I’d call it a must-read.
October 16, 2011
The beauty of this novel is that you really get to know Stephanie as you build up a history and understanding. It is like meeting a stranger who becomes a part of your life. This girl has an attitude, which is great and entertaining, as she explains her life with great humour.
Slights is an enjoyable read, it is very witty and you meet loads of characters that Steve befriends along the way. As this novel develops, you learn that there is a darker side to Steve. This book turns into a horror! This story is emotionally very deep and you develop a great empathy for Steve. This is NOT Chick lit and this book should appeal to everyone. Kaaron's writing style is spot on and has a lovely, wonderful structure. The plot is realistic and there are some great social observations seen from Steve's point of view, with frustrations that we can all relate to. I developed a bond with Steve and it feels like a shared history. Slights is well written and raises the bar as a first person novel. The ending brings closure to Steve and the reader.
Slights is an enjoyable read, it is very witty and you meet loads of characters that Steve befriends along the way. As this novel develops, you learn that there is a darker side to Steve. This book turns into a horror! This story is emotionally very deep and you develop a great empathy for Steve. This is NOT Chick lit and this book should appeal to everyone. Kaaron's writing style is spot on and has a lovely, wonderful structure. The plot is realistic and there are some great social observations seen from Steve's point of view, with frustrations that we can all relate to. I developed a bond with Steve and it feels like a shared history. Slights is well written and raises the bar as a first person novel. The ending brings closure to Steve and the reader.
November 17, 2025
The description on the back of this novel is a bit of a trapdoor spider. Sure, that stuff happens, but this book is more of a sprawling character study than a typical supernatural thriller. More Wasp Factory than Flatliners? So I enjoyed this quite a bit, but I think the shambling nature of the narrative would probably be off-putting for many readers who were drawn in by the advertising (their loss!). Besides the absurdity of the giant pile of manure that Stevie dumps on her lawn to announce her arrival to the neighborhood, there are tons of other impressively misanthropic moments to savor. There's this great Vonnegut-like refrain ("this is what should have happened... this is what really happened...") that very effectively serves to recalibrate the reader from expectation, or possibly help those who might find themselves pinballing hopelessly around the skull of the shifty narrator. And the puzzle of what's in the backyard ends up more abstract than the revelation you might crave. There are also times when a Stephen Graham Jones-esque tumble of words might send you spiraling, almost like the book is made entirely of non-sequiturs, but if you can get on its unusual wavelength, you're in for a singular experience here.
P.S. If there's an award for the most unsympathetic protagonist ever, Stevie's gotta be high up there on the podium, nipping on the edge of the gold medal to see if she's real.
P.S. If there's an award for the most unsympathetic protagonist ever, Stevie's gotta be high up there on the podium, nipping on the edge of the gold medal to see if she's real.
October 31, 2025
This was...not for me. It was well written and interesting, but it is also as dark and bleak as they come. Not really horror, just very unsettling.
March 30, 2016
There seems to be a great debate on whether or not this is really a horror novel, as it is described on the cover. My take is that it is not. Instead Kaaron Warren presents us with a story of a woman, Stevie, whom is wandering through life, losing everyone whom she can consider friends or family due to her inability to be social. The idea is that when you are close to death, you see all of the people that you have disappointed, cheated, or slighted along the way. Stevie doesn't have much to live for so when she does try to kill herself, repeatedly, new people show up. Instead of this being a "My Name is Earl" type redemption story, this slides down the muddy embankment of a depressing situation.
People talk about horror as if it can be defined, and I guess that if you are one of those people that consider the books of Chuck Palahniuk to be frightening, particularly "Choke" and "Survivor", then this might become a horror novel. Stevie seems to have come from his mind, a depressed person that makes others uncomfortable or pushes them away for their own amusement. Even though Palahniuk does it better, "Slights" is definitely a novel that will fit in with his fans.
The most interesting thing about this novel is that it is one of the very first books published by Angry Robot. Angry Robot is an incredibly well-oiled sci-fi/fantasy machine, and it seems strange that this is one of their debut novels (along with Moxyland). It feels like a first novel to some degree, where the ideas are huge but the execution is not always there. I plodded through this novel, feeling like it was not going in any direction in particular, and I kept thinking that Angry Robot should not be ashamed of publishing this, per se, but that they have come a long way as a publisher.
People talk about horror as if it can be defined, and I guess that if you are one of those people that consider the books of Chuck Palahniuk to be frightening, particularly "Choke" and "Survivor", then this might become a horror novel. Stevie seems to have come from his mind, a depressed person that makes others uncomfortable or pushes them away for their own amusement. Even though Palahniuk does it better, "Slights" is definitely a novel that will fit in with his fans.
The most interesting thing about this novel is that it is one of the very first books published by Angry Robot. Angry Robot is an incredibly well-oiled sci-fi/fantasy machine, and it seems strange that this is one of their debut novels (along with Moxyland). It feels like a first novel to some degree, where the ideas are huge but the execution is not always there. I plodded through this novel, feeling like it was not going in any direction in particular, and I kept thinking that Angry Robot should not be ashamed of publishing this, per se, but that they have come a long way as a publisher.
Read
April 27, 2012Hallelujah I'm done! Perhaps I just wasn't vibing off her Australian/Fiji-ness. Some sentences in the beginning didn't make sense. The main character never grows up (even though she does) And it sounds like you're reading from the POV of a 5yr old the whole time. Doesn't care about anyone, even herself, or even people who try to care about her. The resulting effect is we don't care about any of it either. The main character does a lot of "This is what should have happened" and divulges a whole pointless story. There's so many times I sighed and said "not again!" The 1st half of the story reads like it was written by someone who has ADD. You end up with more back story and memories then you do of what's actually happening. Anything that could be remotely interesting is vaguely referenced and not gone into any detail at all. I only finished this book because I was so far done. There are better books out there. Don't waste your eyesight on this one. It will find a home at the used bookstore.
"Some people use cliches, nothing statements, when they want to be reassured, when they know something is wrong but they don't want to admit it."
-pg. 102
"Some people use cliches, nothing statements, when they want to be reassured, when they know something is wrong but they don't want to admit it."
-pg. 102
January 13, 2015
I had several problems with this book. First, I didn't feel it belonged under the horror genre. The premise made it SEEM like it would be an interesting horror novel, but the execution did not follow through. There were not enough elements, in my opinion, for it to qualify. The next big issue was the pacing. It took far too long for anything to happen, and there wasn't much in the way of plot or character development prior to that. Next, I have to wonder, where, oh where, was the editor on this thing? Easily, a minimum of 100 pages could have been cut. The novel within the novel by the main character's aunt contributed little to nothing, in my opinion. Eliminating it would have saved a few trees, and tightened up the book in the process. Finally, there was the ending. I refuse to spoil anything, but it was very unsatisfactory to me. Overall, I really wanted to like this book, but it just failed in so many ways. I have to say, that if the premise of the novel was true, I'd be one of the people lined up in the author's room, as I feel very slighted.
dnf
May 15, 2018DNF @ 30%
OMFG.
This is a book I've had on my Paperwhite for a while. A book marketed as a horror story about a psychopathic woman. One I'd been looking forward to reading...
As soon as I got started, I was bored. I usually enjoy unreliable narrators, surreal POVs and hidden secrets. But not like this.
Stevie is messed up, but that's not the problem. The problem is how bored I got with this story. How I kept waiting for interesting stuff to happen, and it just didn't. And this is a 500 page book, so I don't want to waste any more time on an unsettling story that's not captivating.
That's really too bad. I was looking forward to reading about a female serial killer.
OMFG.
This is a book I've had on my Paperwhite for a while. A book marketed as a horror story about a psychopathic woman. One I'd been looking forward to reading...
As soon as I got started, I was bored. I usually enjoy unreliable narrators, surreal POVs and hidden secrets. But not like this.
Stevie is messed up, but that's not the problem. The problem is how bored I got with this story. How I kept waiting for interesting stuff to happen, and it just didn't. And this is a 500 page book, so I don't want to waste any more time on an unsettling story that's not captivating.
That's really too bad. I was looking forward to reading about a female serial killer.
June 9, 2020
3.5 rounded up.
This is nothing like I expected, or nothing like it was marketed.
It’s not what I’d personally describe as a horror, although, in saying that, it’s also the closest possible genre describable.
And it does have one obvious element that leans in that direction: the room we go when we die. The torture room. Full of people we’ve “slighted” during our lives.
But the bulk of this book is about a twisted, damaged, dangerous woman’s life. There’s no real plot, we just follow Stevie over the course of seventeen years; fucking up, killing people, being demented; And Stevie, for all of her repulsive behaviour, is an entertaining narrator.
The lack of plot, and the hefty number of pages did make this book quite a slog to get through, and while I certainly can’t think of any grand meaning this book was meant to have, it was a fun(?) and twisted read. I certainly can’t think of anything I didn’t like, which lands me, once again, at a standard 4 stars. (Will 2020 deliver me anything other than a 4 star book? I’m not complaining; 4 stars is a pretty good score to keep repeating, but will I ever hate a book in 2020? Find a masterpiece? Who knows.)
This is nothing like I expected, or nothing like it was marketed.
It’s not what I’d personally describe as a horror, although, in saying that, it’s also the closest possible genre describable.
And it does have one obvious element that leans in that direction: the room we go when we die. The torture room. Full of people we’ve “slighted” during our lives.
But the bulk of this book is about a twisted, damaged, dangerous woman’s life. There’s no real plot, we just follow Stevie over the course of seventeen years; fucking up, killing people, being demented; And Stevie, for all of her repulsive behaviour, is an entertaining narrator.
The lack of plot, and the hefty number of pages did make this book quite a slog to get through, and while I certainly can’t think of any grand meaning this book was meant to have, it was a fun(?) and twisted read. I certainly can’t think of anything I didn’t like, which lands me, once again, at a standard 4 stars. (Will 2020 deliver me anything other than a 4 star book? I’m not complaining; 4 stars is a pretty good score to keep repeating, but will I ever hate a book in 2020? Find a masterpiece? Who knows.)
March 16, 2020
I was really impressed by the pure immersion into another’s mind that this book achieves right from the first chapter. You may struggle and thrash against this chaotic and unrepentant point of view but there’s no escape. I found it quite chilling but also fascinating and unrelenting. It was completely believable, which is why it was so frightening. At no time did I ever feel I was reading a book about a serial killer, which is good because I generally find those boring. The main character’s theory that if you slight someone they will be waiting for revenge in the afterlife was both appalling and seductive. This book is working on a lot of different levels and I’m not totally certain I unravelled all its mysteries but it certainly kept me thinking long after I finished reading.
January 16, 2019
Рядко тъпа книга.
Запознайте се със Стиви - рядко неприятна специална снежинка с всички възможни и невъзможни психични отклонения и от много счупено семейство. Тя милата, след н-на брой опити за самоубийство, развива пристрастяване към near death преживяванията и това което вижда (в нейния случай- обратното на тунел и светлина, един вид). В един момент престава да и бъде достатъчно, та почва и да убива случайни хора, за да разбере те какво преживяват. Накрая успява да се самоубие, точно когато се надява че някой ще я спаси и този път, и ще започне да живее нормално.
Еми това е книгата - скучно написана, с груб език и наистина, рядко неприятен главен персонаж.
Запознайте се със Стиви - рядко неприятна специална снежинка с всички възможни и невъзможни психични отклонения и от много счупено семейство. Тя милата, след н-на брой опити за самоубийство, развива пристрастяване към near death преживяванията и това което вижда (в нейния случай- обратното на тунел и светлина, един вид). В един момент престава да и бъде достатъчно, та почва и да убива случайни хора, за да разбере те какво преживяват. Накрая успява да се самоубие, точно когато се надява че някой ще я спаси и този път, и ще започне да живее нормално.
Еми това е книгата - скучно написана, с груб език и наистина, рядко неприятен главен персонаж.
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October 18, 2023DNF @ 30% 10/23
An unbearable character study that goes nowhere. It's not worth my time.
An unbearable character study that goes nowhere. It's not worth my time.
October 17, 2016
This one didn't work for me. It kept going on and on about the 18-year-old protagonist's difficulty in adjusting to her mother's death and never got to her serial-killing spree as the book description promised. Info dumps abound. Shroud Magazine have this book a good review. I don't see why. Meh.
March 15, 2018
Slights was my first foray into Kaaron Warren's work, and what a deliciously disturbing ride I had. Horror is a rare genre choice for me, as I like to sleep at night. I'm glad I made an exception.
Despite all the psychotic, twisted things that the protagonist (Stevie) does in Slights, somehow I remained on her side. I admire any author who can maintain my sympathy for such a deranged character. I particularly enjoyed the story's push and pull, keeping me guessing the real vs the imagined, the psychopathic manoeuvres vs the cries for help, the guilty vs the potentially innocent (though no one seems truly innocent in this book!)
The ending was sudden, and I'm still on the fence as to whether I found it satisfying, but I honestly don't care. I loved the story, the characters (major and minor), the page-turning pace — unlike some reviewers who found the beginning slow, I was hooked from page one.
Next stop: The Grief Hole, Kaaron's award-winning novel of 2016.
Despite all the psychotic, twisted things that the protagonist (Stevie) does in Slights, somehow I remained on her side. I admire any author who can maintain my sympathy for such a deranged character. I particularly enjoyed the story's push and pull, keeping me guessing the real vs the imagined, the psychopathic manoeuvres vs the cries for help, the guilty vs the potentially innocent (though no one seems truly innocent in this book!)
The ending was sudden, and I'm still on the fence as to whether I found it satisfying, but I honestly don't care. I loved the story, the characters (major and minor), the page-turning pace — unlike some reviewers who found the beginning slow, I was hooked from page one.
Next stop: The Grief Hole, Kaaron's award-winning novel of 2016.
September 3, 2012
To be honest, when I finished reading this novel, my first reaction was, "That's it?"
But I suppose it's an issue of wrong expectations. The back blurb reads, Stevie is a killer. When she kills people she asks them: “WHAT DO YOU SEE?" She’s about to find out.
This happens about two-thirds into the book, and by then it's too late to stop drumming my fingers. I dove into the novel expecting a philosophical serial killer searching for answers about the afterlife, and instead got a hodgepodge of family anecdotes from an extremely unlikable protagonist who keeps digging in her father's backyard.
I have no problems with unlikable, morally corrupt protagonists. Patricia Highsmith's Thomas Ripley is a forger, a liar, and a murderer, but he is also suave and charming. His thoughts, no matter how dark, are fascinating enough to enjoy and follow. What will happen next? I would wonder. What will he do next?
I found Stevie fascinating, but I couldn't enjoy her company because she is too repulsive. Everyone in her universe is repulsive, and I kept resisting the text because some details sounded too fantastic to me. I mean, it's not enough that there's one sexual predator? It has to be almost every single person she meets?
Kaaron Warren writes well. There are brilliant passages here. She is able to successfully present a skewed view of the world. But in terms of structure, the novel's downfall is its linearity. Yes, Stevie rambles and digresses, but the structure is still linear. At eighteen, the novel opens. At nineteen. And so on. Why remind us about Stevie's age, when she never really grows? The novel feels like one whole day in the life of a disturbed young woman.
Slights has a horrifying premise - what if when we die, we don't see angels or paradise or the people we love, but the people we have slighted? The people we don't even remember? And what if these people surrounded us in a closed room and hurt us and ate our flesh for all of eternity? The story would have been more engaging if the novel opened with Stevie committing her first murder, in the hopes of finding the truth about the room she sees when she first dies. This is not a spoiler - it's right there on the blurb anyway.
But I suppose it's an issue of wrong expectations. The back blurb reads, Stevie is a killer. When she kills people she asks them: “WHAT DO YOU SEE?" She’s about to find out.
This happens about two-thirds into the book, and by then it's too late to stop drumming my fingers. I dove into the novel expecting a philosophical serial killer searching for answers about the afterlife, and instead got a hodgepodge of family anecdotes from an extremely unlikable protagonist who keeps digging in her father's backyard.
I have no problems with unlikable, morally corrupt protagonists. Patricia Highsmith's Thomas Ripley is a forger, a liar, and a murderer, but he is also suave and charming. His thoughts, no matter how dark, are fascinating enough to enjoy and follow. What will happen next? I would wonder. What will he do next?
I found Stevie fascinating, but I couldn't enjoy her company because she is too repulsive. Everyone in her universe is repulsive, and I kept resisting the text because some details sounded too fantastic to me. I mean, it's not enough that there's one sexual predator? It has to be almost every single person she meets?
Kaaron Warren writes well. There are brilliant passages here. She is able to successfully present a skewed view of the world. But in terms of structure, the novel's downfall is its linearity. Yes, Stevie rambles and digresses, but the structure is still linear. At eighteen, the novel opens. At nineteen. And so on. Why remind us about Stevie's age, when she never really grows? The novel feels like one whole day in the life of a disturbed young woman.
Slights has a horrifying premise - what if when we die, we don't see angels or paradise or the people we love, but the people we have slighted? The people we don't even remember? And what if these people surrounded us in a closed room and hurt us and ate our flesh for all of eternity? The story would have been more engaging if the novel opened with Stevie committing her first murder, in the hopes of finding the truth about the room she sees when she first dies. This is not a spoiler - it's right there on the blurb anyway.
March 29, 2010
When Stevie dies she goes, not to a world of light and love but ‘the dark room’ where those she has slighted wait to torture her. Psychotically knowing that hers is the only reality, she takes her victims to the brink of death, so she can ask then to, ‘tell me what you see.’ When they don’t see the dark room they are of course, lying. She is slighted, they deserve to die.
She takes a job in a hospice so she can be with the dying as they take their last breath, she makes several attempts at suicide, she digs in the garden, finding the truth about her ‘hero’ father and herself.
A compulsive and hideous novel about a damaged individual’s desire to emulate her bullying, controlling, adored father, the only person, she believes, who ever loved her.
One of the darkest things I’ve ever read. Bleak and completely riveting.
She takes a job in a hospice so she can be with the dying as they take their last breath, she makes several attempts at suicide, she digs in the garden, finding the truth about her ‘hero’ father and herself.
A compulsive and hideous novel about a damaged individual’s desire to emulate her bullying, controlling, adored father, the only person, she believes, who ever loved her.
One of the darkest things I’ve ever read. Bleak and completely riveting.
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