Enjoy this Monday with Mildred!
The Unnoticeables
On first reading I was confused, which I figure is how author Robert Brockway wants it. The book’s monsters are angels that aren’t really angels, tar creatures with spinning brass gear eyes who melt people, and un-noticeable people that you can’t remember even when you’re looking right at them. We learn about these things through two main protagonists and a minor one that only shows up in a few chapters. Carey lives in the punk rock world of 1977 New York City and Kaitlyn is a sometime stunt woman in 2013 who mostly waits tables and tends a bar. Both are on the fringe of their respective crowd, and each has an unpleasant destiny chosen for them.
After finishing I had to go back and re-read some parts and look for the first reference to a character I had forgotten by the time I realized he was really important. So I read parts of the book again and, well, I’m still a little confused. I think the biggest reason for that is the “monster” rules seem straightforward on the surface but think about them a little and it all falls apart. There’s one sentence in the book that sort of explains everything that only made sense on the re-reading, but for the most part the book doesn’t quite make sense.
That’s okay, though, because I’m pretty sure it’s what the author intended.
The cover, in neon yellow and neon lavender, opens onto jet black end pages which sets the tone for the book’s immersion into crazy loud milieus (one of them, anyway) with ultimate evil lurking just beneath. The cover is almost too much, which is how I felt about the monsters. They’re so strong and clever humans are rendered almost totally powerless. Action sequences are frenetic and gory and just, different. In a good way.
This is a quick read, not for the easily triggered for sexual situations. There is also a lot of drinking and casual violence and filth and much smoking of cigarettes, and a Hollywood party that’s a whole nuther level of ickiness in its banality. I’m glad I read The Unnoticeables, it’s weird in a good way that Deadlands: Ghostwalker wishes it was.
LINKS:
Chick Flicking Reviews 