Reviews for The Crystal Stopper

The average rating for The Crystal Stopper based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-01-03 00:00:00 Steven Eastlake An average of 3.05? Did we read the same novel?! I've taken a few days since finishing The Glister to think about it and come down from my excitable state, so that this review didn't read like an incomprehensible smattering of "oh wow!" and "brilliant!". This was only my second Burnside novel, but I feel confident in saying that he is one of my favourite contemporary authors. He writes with such mastery, and the way that he illustrates Innertown and its ghostly, menacing atmosphere is distinct and chilling. I adore how this is written, switching from third person to first and providing the reader with glimpses from different characters but propelling the tale through Leonard's narrative. In the same way that I got anxious as I neared the end of The Dumb House and nothing had been resolved, I was intensely curious when I got to the final 30 pages of The Glister and there was no resolution in sight. Just as the town is depicted as bleak, murky, and mysterious, we become implicated through our own confusion at what is going on. Burnside doesn't provide any conclusive answers. I thought that this novel was brilliant before I got to the ending, but once I read the final page, I was in absolute awe. If you're interested in an atmospheric, grey haze type of novel, a Holden Caulfield-type narrator, the familiarity of Lepidoptera in disturbing texts but with a distinctive and sacred twist, you will enjoy this.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-11 00:00:00 Jeffrey Pulaski I feel pretty much slap bang in the middle with this one, and that's a bit disappointing if I'm honest. My second foray into Burnside's work was almost a year in the making, and I had high hopes for Glister as apparently it's the writer's favourite of the books he's written. I just found it ultimately to be a bit of a let down. I'm not sure how to summarize the story, because I didn't really feel like there was much of one really. We follow a couple of different people's perspectives, but for the most part the story is told by a teenage boy named Leonard. He lives in an isolated place called Innertown, overshadowed by a shut-down power plant that has made the population of the town ill. He has a dying father, an unsatisfactory relationship with his girlfriend - and other boys his age have been slowly disappearing over the years. Only the local policeman Morrison seems to know anything about it. One thing that I think Burnside does incredibly well is atmosphere. From the very beginning, he created a creepy, eerie world for the reader to inhabit - although I believe the town is meant to be set somewhere in Scotland, it feels almost otherwordly and fantastical. The people are all quite odd and/or reclusive, the weather is dark and dreary, and the ominous presence of the now defunct power plant is a brilliant addition, making it very easily for me to imagine myself in its shadow at all times. There are also a couple of points in this book where the events are quite shocking. Burnside can quickly move events on from being bearable to alarmingly violent at the drop of a hat, almost out of nowhere. Some of the images are maybe not for the faint-hearted, but I wouldn't say they were quite as shocking as moments in The Dumb House. Still, I can see parts of this book being quite disturbing for readers less inclined to read horror/thrillers. What in the end let me down was the ending though. It made absolutely no sense, left absolutely no resolution, and was just plain bizarre. Not in a good way either. Although I don't need some massive revelation at the end of the book, it would have been nice to feel like there was some sort of point to the events depicted in earlier pages. Although again the imagery was intriguing, odd, and gruesome at times, it just made the book fall flat in the end, because I felt like Burnside had an idea for a story but never fully worked it out. Disappointing to say the least. I would recommend trying this book if you like creepy atmospheric reads, but if you're the kind of person who likes a strong plot then this definitely isn't one for you. I will still be reading more of Burnside's work though, as his style is something I really enjoy.