Book Review - Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues by Loren Rhoads

Synopsis:  A highly-original anthology featuring true stories of the unsavory, unwise, unorthodox and unusual, first published in the magazine Morbid Curiosity.

First Line:  "I grew up on a farm."

Random Quote:  "No way they'd have something like this back in the States.  I thought back to Manzanar, the American concentration camp I'd visited in the California desert.  In some ways, that was very similar to this place, a vista of old wire and empty foundations.  Only we dismantled our camps, let the desert reclaim them.  Except for a roadside plaque, nothing remains to tell the tale, to cop to our own guilt."

The remains of Manzanar - Image by mlhradio via Flickr

Review:  This was terribly disappointing.  The annoyances were numerous including, but not limited to:

• The format of the book - It's printed in newspaper type with two columns per page as if it were still a zine.  It makes reading it difficult.
• The introduction - This is printed as in a regular book and starts out okay, but quickly devolves into self-congratulatory drivel.  Yes, yes, you are the coolest, gothest ever.  We all bow to your amazingness.
• The writing - Almost universally mediocre.  These were the 40 best items?
• The illustrations - If you had a goth friend in high school who doodled cartoons in their notebook, you'll recognize these.

Out of 298 pages and 40 or so essays only one of them was worth reading - Souvenir of Hell by Brian Thomas - about visiting Auschwitz and Birkenau.  Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for writing about this experience in an intelligent and honest way.

This book got two stars because of Mr. Thomas' essay - a long-winded way of saying you might as well skip this.

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