Customer Reviews

Carabolia: A Modern Tale of the Undead

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

WOW! This is one of those rare books that lulls you into a dream like state while reading it, seduces you into believing you can solve the mystery, keeps you up all night, and then rips the rug out from under you and leaves you breathless. A totally exhilirating read the likes of which I haven't been pleasured to in a long, long time. Part neo-gothic horror, novel, part murder mystery, part mystical conundrum, Carabolia is quick and dirty read that lays on the mystery, eloquent metaphors, and surrealism in heavy and seductive doses while weaving the tale of a young troubled waitress who can't seem to convince anyone of the body she found in the woods or of the horrors lurking beneath the surface of the small town and the local diner where she works. Schleicher is a very able-minded word weaver and gives up quick snapshot glimpses into the lives of the characters and the places both physcial and non-physical they inhabit. A must read for anybody who likes wicked plot twists, lots of dream imagery, and lots of psychological suspense. I can't recommend this novel enough. Who needs Stephen King (let the man retire) when we now have D.H. Schleicher!

Intriguing and Suspensful! Schleicher uses his study of the human psyche to propel you into the world of dreams versus reality. He is a master storyteller, teasing you with subtle hints to the truth, yet keeping the final chapters totally unpredictable.

"Carabolia: a Modern Tale of the Undead" marks the author's second novel. His characters get more flesh and blood all the time...or do they? Anyway, we loved Maggie Delaney to death. Mr. Schleicher explores a theme of the many eye witness accounts one gets from the same crime scene...only this time the accounts take the form of dreams and the mystery is whose dream is it anyway? The Untruth is out there, and Mr. Schleicher will help you find it. Bottom Line: Read it for yourself but not after midnight or when you're home alone!

OK, so the first time I read "Carabolia", I didn't get it. The mixed reviews intrigued me, and I liked "Crematorium", but this one seemed misguided at first glance, like a key chapter had been deleted. I tossed it aside. Then I discovered that I couldn't stop thinking about it; I couldn't get the characters out of my mind.

About one month later, I was at a book party and talked about it with someone who had a completely different take on the story. After she explained it to me, things started to fit together in my mind. And I went back and read the book again!! I mean, I never do that! And I loved it! This subtle, sly thriller works on levels that the casual reader never suspects and accomplishes things that popular fiction wouldn't dare.

I won't give you the key to understanding it---read the book and figure it out yourself. It's well worth it!

Well, maybe I'm nuts, but I actually look forward to what Schleicher cooks up next. Don't get me wrong, Carabolia is pretty bad. Whether you view it as a traditional murder mystery or some kind of treatise on multiple personality disorder and dreams vs. reality, the plot is pretty nonsensical throughout no matter how you look at it. The dialogue is god-awful (although I have a feeling some of that is intentional, to get the discriminating reader to see that some of this is all a dream). Some of the metaphors utilized are just plane nuts or so out of left field, it's almost funny to read them. Hey, maybe I'm on to something. I actually think that Carabolia is meant to be read as a very very dark comedy. If you go into reading it that way, then you might actually have some fun in a masochistic kind of way. At any rate, Carabolia is so deep down bad that it's almost good, and Schleicher as a writer has nowhere to go but up (one would think). And if he pulls another tale out of his hat that is actually worse than this, he might be on to something too. He can't lose. Cult fan clubs have formed around much lamer. So go ahead and give it a whirl, you might laugh, you might want to write your own book to show that "hey, I can write better than this [person]" and you might get a sense that Schleicher is telling a joke no one else is on yet (except maybe me and you!).

I cannot see what the other reviewers saw in this book? Poorly written,stupid plot,a complete waste of time.Spend your money on a real book, not this one.