The Cipher [Mass Market Paperback]

Kathe Koja (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Down-and-out Nicholas and his friend Nakota one day discover a black hole in the floor of an abandoned storage room in his apartment building, which they quickly christen the "Funhole." The two set out to see what happens when they drop various items into the hole, whetting its appetite with insects, a mouse and a human hand, which all come back violently rearranged. Next, they lower a camcorder into the hole to record the action within. The videotape they retrieve is spellbinding, but there's a catch: what Nicholas sees is different from everyone else's vision. To Nakota the hole means change, because whatever is dropped into the Funhole emerges transformed-- if it ever emerges. Mesmerized by the Funhole, she claims that Nicholas is the only one who can make things happen around it. For Nicholas himself, the hole is a phenomenon that forces him to face his miserable, aimless life. Koja has created credible characters who are desperate for both entertainment and salvation. Inaugurating Dell's new Abyss Books series, this powerful first novel is as thought-provoking as it is horrifying.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 356 pages
• Publisher: Dell; First Edition edition (January 5, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440207827
• ISBN-13: 978-0440207825
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,276,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Underground" of Horror, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cipher (Mass Market Paperback)

Kathe Koja is almost a phenomenon. Her dazzling prose is so good that she doesn't even need a plot. She can write a 400 page book about a guy walking around his house and it would be good enought for me. This story seemed absurd to me (which I liked). If you boil down to it, it is about some people that are obsessed with sticking things into a hole. But it wasn't an absurd novel. It was deeply psychological and supernatural. The plot is very simple. There aren't too many characters or setting changes or days passing. It is just simple. But this makes room for the her works. excellent language, because she can concentrate on details. Even a paper clip can be criptic or erotic in a Kathe Koja novel. After I read the first paragraph of this book 6 years ago I HAD to go out and buy all of her works. SKIN is another book of hers I recommend. If you haven't read SKIN or THE CIPHER, don't read any others. Start with one of these.

Anyway, you'll hate this book if you enjoy "cheap" horror novels about monsters killing people or any of that crap. You'll also hate it if you think Stephen King and Dean R Koontz novels should be put in the "Classics" section of your bookstore. This book is for the artistic-minded, the "Underground" followers, and the punk-poets. If you are looking for psychological/supernatural horror that is truly UNIQUE, that stands out of the slop, then Kathe Koja's THE CIPHER is a book for you.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars H.P. Lovecraft meets the Sex Pistols, September 21, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cipher (Mass Market Paperback)

An introspective, overwhelming, claustrophobically creepy horror novel in which you're not entirely sure anything has "really happened". A combination of the intricate "other world" detail of the best of 1920's sci-fi horror fiction, with the dark, compulsive nihilism of the best of punk. Along with a really realistic portray of personal relationships. Does all that sound overly pretentious? Well, it is, but the book ISN'T. I picked the book up one morning on the way to work, and didn't do a damn thing until I finished it after lunch.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So simple it's complicated., December 12, 2011

By 

D. Fabiani (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cipher (Mass Market Paperback)

Obsession: we all suffer from it, we all dabble into its temptation. But what do we do when we can't LET GO of it? We swim into its viscous waters, drown, and then rise again. Or do we?

This is the constant battle in THE CIPHER, written by the once QUEEN of Horror, the macabre, obsession and the wasted twenty somethings of the American landscape: Kathe Koja. Koja weaves a tale inspired by Alice in Wonderland and everything H.P. Lovecraft, with prose influenced by Burroughs, Poe and Burgess, which is uniquely Koja's own. I first read the book in 2008 and didn't get it. Not until I picked it up again a year later was I floored (I'd become a better reader). It's perhaps the best book to come off the Dell Abyss line (Koja's other titles were just as good, but didn't tap the same vein as this did, though Strange Angels comes closest), and it's also probably one of the most unique books written in the 90's when everything was about horror and blood and gore, Koja stood far away from that and made us realize what went on inside people's heads. Koja is a master at what she does, and even with her new book Under the Poppy, she hasn't lost her touch.

Truly, unrepentantly, brilliant!