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UnderratedReads is devoted to discovering underrated books and under-represented authors. We highlight hidden gems from around the world–honest reviews only, never pay-to-play.
Category Archives: Dark/Sordid/Bizarre
The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema – Michael Vaughn
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Welcome seeks of the odd and the strange! What you hold in your hands is not merely a book but a map to the sublimely weird, the wonderful, and the grimy side of cinema from all … Continue reading
Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Non-fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks
Tagged cinema, cult film, Grindhouse
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What Lies Within – Clare de Lune
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “…I learned how a body could become a beautiful contribution to the power of cosmetics…the most exquisite, deepest shade of blood red lipstick you’ve’ ever seen, rich soaps made from the finest fats…all those parts … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Reviewers' Top Picks
Tagged book reviews, fiction, horror, New Orleans, psychological thriller, San Francisco, suspense
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Fall – Candice Fox
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “How to explain it all to him, a normal human man, someone with all his faculties, with a soul. How to explain that at the core of her being Eden killed people the way she breathed, … Continue reading
The Glorious Heresies – Lisa McInerney
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I don’t spend every second social occasion fantasising about enormous inanimate objects that one time used to mean something to me. But I’ve been fucked these past three weeks. I’ve been sick, and tired, and dizzy, … Continue reading
Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Irish Literature
Tagged book reviews, drugs, gritty
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Bunyan’s Guide To The Great American Wildlife- Quentin Canterel
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I don’t want to be weak. I want to have a voice like everyone else…Without a voice, I am nothing.” That’s how many of us feel. However for some, this sentiment is monumental. Take John, for … Continue reading
Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre
Tagged book reviews, Bunyan, fiction, strange, weird
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Eve Out of Her Ruins – Ananda Devi (translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman)
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Night makes its way into our bodies and refuses to leave. Night and our hormones gone wild. We boys are bundles of frustration. We start following girls to the shuttered factory that devoured our mothers’ … Continue reading
Posted in African Literature, Dark/Sordid/Bizarre
Tagged book reviews, poverty, teenagers, translated literature
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Shadowboxing With Bukowski – Darrell Kastin
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The universe shrank daily around me, the bookstore itself was the center, the black hole, the very bottomless hell that would consume me in the end. ..the bookstore was insatiable, a structure of otherworldly forces. It … Continue reading
Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Modern Literary Fiction
Tagged book reviews, Charles Bukowski, memoir
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In the Dark – Chris Patchell
(Reviewed by Ishita RC) What does a single mom, a fifteen year old teenager and a diabetic college student have in common? A past that has decided to hold them captive. If only teenage angst and a horrible boss were … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Dark/Sordid/Bizarre
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Hades – Candice Fox
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Hades had fallen in love with two chimeras, two monsters in disguise, incapable of feeling the way he felt, of loving the way he loved. The horror they had experienced had cut a hole in them … Continue reading
Posted in Australian Literature, Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Dark/Sordid/Bizarre
Tagged mystery, thrillers
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Eden – Candice Fox
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “I’d let things slip since Martina died. Since I’d been shot and Eden had saved my life. It had locked me to her, silencing me forever on the true nature of her being, the nights she … Continue reading