#The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

[abookishidentity]

Urban Fantasy thoughts part 2

It's very interesting how in each urban fantasy book I have read the main character is constantly hurting for money. Then again, there have been quite a few science fiction books in which the starship captain isn't exactly raking in the dough.

Urban Fantasy main characters are deeply broken people which makes sense as they have seen a lot. Something interesting about reading about a deeply broken person who is just constantly trying to survive and defeat bad creatures.

I remember looking up Sandman Slim on youtube and seeing someone comparing the book series with Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. So I checked out Storm Front by Jim Butcher and I just couldn't make it through it which was disappointing as the entire series was at the library it seemed. Didn't like how women were written, or at least the vampire women were, and I didn't like the main character.

Here are other urban fantasy books I did like:

-Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore - I want to get more into this series.

-The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey - how I could not like this? Richard Kadrey cowrote it.

-Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone - I love the Craft Sequence series.

-White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton - Pretty good book.

-Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire - I would read more of this book series. I haven't read many books about the fae.

-The Devil You Know by Mike Carey- Currently reading this book. I definitely would want to read more of this series.

Other urban fantasy books I have read /tried to read but will not continue.

-Storm Front by Jim Butcher- already gave my reasons. It's quite disappointing and I'm not slogging through several books before it gets better.

-Moon Called by Patricia Briggs- I didn't finish this book. Too much werewolf pack rules shit.

-Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews - It was a pretty good book. A lot of werewolf in this book. The constant talk of who is the alpha and pack rules just kind of annoys me.

-Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep - Once again, it was pretty good. She was a deadly assassin which was cool. Didn't like that she lusted after the cop. Sometimes I forget that urban fantasy protagonists can just be ridiculously horny.

That all being said, I possibly need more recommendations for urban fantasy. Hopefully they are the libraries I frequent.

[torpublishinggroup]

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The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

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[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #28 – The Dead Take The A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey

Oh I wanted to love this book so very much. On paper it’s basically made for me – incredibly messy fuckup of a heroine, cosmic horror through the idiom of wall street corporate sharks, grimy and gory urban fantasy full of knifing people in back alleys, the works! For the first fifty pages or so, I thought I was in love – which just made the disappointment as the wheels came off all the more bitter.

The book follows Julie, ‘barbed wire magician’ (it’s at least as unpleasant as it sounds), professional monster hunter, and all-around personal disaster. Her life takes a turn for the even messier when a) her best friend/comically oversized unresolved crush shows up at her door begging for help running from her abusive husband and b) unrelatededly but more or less simultaneously, her ex-partner-and-also-boyfriend, looking up to clean up embarrassing loose ends on his rise up the elldritch corporate ladder, baits her into trying to summon a guardian angel from a sabotaged tome and ends up releasing a metaphysical parasite that starts murdering its way through the city’s occult underground. From there things just get messier.

Drilling down as much as I can, my issues with this can be summed up as it feels like a first draft. There’s stuff there on the page – character arcs, relationships, bits of scenery and action setpieces, even themes! - but it’s all just..there. Exaggerated line sketches no one ever went back and turned into full illustrations. It’s most painful with the characters – every one of them is a caricature, precisely and exactly what they first appear to be with the same beats hit again and again every single time they appear on screen. Which more or less for the quirky supporting cast but like – we get multiple chapters from the perspective of the aforementioned abusive husband, and something like a fifth of the book is from the POV of the sleazy corporate striver ex. At no point does either one get the slightest bit of nuance or pathos – Tyler’s chapters in particular end up reading like bad SCP field reports, with so much self-destructive instituional backstabbing and betrayal it all ends up being slapstick.

Sarah the love interest gets a special anti-shout-out here. Like, I know I’m just picky about and have a low tolerance for romances, but I swear – the single most important dynamic in the book in terms of both wordcount and narrative signposting is her and Julie’s romance, and it is just So. Bad. Every single scene she’s in is dedicated to rubbing your face in how fragile and traumatized and selfless and adorable and good-hearted and damaged she is, and the entirety of the romance is essentially one of those jokes about how lesbians will spend six years living with each other awkwardly waiting for the other to ask them out but stretched across 400 pages. I spent half the book patiently waiting for any hint of hidden depths or surprising twists to her character, but nope! Just a perfect domestic angel.

The setting actually has something of a similar issue. It feels like an exaggerated pastiche of urban fantasy, assuming the reader is already familiar with all the tropes and conceits and making only the most perfunctory possible gestures towards exploring or justifying them. This can absolutely work, but if you’re doing it you kind of need to use the genre as the background or setup for something else that the book is actually about – deconstruction or satire or character study or Wacky Hijinks or something. When what’s gruesome action and drama is supposed to be the star attraction, the grounding and verisimilitude of the world is actually pretty key.

A really tight, tense plot could have absolutely redeemed the whole but, well, nope. The literal entire plot hinges on Tyler, in the course of one conversation several drinks in at a crowded bar, baiting Julie into looking for a particular type of tome from a particular store so she’ll try the ritual he had swapped out with one to curse her – but then also that he didn’t know what the ritual he swapped in actually did. The big evil wall street law firm has a corporate culture that should have collapsed about 48 hours after it was founded, and absolutely nothing about it makes sense for a place with lasting institutional power. Everyone’s morality and perceptiveness changes as the plot requires. The pacing feels like they had to pull a happy ending out of their asses at the 2/3 mark and shove the rest of the book into a sequel. It’s just, it’s bad!

Also the prose starts at fun and evocative and keeps pushing into Lovecraftian levels of adjective-addiction, and neither the A-Train nor the dead are actually at all important to the story.

Just, argh. This could have been good! The first 40 pages were a really fun schlocky monster-of-the-week story! The first ritual summoning the Proctor was basically perfect! I wanted to love this!

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

Why yes I am using the Silt Verses to push propaganda for some of my faves 🤭

If you like TSV for its weirdo eldritch gods and cosmic horror most of these would fit.

If you're specifically looking for capitalism-core with a dash of lovecraft type shit The Craft Sequence and The Dead Take the A Train got you.

If you're looking for the Ace/aro Mood while attempting to comprehend the horrors and being persecuted for your creepy fantasy religion try Winter Tide/The Innsmouth Legacy.

You looking for the unhinged queers who do murder in the name of their gods + a middle-aged trans MC who's just trying her best™ No Gods For Drowning might be for you.

Ya like the messed up saints?the body horror?and devastation that the gods in TSV bring? The Black Iron Legacy might do you some good.

Suppressed religions & dangerous gods 2 electric boogaloo aka The Divine Cities. Also got that sweet sweet political intrigue and commentary on colonisers/colonised dynamic among other things.

TWs:violence, death, gore, body horror for most of these. Some sexual references but nothing too graphic, In the Craft Sequence I do remember Three Parts Dead having a non-consenual kiss, can't recall any further SA atm.

I'm bad at explaining but just try them. K thx bye.

[explosionshark]

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey has such a fucking cool cover. And it's gay and has gross magicians and monsters and shit. I need it so bad

[tinynavajoreads]

Tiny Navajo Reads: The Dead Take the A Train

I’m back again! Whooo! And I bring you the book that broke a reading slump I had a while back and realized that I hadn’t reviewed it as of yet. So, have at it! The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◇ The cover is what really caught my attention with this book, I was struggling to figure out what I…

[ninsiana0]

Read THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey if you love blood & guts & viscera, eldritch horrors, corporate bullshit, eyeballs (so many eyeballs), backstabbing, best friends, vodka, New York, more blood, more guts, more viscera, magic, takeout, doors & bookstores.

[whatcha-reading-today]

The Dead Take The A Train | Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Julie is a screw up exorcist in NY and bad shit just keeps happening. I enjoyed that New York and Jersey were both basically characters, and I liked some of the humor. Though I was strongly reminded of the style and humor of John Dies at the End. And while I'm open to more books in that style--humorous violence and horror while dealing with insane stuff, I started to get bored. I also had trouble connecting with Julie as a character.

I think there's a lot of nastiness to enjoy here and I have to mention the beautiful cover, but this wasn't perfect for me. I do want to read the sequel when that comes out though.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: August 2024

[drowninginabactatank]

Did I just call QBD and Dymocks about more new book release info?

Yes, yes I did 😆

Anyway, looking forward to the Australian pub day for The Dead Take The A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey!

Cassandra mentioned first print run of the hardcover has foil on it so I will be keeping my eyes peeled! 👁🫦👁

[oracleofmadness]

Yes!!!! The gore! The humor! The main character coming from her pov in NYC and the way this involves that city's most elite! (I'm applauding) (Standing ovation)

Julie is about as real as they get, and I immediately loved her sarcastic, no nonsense, beautiful style when it came to handling some very... very... disgusting creatures. She is barely making it by, spending too much money on drugs and liquor and not enough on keeping up with rent. When she becomes invested in a bigger fight than usual.

This was empowering (in a weird way, I guess, but still), and I was diabolically giggling while simultaneously being horrified (what must my neighbors think??). It's definitely a great read.

Out October 3, 2023!

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!

[tinynavajoreads]

I just finished The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey yesterday and it was the first book I could actually focus on all of last month. It was interesting and definitely something new, which I think my brain was looking for and I'm glad to have read it. We'll see how my reading slump goes, whether it's gone or not now 😵

Weekly Bookish Question #370 (December 31st - January 6th 2024)

What is your first read of 2024?

[freckles-and-books]

It’s finally October! And I have, once again, created an overly ambitious tbr. But I’m hoping the books I read will contain all the atmospheric, gothic, and witchy vibes I need to enhance my experience of my favorite month. 🪦🕸️🍂

Here are my October hopefuls:

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland 🧙🏻‍♀️

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio 🪦

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal 🎎

The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter 💀

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson 🧛🏻‍♀️

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey 👁️

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny 🦴

Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles 🗝️

The Secrets of Hardwood Hall by Kate Lumsden 🕯️

And that’s not to mention my audiobook, American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond by Jeremy Dauber, or my current read, The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette. It should be a full month!

[torpublishinggroup]

Release Roundup - 10.3.23

it's tuesday, and that means NEW BOOKS

we're running down everything releasing new from us today, right here 😎

👇title info below👇

Tor Books

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

After the Forest by Kell Woods

Princess of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

TorDotCom Publishing

The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu

Nightfire

The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson

Forge

Valley of Refuge by John Teschner

The Murder of Andrew Johnson by Burt Solomon

[literary-illuminati]

This book has really managed the rare feat of actually making me believe that a protagonist with no shit reality-breaking level magical superpowers is also personally such a comprehensive trashfire of a human she basically lives in the gutter and is consistently behind on rent for it.

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

Mild The Dead Take the A Train spoilers under the cut.

Carrion City is great because it's got;

-Doomed Sweet Yuri

-Toxic Old man Yaoi

AND

-Tyler tongue sucking with a genderless cosmic maggot parasite

Love is love i see no difference 😃 👍🏾

[manxious]

Just finished The Dead Take the A Train

I have some mixed emotions, overall I'd give it like a 2.5/5

Spoilers ahead!!

So this book follows a 30 year old woman named Julie who lives in NYC. She's basically like a hired monster hunter who uses magic from her body to defeat these. The majority of the book is from her perspective, although there is occasionally chapters that follow her ex boyfriend Tyler or her best friend Sarah. So basically Sarah arrives in New York to escape from her abusive boyfriend Dan. Julie takes her in, and meanwhile we learn about Tylers job which is some sort of business that fuels this eldritch creature. Honestly Tylers chapters are so incredibly boring it wouldn't matter if you skipped them. While they do tie in to Julies plotline, Julie and Tyler hardly interact the entire book. Anyway, Julie tries to protect her and Sarah by summoning this angel, but the book she used to summon it was a fake, so this angel is actually evil. I'm not sure if I skipped something in this book or if I just forgot, but somehow this angel ties into the creature that Tyler works for. Basically, the angel is going on a killing streak and the only way to stop it is for Julie to take her own life. At the end of the book, she does, and within the next chapter is resurrected with some magical item. Throughout the whole book, there have been slight mentions of Julies romantic feelining towards Sarah, while Sarah outwardly proclaims Julie as a best friend. It isn't until the end of the book when Julie and Sarah kiss and begin to date. As much as a love an LGBTQ+ romance casually in a book, I think this book would've been better without it. Even though it was mentioned a few times throughout the book, it felt forced. There was no time for Sarah to come to terms with the fact she was in love with her best friend since highschool. We were never shown Sarahs internal monolog on how she felt about Julie, if anything at all.

Final Thoughts:

While I was excited by the premise of this book, I was definitely disappointed. I found the writing style to be boring, and I was honestly kind of confused on how magic was integrated into this world. On one hand, it seemed like a casual thing, but also something nobody was supposed to know about.

Currently reading: The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey