Bad Brains

I can't believe while looking at the sales rank of this book. I have read it three times and I intend to do it again. This book is steeped in love. And love in this book is a devastating, tremendous feeling that won't keep you in peace. Well, you have heard this - Till Death Do Us Apart. Well, actually there's more than that...

I just finished rereading BAD BRAINS...it still speaks to me,as an artist. The process of creation is often difficult,and sometimes,as Austen,Koja's protagonist finds out,the artist must travel through Hell to find inspiration. BAD BRAINS is Koja's second book; there are no wasted words in Koja's surreal prose. The characters are memorable and I am hauntedby the images she evokes. This book is both beautiful and grotesque and very much worth reading...

This book could have been the story of my life. Still could be. I reviewed it four years ago -- and my review still stands, right there where I said it's probably the best book I've ever read. Buy it. It'll do you good.

Bad Brains, which I was moved to purchase after reading a rave review by Linda Marotta, was the first book of Koja's that I ever read. I read it as slowly as possible, dreading the conclusion because it was so beautiful.This isn't a novel for people seeking a good horror tale for two reasons. First, Koja is not a horror novelist, but because her books contain violent and often fantastic elements not seen in non-genre fiction, she is frequently referred to as one. Second, her books are powered by her magnificent prose, rather than by the usual story telling devices employed by Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz. With Koja, finding out what happens to the characters is less important than accompanying them on the journey. Her novels all deal with artists and their relationship with their art: her first novel, The Cipher, was about a poet; Bad Brains was about a painter; Skin was about a sculptor turned performance artist and Strange Angels was about a photographer.Bad Brains tells the story of an artist named Austen Bandy who, after a nasty fall in a parking lot, suffers strange and powerful hallucinations and seizures, during which he sees and tastes a silvers sheen over everything. However, the book is mostly about the demands of art on its creator and how far he's willing to go for it.It's a shame that it's out of print, but don't let that deterr you, look for it at auction sites and online used book sellers. It's worth it. Give Koja a few hours of your time and she'll change the way you view art.

This book is quite possibly one of the most raw, brutal, frightening pieces of fiction I've ever held in my hands. It describes better than anything the dark side of desire, what waits behind the mirror of art's perception, the thing that lurks unbidden within us all, pushed forth in the case of this book's main character by accident, trauma, seizures, but still undeniable. Koja's work is breathtaking; "Skin" and "Strange Angels" carry that same kind of ride through the blackness of the characters' psyches; but "Bad Brains" is in my opinion her best piece of work. Quite possibly the best book I've ever read.