Midnight Picnic

I have never been met with a book that has so commanded the attention of all of my senses at once. Antosca masterfully combines haunting images with unexpected tastes and smells, the memorable senses, and these stay with the reader through the book. He keeps the reader completely submerged in this synethesia, whether through the taste of berries, the smell of fruit, the crunch of gravel, what have you. His prose is dry, eloquent, simple in its working the way that any master at work can seem simple. Beyond technique, Antosca has created an American afterlife that is unbeatable in its science, it rings true as an extension of reality, as if there could be no other way. And this knowledge weighs on the reader like the weight of a lungful of water.

I recently discovered nick antosca when a website compared his first book Fires to early bret easton ellis novels (and b.e.e. is my favorite author) so I thought I would check it out. Especially since bret takes so damn long to write a new book. Anyway, Fires was one of those books that I could not put down that made me simultaneously wish what I was reading was turned into a really good indie movie and also just be so excited that what was written was so gripping and entertaining that I was even more content by the fact it was taking place in a book. Needless to say, nick has far out done himself with midnight picnic. I am not even going to try to give a summary of the plot, because I feel like that would not do the book justice. I recommend it to people who like things dark and creepy with a very unsettling yet strangely comfortable mood. This is very different from Fires, but in my opinion it's even better. Nick is definitely a writer that I plan to follow from now on and I really hope he has a very fruitful and successful career. Movies, music, and tv shows are great but for your dollar, books are still the best form of escapism. Especially for how things are nowadays. Please do yourself a favor and check out this book so you can enjoy something that's different and unique and utterly fascinating.

Writing is stronger than Fires but the intense, adderall-tinged orange tempo is still there. Midnight Picnic is a book that thinks its a movie, I couldn't put it down. A strange, strange book yet full of pathos. Read it on drugs!

"Bram pulls into the parking lot half asleep and the crunch of gravel under his tires becomes the crunch of bones. Something screams." These two introductory sentences, regular compound and micro, foreshadow much of what's to come in Antosca's dark story of a lonely man's vigilante misadventure into dimensions of ghosts, superimposed onto dim/glowing landscapes of strip malls and blackberry trails. Juxtaposed: bone-chilling images borrowed from monstrous childhood nightmares and innocence invoking sympathy from tragic events--ravaging mortality into realms of complacent immortality. From the beginning, to "Midnight Picnic"'s compelling back-seat journey into a satisfying conclusion, Bram's indignant obligation to find a child killer and destroy him is a fantastic ride into the unknown.