 Hello everybody, Ian here. Welcome back to yet another book review. I decided since I made you guys wait so long for these videos. Yes, I was out down with my back. I wasn't able to get out here to the shed for much. I did do a writing session, a live writing session. If you want to check that out, you can go to Monday's video. Let's see here. The From the Desk episode. And I wasn't here yesterday because once again I was down with my back. I'm trying to, I'm trying some new medicine. Hopefully that works. Today I woke up feeling pretty good and not, you know, stoned out of my mind. So hopefully that works out and we won't have any more delays. So what I'm saying all this for is I'm trying to get to the fact that you're going to have two uploads today. One for, well that one's probably already up now that I think about it, but Twilight Eyes and now we're talking about Skull Face Boy by Chad Lutsky. I got his name right y'all. He contacted me when I did my, let's see here, what was it? My October TBR. I said the book had an arrival. It arrived. Thank you Chad, by the way. Yes, I did get this for a review, so it was free. It didn't color my opinion of it whatsoever. If you want to see an example of me being honest about, because some people, some people automatically think just because I've gotten something for free that I'm going to lie about my experience, whether I like, you know, if I didn't like it. If you want to see a case where I told the absolute truth, you can go check out my Us Against Them video, the Frederick Bachman. I would send that for a review. I didn't like that book at all, but I loved this one. Chad Lutsky can write. I knew that before going into this. I've read some of his short stories. He has a certain distinct style that I enjoy. It's a style that I appreciate with the likes of Haruki Murakami. This isn't as deep as a Haruki Murakami book, but it is poignant and it does have that feel of noir and simplistic. It's a simplistic style that is not simplistic. I know that sounds weird, but the best way I can put it is right now off the top of my head is hard, sorry, easy reading is hard writing. When you're reading something and the words disappear and you're just along for the story, that's what Chad is able to do. That's what the best Stephen King is able to do. They're completely different styles. I just bring that up because when I read Stephen King, I completely forget I'm reading. That's the same way I feel about Chad here. I haven't read his other novels, novellas. I'm not sure exactly the length of some of them. They're really cheap paperbacks, so I'm assuming that they're novellas. This one comes in at, let's see here, 193 pages and the type is huge. I guess they're novellas. They might be novels. I don't know. Some people call of mice and men a novel. That's only like 100 pages, so I don't know. Tell me down there what your opinion is on this subject. This book is fantastic. It's got notes of David Lynch. It's got notes of, like I said, Haruki Murakami. Just some really weirdness. It is not a single genre. I think that's what I like about it. That's what I like. That's what I look for in all of the fiction that I read is that it's not one specific genre. I think that's one of the main reasons why I'm not too huge on like 80s horror or some of the indie horror that's coming out these days. There is one purpose and that is the only purpose of the book is to either disgust or gross out whatever. Just try to be as gnarly as possible. There are some gnarly scenes in this book. Don't get me wrong, especially with the trio in the RV. There's some gnarly stuff in here. Some really cool stuff. One scene I don't want to give away at all. I didn't see it coming whatsoever and all I will say is it has to do with a lake, I believe it is. But if you've read it, let me know what you thought of it down there because I didn't see it. It was a complete utter shock. Chad, very well done. So parts of this book are bizarre. It's literally the main character's name is Levi, but he literally has a skull for a face. Chad did this with somebody else's photography, but Chad made this cover and I love it. I love the colors. I love everything about it. I believe it happens in the 80s also with the little hints dropped throughout. I'm pretty sure that it happens in the 80s. So there was a lot of stuff that I enjoyed. Levi's taste in music is not quite my own. I'm not a huge fan of kiss, but I did appreciate how much he loved it. I also, I read the afterward and Chad said that there's a lot of, much of this book is autobiographical. I appreciate that also. And I think I could tell which ones he went, he went, I think, I think he went much, much farther in depth with the scenes that were autobiographical. It just felt realer. And if that isn't true, Chad, you did a fantastic job because it felt like you were writing about personal experience almost the whole way through. Except for in some, I don't think it would be. I hope it's not autobiographical. We'll talk later. Maybe. So I will be picking up everything that that Chad writes. I was planning to anyways. I just hadn't gotten around to it. Chad's one of those guys who I will likely read anything that he publishes right now. I think the one that I'm looking at the hardest is stirring the sheets. And I'm going to get to that one soon, probably in November. But this book was fantastic. I highly recommend it. It's an easy five stars. I mean, there's not one thing in this book that I did not love. I did discuss with a friend of mine. And he said that he felt that Levi was a little too worldly, had too much. But the way I feel about it is he was a reader. And readers tend to be like that. So I think he said, I think Chad set up the character perfectly. And I was there. I showed up for everything that was going down. And I cried twice. So that's a big, it's a big plus in my book. So definitely go check out Skull Face Boy by Chad Lutsky. And until next time, I have been E, you've been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye bye.