pamela
Despite an absolutely killer opening, and a great concept, The Atrocities failed to deliver on any of its early promises. It is my single most disappointing read of the year.
The Atrocities was not the right story to tell in novella form. There was potential for so much to be explored, but its length meant the result was a story devoid of world, character, and atmosphere. It was a jumble of disparate ideas, all thrown together without the concise purpose that shorter fiction requires.
The titular atrocities were the book's best elements, and Shipp really does a great job of visually describing the art they've included in their story. But great visual descriptions aren't enough to carry a story that marches so resolutely toward a pointless ending. And it definitely didn't make up for the fact that it had probably the worst-written dialogue I've ever had to sit through. Add to that the fact that the atrocities themselves were forgotten after the opening sequence, never to appear again until a cursory mention toward the end of the book, and I just can't see what kind of story Shipp was going for.
Instead of feeling like a tight, controlled, and evocative horror novella, The Atrocities read like a first draft bashed out over NaNoWriMo. There are the basics of a truly great story there, but it feels like the first draft of a novel, and not like a self-contained piece of short fiction.