Bookmarked: Karaoke Night by John Watson
Hey y'all, let's see what's up today! As I mentioned in my Horror Hub post, I am a member of an online community called the Midnight Monsters Club. For our December book club meeting we had the pleasure of reading a book by one of our fellow members, Mr. John Watson. During my time as a member of the Midnight Monsters Club, I've become familiar with Mr. Watson's work as well has his unique insight on the horror genre. I was super excited to read one of his published works, as I have only read his short stories that he's posted in our group. That excitement definitely hasn't dwindled, I am super picky about the horror media that I recommend to others, which is why this novel was the first on my list to review for you.
I will include a content warning, as well as a link to a playlist for you to listen to while you read the book or while you read this review.
📻 Karaoke Night Playlist 📻
Content Warnings: Parent Loss, Parental Abuse, Sibling Loss, Mentioned Drinking, Decapitation, Eyes, Homophobia, Weapons, Mentions of Sexual Assault, Physical Violence, Bullying, Car Accidents, Descriptions of Gore, Torture, Mental Health Concerns, Occult Rituals, Bones, Implied Human Trafficking, Gambling, Spouse Abuse, Suicide, Racism, Murder, Burning Alive, Voodoo, Lynching, Ritual Sacrifice.
Summary
The story follows a travel blogger turned novelist Brian Keane as he recounts his visit to a town in rural Georgia called Redfield. In the beginning of the novel, Brian tells us that he went missing for 72 hours with no recollection of the incident. The only thing that he has to jog his memory are a collection of tapes that he recorded, all of them holding interviews with patrons of a nameless bar in Redfield. Brian also informs us that, despite his publisher's insistence to publish the interviews as fiction, they are completely real. Brian notes that the people of Redfield all turn up for karaoke, and they all sing the same songs over and over again, almost as if they're stuck on repeat.
The final interview is the most perplexing, as he interviews the owner of the bar who seems to be coordinating the entire set list. He reveals an interesting connection between all of the characters, himself, and Brian's connection to the strange little town of Redfield.
Review
I've always been a fan of immersive media, it makes it so easy to just lose yourself in the story being told and this novel is no different. I absolutely adore the way that Watson brings us into his universe with the introduction, urging us to believe that this is actually a non-fiction story being posed as a real event. I knew, from that introduction alone, that this book was going to be an immediate favorite.
Before I dive more into my review of the plot itself, I find it necessary to mention a few of the non-relevant things that I liked immediately about this story. The first thing being the proper use of southern slang! Growing up in the Appalachian area my whole life and actually attending college in Georgia where this book takes place, I find that a lot of people who are not from this area or familiar with this area do not use our slang correctly, however I had no issues in picturing how lines in this book were said because of how natural it felt to read something that was written exactly the way someone from the area would have said it. Southern accents and slang often feel so forced in media, and this was not the case for Karaoke Night which is something that made me incredibly excited to continue reading.
While reading the book I was reminded a lot of the video game "What Remains of Edith Finch". The characters are just holding on to such complex traumas and with the addition of the almost supernatural happenings that surround said traumas it was easy to maintain that sort of vibe throughout the book. However, a few characters mention feeling compelled to tell Brian their story, which also had The Magnus Archives kind of in the forefront of my mind while reading this.
Overall I loved the way that the story was arranged, however I do suggest having some sort of annotation and note taking system. A lot of the events and names interlink with one another or they overlap in some way. While I personally love this in media, it can be confusing if you haven't come across a story with such an arrangement before, so being able to clearly track events and characters is crucial otherwise you might forget somebody or something really important.
I can't go into too much detail on my review itself as it will give away a lot of spoilers for the novel. However, if you love media that can be picked apart or you're a fan of works like the Magnus Archives I would highly suggest this novel because of the similarities in their arrangement and storytelling tactics.
While reading for book club, we had some discussion questions about this novel as well so I wanted to include that here:
If you had the opportunity to meet the characters in person, which did you find interesting enough to invite to dinner? What are you discussing?
This was really easy for me, my favorite character was Ursula who we meet in Chapter two, because I felt I really had a lot in common with her. If I invited her to dinner I'd probably ask to hear more about her.
What would you suggest as an alternate ending?
I loved the ending of this novel it had a fantastic plot twist, however I would have gone a bit more in depth with some of the characters though so we can really get a good feel of them!
Have you experienced a missing chunk of time like our narrator?
I actually have, quite often as a matter of fact, if I get super busy or engrossed in a task I'll lose chunks of time. However, beyond that I've had some paranormal experiences where I've lost time as well and can't explain it.
If this book became a movie, who would you cast in the main roles?
For our main blogger Brian, I'd definitely cast David Horward Thornton. However for the other characters I'd have to say Jeffery Dean Morgan as the Unknown Man, Robert Englund as Paul, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Georgie Leahy as Tanya, Bill Hader as Neil, Lauren Cohen as Susan, Norman Reedus as Eric, Brad Dourif as Norm, Fiona Dourif as Marie, Matt Dillon as Harold and Joseph Quinn as Ian.
This was kind of a hard question for me because I don't normally think of novel characters as a movie cast.
How did you feel about the interview-style narration?
I loved the interview style narrative because it really added atmosphere to the story.
Who was your least favorite character? Why?
My least favorite character had to be Tanya that entire interaction was just rather odd to me.
Did any character make choices you disagreed with, and what would you have done differently?
Again, I'm going to have to say Tanya. She was in a position to stop the outcome of her story and she was just so caught up in the attention she was getting to do the right thing.
What did you think of the ending?
While I loved the ending I do think I had more questions than answers as the characters seem to be descendants of the people who had wronged the Unknown Man and I'm not sure why he's taking his anger out on them specifically.
Did you have any ‘can’t put it down’ moments?
After Chapter 3 I was honestly hooked because I began piecing more and more of the story together but I still didn't expect the ending!
Which scene do you want to discuss the most?
It's really a toss up between Ian's like entire story and also the snippets of Brian's actual physical state beyond the bar.
Which character’s psychological breakdown was most believable?
Marie's mother's breakdown was the most believable in my opinion because I've heard of such things happening in a lot of true crime that spawned from an abuse case.
Closing
That's all I have for right now, but seriously if you want to grab a copy of Karaoke Night to read for yourself click the link at the top of this review, you can also listen to the playlist that I made that follows the songs being sung by the characters. If you want to see more from me feel free to click the link below where you can find my other socials. Y'all take care, and thanks for stopping by!
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