I feel like this book should NOT work for me...AT ALL...but it does...it really really does and I have immense difficulty articulating why it worked so well. 

First off, I should specify that the audiobook has some issues or at least the audiobook version I listened to. Multiple mistakes are left IN the audiobook, with even some outside of character discussions had about a line, then a narrator jokingly saying 'at least I'm not reading the whole book'. Which should be a pretty big detriment to the piece, but the story is all about scrappy imperfect art so it weirdly fits.

The timelines are incredibly complex, so I wouldn't recommend this as a casual read since it jumps around a lot.

None of the characters are overly impactful, with our lead especially being intentionally cagey throughout the book. As such it's really the plot that drives this book forward, it feels like a treatise of youthful obsession, and the call to the void. This should all be overbearing and pretentious, which to a point it is, but in that endearing way of a college kid.

The horror of the piece really works as well with much of it being just strange and unfocused. A script by anyone else would have had 'The camera holds for four minutes of silence' but Tremblay has the innate understanding of the college kid who overexplains a scene which reveals more about themselves than the moment happening onscreen. 

This worked...and I don't know if it should have or if I'll ever revisit it.