Book Review: Bad Brains, by Kathe Koja

The copy I received in the mail

The Good, the Bad, the Brains

I first encountered Kathe Koja last summer through her debut novel, The Cipher. When I ordered an unassuming used copy of the internet I had no idea what to expect, but the last thing that I thought would happen is that I’d be sucked into a horror story like I’d never before read. The Cipher was a book like no other, a book that permanently changed the way I look at fiction.

Bad Brains is a lot of the same. If you haven't read any Koja before, then you'll probably find the book new and refreshing. However, if, like me, you've read one of her other works, you may be disappointed with how similar this one is. Either way, though, reading it will be a wild ride. Below, I will consider the book's plot, characters, and writing style.

The Plot: A Roller Coaster Ride of Despair

Bad Brains is about a broken-hearted artist named Austen, who gets his brain broken too after an accident in a gas station parking lot. This accident not only damages his head, though, but also causes him to start seeing visions of a liquid silver being that is described in various ways throughout. Trapped in a nightmare where not even the top neurologists are able to help him, Austen must embark on a journey to try and rid himself of these visions before they drive him crazy. Like The Cipher, this book ends abruptly and without resolution, without closure. If you want a read that wraps its narrative up in a pretty conclusion with a neat little bow on top, then look elsewhere.

The plot progresses at the speed of a roller coaster and with the mood of a funeral. Nearly nothing happy happens in this story, and even those few good things that happen tend to be setups for something much worse that is soon to occur. Despite how dreary this may sound, I found the book nearly impossible to put down. The plot is in constant motion, always having you say Just one more page.

The Characters: Darkly Human 

The characters are flawed. At times it feels as if that's all they are--one big ball of flaw. As in The Cipher, Koja's characters come from the fringes of humanity. The protagonist, for example, is a literal starving artist and spends the majority of the book powerless, at the disposal of the wills of others and his own crumbling sanity. It's these pitiful and depraved characters, however, that I would consider the book's greatest strength. You want Austen to win, you want to see him happy. Koja's protagonists touch me more personally than any other author's. They are not powerful, they are not special, they aren't really even that important. They are human. And it's that humanity that makes the characters so real that you think they may jump off the page at any moment.

The Style: A Labyrinth of Words 

Style is really a matter of personal taste, so let me upfront about this: I am in love with Koja's writing style. The words and sentences and paragraphs are like poetry that has been put through a shredder and then messily reassembled. One moment the words are flowing one way, then a rip, a change in direction--down a dark rabbit hole that hadn't been there moments ago. It's jarring to read and it puts your brain to work, but Koja's writing does its job and does it well: of all the author's I have read, her voice is the most unique and memorable.

Normal 1st-edition copy

Conclusion 

All in all, I feel about this book almost exactly as I did about The Cipher. In fact, I'm sure that if I were to review that book then it'd look nearly identical to this review. I would recommend this book to any horror fan with a strong stomach and an affinity for the weird. Be wary, though: this story isn't just a ride. It's full-throttle down an empty road, brakes cut and no way to slow down. And at the end of that road is a brick wall.