I am sorry to say but I am not a fan but I will say that for a uncorrected proof copy it was pretty impressive it flowed well and the lay out was good. However I am sorry to say I couldn’t get into the story. I found the character a right pain and the way it’s written gave me a headache. But I can see other people enjoying it.

Creeping Jenny by Jeff Noon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book, along with the two other standalone John Nyquist books, make up some of the most unflinchingly creative and original fiction I've ever read.

I say this without guile. If you want originality, uncompromisingly strange storytelling, and mysteries that only "feel" like traditional gumshoe Noirs until they get you firmly in its grip and twist you into psychedelic pieces, then do not pass this up.

I want to warn readers that they will get more than they bargain if they pick up one of these books, but a warning isn't fair. In fact, I think everyone should be forced to read them and discover these mysteries for themselves. It's like being welcomed into a Micky Spillane novel only to be Vandermeered or China Mievilled.

The first book was deeply disturbing with a city that was split up between an only day-side and an only night-side with a very dangerous dusk side. The second book, in a different, equally strange city, characters from books had real lives and libraries were becoming morgues with murdered people in books.

In this one, Nyquist becomes deeply enmeshed in a third, much smaller bucolic town where he tries to discover where his 20-year-missing-father had gone. Each day is like a brand new mystery, where seemingly mild small-town customs heralded by a different saint for every day, and everyone living there is compelled -- sometimes mercilessly -- to perform that story's function. Taboos, rituals, oddities... the culture here is a crazy character all on its own, and Nyquist investigates his own mystery alongside some very strange murders.

My description cannot do it justice. Nor would I want to give anything away. But this book honestly freaked me out. I could not see where it was going or where I was going to be taken. But between 1000-year-old mysteries, a dark green-man myth, stories of devils, tons of local saints (very strange ones), and one of the twistiest plots I've ever read, I can honestly say that I glowed with amazement.

Creeping Jenny is a fascinating novel, blending the unease of a supernatural horror with the sleuthing of an old fashioned detective story. Noon does an amazing job of keeping the reader in suspense, as Nyquist struggles to quickly adapt and understand the daily-changing rules of the location of his mystery. It took me a few to get into the tone and spirit of the novel, but as this was my first foray into the Jeff Noon/Nyquist novels, I thought I would give it a fair shake. Definitely going to go back and read the prior books, and I eagerly anticipate whatever else Jeff Noon has coming out in the future.

I liked this story a lot. A trippy and very original noir mystery with supernatural elements. I cannot recall reading a story like this. Great writing – concise, straightforward and powerful. This guy writes. I felt like I was watching a black and white movie with lots of gray. I have two other Nyquist mysteries that I would buy right now if I didn’t already have them.

Superbly thrilling mystery, richly veined with weirdness, sly humour and dollops of folk horror.

I've been reading a lot J.G. Ballard the last year or so, and I've found out a weird truth about myself - I find a lot of comfort in the unsettling weirdness of Ballard's fiction. Reading his work feels like a warm bath, albeit one with a strange smell and wait did I just see something move in the water. I get the same feeling of unsettled comfort from reading this book.

First things first - this is the third book in the John Nyquist series, and the first of the series I have read. I have read quite a few of Jeff Noon's 'first wave' of fiction in the 90s, so I had an inkling what I could expect. I wasn't disappointed.

John Nyquist is a private detective in a world that looks and feels a lot like ours, but in importants aspects is very different. It's 1959 when Nyquist is sent a set of mysterious photographs, that seem connected to his estranged father George Nyquist, who disappeared twenty years ago. The photographs seem to suggest Nyquist Sr. might still be alive, and John travels to the small town of Hoxley-on-the-Hale to start his search.

Hoxley is under the influence of 360 Saints - each day is randomly assigned a Saint, who then exerts a specific effect on the populace. One day everyone must wear masks and address women and men as Alice and Edward respectively. Another day everyone can only do and say things by half, quite literally. Not only is it deeply frowned upon to not follow these rules, in a lot of cases it is almost physically and mentally impossible not to. (There are five Saintless days per year, when nothing happens, and the villagers generally feel lost.)

It's probably not surprising to hear that the good people of Hoxley are quite an enigmatic bunch, some helpful to Nyquist, most are harder to convince.

It's a roiling mix of typically English folk horror and a taut psychological thriller. It's the villagers of Royston Vasey visiting Summerisle (although Nyquist is no whimpering Sgt Howie). There is a real comparison to Ballard: as a lot of Ballard's worlds, Nyquist's world is one full of strangeness that's easier to accept and let roll over you than to fight. It's a book where I felt compelled to keep reading, all the time knowing surely no good can come of this.

The writing itself is delicious. Words have power, both in the book's world and in the text itself. Noon's writing is exact and lyrical, sometimes slipping into poetry (and I don't mean the quoted creepy children's songs), but never losing its sense of forward thrust. Characters start out as villager stereotypes, but quickly become living, breathing people.

Frightening and compelling. Please read it, if the Saints allow it.

I requested this book becuase I really liked the premise but unfortunately it couldn’t keep my attention. I haven’t read the first two books in the series so that might be one of the reasons why I didn’t like the book. The other reason is that I didn’t particulary like the main character and I couln’t get into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for my copy.

I was so very excited to find a new book from Jeff Noon on Netgalley. So far his Nyquist series absolutely wowed me with his imagination and creativity. I mean, I don’t even like series. Although to be fair, these books are different enough that they can probably be read as standalones. They are mysteries of the New Weird, a fascinating blend of genres, which is to say yes, there are puzzles to solve and webs to untangle, but it is to be done in a world that plays by a very different set of rules. In fact, Noon created a radically different world for each book. And that is by far my favorite thing about Nyquist books. Even this one, which for some reason didn’t quite work for me as much as its predecessors. Mind you, that’s a very high bar to hit, meaning this was still a very good read, it’s more likely I just wasn’t exactly in the right mood for the singular weirdness of it all. So essentially it is the mystery aspect of the book that didn’t quite wow me, the world building was absolutely on par with the astounding levels of awesomeness from two previous books. This time Nyquist enters a world ruled by saints. 360 saints for 360 days, each with their own set of rules to abide, and five free days when the locals simply don’t know what to do with themselves. Such a wild and fun concept. Albeit challenging for Nyquist, who has come there to look for his father long presumed gone. Writing this review a week after reading the book, somehow the details are some already kind of fuzzy, but the main premise remains and it’s a delight. It purely delights you as a reader looking for a literary creation that is both different and original. That’s my main takeaway from reading this book and reading Noon in general. The plot details may or may not work for you to the same extent, but the world building is second to none. Absolutely superb feat of imagination. Plus great writing, as always. The Nyquists quests are dark and moody and undeniably weird and I’d imagine require a specific audience or at least an audience in a specific mood, but they are absolutely worth reading, if only to journey places unlike any others on maps you know. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I really like what I’ve read so far, but I’m pausing this book to read its predecessors. Somehow I have once again come in on book 3! I think this is a series that might be best read in order. So I will adjust my review when I’ve done so.

I read ‘A Man of Shadows’, the first of Jeff Noon’s Jon Nyquist novels, about three years ago. It was a bit of a struggle: I didn’t like him much as a character; was unsure about the shift from detective-noir to queasily-magical surrealism; and the different time-streams / cycles were confusing. But something about Nyquist and his world nagged at me ever since.

I’m glad it did, because that’s what led me to ‘Creeping Jenny’, which I enjoyed much more. That’s partly because Nyquist has been taken out of his original Dayzone/Dusk/Nocturna environment, so the time-bending stuff is gone. Instead he’s in a village, Hoxley, with its own not-of-this-world ruleset that’s easier to grasp.

Every day (well, almost every day) is governed by a different local saint, with their own restriction or effect on the population. One saint’s day bars everyone from speaking; another sees the entire village fall asleep; another sees them wearing creepy flesh-merging masks turning them into ‘Alice’ or ‘Edmund’; and so on. Nyquist has to work within this framework to unravel a puzzle that might lead him to his long-lost father.

The strangeness is still there in spades. I suspect there’ll be lots of comparisons to psychedelic drugs experiences, especially the (few, not many) parts where the prose shifts into what’s almost a babbling mania. I don’t know about drugs: to me it often felt more like a feverish dream (or nightmare!) – and a couple of nights after reading it at bedtime, I had fairly weird dreams of my own. This as a compliment…

Hoxley is also properly, deliciously Wicker-Man creepy with its Tolly Man ritual and local legends, the villagers’ distrust of outsiders, and the nature of ‘Creeping Jenny’ herself, as Nyquist uncovers it. Meanwhile, I warmed to him much more as a character: his confusion, his tiredness, his yearning for information about his father – rounding him out beyond the boozing and beatings of the first book.

It’s much more than just the ‘hard-boiled detective out of his element’ noir it may seem at first glance. ‘Creeping Jenny’ is eerily, feverishly *weird* – but this time round, that’s its strength. I’d recommend it, and I am already looking forward to seeing what awaits John Nyquist next time out.

The publisher provided me with an ARC (advanced reading copy) via NetGalley, in return for an honest review.

It the book says Jeff Noon, I'm in. Creeping Jenny is an engaging read that showcases Noon's talent for words. I recommend this and any of his other titles. Worth the read.