{"id":14975,"date":"2020-12-23T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=14975"},"modified":"2020-12-19T14:59:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T19:59:36","slug":"review-cipher-kathe-koja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-cipher-kathe-koja\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Cipher by Kathe Koja"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"14976\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-cipher-kathe-koja\/cipher\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cipher.jpg?fit=448%2C676&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"448,676\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"cipher\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cipher.jpg?fit=448%2C676&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14976\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cipher.jpg?resize=232%2C350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"cover of The Cipher by Kathe Koja\" width=\"232\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cipher.jpg?resize=232%2C350&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cipher.jpg?w=448&amp;ssl=1 448w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 85vw, 232px\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meerkatpress.com\/books\/the-cipher\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><i>The Cipher<\/i><\/b><\/a><b> by Kathe Koja<br \/>\n<\/b><b>Meerkat Press (September 15th, 2020)<br \/>\n<\/b><b>236 pages; $17.48 paperback; $3.99 e-book<br \/>\n<\/b><strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SadieHartmann\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sadie &#8220;Mother Horror&#8221; Hartmann<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s kind of this unofficial debate among readers concerning those who enjoy unlikable characters and those who need protagonists to be tolerable in order to invest in their story.<\/p>\n<p>I like despicable, flawed people. I think protagonists should be as varied as the people we encounter in real life. I don\u2019t need to like people in order to emotionally invest in their stories &#8212; sometimes, hating them is just as fun as loving them.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In Kathe Koja\u2019s <em>The Cipher<\/em>, Nicholas and Nakota are pretty loathsome people. They happen upon a strange, black hole in Nicholas\u2019s apartment building and become obsessed with experimenting with it. Obsession, as we all know, does not end well, and horrible things do happen; mostly because Nakota is self-destructive, impulsive, and a bit of an emotional &#8220;black hole&#8221; herself. Nicholas is co-dependent and passive. The mystery of their relationship was as fascinating to me as the affectionately named &#8220;Funhole.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is not my first time reading Koja\u2019s work. I\u2019ve read a few short stories in her collection <em>Velocities<\/em>, also released by Meerkat Press this year. Some of the stories, like &#8220;Baby,&#8221; really worked for me, and some of them didn\u2019t. I find Koja\u2019s style a bit jarring and disorienting at times. The narrative in <em>The Cipher<\/em> head-hops a bit from one character to another. Sometimes I thought I was reading exposition and then realized it was the inner dialog of Nicholas. Almost like a stream of consciousness but too intermittent to get used to it.\u00a0Little stumbles like that pulled me out of the story on a few occasions.<\/p>\n<p>That being said, Koja\u2019s imagination and particular brand of body horror is on another level.<\/p>\n<p>The dynamic between Nakota and Nicholas and their friend group reminded me of the movie <em>Reality Bites &#8212;<\/em> it really has that whole &#8217;90s twenty\/thirtysomething vibe &#8212; where everything is sarcastic or done ironically and everyone seems too self-absorbed and unsure of themselves to function.<\/p>\n<p>These are the perfect people to get caught up with a horrible Funhole. There are some memorable, classic horror scenes that will stay with me forever. Cringy sex-stuff, gross-outs, and jaw-dropping moments. <em>The Cipher<\/em>\u00a0is a good time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cipher by Kathe Koja Meerkat Press (September 15th, 2020) 236 pages; $17.48 paperback; $3.99 e-book Reviewed by\u00a0Sadie &#8220;Mother Horror&#8221; Hartmann There\u2019s kind of this unofficial debate among readers concerning those who enjoy unlikable characters and those who need protagonists to be tolerable in order to invest in their story. I like despicable, flawed people. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-cipher-kathe-koja\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: The Cipher by Kathe Koja&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80],"tags":[1070,2171,1572,79,1545,2213],"class_list":["post-14975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-kathe-koja","tag-meerkat-press","tag-mother-horror","tag-reviews","tag-sadie-hartmann","tag-the-cipher"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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