Summary
The Handyman Method follows a young family – Trent, his wife, Rita, and their young son, Milo – moving into a new home in an unfinished subdivision of a neighbhourhood in the middle of nowhere. Needing to do some repairs, Trent turns to YouTube for DIY home repair videos. Slowly, the mysterious YouTube channel offers videos about everything going wrong in Trent’s life with subliminal messages transforming Trent and his young family.
Thoughts
I picked up this book because the premise sounded very interesting and Halloween was just around the corner. Subliminal messages through YouTube? Why not.
It started interestingly enough, albeit a bit slow. I wasn’t a fan of the vulgar language introduced in the first few sentences but brushed it aside; I’m not a prude, but I hate the unnecessary use of vulgar language. As Trent delves deeper into the home repair videos, you can easily see a disturbing transformation begins. The videos seem to offer advice that grows increasingly malevolent (and sexists), nudging Trent toward dark actions. As the book starts to pick up, we also see that his son Milo is starting to exhibit odd behaviours, as subliminal messages are delivered to him via his favourite cartoon show.
I enjoyed how easily Cutter and Sullivan can describe some of the eerie scenes and custom-made objects; I was able to picture the trinkets and the bits-and-bobs used to create everyday objects such as a phone, or a doll with ease. I felt the writing style was concise, smooth, and easy to follow.
An interesting aspect I enjoyed with this book is the fact that I couldn’t figure out how the ending was going to happen. With many horror/thriller-type books, I feel it’s easy to predict the outcome of the story but I was constantly on my toes for this one! It’s a book that doesn’t keep the reader engaged by sprinkling twists every few chapters, but instead, can keep the reader engaged with its action-packed chapters. I think that’s why I struggled to predict the ending because most horror/thriller books are dull and repetitive until the last few chapters.
Without spoilers, there’s a big plot twist in the end that I did not see coming. The ending is so well done, it caught me off guard!
I will warn potential readers of one thing – the book contains graphic and sexist comments and toxic masculinity. I was not expecting to read about masturbation, weak, sensitive boys, and vaginas. It’s one of the things that turned me off from the book and found it to be disgusting. I hate tough boys wannabe, toxic males, and alpha-like men so Trent disgusted me throughout the book.
“When prey dies in fear, hunters say the meat tastes bitter. What of happiness, then? May we speak of the taste of joyful meat?”
Nick Cutter, The Handyman Method
Rating & Recommendation
I rate this book a 2 out of 5. It’s a very interesting premise and I wished I could give the book a higher rating, but the sheer amount of vulgarness and grossness throughout the book kept me at bay. I talked to Dan about my feelings on this and he thought if it’s done well, it adds character, but I couldn’t see it that way with Trent. I want to say it’s the videos that are making Trent think this way, but that is not the case.
Check out The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter & Andrew F. Sullivan on Goodreads or Amazon Canada.
Rating scale:
1 out of 5 = Hated it!
2 out of 5 = Didn’t like it.
3 out of 5 = It was okay.
4 out of 5 = It was great!
5 out of 5 = Absolutely loved it!
