Fairy Tale Spotlight: Manos: The Hands of Fate [Book Review]

I need a moment to get mentally ready for this review. In fact, I may need about a week and a half. Seriously, I took about that long to write this. It's been pain. Pure pain.

All right. Let's tackle this with a calm mind and spirit.

"Manos: The Hands of Fate" is a book written by Stephen D. Sullivan. It was published in 2015 and based on the movie of the same name released in 1966.

I want you to understand something about the movie first. I really like the film. I take it more seriously than most do. It's not a well-made film. There wasn't much of a budget, and the first 30 minutes of the film was just a car driving around... but the story the film delivered was great. I liked it. I really did, and I just want you to understand that.

The film is often referred to as the worst movie ever made. I don't think that's true, but it has become a popular film for people to make fun of. Even though there is quite a lot to make fun of, I still think the team did fine. A lot of the strange behavior and writing seems to just fit the surreal nature of the story itself. It was good. I took a lot from it.

The book which is a direct adaptation of the movie is a piece of literary trash. It was by design. It was written by a man who really seemed to hate the film and wanted to write a book as bad as he thought the movie was. The book constantly criticizes everyone in the story, and when I say "constantly," I really mean it. Nearly every paragraph is filled with little side comments about the characters.

The author even criticizes them for being too much like 1960's people. It just never stops. I felt like I was going to go crazy from listening to the author go on and on about everybody. The only person he ever is nice to was Torgo, who is the fan-favorite of the movie. I agree with this, but I did like everyone else too.

But there is a very important caveat that needs to be understood with this review. Steven D. Sullivan did write a serious adaptation as well. I did not realize that until I got to the end of the book. This changed my mind a little about how I was going to review this book. I can't really trash a book that was intended to be seen as the joke version of two different adaptations. "Manos: The Hands of Fate" is really just trying to be as bad as most people see the movie.

Don't get me wrong. I really do hate this book. Only my ire against is just slightly diminished. Let's say by an easy 20%. I feel slightly better about it, but I still don't like it, and I have no interest of ever picking it up again. I certainly don't recommend it.

I will be reading his more serious version later though. I'll get to it after I finish another Oz book. At the very least, I am glad to hear that he did like it enough to do a serious interpretation. I really hope it is worth my time. I'll be pretty upset if it ends up being crap.

This blog was written on October 5, 2022.

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