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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
The story was worth following, but has the hallmarks of an inexperienced author. Believable religious trauma.
4⭐️ read for sure. 10/10 plot, great characters, great writing. Definitely still an angsty trans-rage focused book but the trauma is so pointed and the anger is so real that it doesn’t matter.
My favorite scene is when Benji opens Nick’s note and everything connects.
“Do you believe in God?
— I do, please stop, there’s so much blood”
My favorite scene is when Benji opens Nick’s note and everything connects.
“Do you believe in God?
— I do, please stop, there’s so much blood”
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Impressive queer horror with heart
I've only recently begun reading queer horror, having never been particularly a fan of written horror before, and yet I found myself unable to put this down.
However, I have a few issues with the book, but the most egregious is the change from 1st to 2nd perspective when changing character point-of-view. It was jarring the first time, and didn't get better by the end of the book. But ultimately, I was still able to finish the book with the issues I came across, so I only knocked a single star from my rating for that.
I've only recently begun reading queer horror, having never been particularly a fan of written horror before, and yet I found myself unable to put this down.
However, I have a few issues with the book, but the most egregious is the change from 1st to 2nd perspective when changing character point-of-view. It was jarring the first time, and didn't get better by the end of the book. But ultimately, I was still able to finish the book with the issues I came across, so I only knocked a single star from my rating for that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Dysphoria, War
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sadly I didn't like this all too much. The premise is really interesting, and I found the beginning very engaging, but it started to go downhill as the plot meandered and none of the character motivations made any sense. The main character, Benji, kept making the stupidest decisions as well. For some reason a small portion of the book is written from the POV of two other characters, and those chapters felt completely unnecessary to me and actually removed a lot of the suspense a horror novel should have.
Benji was pretty much only motivated by his hormones lol and it was tiring. I wasn't convinced by any of his relationships, especially the romance that supposedly forms. Benji didn't see an obvious betrayal coming that really made me wonder how he survived this long, lol. But also, the side characters were pretty interchangeable other than their race/gender/sexuality... like those were their defining features. There's a moment where Benji thinks, They’re my friends. I don’t have to fake it for them, and I was just like ok sure, idk who these people even are! It really never made sense to me why the ALC trusted Benji so easily and quickly despite all the mistakes he constantly made (including his very presence leading to multiple deaths and the destruction of their home?! ).
The writing was also so simplistic and repetitive. I understand this is YA but man. There were so many Bible quotes that were so on the nose it felt silly. Like there is a fire and it's introduced with 3 Bible quotes about fire, lol. A lot of things were repeated three times, usually in the form of "thank god, thank god, thank god" and I was getting sooo sick of it. I was also disappointed that the stakes felt so low because the main characters never really lost anything—only unnamed side characters died on the "good side" while all the main bad guys died. Like how did the ALC get out of this so unscathed?
The main cult was very blatantly black-and-white evil too, which made it difficult for me to understand why anyone would join it.Like you would think people would join it because they have a better chance of surviving in this dystopia, but this cult purposely infects everyone with the flood virus and basically only considers those who survive it to be actual members so??? The scene with the parents crying over their children potentially being sacrificed to this virus was hard to read. And these churches have body parts everywhere?? Ok. I also had so many questions about the scale of the virus, since it seemed like it was worldwide but the story was so focused on this small town in Pennsylvania, and we never got any background on how exactly the world came to be like this.
Funnily enough, I think my favorite parts were the body horror because man, White really fully leaned into the grossness of what a virus like this would entail, and it was pretty visceral, especially for YA. Though it was kind of funny/unbelievable that no one seemed to really react to the horror of the people and the setting except for like one person on the Watch.
Overall I thought this was a good idea with a very meh execution, though I think a lot of that stemmed from the limitations / conventions of its age category. I don't read a lot of YA but I've heard so many good things about this author. Maybe I'll try his adult debut coming out next month.
Benji was pretty much only motivated by his hormones lol and it was tiring. I wasn't convinced by any of his relationships, especially the romance that supposedly forms. Benji didn't see an obvious betrayal coming that really made me wonder how he survived this long, lol. But also, the side characters were pretty interchangeable other than their race/gender/sexuality... like those were their defining features. There's a moment where Benji thinks, They’re my friends. I don’t have to fake it for them, and I was just like ok sure, idk who these people even are! It really never made sense to me why the ALC trusted Benji so easily and quickly despite all the mistakes he constantly made (
The writing was also so simplistic and repetitive. I understand this is YA but man. There were so many Bible quotes that were so on the nose it felt silly. Like there is a fire and it's introduced with 3 Bible quotes about fire, lol. A lot of things were repeated three times, usually in the form of "thank god, thank god, thank god" and I was getting sooo sick of it. I was also disappointed that the stakes felt so low because the main characters never really lost anything—
The main cult was very blatantly black-and-white evil too, which made it difficult for me to understand why anyone would join it.
Funnily enough, I think my favorite parts were the body horror because man, White really fully leaned into the grossness of what a virus like this would entail, and it was pretty visceral, especially for YA. Though it was kind of funny/unbelievable that no one seemed to really react to the horror of the people and the setting except for like one person on the Watch.
Overall I thought this was a good idea with a very meh execution, though I think a lot of that stemmed from the limitations / conventions of its age category. I don't read a lot of YA but I've heard so many good things about this author. Maybe I'll try his adult debut coming out next month.
The writing was too angsty. Also the exposition wasn’t done in a seamless, easy to grasp way. The main character, Benji, wasn’t very enjoyable and was only saved by the secondary protagonist, Nick. I think this book has all the elements to be great, but lacks a compelling protagonist and a clear voice.