Scan barcode
ggcd1981's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Acredito que minha experiência lendo Wylding Hall foi um pouco influenciada por uma má interpretação, de minha parte, da sinopse do livro. Desta forma iniciei Wylding Hall esperando ler uma história no estilo “Casa Assombrada” e, apesar de haver alguns elementos desse subgênero do terror na obra, não foi exatamente isso que encontrei. A história pende muito mais para o folclore britânico do que para uma história trágica de fantasmas. Em resumo na década de 70 os integrantes de uma banda musical acid-folk chamada “Windhollow Faire” foram passar uma temporada em uma antiga mansão, chamada Wylding Hall, no interior da Inglaterra. Durante a estadia da banda um álbum que se tornou cult nas décadas que se seguiram foi criado e, ainda mais importante, o vocalista da banda Julian Blake e uma garota desconhecida desaparecerem e nunca foram encontrados. O livro é contado em formato de entrevistas realizadas com os membros de Windhollow Faire e outros personagens relevantes que testemunharam a estadia da banda na mansão. Estes são os integrantes Will, Jon, Ashton e Lesley; Tom Haring, o agente da banda; Patricia Kenyon, jornalista musical; Nancy, namorada de Will na época e “Bruxa e vidente” profissional, e o fotografo que acredito se chamar Billy Thomas. Durante toda a obra Julian é descrito como uma pessoa “diferente” e aparte do mundo ao seu redor. O rapaz era extremamente talentoso, um gênio musical, e foi descrito como um homem muito bonito. Ele também era tímido ao ponto de parecer esnobe as pessoas que não o conheciam e não suportava contato físico. Nas entrevistas Julian é ainda descrito como alguém fascinado por folclore, bruxaria, antigos rituais, magia. O livro passa a ideia de que o cantor era a pessoa certa (ou errada dependendo do ponto de vista) no lugar certo, pois Wylding Hall é descrito por todos que ali estiveram como um lugar quase etéreo, antigo, mágico. Esse local e seus arredores (nos quais existia uma tumba ancestral) despertaram algo em Julian que, tendo achado a biblioteca em uma área antiga e isolada da mansão aprofundou seus conhecimentos em encantos transformados em canções, rituais e magias. Quando aparece a figura de uma garota no livro ninguém sabe quem era, qual seu nome, de onde vinha, mas os entrevistados a descrevem como etérea, a parte das pessoas ao redor, usando apenas um vestido branco e com os pés sujos de penas. A garota surgiu em 3 ocasiões e desapareceu sem explicações. A primeira vez para a jornalista quando esta explorou a mansão, mas desapareceu quando Patricia desviou os olhos por alguns segundos. A segunda vez foi quando apareceu na última apresentação de Windhollow Faire como grupo, em um pub, na pequena cidade próxima a mansão. Foi nessa ocasião que Julian e a garota se encontraram e, sem palavras, pareciam se conhecer. Julian a levou para seu quarto em Wylding Hall, onde os dois desapareceram e nunca foram encontrados. A terceira e última aparição foi nas fotos tiradas da banda no jardim no dia da gravação do álbum. Todos que estiveram naquele dia concordaram que não a viram, no entanto, nas fotos, a garota estava próxima a Julian. Em uma das fotos aparecia com olhos negros e boca aberta com mais dentes do que humanamente possível. Ajustando as minhas expectativas para uma história sobre entidades mágicas ancestrais eu gostei da obra. No entanto descobri que não gosto de ler sobre músicos, bandas, estilo musicais, especialmente quando tudo isso é de um ponto de vista hipster. Contudo, gostei do livro e fico feliz que não era o que eu esperava. O único ponto fraco da obra, de forma objetiva, foi o encerramento no qual a autora recorreu a um clichê bastante cansativo: ao fim da narrativa o ex-baterista Jon narra como viu Julian e a garota na multidão de um festival folclórico, décadas após o desaparecimento, e como eles pareciam não ter envelhecido. Assim como o clichê manda um grupo de pessoas tapou a visão de Jon que ao olhar novamente viu que o cantor e a garota haviam desaparecido. Esse encerramento foi desnecessário e arruinou um final que poderia ter sido mais intrigante. Hard deveria ter deixado o final em aberto, “o que aconteceu com eles?”, “Julian foi para um lugar melhor ou foi devorado/consumido pela garota a qual mais parecia uma entidade ancestral do que algo que já tenha sido humano”. Terminar com estas questões em aberto teria sido mais memorável. Pelo clichê e pelos hipsterismos musicais não posso dar nota maior, mas a obra é um sólido 3.5 estrelas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcoholism, Suicide, and Alcohol
Moderate: Grief and Animal cruelty
Minor: Cancer and Sexual content
madarauchiha's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
I liked the folk horror, the music based horror, and the supernatural portion that felt Fae like but not at all Fae. I enjoyed the rotating pov and large cast, I thought it helped maintain interest and tension.
I loved the animal death horror, I wish the book did more with that. I know that makes me sound like a freak who wants animals hurt, but no way! I think the use of birds was very unique and interesting. Were they being controlled by the monster, or were they trying to escape a supernatural predator? Were they an innocent caught up in a paranoia fueled witch hunt propagated for centuries in a small village? Who knows, the book doesn't go into that. And I know overexplaining the horror really does destroy the spookiness. But it felt like there just wasn't enough information shared. Oh you got a funny lil animal hunting ritual. SIKE we're not telling you any more of it bye bye now.
It also did that with the 'Summer King' reference. Unless that's a reference to something I'm just not familiar with.
But other than that, it was a bit of a let down. I don't regret reading it and MIGHT rec it, but it was pretty underwhelming.
I was disappointed at how little it did. I felt like it could have done more in general with what the story had created.
There could have been a little more architecture horror beyond a single scene, and implied unreality that isn't caused by tripping massive donkey balls. Notsomuch a House of Leaves rip off, but like. There was potential!!! And yet it went no where. You could say that about this entire book.
The supernatural could've had a greater presence especially if it lingered long after since the book a decades later intervew.
The 'monster' could have had a more prominent place beyond appearing maybe twice? I think if it was proper stalking and not just hey, you showed up just when I did, welp let's do something monster-y now!
The appearance of the monster itself felt... cheesy. Not in a good way either. Maybe it was fresh and compelling for the literary scene in 2015(?) but if you were a internet loser [like me] then Black Eyed Kids flavored monsters don't do much for you. And you CAN do something interesting with Black Eyed Kids, for sure.
If there was a stronger 'oh fuck' moment. By that I mean all the major characters realizing "hey, something isn't right and it might not be the drugs. Let's sober up and see if this fucked up shit is still happening when there's not a drop of weed/etc in our bodies.Oh yup it is? well FUCK!"
It's ok to laugh if I'm getting / using this term wrong, but Delayed Decoding. Apparently coined by Ian Watt in the 1970s, about a technique used by Joseph Conrad in 'Lord Jim' and 'Heart of Darkness'. Though a lot of writers before and after have probably used it. I wish this book had more of that in this book. Yes there is the photograph for the album, but I'd love to see more of it, a more consistent haunting. Hindsight is 20/20, and seeing how close you got to death or disaster is horrifying! Like taking a hiking selfie, only to see when you get back home that there was a mountain lion or wolf walking right behind you in that moment.
I wish there was a pov from Julian Blake, like his journals being used in lieu of an in person interview.
All in all, I don't regret reading it.
If you're looking for more supernatural horror music band themed books, I tentatively rec The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling. It's about the The Yellow King mythos that Robert W Chambers created. It's got a lot of canon typical misogyny and anti Rromani slurs, but ehhhh it was. Decent. It scratches an itch, so to speak. I don't whole heartedly rec it for the aforementioned reasons, and because I thought the ending was pretty stupid.
major animal death, drug use smoking tobacco, gore,
medium animal cruelty, animal death, parental death, car crash, suicide, child death, blood,
minor ableist c slur, body weight mention, bullying, cancer, drug abuse lsd marijuana, infidelity, injuries, sexual content
I liked the folk horror, the music based horror, and the supernatural portion that felt Fae like but not at all Fae. I enjoyed the rotating pov and large cast, I thought it helped maintain interest and tension.
I loved the animal death horror, I wish the book did more with that. I know that makes me sound like a freak who wants animals hurt, but no way! I think the use of birds was very unique and interesting. Were they being controlled by the monster, or were they trying to escape a supernatural predator? Were they an innocent caught up in a paranoia fueled witch hunt propagated for centuries in a small village? Who knows, the book doesn't go into that. And I know overexplaining the horror really does destroy the spookiness. But it felt like there just wasn't enough information shared. Oh you got a funny lil animal hunting ritual. SIKE we're not telling you any more of it bye bye now.
It also did that with the 'Summer King' reference. Unless that's a reference to something I'm just not familiar with.
But other than that, it was a bit of a let down. I don't regret reading it and MIGHT rec it, but it was pretty underwhelming.
I was disappointed at how little it did. I felt like it could have done more in general with what the story had created.
There could have been a little more architecture horror beyond a single scene, and implied unreality that isn't caused by tripping massive donkey balls. Notsomuch a House of Leaves rip off, but like. There was potential!!! And yet it went no where. You could say that about this entire book.
The supernatural could've had a greater presence especially if it lingered long after since the book a decades later intervew.
The 'monster' could have had a more prominent place beyond appearing maybe twice? I think if it was proper stalking and not just hey, you showed up just when I did, welp let's do something monster-y now!
The appearance of the monster itself felt... cheesy. Not in a good way either. Maybe it was fresh and compelling for the literary scene in 2015(?) but if you were a internet loser [like me] then Black Eyed Kids flavored monsters don't do much for you. And you CAN do something interesting with Black Eyed Kids, for sure.
If there was a stronger 'oh fuck' moment. By that I mean all the major characters realizing "hey, something isn't right and it might not be the drugs. Let's sober up and see if this fucked up shit is still happening when there's not a drop of weed/etc in our bodies.Oh yup it is? well FUCK!"
It's ok to laugh if I'm getting / using this term wrong, but Delayed Decoding. Apparently coined by Ian Watt in the 1970s, about a technique used by Joseph Conrad in 'Lord Jim' and 'Heart of Darkness'. Though a lot of writers before and after have probably used it. I wish this book had more of that in this book. Yes there is the photograph for the album, but I'd love to see more of it, a more consistent haunting. Hindsight is 20/20, and seeing how close you got to death or disaster is horrifying! Like taking a hiking selfie, only to see when you get back home that there was a mountain lion or wolf walking right behind you in that moment.
I wish there was a pov from Julian Blake, like his journals being used in lieu of an in person interview.
All in all, I don't regret reading it.
If you're looking for more supernatural horror music band themed books, I tentatively rec The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling. It's about the The Yellow King mythos that Robert W Chambers created. It's got a lot of canon typical misogyny and anti Rromani slurs, but ehhhh it was. Decent. It scratches an itch, so to speak. I don't whole heartedly rec it for the aforementioned reasons, and because I thought the ending was pretty stupid.
major animal death, drug use smoking tobacco, gore,
medium animal cruelty, animal death, parental death, car crash, suicide, child death, blood,
minor ableist c slur, body weight mention, bullying, cancer, drug abuse lsd marijuana, infidelity, injuries, sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Child death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Car accident
Minor: Infidelity, Cancer, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Bullying, and Drug use
rachelunabridged's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Drug use
Moderate: Suicide and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death
herk's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Sexual content and Suicide
More...