Scan barcode
runlaurarun's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This started slow for me, which is not unusual for a book with a lot of characters, but I ended up plowing through the second half and really enjoyed myself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Police brutality
Minor: Child death
vixenreader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
As a Toronto resident, this book hit home.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Genocide, Car accident, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Ableism, Medical trauma, Body horror, Classism, Abandonment, and Infidelity
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Racism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, and Kidnapping
Minor: Drug use and Terminal illness
Be aware of fungi, viscous dissolving bodies, mould, dysfunctional family relationships, some nudity, poverty, starvation, rich people being horrible, and disassociation.tigger89's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was a novel that had a lot of very interesting ideas in it, but ultimately didn't really do it for me. Starting with the good, I loved the Wet and what it represented. It was creepy, disgusting, and brought the horror whenever it showed up. The reveal of how and why it thrived made sense and worked to drive home the novel's critique of urban development and runaway capitalism. In fact, the concept of this novel combined with the imagery used was so solid that it was very frustrating that it didn't land well for me.
I think the novel's biggest issues had to do with its length, as well as the number and variety of characters. What we have is a medium-length novel(350 pages) packed with a huge cast of recurring characters, as well as many more one-off characters introduced through various vignettes. This meant that I spent most of the novel struggling to remember names and who people were, constantly wondering if so-and-so was important or if we'd never hear from them again. This led to the first two thirds of the book dragging pretty hard, with my opinion somewhat soured by the time the pace picked up for the final push. At the end of the book I felt exhausted more than anything else, which isn't really the emotion you want a good horror novel to end on. I think it would have worked better either trimmed down to be shorter and snappier, or expanded to give everything more room to breathe and develop.
Does the dog die?At one point, a character adopts a coyote-dog-thing. The dog survives to the end of the narrative, but his ultimate fate is unclear.
I think the novel's biggest issues had to do with its length, as well as the number and variety of characters. What we have is a medium-length novel(350 pages) packed with a huge cast of recurring characters, as well as many more one-off characters introduced through various vignettes. This meant that I spent most of the novel struggling to remember names and who people were, constantly wondering if so-and-so was important or if we'd never hear from them again. This led to the first two thirds of the book dragging pretty hard, with my opinion somewhat soured by the time the pace picked up for the final push. At the end of the book I felt exhausted more than anything else, which isn't really the emotion you want a good horror novel to end on. I think it would have worked better either trimmed down to be shorter and snappier, or expanded to give everything more room to breathe and develop.
Does the dog die?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence
More...