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mxcaswell's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
everyatom's review against another edition
Fantastic intro, really good. But then the vibe took a turn and I felt like the plot kinda ceased to be
ckiyoko's review against another edition
4.0
I really love the prose of this, and the character of the houses (esp in relation to Jude and Nemoira) are really compelling. I think my only qualm is that I wanted this book to be twice the length. I think it's partially just my preference for a slower pace, but I was hungry for a stronger foundation of Jude before the seventeen years, so that the contrast with her after the seventeen years (and again with the introduction of Nemoira) hit that much harder. But the experience of reading this was a sensory treat.
jessitron3000's review against another edition
3.0
Loved the atmosphere, but feel like parts of the story were under developed.
goinghost's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
The version of this book that I read is no longer available anywhere, but that just makes me even more excited to read the most recently published-version. I loved this book. I'm a huge fan of Scholfield's short stories and they have such a of creating horror through atmosphere. I could feel every part of this book as if it were happening to my skin. Not to mention the way I fell in love with Judith. One of the protagonists of all time, I'm so enamored by her.
beefthedwarf's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, I would say this was a beautiful book. The writing was sublime and I found myself delighted by the prose, the clever way the author chose to describe things, and the skin-tingling atmosphere described in both the forest and Jude's house.
Reading this book chilled me to the bone but also gave me the distinct urge to run into the forest and let all number of things sprout from my skin. It was also incredibly refreshing to read such a beautiful, horrifying fairy tale book where the main character(s) were older. Jude's coming of age began when she was 34, and then there was a 17 year timeskip! 50-year-old women experiencing love, infatuation, sexual desire, and sex itself was just -chef's kiss-
~ Spoilers from here on down ~
I'll start with things I loved. Jude was a character I attached to right away -- I could just feel the anger, resentment, and apathy bubbling up inside of her. When she killed her mother, it was no surprise at all. The scene of all the cherubs falling and crashing around in that little old kitchen was evocative and still lingers in my mind.
Following Jude getting her house and taming the sickness inside it was my favorite part. Even when she gets accustomed to it, the horror is never really gone, so I never felt like the magic had disappeared once her task was complete. The blurred line between the house's sickness and Jude's own was a great detail.
Nemoira's appearance(s) were also a very good read. The recurring theme of letting something in, both spiritually, emotionally, and literally physically, and gambling on whether that thing was dangerous was the cherry on top of this mysterious and magical story. The symbolism of the Tree of Life quilt was -chefs kiss-. Drawing the line between Jude adding pieces of Nemoira's clothes to the quilt to Jude adding Nemoira's pelt was very rewarding from a reader's perspective.
Now, some of the things I didn't like.
I don't know if it was this version/edition or what, but the formatting of the book was completely fucked up. 85% of the book was in a very large font, which I heard was to be accommodating toward the sight impaired -- very appreciated! However, random chunks of text were a completely different font and size. There were random W's where I think there were meant to be dividers. There were innumerable spelling mistakes. It was like someone printed out the author's draft wholesale without even checking.
(A small gripe, but I still don't understand why utilities were still set up at that house, why the innkeeper had the authority to sell it for $100 right there an then, and how mold or taxes or deeds never seemed to come up. There is a level of suspension of disbelief I'll accept for a "taming a haunted house in a fairy tale woods" fantasy, so I handwaved this entirely up until I ran into a legion of other plot issues)
I also got the distinct feeling that around the Part 4 mark, the author rushed to squeeze in like 10-20k words for no discernible reason except to add wordcount. I hated the sudden transition to Jude's aunts and her returning to Ma'am's house with Nemoira for a reason I couldn't really figure out. She was happy in the woods with Nemoira! Why would she suddenly tire of isolation? No one called the police on Jude seemingly because it would be inconvenient for the plot. Nemoira's POV seemed thrown in because the author couldn't figure out how to reveal the murders otherwise, and the devouring of Jude's aunts seemed contrived to cause conflict between the two women.
Pretty much every aspect of Nemoira's traitorous reveal and her showdown with Jude felt like it was written by a completely different author. In fact, I got the distinct feeling that I was reading Hannibal fanfiction -- and not even one of the good ones. Their altercation could have happened at the cabin. Jude could have discovered another way that she'd been eating human flesh, all without Nemoira's hamfisted POV, and her horror would have still been believable and palpable. She could have grappled with how okay she was with that without the victims being her plot-contrived aunts.
Imagine how beautiful it would have been! Nemoira's reveal as exactly what she told Jude she was -- an animal, a spirit, a shapechanger, knocking on doors in dreams and real life waiting for someone to answer and be foolish enough to feed her -- but in the same prose as the first half of the book. I'd sell my liver for that.
It's been mentioned to me that there's been a few different versions of this book. I wonder if an older version had more of what I was looking for, and less of what I felt was added for wordcount. If I'm lucky enough to get ahold of that version, I'll definitely leave a comparative review.
Conclusion: I loved the book, and it's going to remain a special favorite of mine. I like imperfect things, and the good parts still resonate with me more than the bad parts will bother my memory. I'll think about it every time I'm cutting meat.
Reading this book chilled me to the bone but also gave me the distinct urge to run into the forest and let all number of things sprout from my skin. It was also incredibly refreshing to read such a beautiful, horrifying fairy tale book where the main character(s) were older. Jude's coming of age began when she was 34, and then there was a 17 year timeskip! 50-year-old women experiencing love, infatuation, sexual desire, and sex itself was just -chef's kiss-
~ Spoilers from here on down ~
I'll start with things I loved. Jude was a character I attached to right away -- I could just feel the anger, resentment, and apathy bubbling up inside of her. When she killed her mother, it was no surprise at all. The scene of all the cherubs falling and crashing around in that little old kitchen was evocative and still lingers in my mind.
Following Jude getting her house and taming the sickness inside it was my favorite part. Even when she gets accustomed to it, the horror is never really gone, so I never felt like the magic had disappeared once her task was complete. The blurred line between the house's sickness and Jude's own was a great detail.
Nemoira's appearance(s) were also a very good read. The recurring theme of letting something in, both spiritually, emotionally, and literally physically, and gambling on whether that thing was dangerous was the cherry on top of this mysterious and magical story. The symbolism of the Tree of Life quilt was -chefs kiss-. Drawing the line between Jude adding pieces of Nemoira's clothes to the quilt to Jude adding Nemoira's pelt was very rewarding from a reader's perspective.
Now, some of the things I didn't like.
I don't know if it was this version/edition or what, but the formatting of the book was completely fucked up. 85% of the book was in a very large font, which I heard was to be accommodating toward the sight impaired -- very appreciated! However, random chunks of text were a completely different font and size. There were random W's where I think there were meant to be dividers. There were innumerable spelling mistakes. It was like someone printed out the author's draft wholesale without even checking.
(A small gripe, but I still don't understand why utilities were still set up at that house, why the innkeeper had the authority to sell it for $100 right there an then, and how mold or taxes or deeds never seemed to come up. There is a level of suspension of disbelief I'll accept for a "taming a haunted house in a fairy tale woods" fantasy, so I handwaved this entirely up until I ran into a legion of other plot issues)
I also got the distinct feeling that around the Part 4 mark, the author rushed to squeeze in like 10-20k words for no discernible reason except to add wordcount. I hated the sudden transition to Jude's aunts and her returning to Ma'am's house with Nemoira for a reason I couldn't really figure out. She was happy in the woods with Nemoira! Why would she suddenly tire of isolation? No one called the police on Jude seemingly because it would be inconvenient for the plot. Nemoira's POV seemed thrown in because the author couldn't figure out how to reveal the murders otherwise, and the devouring of Jude's aunts seemed contrived to cause conflict between the two women.
Pretty much every aspect of Nemoira's traitorous reveal and her showdown with Jude felt like it was written by a completely different author. In fact, I got the distinct feeling that I was reading Hannibal fanfiction -- and not even one of the good ones. Their altercation could have happened at the cabin. Jude could have discovered another way that she'd been eating human flesh, all without Nemoira's hamfisted POV, and her horror would have still been believable and palpable. She could have grappled with how okay she was with that without the victims being her plot-contrived aunts.
Imagine how beautiful it would have been! Nemoira's reveal as exactly what she told Jude she was -- an animal, a spirit, a shapechanger, knocking on doors in dreams and real life waiting for someone to answer and be foolish enough to feed her -- but in the same prose as the first half of the book. I'd sell my liver for that.
It's been mentioned to me that there's been a few different versions of this book. I wonder if an older version had more of what I was looking for, and less of what I felt was added for wordcount. If I'm lucky enough to get ahold of that version, I'll definitely leave a comparative review.
Conclusion: I loved the book, and it's going to remain a special favorite of mine. I like imperfect things, and the good parts still resonate with me more than the bad parts will bother my memory. I'll think about it every time I'm cutting meat.
jamesfitz3's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I loved a lot about this book. The prose was beautiful. The commentary on womanhood and queerness and mothers and society.
However if definitely suffers from being self published. I would love to see a version of this book that has gone through an editor. Some of the punctuation was off, and not in man intentional way, and there were more than a few instances of fully the wrong word being used. It’s a shame. I still highly recommend the read though.
However if definitely suffers from being self published. I would love to see a version of this book that has gone through an editor. Some of the punctuation was off, and not in man intentional way, and there were more than a few instances of fully the wrong word being used. It’s a shame. I still highly recommend the read though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Child abuse, and Blood
gravery's review
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
There were some formatting issues in my copy, which I guess is to be expected from a self-published book bought on Amazon, and many typos that might have been fixed with a beta reader or two. The pacing also felt inconsistent, but for a debut novel it wasn't bad. I also wish that we had seen more of Jude's adulthood prior to her mother's murder, which happened only 25 pages in.
That being said, Yah Yah's use of language is poignant and haunting. They paint evocative pictures, vivid and grotesque with their use of metaphor and imagery. The characters are three-dimensional, their relationships real and beautifully dark - the romance betweenJude and Nemoira was an unexpected, but nevertheless pleasant surprise that added both tension an depth to the story. On Sundays is a delightfully Gothic debut novel, one for which Scholfield deserves some recognition, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next.
That being said, Yah Yah's use of language is poignant and haunting. They paint evocative pictures, vivid and grotesque with their use of metaphor and imagery. The characters are three-dimensional, their relationships real and beautifully dark - the romance between
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Racism and Cannibalism
Minor: Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Vomit