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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
<b>4.5</b> stars rounded down
I got a review slump. Yes, you read it right, a review slump; not a reading slump since I'm enjoying my current readings and reading basically what I want, what makes me feel comfortable and in my element, but a review slump. Honestly, I hate when I become a passive reader: I always tend to take notes while reading books, sometimes I highlight some passages that I find fascinating—clips and bookmarks when it comes to audiobooks—and other times it's just about me scribbling my thoughts, writing down some ideas, and the like. After collecting my thoughts for a short time, I just start typing my reviews, and this happens almost immediately after I finished the book I want to review. Some meaningful parts just come to mind, everything seems to be clear and I just start talking about my feelings, my thoughts, and finally, my own conclusions. Whether or not I recommend the book in question is literally what I plan to say in the end, but recently this hasn't been working for me.
When I tried to type my review of <b>The Willows</b> I just couldn't, for any reason I was unable to express myself and say something coherent, without rambling a lot, and that was really worth it. So, in order for me to review this book, and after so many attempts that did not succeed, I'm going to make a list of the five things that I loved while reading it (hopefully this time goes well):
a) <b>The atmosphere</b>. Hands down the best part of the entire book. A gloomy, ominous, and vivid atmosphere is everything you need when it comes to horror novels, and this is definitely one of the best books where the characters seem to get overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the place where they happen to be that I have read so far, and also where the atmosphere is so well depicted that even you, as a reader, feel as if you were 'trapped' inside this world along with the characters.
b) <b>The characters</b>. Only two characters, two men on a canoe traveling down the River Danube, where one of them is also the narrator of the story. Basically you are a witness to every scary, mysterious thing that is happening to the characters, and because of the environment, you always have the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. If you care for them, you will have to wait until the end to breathe again.
c) <b>The story</b>. The novel goes up to the point, and everything is happening so fast that yo don't even know what's going to happen next (in my view, this works pretty well when it comes to a horror story). The plot is simple, yet boundless since you can imagine a lot of possible scenarios and get different conclusions about what is going on with the characters and the story from beginning to end.
d) <b>The prose</b>. The prose is really good, very descriptive and compelling. There is almost no dialogue, but it is not necessary for the sake of the story since the descriptions are actually the essence of it. According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft considered <b>The Willows</b> to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature, so why not take that for granted?
e) <b>The audiobook</b>. This is an important one, probably what made me love this novel even beyond my expectations. When it comes to audiobooks, the tone and the pace of the narrator are the most important things to consider in my view (I also consider the accent to be quite important though, since I'm more familiar with the American accent, and those are usually my favorite ones). In this case, I came across one that is narrated by Phil Chenevert, and if you are familiar with LibriVox, you will know he is one of the best narrators over there. He does an incredible job bringing this story to life and only for that reason I would highly recommend giving it a listen. For the record, listening to this tale one day before The Day of the Dead (we don't usually celebrate Halloween in Mexico) was the best decision ever due to the environment around me at that moment.
Sadly, the ending wasn't completely for me, and please don't get me wrong, I liked it, but when I think of the whole story the only part I can't remember very well—I'm typing my review eight days after reading the book and I barely took notes at the time—is the ending. It's kind of funny though, because I do remember what I felt when finishing up the story, the feeling that you have just read a masterpiece of the genre.
All in all, <b>The Willows</b> is definitely a story that everyone who is into horror novels must read, trust me, you won't regret it.
<i><b>The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection.</b></i>
I got a review slump. Yes, you read it right, a review slump; not a reading slump since I'm enjoying my current readings and reading basically what I want, what makes me feel comfortable and in my element, but a review slump. Honestly, I hate when I become a passive reader: I always tend to take notes while reading books, sometimes I highlight some passages that I find fascinating—clips and bookmarks when it comes to audiobooks—and other times it's just about me scribbling my thoughts, writing down some ideas, and the like. After collecting my thoughts for a short time, I just start typing my reviews, and this happens almost immediately after I finished the book I want to review. Some meaningful parts just come to mind, everything seems to be clear and I just start talking about my feelings, my thoughts, and finally, my own conclusions. Whether or not I recommend the book in question is literally what I plan to say in the end, but recently this hasn't been working for me.
When I tried to type my review of <b>The Willows</b> I just couldn't, for any reason I was unable to express myself and say something coherent, without rambling a lot, and that was really worth it. So, in order for me to review this book, and after so many attempts that did not succeed, I'm going to make a list of the five things that I loved while reading it (hopefully this time goes well):
a) <b>The atmosphere</b>. Hands down the best part of the entire book. A gloomy, ominous, and vivid atmosphere is everything you need when it comes to horror novels, and this is definitely one of the best books where the characters seem to get overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the place where they happen to be that I have read so far, and also where the atmosphere is so well depicted that even you, as a reader, feel as if you were 'trapped' inside this world along with the characters.
b) <b>The characters</b>. Only two characters, two men on a canoe traveling down the River Danube, where one of them is also the narrator of the story. Basically you are a witness to every scary, mysterious thing that is happening to the characters, and because of the environment, you always have the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. If you care for them, you will have to wait until the end to breathe again.
c) <b>The story</b>. The novel goes up to the point, and everything is happening so fast that yo don't even know what's going to happen next (in my view, this works pretty well when it comes to a horror story). The plot is simple, yet boundless since you can imagine a lot of possible scenarios and get different conclusions about what is going on with the characters and the story from beginning to end.
d) <b>The prose</b>. The prose is really good, very descriptive and compelling. There is almost no dialogue, but it is not necessary for the sake of the story since the descriptions are actually the essence of it. According to Wikipedia, Lovecraft considered <b>The Willows</b> to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature, so why not take that for granted?
e) <b>The audiobook</b>. This is an important one, probably what made me love this novel even beyond my expectations. When it comes to audiobooks, the tone and the pace of the narrator are the most important things to consider in my view (I also consider the accent to be quite important though, since I'm more familiar with the American accent, and those are usually my favorite ones). In this case, I came across one that is narrated by Phil Chenevert, and if you are familiar with LibriVox, you will know he is one of the best narrators over there. He does an incredible job bringing this story to life and only for that reason I would highly recommend giving it a listen. For the record, listening to this tale one day before The Day of the Dead (we don't usually celebrate Halloween in Mexico) was the best decision ever due to the environment around me at that moment.
Sadly, the ending wasn't completely for me, and please don't get me wrong, I liked it, but when I think of the whole story the only part I can't remember very well—I'm typing my review eight days after reading the book and I barely took notes at the time—is the ending. It's kind of funny though, because I do remember what I felt when finishing up the story, the feeling that you have just read a masterpiece of the genre.
All in all, <b>The Willows</b> is definitely a story that everyone who is into horror novels must read, trust me, you won't regret it.
<i><b>The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection.</b></i>
The first of this month's audiobooks was the short story "The Willows" by classic horror author [a:Algernon Blackwood|38840|Algernon Blackwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361603654p2/38840.jpg], whom I first heard of when playing the "Until Dawn" video game. (He's referenced a lot there; probably because of his 'wendigo' short story. Just a heads up, fellow white folks: don't make stories/art about wendigos. They're not ours, and they have spiritual significance to first nations folks. Kind of a no-no.) I wanted to read this story of his in particular because it's the basis for T. Kingfisher's newest novel, The Hollow Places. And while that made it interesting to me (seeing as I love Kingfisher's horror-related works), it wasn't really my cup of tea. Eldritch horror in general doesn't do it for me; I like my spooks closer to home/reality. While in theory I can understand the fear our unnamed narrator and his companion experienced in such an uncanny place, it's not something I can relate to, y'know? "It's spooky because it's mysterious/unexplained" isn't enough for my sciency brain. BUT! It was well written, it ended with a punch (as all short stories should), and if what I've described sizzles your jollies, then I recommend you go for it.
Not very spooky but some parts were good. Felt a little overlong.
reflective
slow-paced
The universal, primordial fear of having noisy neighbors.
Decided to read this to understand what inspired The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher.
I'll say that the terror in this was far more effective to me, but I definitely struggle with prose from this era now that I'm not as used to reading it, so it was not the easiest read.
Definitely made me feel the paranoia of walking outside in a strange sort of nature at night.
I'll say that the terror in this was far more effective to me, but I definitely struggle with prose from this era now that I'm not as used to reading it, so it was not the easiest read.
Definitely made me feel the paranoia of walking outside in a strange sort of nature at night.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
tense
fast-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
mysterious