Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Nosferatu

This book was long. Honestly… I was bored a lot of the time. It felt extremely wordy and not in a good way, like I feel like half of the novel could have been cut out and it would have still had the same story and achieved the same effect, just more concisely.

The first 1/4 ish was interesting, and I was intrigued about where the story would go. The middle 1/2 seemed to drag on and on and on and I wasn’t enjoying any of the characters or their decisions or motivations. The last 1/4 got my attention again. But when we’re talking about a nearly 1000 page book (~20 hour audiobook), for around half of it to be laggy, that’s a lot of time and energy that I felt was wasting my time.

BUT HONESTLY — the worst part for me was the fact that this novel was an obvious and glaring example of men writing female characters. This is a literal quote from the book in the perspective of one of the main characters, a woman:

Men, she thought, were one of the world's few sure comforts, like a fire on a cold October night, like cocoa, like broken-in-slippers. Their clumsy affections, their bristly faces, and their willingness to do what needed to be done - cook an omelette, change lightbulbs, make with hugging - sometimes almost made being a woman fun.

It’s so completely tone deaf to the actual overall experience of being a woman that it took me right out of the story, I actually let out a startled laugh and rewound the audio to make sure I heard correctly. I probably should’ve taken it as a sign when the same female main character, as a teenage virgin, wanted to get a tattoo of a motorcycle engine on her chest to “let the boys know what a good ride she was.”

Overall:
Audio: 5/5, the narrator was incredible, she was literally the only thing that made this book not feel like a waste of my time
Characters: 2.5/5, I didn’t really like any of them tbh and I’ve already discussed my issues with the women
Plot: 2.5/5, I actually had more issues with the plot besides that it felt way too drawn out (in my opinion). The concept of the “real” world versus the imaginary (“inscape”) world was fascinating. It was also an interesting take on vampires and I thought that was really clever. It just kind of felt like there were a lot of revolving parts that made the story overly convoluted.

Also, I’m a medical professional and some of the medical/injury/surgical (especially) aspects of this book lowkey pissed me off haha

~~~~~~~~~

halfway update: I’m bored. Idk I just don’t really care about any of the characters and this book is SO long. I for sure would have given up a long time ago except that the audiobook narrator is FANTASTIC.

And like, by no means would I consider myself a prude but there are just so many gratuitous and crude mentions of genitalia (the same issue I have with King’s work) and like oh my god, we get it, you’re obsessed with “mommy tits” but we don’t need to hear it again!!! And again!!! And again!!!

Also I feel like at this point if I’m reading a horror novel and there’s a dog in it, I should just dnf. I’m sick of the dog dying in overly graphic and disgusting ways. Especially when half the time it doesn’t even do anything for the plot. But as soon as that dog dies the book is like immediately a 3 star (or less) read for me lol.

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jaedia's review against another edition

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Just taking too long to really get started, the characters are not doing it for me, they're too real in a very "grimy" kinda way... Only characters I liked were Maggie and Lou, and poor Lou is fat, and we are told just how fat he is every damn time he's mentioned. To the point where the way he's described at times feels fatphobic, you know? And it's SO much. Jesus. Charlie Manx, also, very interesting villain. But again, it took way too long to get to the point. We get dribs and drabs here and there (I stopped at 43%, it may have picked up after this point but I'm so mentally checked out) and the narrative is so ... jagged. Lots of POV hopping, and changes in time period and such. It's messy. I just don't think this one is for me. Sadly. I was so excited, too.

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hkveit's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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spookybenji's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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kimgray0's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s a horror book so the darkness is to be expected. It’s easy to dislike the characters, but that works in this book. It’s a compelling read, as you never know what is going to happen next. I loved this book way more than I thought I would, even though it sat in my TBR pile for years!

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shay_talksbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

I've read Joe Hill's graphic novels (Locke & Key) and his debut novel (Heart-Shaped Box) and really enjoyed them, so it was definitely time to try another of his novels; I wasn't disappointed!! He's rapidly becoming one of my favourite horror writers!

This was a difficult story to read, but it was also so difficult to put down. I was totally gripped and, as always, loved the way Joe Hill crafted his story and brought his characters to life. I would happily read another 700 pages of the same...back to Christmasland!

Also, the little nods to his Dad's work, loved that.

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aposthuma's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is SO GOOD. It has everything: romance, coming of age, fantasy elements, and a whole lot of pure horror. It starts strong and the pace just doesn't let up, culminating in a wonderfully satisfying ending.

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