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kyillme's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
baileys_bookstagram's review against another edition
4.0
This book was awesome. Had me from the first page. I love a good haunted house story and this takes haunted house to a new level.
I don’t want to say too much and give anything away but it’s a great story and I enjoyed the surprises and especially the slow development of the evil in the book.
Despite there being an evil presence I actually found that the slow decline of the characters lives could very realistically happen without the evil being there. I found that interesting,
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.
I don’t want to say too much and give anything away but it’s a great story and I enjoyed the surprises and especially the slow development of the evil in the book.
Despite there being an evil presence I actually found that the slow decline of the characters lives could very realistically happen without the evil being there. I found that interesting,
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC for an honest review.
knittyreader's review against another edition
3.0
This book is an okay-ish book. I have a thing for stories about haunted houses in any case, so most books about haunted houses get me hooked. I did have a couple of ... initially minor issues that kept grating though.
First: inconsistencies make any meh. A couple of pages before we find out Shepherd is a grey hat hacker who wants to keep a low profile technology-wise, he dislikes technology enough that he wants to pay with a severely outdated payment method, while a couple of sentences later he checks his e-mail on his iPhone and navigates with a Touch Pro. Which still makes an inconsistency with the wanting to keep a low profile; if he wants to look like he doesn't like technology, reasonably he'd check his e-mail on a desktop, and use maps before he'd pay in a manner my gran doesn't even use anymore, right? Plus, rubbing the readers' nose in that he uses expensive tech is bad enough without telling he is low-tech first.
That is another thing that might appear minor, but that kept rubbing me the wrong way. Why the dropping of brands all the time? Why do we need to know what kind of smartphone someone has, as long as it's functional? Same goes for navigation, laptops, tablets, etc. etc. Naming the brands and types usually just makes the book seem outdated sooner, and it makes me wonder what the writer had to gain by dropping brands to be honest.
Like I said, this are mostly minor things, but when done long enough in a book, they irk enough to really stamp their mark on it. The book itself still was pretty okay.
I received a free copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
First: inconsistencies make any meh. A couple of pages before we find out Shepherd is a grey hat hacker who wants to keep a low profile technology-wise, he dislikes technology enough that he wants to pay with a severely outdated payment method, while a couple of sentences later he checks his e-mail on his iPhone and navigates with a Touch Pro. Which still makes an inconsistency with the wanting to keep a low profile; if he wants to look like he doesn't like technology, reasonably he'd check his e-mail on a desktop, and use maps before he'd pay in a manner my gran doesn't even use anymore, right? Plus, rubbing the readers' nose in that he uses expensive tech is bad enough without telling he is low-tech first.
That is another thing that might appear minor, but that kept rubbing me the wrong way. Why the dropping of brands all the time? Why do we need to know what kind of smartphone someone has, as long as it's functional? Same goes for navigation, laptops, tablets, etc. etc. Naming the brands and types usually just makes the book seem outdated sooner, and it makes me wonder what the writer had to gain by dropping brands to be honest.
Like I said, this are mostly minor things, but when done long enough in a book, they irk enough to really stamp their mark on it. The book itself still was pretty okay.
I received a free copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.
darkpsychereads's review against another edition
3.0
3 Stars
I appreciate the writer's ability to encapsulate such a world of gothic horror in the modern era, but through the overuse of characters and mundane activities, unfortunately this one felt underwhelming for me as a horror/thriller genre.
I did enjoy the concept, and I would have liked to have seen Shepherd more, and a lot sooner. There was too much focus on secondary characters who come and go, so the focus was lost in a blur.
I feel that the story could have improved through editing out some characters altogether and making some scenes/setups more plausible. Implausible scenes such as: Film crew - brief appearance and no explanation afterwards. I'd suggest either editing out altogether or having them return to enjoy the haunted events; Lack of safety precautions for the roof accident; and finally the ridiculousness of the ending events, and certain character deaths, just seemed overkill. The overall pace of the book could have been hurried along as well.
Thank you to NetGalley, Land of OZ LLC publishing and the author for this free ARC read for a review.
I appreciate the writer's ability to encapsulate such a world of gothic horror in the modern era, but through the overuse of characters and mundane activities, unfortunately this one felt underwhelming for me as a horror/thriller genre.
I did enjoy the concept, and I would have liked to have seen Shepherd more, and a lot sooner. There was too much focus on secondary characters who come and go, so the focus was lost in a blur.
I feel that the story could have improved through editing out some characters altogether and making some scenes/setups more plausible. Implausible scenes such as: Film crew - brief appearance and no explanation afterwards. I'd suggest either editing out altogether or having them return to enjoy the haunted events; Lack of safety precautions for the roof accident; and finally the ridiculousness of the ending events, and certain character deaths, just seemed overkill. The overall pace of the book could have been hurried along as well.
Thank you to NetGalley, Land of OZ LLC publishing and the author for this free ARC read for a review.
zooloo1983's review against another edition
4.0
Well I went into this thinking I would have found a new ghostly tale to scare the beejus out of me...I didn't but what I did find was a very addictive read and one with a shocking ending I didn't see coming...
A tale of a house that is so evil that no one is safe. I felt so connected to Laura and the turmoil she was going through. The book most definitely gave me Amityville thrills with the possession side and the anger -so much anger.
I was hoping for more with the TV crew as it's mentioned in the blurb, and I was hoping the TV crew would play a huge part and it would be almost Ghost Adventures ish but after the first couple of chapters, they weren't mentioned, which I was kinda disappointed about.
I really liked Shepherd and would have loved more from him too!!
A very shocking and bold ending and once you get hooked on the book it won't let go. I kept stopping the audiobook to go and watch TV but the book wouldn't let me, so I blitz almost half of it in one sitting! Something crazy, spooky, shocking would happen and you just had to read on! I am looking forward to the next one in the series and seeing how it builds from there.
An exciting series I am behind!!
A tale of a house that is so evil that no one is safe. I felt so connected to Laura and the turmoil she was going through. The book most definitely gave me Amityville thrills with the possession side and the anger -so much anger.
I was hoping for more with the TV crew as it's mentioned in the blurb, and I was hoping the TV crew would play a huge part and it would be almost Ghost Adventures ish but after the first couple of chapters, they weren't mentioned, which I was kinda disappointed about.
I really liked Shepherd and would have loved more from him too!!
A very shocking and bold ending and once you get hooked on the book it won't let go. I kept stopping the audiobook to go and watch TV but the book wouldn't let me, so I blitz almost half of it in one sitting! Something crazy, spooky, shocking would happen and you just had to read on! I am looking forward to the next one in the series and seeing how it builds from there.
An exciting series I am behind!!
meyerjent's review against another edition
4.0
Thriller and Paranormal with twists and an end I didn't really see coming! A great book!
hidingtoread's review against another edition
I tried 3 times with this book and just couldn't get into the weird time line concept.
alicevicini's review against another edition
4.0
I’ve rated this book 4 stars because overall, I liked the story, its development and how it ended, however, there are some points that are confusing and plot developments brought up in the story only to never come back.
Let’s start with the characters: I didn’t mind the characters, I only felt attached to Laura and Leah at the end of the day… I think that the author should have made us love Lucas more, so that we could feel bad when he started to change his personality and during the divorce…
Moreover, I would’ve loved a further development of Shepherd’s character, it would’ve had enormous potential!
The positive aspect was that I felt SO SAD when.
Plot: At the beginning it was very slow, almost boring, but, at the 30% mark, the story took off and became very interesting and very gripping.
Ending: the ending was super fast-paced and I loved it, it was also quite bitter-sweet…
Negative aspects: as I already said at the beginning, there are plot developments that just disappear with the development of the story (e.g. the crew filming at the house: what happened with this project? Why did they just disappear? A crew member fell off the roof and broke an arm: he disappeared, the main characters never even talked about what happened again…)
Let’s start with the characters: I didn’t mind the characters, I only felt attached to Laura and Leah at the end of the day… I think that the author should have made us love Lucas more, so that we could feel bad when he started to change his personality and during the divorce…
Moreover, I would’ve loved a further development of Shepherd’s character, it would’ve had enormous potential!
The positive aspect was that I felt SO SAD when
Spoiler
Laura diedPlot: At the beginning it was very slow, almost boring, but, at the 30% mark, the story took off and became very interesting and very gripping.
Ending: the ending was super fast-paced and I loved it, it was also quite bitter-sweet…
Negative aspects: as I already said at the beginning, there are plot developments that just disappear with the development of the story (e.g. the crew filming at the house: what happened with this project? Why did they just disappear? A crew member fell off the roof and broke an arm: he disappeared, the main characters never even talked about what happened again…)
heathergir7's review against another edition
5.0
The book starts slow but really picks up speed and delivers an explosive ending!
aly36's review against another edition
3.0
I think this book was interesting. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to but I think it was scary in parts and thrilling in parts. I was just expecting a little more from this book but it was just ok for me. *This book was given to me for free at my request From Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review.*