Scan barcode
jesssicawho's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Minor: Mental illness, Death, and Dementia
muireebrown's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Spoilers:
The dog lives!
Moderate: Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Murder
traa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Car accident
readwithbells's review against another edition
4.0
That made my skin crawl. Folk horror (and turns out a pulp horror retelling, thanks authors note) done absolutely right. Sometimes the humour felt a little too much and there was a point between 60-80% where so many reveals were happening the storyline got totally convoluted for me. I took a six hour break and finished the book this afternoon and I’m so glad I did because that climax was fantastic. I haven’t had a horror book make me physically shudder in a long time and this was exactly what I was looking for: something spooky and horror-feeling where I’ll still be able to sleep at night. Potentially a bit long and certainly a bit repetitive, the atmosphere wasn’t great but the body horror was; I liked it. Never gonna look at rocks the same though.
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Chronic illness and Mental illness
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
Moderate:nouveaudragon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Body horror
megwilli's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Confinement and Violence
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
horizonous's review against another edition
„Hwuaaaafffforrrroooo!“ he said, or words to that effect. […] „Wuuuaaaaoorrroo-rooo!“
Moderate: Mental illness and Death
Minor: Death of parent
◦ Death = Grandparent◦ Mental illness = Hoarding
anna_hepworth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
In the real world sections, our protagonist--Melissa, known as Mouse--is dealing with the house of a recently deceased family member. Said family member was nasty through and through in their dealings with other people, and the house turns out to be a hoarding nightmare. I found myself repeatedly baffled by sections of this, which I think just come down to the reality that other people's families are weird. I did rather love the bit part player, Enid, who is the barista in the nearest town, and who seems rather unflappable. And the nearby household of Skip, Foxy, and Tomas, who are integral to the story. So, Vernon has done very well (as ever) with bringing together a fabulous cast.
In the fantasy sections, there are any number of nasty body horror things going on, although for a long time Mouse writes them off as either dementia (their grandfather's writing) or suggestibility (their own observations). Which should bring with it a creeping sense of dread for the reader, but I found that Mouse was overly analytical about the horror tropes, and so kept throwing me out of the feeling. No idea whether that was the plan.
The author's note discusses other texts that this is in dialogue with -- I wasn't familiar with the primary one, and possibly if I had been this might have worked better.
But as ever in Vernon's work, solid writing, fascinating premise, good world-building and character development, and a generally good story.
Moderate: Domestic abuse
Minor: Mental illness
There are two individuals with explicitly mentioned mental illness; the stories of both are handled well by my standards.ghostams's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Mental illness and Grief
Minor: Racism, Emotional abuse, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Confinement, Child death, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, and Death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I appreciate the way that the framing clearly situates this as a story being told after the narrator and her dog have survived the events in question, it would be a monumentally more stressful story if I'd had to wonder whether the dog dies. The dread lies instead in the very large gap between surviving and escaping unscathed, and in the pages upon pages of descriptions of what was in this particular hoarder's house. It ratcheted up the tension by inches, as the intensity of the supernatural events increased periodically while the sheer volume and detail of the house's contents were a steady drip of very plausible weirdness.
The main character, Mouse, is a great narrator, with the quirkiness of specificity bringing a great style to her asides and characterizations. Bongo (the dog) comes through so well in her descriptions, doing things that make sense for who he is as a dog, even (or perhaps especially) when such actions complement the narrative as a thriller. The secondary characters are detailed enough to feel like full people without distracting from the main events, and I like the group who helps her out towards the end (Foxy's my favorite).
There's a particular litany, both read and thought by Mouse, which gradually turned into an earworm in my own thoughts in a way that makes the horror even more effective. It made it feel like the book was escaping its confines, or at the very least it makes it alarmingly plausible that Mouse could be just the latest in a line of people who became stuck on that refrain.
The ending is terrifying, bringing together the more mundane horror of a hoarder's house together with the supernatural elements in a fantastically scary climax. It had felt like the collection of stuff and the creepy things outside were two separate worlds but the meeting between them was one of the scariest things I've read in a while. The final scenes at the house are absolutely chilling, leading to an resolution that feels just as right as it is weird and sad.
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death