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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
Unoriginal and disappointing. A clusterfuck basically, of great ideas regurgitated as a confusing mix of fonts and layouts.
3,5/5
What a story! I thought the plot was very original and pretty well done, all the spooky elements surrounding the house and the woods were incredibly well written and the descriptions were amazing. I think that it would have been easy to make the parts about the woods confusing but the author wrote them really well. I think that if I had read this when I was younger I would have definitely given it 5 stars. I loved the changes of fonts and format, they really added to the atmosphere of the novel.
But, I did feel like the story was a bit too repetitive and it went a little too overboard sometimes, some part of the ending felt a bit out of place, and I feel like it should have been shorter, preferably by taking out the repetitions.
(Side note: I would not recommend this book for anyone with an eating disorder?? I don't have one and some of the descriptions around the topics of food/eating/throwing up made me feel a little nauseous.)
What a story! I thought the plot was very original and pretty well done, all the spooky elements surrounding the house and the woods were incredibly well written and the descriptions were amazing. I think that it would have been easy to make the parts about the woods confusing but the author wrote them really well. I think that if I had read this when I was younger I would have definitely given it 5 stars. I loved the changes of fonts and format, they really added to the atmosphere of the novel.
But, I did feel like the story was a bit too repetitive and it went a little too overboard sometimes, some part of the ending felt a bit out of place, and I feel like it should have been shorter, preferably by taking out the repetitions.
(Side note: I would not recommend this book for anyone with an eating disorder?? I don't have one and some of the descriptions around the topics of food/eating/throwing up made me feel a little nauseous.)
Tim Burton meets Roald Dahl meets Geronimo Stilton? Weirdest book I’ve ever read.
This book gave me[b:We Have Always Lived in the Castle|89724|We Have Always Lived in the Castle|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415357189l/89724._SX50_.jpg|847007] vibes. But, similar to [b:The Death of Jane Lawrence|48915818|The Death of Jane Lawrence|Caitlin Starling|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1611848428l/48915818._SY75_.jpg|74312002], it was too reminiscent of a fever dream. I just wanted to read a book with a straightforward plot with a reliable narrator, knowing there'd be fantastical elements thrown in. This book wasn't for me.
That ending was pretty trippy
The writing style was different: told in the form of vignettes, short chapters, and diary entries
The writing style was different: told in the form of vignettes, short chapters, and diary entries
dark
emotional
sad
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:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
This was sooo unsettling! I read this via audiobook and omg it was such an amazing experience ~ they add a lot of sound effects that really add to the atmosphere and makes you feel like you are spiraling along with Silla. The parts with the Broken Book gave me chills! I love how the author wrote Sillas mental health deteriorating, some of the ways Silla talks to herself is how I talk to myself in my extremely bad mental health days so it was validating to see that for some reason.
The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating was because I thought it was a bit too long as the 3/4 way mark it got a bit repetitive.
I totally recommend this book if you're wanting something to make you feel like you are going through a mad fever dream.
The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating was because I thought it was a bit too long as the 3/4 way mark it got a bit repetitive.
I totally recommend this book if you're wanting something to make you feel like you are going through a mad fever dream.
2.5/5 rounded up. Solidly average to me. It had a good creeping sense of dread throughout which I enjoyed but it did get repetitive after awhile. I found myself wondering if anything was ever actually going to happen or if the book was just exploring the feeling of being trapped and boxed in while the MC slowly dies. I didn’t care for the ending so much, as it felt like it had been done before. I also felt like the author was spoon feeding the metaphor to the reader in the end without giving the reader any credit that they’d be able to piece it together themselves, and that was a little frustrating. I’d be curious to see if I like other works by this author better because this book had a lot of potential!
( 3.5 Stars ) Originally posted on citygirlscapes.com.
When I read The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich, I was pretty much blown away. I thought it was so creative and inventive, I was an instant fan. I have had And the Trees Crept In haunting me from my to-read pile for a while and only now just found time to pick it up.
When I first came upon this, the story screamed Hansel and Gretel to me; a house, surrounded by woods, and children coming to find it. It started off feeling like a wicked fairy tale too. Kurtagich has such a way with words and this immediately set that dark and eerie scene.
I had mixed feelings about this book, though. It is a slow burn; building slowly from the start towards the end, with nothing too big happening too soon. It’s the way good old horror books were made, where the horror seeps in and under your skin when you aren’t yet fully prepared for it, and then when it finally does show itself and grips you, you’re already overtaken by it and there is nowhere to go.
I liked that build, but I’m not sure I liked the story. I couldn’t get away from the fairy tale feeling, like this was more of a dark children’s story than anything else. Actually, it reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. While there is nothing wrong with that, I was hoping to feel this in my depths and it just didn’t seem to reach as far down as I thought this could have gone.
That said, the story did have its moments and did keep me guessing; I had no idea what was happening at first, which I found frustrating, but it fell into a nice little rhythm and the more I read, the more this rhythm became a little bit stronger and a little bit louder. Creeping, like so many elements in the book; the trees slowly moving in, making their safe home smaller and smaller, the growing panic and insanity in the girls, their looming hunger and crazy aunt. I ultimately really enjoyed what all of this represented, though I did kind of figure it out mid-book, so by that point, some of the build and anticipation became dragging and I just wanted the book to hurry up and meet me where I already was.
Eventually all the questions about the past and present finally fit together in a mess of old journal entries and pieces of scrap paper that heads up the chapters. I usually really like this element in stories, but it didn’t fully fit with this for me and made it seem a bit more like too much was happening at once.
I still really applaud Kurtagich for her unique approach to her stories and I like how she thinks and works with her ideas. This one just didn’t fully do it for me. I appreciate the concept and what it all amounted to in the end, but the journey getting there wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for.
When I read The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich, I was pretty much blown away. I thought it was so creative and inventive, I was an instant fan. I have had And the Trees Crept In haunting me from my to-read pile for a while and only now just found time to pick it up.
When I first came upon this, the story screamed Hansel and Gretel to me; a house, surrounded by woods, and children coming to find it. It started off feeling like a wicked fairy tale too. Kurtagich has such a way with words and this immediately set that dark and eerie scene.
I had mixed feelings about this book, though. It is a slow burn; building slowly from the start towards the end, with nothing too big happening too soon. It’s the way good old horror books were made, where the horror seeps in and under your skin when you aren’t yet fully prepared for it, and then when it finally does show itself and grips you, you’re already overtaken by it and there is nowhere to go.
I liked that build, but I’m not sure I liked the story. I couldn’t get away from the fairy tale feeling, like this was more of a dark children’s story than anything else. Actually, it reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. While there is nothing wrong with that, I was hoping to feel this in my depths and it just didn’t seem to reach as far down as I thought this could have gone.
That said, the story did have its moments and did keep me guessing; I had no idea what was happening at first, which I found frustrating, but it fell into a nice little rhythm and the more I read, the more this rhythm became a little bit stronger and a little bit louder. Creeping, like so many elements in the book; the trees slowly moving in, making their safe home smaller and smaller, the growing panic and insanity in the girls, their looming hunger and crazy aunt. I ultimately really enjoyed what all of this represented, though I did kind of figure it out mid-book, so by that point, some of the build and anticipation became dragging and I just wanted the book to hurry up and meet me where I already was.
Eventually all the questions about the past and present finally fit together in a mess of old journal entries and pieces of scrap paper that heads up the chapters. I usually really like this element in stories, but it didn’t fully fit with this for me and made it seem a bit more like too much was happening at once.
I still really applaud Kurtagich for her unique approach to her stories and I like how she thinks and works with her ideas. This one just didn’t fully do it for me. I appreciate the concept and what it all amounted to in the end, but the journey getting there wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for.