Reviews

Dark Ride by Iain Rob Wright

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Fun idea but unfortunately executed in a very generic manner that just felt like every teen horror film ever. Wouldn’t mind reading more from the author in future if their books were a little longer and they spent more time fleshing out interesting characters.

rogue_raven's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I like to play a game with Iain's books. It's called 'Who's Making It To The End?'
I almost never get it completely right but it's a fun game because I KNOW people be dying but who's surviving is never guaranteed lol. This was no exception and it was a fun ride (pun intended 😁)

panicatthebookstore's review

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4.0

"The screams didn't translate at first. They were in a theme park after all, the one place where screams were ordinary. It wasn't until they joined the tail end of the queue that she realised the screams were different. They were not notes tinged with glee and amusement. They were the screams of people screaming in terror."

I loved the idea of this one. It started great and I was really enjoying it. Everything started building and building, and then kind of went nowhere. The ending was a little disappointing and ended up being a let down for an otherwise brilliant read. It could have done with being a little longer. I also love the little nod to the previous book in the series (Escape).

clarke's review against another edition

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2.0

really? You kill off the disabled poc and the queer guy??

nat1577's review

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4.0

I really enjoyed this novel overall. It was very fast-paced and I found it hard to put down once I had started. I thought the story was interesting and unique, and the conclusion was actually really surprising. I also loved the setting - a horror novel set in an abandoned amusement park already has my attention from that aspect alone, and I thought the author did a great job at really using that setting to its full capacity. The descriptions of the ride were detailed and vivid, and I could easily picture what was happening in my head. The only parts of this I thought could have been improved further were the characters - I liked them for the most part, but aside from the main character, I thought that most of them seemed a bit bland. Also, while I really enjoyed the story line, I didn't find this particularly scary.

Those things aside, I thought that this was a great read and I would definitely recommend it.

brigitte66's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

3.5

tjohnston02's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

3.5

kimily's review

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3.0

Dark Ride is, to me, a legitimately scary book. The idea of animatronics moving on their own is horrifying to me. I've never related harder to anyone than when Patty in Ghostbusters referred to a storage area of mannequins as a "room full of nightmares". This book played right into my fears for about the first 75%, but pretty much lost me in the end. The whole "men are here to keep the women safe" trope is pretty old-fashioned and unrelatable to me. I will still read Mr. Wright's writing, because I feel he has a firm grasp on what is scary, but I won't be recommending this book.