830 reviews for:

Grey Dog

Elliott Gish

3.86 AVERAGE

lizbritney's profile picture

lizbritney's review

4.0

“No matter if I plug my ears it still calls to me.”

This is a 3.5 star review rounded up because this is a beautiful piece of work. It’s a jarring portrait of womanhood in the early 1900’s, there were many scenes in this that made my blood boil. It’s definitely a slow burn and does a good job of setting the scene of Ada’s life in Lowry Bridge. I admittedly would’ve enjoyed the story more if the horror elements were more in the forefront - I was really intrigued by the Grey Dog and I feel like we didn’t learn much about it, nor did it play a huge role in the story, I found myself wanting more. I really enjoyed Ada’s love of the outdoors, and liked the musings on God in relation to the natural world. Overall, I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a feminine rage, sapphic story with some horror intertwined.

quinn13's review

5.0

Full disclosure: the author is one of my closest friends and the version I read was a draft. That being said, I wouldn't give a book five stars or recommend it to my other friends if I didn't genuinely think it was deserving.

Elliott asked me to read the draft because she knew I would give honest feedback if something wasn't working. She did not expect me to come back and say "no notes; it's perfect", and I actually didn't want to for fear that she'd think I just didn't care enough to read it closely! This is going to sound like a terrible thing to do to a friend, but I tried so hard to find fault with this novel. Grey Dog is so good that I failed. I read very little historical fiction and even less horror, so I felt like I couldn't help on anything genre-specific, but I looked closely at character; setting; pacing; and dialogue and couldn't suggest a single change. The one short scene that I initially thought could potentially have been cut ended up paying off later; nothing rang false; and I could clearly envision the settings.

Even though I'm not a particular fan of horror, I loved how atmospheric and creepy this was. I also thought that Elliott found a really nice balance with the more disgusting elements of the story - it never felt gratuitous. There's a beautiful subtlety to this novel, and I could feel how much care was put into it.

I'm proud of you, Elliott.
dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

A good woman. How odd that the phrase has such a particular meaning. One might say “a good man” and mean anything—there are as many ways of being a good man, it seems, as there are of being a man at all. But there is only one way to be a good woman. It is such a narrow, stunted, blighted way to be that I wonder any woman throughout history has been up to the task. Perhaps none of us ever have.

save me sapphic gothic fiction, save me. 
deckanddaughter's profile picture

deckanddaughter's review

4.0
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
my_queer_library's profile picture

my_queer_library's review

5.0
dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The writing was good but, i have to say that i was more interested in the hot narrator voice than the story lol. 
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
sarahhope's profile picture

sarahhope's review

3.75
dark mysterious tense