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2.72 AVERAGE
2.72 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It's ok. What it SHOULD be is expanded and explained more. What it SHOULD be is a hell of a lot more than what is actually here. So much potential and a great premise essentially wasted...
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I've been looking forward to this story for a while, but while it was a fun little romp it wasn't particularly enthralling nor spooky.
Cat is accompanying a group of her on-and-off again friends for a haunted wedding. Talia (who hates her) has always wanted to get married in a spooky house, so clearly a Heian mansion said to contain the bodies of hundreds of girls in its foundations is the perfect spot. Her fiance Faiz isn't jazzed about it but he's stupid in love, and the one agreement is to invite Cat, his best friend. It's all financed by Philip, a rich playboy friend who also dated Talia, unknown to Faiz. Lin is there too as the one 'comic relief' guy who is completely unfunny.
If you're already like "ah melodrama friends group" boy you're right.
I think a lot of horror plays into two fields - people who the audience is meant to dislike and cheer for the bloodbath - and then well developed characters who you hope will make it through the viscera. This is definitely the former. All of the characters are unlikable, pretty stupid, and you struggle to see how they're friends. They definitely tell you they're friends but mostly they are pretty awful to each other regardless of the situation! So you're like uh why actually are you staying/why did you come... you all seem to hate each other, especially the dudes... anyway.
Unsurprisingly the house is mega haunted and they get to deal with that accordingly. Aside from some gruesome scenes near the end the book isn't particularly horrific or scary. It feels... bland at best. The prose is very flowery for the first half which sort of kills all the suspense and only shuts up when the action starts in the final third.
It wasn't bad? It was just. Fine. I wish the characters could have been slightly humanized or interesting, or their relationships could have been explored more beyond "they dated, they've been friends forever but none of that is shown."
Cat is accompanying a group of her on-and-off again friends for a haunted wedding. Talia (who hates her) has always wanted to get married in a spooky house, so clearly a Heian mansion said to contain the bodies of hundreds of girls in its foundations is the perfect spot. Her fiance Faiz isn't jazzed about it but he's stupid in love, and the one agreement is to invite Cat, his best friend. It's all financed by Philip, a rich playboy friend who also dated Talia, unknown to Faiz. Lin is there too as the one 'comic relief' guy who is completely unfunny.
If you're already like "ah melodrama friends group" boy you're right.
I think a lot of horror plays into two fields - people who the audience is meant to dislike and cheer for the bloodbath - and then well developed characters who you hope will make it through the viscera. This is definitely the former. All of the characters are unlikable, pretty stupid, and you struggle to see how they're friends. They definitely tell you they're friends but mostly they are pretty awful to each other regardless of the situation! So you're like uh why actually are you staying/why did you come... you all seem to hate each other, especially the dudes... anyway.
Unsurprisingly the house is mega haunted and they get to deal with that accordingly. Aside from some gruesome scenes near the end the book isn't particularly horrific or scary. It feels... bland at best. The prose is very flowery for the first half which sort of kills all the suspense and only shuts up when the action starts in the final third.
It wasn't bad? It was just. Fine. I wish the characters could have been slightly humanized or interesting, or their relationships could have been explored more beyond "they dated, they've been friends forever but none of that is shown."
I should’ve read the other reviews first. Everyone was certainly unlikable, and not in a compelling way. The atmospheric elements felt dropped in and they were disjointed from the rest of the narrative. I really don’t understand what made all these people want to come together, or even stay in the room, considering they were practically all exes with each other and they all had ended on bad terms. I’m disappointed, it’s a cool concept.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really like that this breaks the 4th wall and talks about horror books and horror tropes.
This would be a good place to start if you wanted to test the waters of horror. It has a good premise, it felt spooky and I felt unsettled in some places. However it didn’t dive deep enough for me. I felt like we never really got into anything that crazy, we followed 5 (idiot) adults and although one possession happened very briefly we just kind of see ghosts and creepy things watch them (and assuming only one person can actually see all of this) it made for a boring story. The ending was very abrupt too, even for a novella.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes