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2.72 AVERAGE
2.72 AVERAGE
2.5/5
The horror factor was there! The problem was the characters were kind of annoying and unlikeable.
The horror factor was there! The problem was the characters were kind of annoying and unlikeable.
This was just a little too short for me. The story felt rushed and like everything happened all at once. I didn’t know much about the characters and the plot was honestly a little confusing. However, the descriptions of stuff sometimes blew me away and I am still glad I read it. I just wish it had a little more to it.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The plot premise is great, and the setting is unique, generally well set up. What falls short- significant lack of character development, characters are generally flat and unrelatable- we just to grow to care much about them. Really it needed to be flushed out more. The writing is unnecessarily complicated to a point that it doesn’t work well with the story and will draw you out of what’s going on, particularly with choice of language. This book is based in Japanese folklore, so the use of cultural references and Japanese words is expected. However Khaw does the writing a disservice by making the assumption that the reader is familiar with Japanese folklore or language- using but failing to explain key, repeated words. Better writing would have provided initial brief explanations for repeated terms (e.g. yokai, ohaguro-bettari) to help unfamiliar readers understand what they are and the significance behind the specificity and impact of the terms for the story, without having to pull readers out to look them up. Doing that would have made the story accessible to more people and a lot scarier. This feels like early writing to me, as I read Library at Hellebore before this and there is a world of difference with the writing for that novel.
I'd probably have enjoyed this way more if the characters weren't so unlikable. The setting is excellent. The lore is great. But the characters were just the worst.
started off slow, fine in middle, ending too happy for me (even tho it wasn’t really happy) —- I was expecting them all to die
dark
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fun for spooky szn, but I didn’t love it otherwise.
Also the line “low like a note in a cello’s long throat” will haunt me more than anything else in the novella— shoutout to my fellow cringing musicians!
Also the line “low like a note in a cello’s long throat” will haunt me more than anything else in the novella— shoutout to my fellow cringing musicians!
I read this in 40 minutes standing up in a bookstore, following my friends around with my peripheral vision.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes