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2.72 AVERAGE
2.72 AVERAGE
dark
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The premise of this book was interesting and the cover is amazing. I liked the little bits of Japanese folklore and feel that was the books strongest asset. If only it could’ve focused more on the myth of the Ohaguro-Bettari! The myth itself is intriguing but how it was brought up in the book was disappointing. I’m all for unlikable characters but these ones were.. pushing it. It seemed like many had relationships with one another, and they are all friends except they actually hate each other?? Why focus so much of the book on these crumbling relationships when you could focus your time into developing the much more interesting yokai? Also, the writing was extremely hard to get through. It seemed like Khaw had a thesaurus and a dream in my opinion. It tried to come across as smart but it was just annoying and difficult to read.
I think it’s a nice step into the horror genre without having much substance.
I think it’s a nice step into the horror genre without having much substance.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
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:
No
This felt like a high school/college writing homework assignment. Interesting premise and beginning that soon began to drag on and bore despite the story only being a 3 hour listen.
2 STARS Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. It was overly wordy, secluded me as a reader with the Japanese words and folklore (this isn't going to be a problem for everyone but for me, I don't want to look things up when I'm reading which is what I had to do to follow along), and there were essentially no repercussions for the bad things that happened. The ghost story aspect was good but I wanted to see so much more come from it. I mean look at this COVER. It's what nightmares are made out of **shivers**
That being said, there are many readers who absolutely loved this novel. Please make sure to check out their reviews before deciding if this is the book for you or not. Just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean it won't be yours.
That being said, there are many readers who absolutely loved this novel. Please make sure to check out their reviews before deciding if this is the book for you or not. Just because it wasn't my cup of tea doesn't mean it won't be yours.
I think my sheer headstrong desire to like this book is making this hard to admit for me, but this is not what I was looking for unfortunately. I was intrigued by the setup, and had a good spooky time with some of the ghostie descriptions. However, this book was not even close to scary enough. I am a wimp with horror, you can ask anyone who knows me, and I was not really even mildly scared for a single part of this book. I found the group dynamics and relationships really confusing at first, and by the time I fully sorted it out, I just didn't like any of them sadly. I was also hoping that it would be a little more eventful given how short of a novella it was, but I left feeling like not very much happened. Overall, I'm definitely glad I read it, and I want to try the audiobook, but I was pretty underwhelmed.