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2.72 AVERAGE
2.72 AVERAGE
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I overall enjoyed it. The book kinda throws you into the characters with well established backgrounds pretty quickly but I think it works in its favor considering it is short.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
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:
Yes
shit from a buttttt idk i nearly started dissociating towards the end
i wanted to like this book so badly but the characters fell flat the plot was so poorly executed and the writing as literally everyone keeps complaining about is so fucking flowery jesus christ i liked it at first but then every single sentence was filled with metaphors upon metaphors of unnecessary fluff idk man i wanted a nice little horror book and instead all i got was childish petty drama between the main few characters for the first half and nonsensical ghost that had no other purpose than to???? girl i don’t even fucking know i’m mad as fuck
i wanted to like this book so badly but the characters fell flat the plot was so poorly executed and the writing as literally everyone keeps complaining about is so fucking flowery jesus christ i liked it at first but then every single sentence was filled with metaphors upon metaphors of unnecessary fluff idk man i wanted a nice little horror book and instead all i got was childish petty drama between the main few characters for the first half and nonsensical ghost that had no other purpose than to???? girl i don’t even fucking know i’m mad as fuck
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
I received an ARC of this novella in exchange for an honest review.
Genuine and strong horror here. It's a bit Fatal Frame and ghosts oozing out of an old Heian mansion (that modern youths in love with ghost stories just happen to find their way to), with the associated blood sacrifice rituals from the past that must be echoed in the present to have the only hope of freedom. It's a bit abandoned-cabin-in-the-woods slasher with the youths being five young adults who have tangled and messy relationships and all hate each other just a little. It's even a little bit Ayakashi, with the youkai attacks being based on reasons and motives of their own that have been drawn out due to the roles being played by those being haunted. And it's aware of all of these sources, down to lampshading the bits in a horror movie where x happens, or the bit in a video game where you have to find the solution written down somewhere.
Very well written, very visceral and gorgeous. If there's any flaw it's that, in standard cabin-in-the-woods slasher style, none of these characters are really likeable, and so you spend a whole book with characters you don't enjoy seeing interact. You're put into their crew, and forced to sort of dislike everyone even as you spend time watching their story play out to its horrible conclusion. Of course, in slasher films, that's so that you don't feel bad watching them die, and usually gives you a likeable Final Girl to put your empathy toward instead... but here, much more Japanese horror than Western in how it plays out.
3.5 rounded up.
Genuine and strong horror here. It's a bit Fatal Frame and ghosts oozing out of an old Heian mansion (that modern youths in love with ghost stories just happen to find their way to), with the associated blood sacrifice rituals from the past that must be echoed in the present to have the only hope of freedom. It's a bit abandoned-cabin-in-the-woods slasher with the youths being five young adults who have tangled and messy relationships and all hate each other just a little. It's even a little bit Ayakashi, with the youkai attacks being based on reasons and motives of their own that have been drawn out due to the roles being played by those being haunted. And it's aware of all of these sources, down to lampshading the bits in a horror movie where x happens, or the bit in a video game where you have to find the solution written down somewhere.
Very well written, very visceral and gorgeous. If there's any flaw it's that, in standard cabin-in-the-woods slasher style, none of these characters are really likeable, and so you spend a whole book with characters you don't enjoy seeing interact. You're put into their crew, and forced to sort of dislike everyone even as you spend time watching their story play out to its horrible conclusion. Of course, in slasher films, that's so that you don't feel bad watching them die, and usually gives you a likeable Final Girl to put your empathy toward instead... but here, much more Japanese horror than Western in how it plays out.
3.5 rounded up.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The overly wordy description took me out of the story and I would’ve preferred the character have more depth instead.
This book lacked so much. The exciting horror parts were very minimum pages and they weren’t even remotely that exciting. I couldn’t stand the main character constantly talking about Phillip, she always had to go into way to deep of a description anytime he was mentioned.
The ghost appears. Faiz murders one of his friends and gets his fiancée back and then boom it’s all over. What was the point?
It really felt like she needed to see how many descriptive words she could shove into one sentence every time.
The ghost appears. Faiz murders one of his friends and gets his fiancée back and then boom it’s all over. What was the point?
It really felt like she needed to see how many descriptive words she could shove into one sentence every time.
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Good little spooky read.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to like this so bad, but I feel like the author wanted this to be a movie more than a book. Cool idea, terrible execution. Lastly, hate how 75% of this tiny book is just metaphors and usless drawn out descriptions aa if the author doesn't trust our imagination to be enough.