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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
The Evans women run the only funeral parlor in a tiny Texas town. Everyone knows they're weird and are hiding something, but you don't antagonize the only people who can lay you to rest so people just turn the other way. It just happens to be that one of their secrets is that they've been protecting their town from undead ghouls or strigoi for generations. Things have been quiet, but the repercussions of the one bloody night 15 years ago are starting to deliver restless bodies to the funeral parlor once again. It'll be one bloody, violent death after another until the Evans women can work together to end things, hopefully, once and for all.
It's too light to truly be horror and way too bloody to be anything else. It's also marketed as a story about family yet spends more page space going on about how some family secrets must never be shared than in actual family interaction.
I can maybe see it as the setup for further stories and forgive the fact that it ends with even more unanswered questions than it starts with, except the characters aren't particularly memorable and I don't feel the need to return to this world for those answers.
All my complaining aside, the writing is solid and there is a very clear thread throughout the book that pays off in the end after giving readers some very disturbing scenes. It's not really my genre, so I'm grading on a higher curve.
Happy thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the interesting read!
It's too light to truly be horror and way too bloody to be anything else. It's also marketed as a story about family yet spends more page space going on about how some family secrets must never be shared than in actual family interaction.
I can maybe see it as the setup for further stories and forgive the fact that it ends with even more unanswered questions than it starts with, except the characters aren't particularly memorable and I don't feel the need to return to this world for those answers.
All my complaining aside, the writing is solid and there is a very clear thread throughout the book that pays off in the end after giving readers some very disturbing scenes. It's not really my genre, so I'm grading on a higher curve.
Happy thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the interesting read!
dark
mysterious
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
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A horror-mystery about family and doing right by people. Who these people are and what they're doing unfolds and reveals slowly, and the story is told from multiple POVs. I found the character voices of especially the middle Evans women not *super* distinct from each other, which combined with the sheer volume of characters and the central family secret in a way that: it meant the catharsis of the characters finally dealing with it at the climax felt....not exactly rushed, but underdeveloped. However, the little character quirk and setting details were fun.
Also: this book is definitely one that leaves more questions and loose ends than answers them.
Also: this book is definitely one that leaves more questions and loose ends than answers them.
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
dark
relaxing
medium-paced