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unboxedjack's review
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Death, Violence, Sexism, Racism, and Blood
cheyraisin's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Violence, Sexual content, Racism, Murder, Homophobia, Hate crime, Death of parent, Death, and Blood
lizardbet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexism
corinnereads7's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Before I say anything else, I need to address what I feel is glaring anti-fat bias on the part of the author. For all this book attempted to do with racism, it sure does have a lot of casual fatphobia… I started keeping a list because it kept popping up. Every fat character is mean, stupid or insane: side characters who are entirely one-dimensional. Examples: “Rae - perennially bloated, flatulent and ornery…”; “flapping her arm fat”; “pasty, obese”.
Anyways, despite this, I was able to complete the book because it was very unique and I wanted to see how the end turned out. I did like the structure of the novel, going back and forth between court transcripts of a murder trial and backstories of the various people involved. The scenes in the haunted house were mostly immersive, but there were also times where I had to reread scenes because their believability factor along with the explanations of the room’s setup left something to be desired. (See: leaping off a bed toward a chest of drawers and somehow grabbing the handle of a drawer, opening it, reaching inside and pulling out an envelope. This is physically impossible to do while mid-air.)
The characters felt decently well developed, some more than others, but again the believability of motives weren’t always there for me. Jaidee’s desire to assimilate to whiteness was completely realistic, however the intense obsession with Victor and rearranging of his entire life around this man, was pretty impossible to believe. Kendra’s desperation for Shawn (founded on a lukewarm romance) was also a strange way to have her decide to work at Quigley; she was already a huge horror fan, why would her long-distance boyfriend be the driving factor in her pursuit of this job? Leonard with his fetishization and possession of Boodhri felt maybe the most realistic. This book has more characters with over the top toxic obsessions than a romcom!
Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it interesting the way he explored racism and specifically anti-Blackness, just wish he had omitted the fatphobia and built up the character motives a bit more.
Anyways, despite this, I was able to complete the book because it was very unique and I wanted to see how the end turned out. I did like the structure of the novel, going back and forth between court transcripts of a murder trial and backstories of the various people involved. The scenes in the haunted house were mostly immersive, but there were also times where I had to reread scenes because their believability factor along with the explanations of the room’s setup left something to be desired. (See: leaping off a bed toward a chest of drawers and somehow grabbing the handle of a drawer, opening it, reaching inside and pulling out an envelope. This is physically impossible to do while mid-air.)
The characters felt decently well developed, some more than others, but again the believability of motives weren’t always there for me. Jaidee’s desire to assimilate to whiteness was completely realistic, however the intense obsession with Victor and rearranging of his entire life around this man, was pretty impossible to believe. Kendra’s desperation for Shawn (founded on a lukewarm romance) was also a strange way to have her decide to work at Quigley; she was already a huge horror fan, why would her long-distance boyfriend be the driving factor in her pursuit of this job? Leonard with his fetishization and possession of Boodhri felt maybe the most realistic. This book has more characters with over the top toxic obsessions than a romcom!
Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it interesting the way he explored racism and specifically anti-Blackness, just wish he had omitted the fatphobia and built up the character motives a bit more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Trafficking, and Xenophobia
katyisreading's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
REPRIEVE is a top contender for my favorite book of 2021. If you like horror and/or literary fiction, I hope this review convinces you to pick it up.
Plot: Quigley House is a full-contact haunted house, owned by a cult-following-white-guy-entrepreneur type named John Forrester. On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final room in the house, but before they can complete the challenge (and win a cash prize), a man breaks in and murders one of them.
The reader learns what happened through deposition interviews with contestants and employees + chapters that walk through the haunt the day of the murder (This is the “horror” element, and as someone who isn’t a horror reader, this part did give me one night of bad dreams, but it was also so well done that I didn’t care).
The other half of the book unfolds in alternating chapters about the characters’ back stories. Each time I got to one of these chapters, I had a moment where I wanted to go back to Quigley House—back to the action. But, the only reason I cared about what happened in the house was because of how perfectly written these chapters were. Each characters felt real, with complicated pasts and desires. Their stories culminated in an unputdownable book full of cultural critique about prejudice, deceit, and our cultural obsession with fear and violence.
Considerations:
-I’m glad I read this vs. listening to it so I could flip back to the early deposition interviews once I learned more about the characters
- I recommend this for anyone who loved FANTASTICLAND, another underrated thrillery book full of character deep dives
- Content warnings: Violence/blood/gore, racism, homophobia, death (including of a parent)
Plot: Quigley House is a full-contact haunted house, owned by a cult-following-white-guy-entrepreneur type named John Forrester. On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final room in the house, but before they can complete the challenge (and win a cash prize), a man breaks in and murders one of them.
The reader learns what happened through deposition interviews with contestants and employees + chapters that walk through the haunt the day of the murder (This is the “horror” element, and as someone who isn’t a horror reader, this part did give me one night of bad dreams, but it was also so well done that I didn’t care).
The other half of the book unfolds in alternating chapters about the characters’ back stories. Each time I got to one of these chapters, I had a moment where I wanted to go back to Quigley House—back to the action. But, the only reason I cared about what happened in the house was because of how perfectly written these chapters were. Each characters felt real, with complicated pasts and desires. Their stories culminated in an unputdownable book full of cultural critique about prejudice, deceit, and our cultural obsession with fear and violence.
Considerations:
-I’m glad I read this vs. listening to it so I could flip back to the early deposition interviews once I learned more about the characters
- I recommend this for anyone who loved FANTASTICLAND, another underrated thrillery book full of character deep dives
- Content warnings: Violence/blood/gore, racism, homophobia, death (including of a parent)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Racism, Homophobia, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent
alylentz's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This had a pretty slow start for me, but I appreciated the depth of the characters here and how the ways they intersected drove the story. I do think if you're going into this for the escape room element (and to be honest, I don't think escape room is the best pitch--while reading this reminded me more of a McKamey Manor type of thing) you might be disappointed, because it was a smaller part of the plot than I was expecting. However, this book make social commentary and go places I wasn't expecting, so I appreciate what it did even though it was different than I anticipated.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Homophobia, and Death
stevie's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia
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