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kristen_sav's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Cursing and Racism
Moderate: Sexual content
ominousspectre's review against another edition
3.0
This was well written, if a bit heavy handed at times (
I think where this was a question mark for me is that it's completely misrepresented in its marketing. This isn't a horror novel, it's a literary, character driven thriller. Not a bad thing, but very different expectations. Social horror requires certain aspects that this doesn't have. The full contact haunted house is barely a part of the story, to the point where it felt as though you could sub any situation in and still get the point across. Honestly, seeing the description and date of publishing made me immediately think of McKamey Manor, so I was expecting a bit more shade toward that shit show.
Anyways, there were parts that were very poignant. Boonsri's scenes especially hit an emotional place for me, as well as Kendra's in different ways. Jaidee and Leonard's descent into
Did I have a good time though? :/
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Emotional abuse
b00murded's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death, Racism, Blood, and Cursing
Moderate: Alcohol
frmeden's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Racism, Homophobia, Gore, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Death of parent
ghost_story's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, and Homophobia
bcrowes11's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexism, and Racism
journeywithrosie's review
- 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
4.0
I wouldn't call this book a "horror" necessarily, and so I can understand why some people might not like it. Perhaps they went in expecting a fast pace thriller horror book. This book is slow and thoughtful, a tense psychological character study. Yes, there are some horror-filled scenes in the haunted house, but the majority of the book is detailing each character's life leading up to the event, their internal struggles and motivations, and ultimately how they all intertwined.
There are multiple timelines - before Quigley house, the court case after Quigley house, and the present day. There are also multiple POVs. That being the case, there are a lot of moving parts. You'll have to pay attention, at least I did! I usually don't like multiple timelines and POVs, but Mattson did an amazing job with it, I was hooked on each part of the story, and each character felt fully realized and developed, even the most heinous ones.
The reason I am rating 4 instead of 5 is that the more I think of it, the more I wish I got a bit more from the ending of the story. There are a lot of things I wished we were able to see that we never got to. Also, although I loved the social commentary aspects of the story, there were some scenes where it felt like it was a bit hand fisted, which made the dialogue feel forced and fake.
I'm a fan of Mattson, really looking forward to seeing what he publishes next.
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Body horror, and Racism
bebidocrimes's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Death, and Grief
Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Death of parent, and Body horror
ouijabroad's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
As others have said,
Also, LOTS of fatphobia. Anyone described as beautiful or good looking is always thin, but anyone who is in a larger body we need to be reminded all the time that they are large and jiggle etc etc especially when it came to Rae. An unlikeable fat character who talks about food???? How original.
This author talks about racism, stereotyping and xenophobia, but I think he needs to examine his own biases.
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Car accident, Death of parent, Blood, Body shaming, Homophobia, Murder, Stalking, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Cancer and Adult/minor relationship
ladyinverse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
1.0
i gave this book a try because it was labeled with the LGBTQIA tag, so i went for it for my June reads for pride month.
the only rep there was, was a young male who was stereotyping young black men to not be studious and this young male also was obsessed with his crush on his English teacher and stalked this male teacher across the globe to try and be with him. not a great rep for the book.
the horror aspect of the book was at least interesting of a concept: full contact horror house but a side secret plan makes everything go very very wrong on a tour where a character is murdered as a result.
none of the characters, aside the main girl Kendra, was even remotely likeable.
the book was.. not great overall. the writing was loquacious in the most boring way. anytime a character spoke, instead of using "he yelled" or "she spoke softly" or literally anything else, every time a character interaction happened the usage and verbage was "s/he said."
i would have died from alcohol poisoning if i was doing shots every time I heard the word said/says.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Torture, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Hate crime and Murder
Minor: Sexism and Sexual content