Reviews - The Shuddering | The StoryGraph

1.15k reviews for:

The Shuddering

Ania Ahlborn

3.62 AVERAGE

daphelba's review against another edition

3.25

mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Man, I love a monster story. But I don't know what it was about this book...I had the hardest time wanting to read it. Some people I follow on book reviews sites absolutely loved it so I thought I was going crazy until I googled it and found a redditor saying they didn't get the hype either and really struggled with the characters. I think that's what it was for me too...every chapter my overwhelming feeling was "I don't care. I don't care. I don't care about these people or what happens to them."

I'm not good enough with evaluation of characterization to describe what it was about them, but the "witty" banter annoyed me, I didn't like their names, I wanted no one to fall in love. I only started caring a bit when the monsters came in, and I suppose that's because I could finally relate to the great-equalizer "fear" and the choices the characters had to make. It's winter here, as I'm reading, and I can relate to the feeling of isolation and stuckness, and empathize with the feeling of "something effed up is going on outside and wtf was that?! and what are we going to do about this?!"

I lived for the descriptions of the creatures and I wanted to know more and more and more about them and that's all that carried me through this book. I don't know that it was poorly written, it just didn't really interest me. Maybe if id known the characters before they went off to the cabin, I'd have felt more for them. As it stands, meh.

novellearts's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

A group of friends go to a cabin getaway in the snowy Colorado woods. What could possibly go wrong?
They get snowed in when a blizzard hits and as if that wasn't bad enough, they soon realize that they're not alone in these woods. In fact, they are being hunted.

This was an incredibly entertaining book to me. I have a massive weak-spot for the snowed in friend group trope. This was even better because it was a creature feature.

This was gory, fast-paced, tense, and quick read. I have a few more of Ania's books on my TBR and I think I may need to move them to the top of my list now.

Content Warnings

mshaniak's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book was soooooo perfect!!! 👌
Winter ✅
Isolated setting ✅
Creatures ✅

Loved it! It’s the type of a survival horror that I love!! Ticked all my boxes! The built up makes you feel soo tense!! Starts as a simple “let’s spend a weekend skiing” and ends up with people fighting for their lives!
Also, my favourite type of an ending is 1) no one survives 2) they think the horror is over and then boom 🤯 a spanner gets thrown in the works 😅

This one had one of them 😉

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

mrsclements's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mommabee02's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

fairwindsemptyroads's review

5.0

Loved this books so much! The atmosphere and everything about it. I also love that the romance wasn’t focused on like everything seems to now. It was a true slasher. As soon as you were thinking that’s what was going to happen, boom, dead. No one ended up happy and sometimes that’s just how it goes.