1.16k reviews for:

The Shuddering

Ania Ahlborn

3.62 AVERAGE

stateofiction's profile picture

stateofiction's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 13%

sometimes you just know. this writing immediately just wasn't for me. everything was so over described to the point. like why is half a page dedicated to what this girl looks like? and I read some reviews and they said it was more about the characters' relationships than the horror...... BORING!!!
dark tense

"his eyes wide as he watched the demon chew a piece of him, throwing its head back and swallowing the meat that was missing from his neck"

This novel is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars for me. On one hand, I enjoyed it. It was entertaining enough to basically listen to 75% of it in one day while cleaning. Is it original? Nope. I've seen so many horror movies with the exact same premise. But, I'm a sucker for "we're stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, in the winter, with something lurking outside" stories.

That said. The characters were pretty annoying. I loved the dog, obviously, but the humans made stupid life choices and way too much time was taken up with romantic waffling. We've got: Do I want to be with this woman from my past, or my current partner? And then: I'm a lone wolf who doesn't settle down, except for that one time with that one woman who broke my heart, but my sister's best friend is pretty amazing. With a sprinkle of: OMG I LOVE HIM, I CAN'T GET OVER HIM, HIS NEW GF IS SUCHHHHH A BITCH! The 'drama' was annoying, and didn't add anything to the story.

Now, I'm glad these were fully fledged adults and not teenagers, because that would have been way too cliché, and I do think this novel is pretty atmospheric. I also love the fact that we don't get any backstory about the creatures. They're just there to eat people, and that's great.

So, I guess I would recommend this for a cleaning/organizing your life day. It's entertaining, and relatively easy to listen to, though the narrator does have some annoying voices he decides to use for some of the characters––and it's free to listen to if you get a month free of Kindle Unlimited. Would recommend going that route.

Wow... That ending was.. It makes my stomach churn at how sad it is. Poor person. I will most likely call everyone a person so you don't know who I am talking about! Spoilers suck!
The ending though.. two minutes after reading it I just started laughing.
I was laughing because the ending is just so crazy! You just can't help but laugh at the situation..
The book had my brain spinning. At all times I was thinking, ok who is gonna die first. And what the ending would be >.> I was so mad when I was wrong about the ending!

Ok enough of that! This book was a nice read! I did not want to put it down :)
I liked all the characters( except..ugh april american horror story photo: American Horror Story mL61rbvhreo4_250_zpsbd4f9d94.gif ) but I must say I did not really cry when certain ones died.
I felt my heart clench but no crying. My eyes watered a little.
The author was very good at writing the gory scenes.

The whole time I feel like the author puts in your head that two certain people would definitely live but HA I was wrong. Gosh dang that ending! It is driving me crazy!
She leaves you to let your mind wonder. To let you guess what will happens next and the book is over .
Had me spinning things and I just..i know the person is just a character but I feel like im spinning and so many thoughts are coming to my head on what would happen next
american horror story photo: American Horror Story NN1qgvzhfo6_250_zps5e2126b6.gif

I will leave the review at this because you just need to read the book to see for yourself!
From beginning to end I liked this book and my mom is halfway through and loves this book!
But warning... >.> ending is....I loved the ending but it totally sucks for ... Can't tell you
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Creepy, chilling, fast paced book. Author made the characters come to life. Need a good winter horror/thriller book… THIS IS IT. My only negative thing is WTF was this ending????
adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
dark medium-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: Yes

 I think it's about time that I accept that Ania Ahlborn's books just aren't very exciting for me. This is the third book of hers that I've read, and I think I've given each one 3-3.5 stars because, while she's great at writing characters, all three of the books have just bored me. 😩 I still plan on trying the other books of hers that I own, but I don't have high hopes at this point.

The Shuddering had potential to be a great read for me: it follows a group of characters essentially stranded in a snowstorm, surrounded by man-eating monsters, and honestly, I'm a big sucker for that sort of thing. Combining the supernatural element of inhuman creatures with the danger of real-life survival? Sign me up!

But this story just dragged because the vast majority of it was about the relationships and drama between these characters, and even when there were action scenes, I was left wanting more. I couldn't bring myself to root for any of the characters because I simply did not care about any of them. Had The Shuddering been a movie, it would've been that film I started playing on my phone 30 minutes into because I wanted to see how it all played out, but I didn't want to invest any real attention to it.

I should also say that the audiobook made this a less enjoyable experience for me; I'm being generous by bumping it up a star because it isn't the author's fault that the narrator did a terrible job, but his voices for the women characters all made them sound like horrible whiny children. Then again, the writing itself also kind of made all of the women out to be horrible whiny children, so...

If you're looking for a good snowy horror read, there are a ton out there that are way more exciting than this. I don't recommend it and kind of wish I could get my time back.