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tiepilot_dandy's review against another edition
dark
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Child abuse
jdesk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
this book made me feel so many things. i very much disliked the protagonist and it was really something to watch the character development throughout the journey that they experience. Hill’s take on the dead haunting the living is so interesting and different. it isn’t often that i’m completely satisfied with the ending of books, but this one was great and i couldn’t have imagined a better end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Child abuse
booksof_fern's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Self harm
Moderate: Car accident, Chronic illness, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
I have really, really loved some of Hill's more modern work. The Locke & Key graphic novels are amazing, and NOS4A2 single-handidly made me give the Horror genre another try after several disappointments. So imagine my absolute dismay to find this book to be just so awful.
Let me start with a positive. This book is genuinely creepy and unsettling. I won't say scary, but it did make my skin crawl. But... that's it. That's the one good thing I found in this book.
This book sensationalizes depression and self harm. It leaned into stereotypes about minorites. The characters were unlikable - which I normally don't mind - but they were also shallowly written. I was rooting for the ghost. And the pace was so fast I just lost interest because who cares where it's going? It felt like it was already there and then chugging along for no reason.
Honestly, I would have given up like 20% earlier if I wasn't reading with a friend. We got to this point before realizing we'd both lost any interest and were just pushing through for the other.
Let me start with a positive. This book is genuinely creepy and unsettling. I won't say scary, but it did make my skin crawl. But... that's it. That's the one good thing I found in this book.
This book sensationalizes depression and self harm. It leaned into stereotypes about minorites. The characters were unlikable - which I normally don't mind - but they were also shallowly written. I was rooting for the ghost. And the pace was so fast I just lost interest because who cares where it's going? It felt like it was already there and then chugging along for no reason.
Honestly, I would have given up like 20% earlier if I wasn't reading with a friend. We got to this point before realizing we'd both lost any interest and were just pushing through for the other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence
morelikelibrarybooked's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
So, the premise is very cool and it was executed well. Like the concept of a ghost being sent to you to kill you for something that you have done is super interesting. My biggest concern for this entire book was the pacing. The pacing was so strange that it totally put me off. Like, the action starts the first 20 or so pages into the book. It starts so quickly and builds so quickly, that by the time you're like 100 pages in, you're almost immune to it. Like, it really plateaued for me. Where can you go when you've already built the action up so much? It just reached a point where I was becoming disenchanted with the book. There were just big sections of so much happening and then nothing at all. Plus, what's with all the blank pages in the book? Felt like a big waste of space. Over 30 pages are just blank. The writing was good, very agreeable. This book could be read and understood by everybody, which I think is a good thing. Overly complicated writing tends to get on my nerves. Hill is a lot like his father in the way that his writing is very plain/blunt, but descriptive. He described the characters and the environment very well, there was a general sense of foreboding and a creepy factor all throughout the book. The villain was very well-written. Craddock was an awful human being, and he was an even more formidable entity. Sometimes the characters' depth didn't quite match the situation. There is some death in the book, and the reaction to these deaths felt very shallow. Like it was almost like Jude didn't really care, when we know that he would've. I won't get more specific so I don't spoil anything. But like, can we hear it for Anna? She's probably my favorite character in this whole damn book, she really went through it and she felt like such a complex character. Bravo with her. The ending was a little meh, it felt appropriate, but I would've preferred if it had gone the other way (maybe an unpopular opinion).
In all, this was a fine horror novel. It accomplished what it set out to do: being creepy as hell. Clearly I had some problems with it, but it wasn't bad. I don't regret reading it. I think this was a fine foray into understanding Joe Hill's writing style.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
caidyn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What a quick read. This is a pretty short ghost story book, but one that takes turns I didn't expect. Years ago, I tried to read this and failed because I wasn't into Hill yet. And now I'm getting more into his work. This story follows Jude, an older rock star who has a thing for the occult. He buys a dead man's suit so he can have a ghost, but things don't go as he thought they would. It's a good read and Hill takes after his father (except, he's a bit better at endings so far). He shoves in a lot of tough topics that people deal with and has more modern pop culture references to pick up on. I wish that some things hadn't been included in the book, but it was a good one. The next on my list to try again is definitely Horns since I've tried it a few times and wasn't a fan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia
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