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whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ.
Following her father's passing, Jane and her Mum, move from sunny California to an old decrepit house in Maine. Her mother grew up there, and they have plans to do it up and sell it on, but Jane hears bumps in the night and starts to feel that they're not alone...
Did I buy this book because the cover is incredible? Yes. Did the story live upto the cover? No. That being said, I did absolutely devour this one in less that 24 hours. It is compulsively readable and super easy to follow. I enjoyed it overall, but just felt like I was reading a lesser version of Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power.
Taking a step back, this is young adult fiction and I could totally see a teenager absolutely loving it. I just felt as an adult, it was all too circumstance. Some YA books transcend age and can be enjoyed by all, but I just don't think this is one of those books.
I usually just put trigger warnings at the bottom, but this one is deeply rooted with Jane's grief of losing her father, and although this was really well written, I think this could be quite traumatic to read for somebody who has lost a parent.
The main thing that bothered me was the ending. Yes, I figured out the mystery before the protagonist, I mean this is often a given with YA fiction, but the last 10 pages just made no sense for me in terms of the decisions made by the main character. I threw the book on my bed when I was done and if this book wasn't so pretty, I probably would have launched it across the room๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฏ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ.
Following her father's passing, Jane and her Mum, move from sunny California to an old decrepit house in Maine. Her mother grew up there, and they have plans to do it up and sell it on, but Jane hears bumps in the night and starts to feel that they're not alone...
Did I buy this book because the cover is incredible? Yes. Did the story live upto the cover? No. That being said, I did absolutely devour this one in less that 24 hours. It is compulsively readable and super easy to follow. I enjoyed it overall, but just felt like I was reading a lesser version of Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power.
Taking a step back, this is young adult fiction and I could totally see a teenager absolutely loving it. I just felt as an adult, it was all too circumstance. Some YA books transcend age and can be enjoyed by all, but I just don't think this is one of those books.
I usually just put trigger warnings at the bottom, but this one is deeply rooted with Jane's grief of losing her father, and although this was really well written, I think this could be quite traumatic to read for somebody who has lost a parent.
The main thing that bothered me was the ending. Yes, I figured out the mystery before the protagonist, I mean this is often a given with YA fiction, but the last 10 pages just made no sense for me in terms of the decisions made by the main character. I threw the book on my bed when I was done and if this book wasn't so pretty, I probably would have launched it across the room๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Grief
delvesinshelves's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Body horror and Blood
Minor: Confinement
coolmombeck's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Fast read and creepy. Leno wrote a perfectly accurate description of pica (eating of non-food items as comfort during stressors for people that struggle with specific OCD). While I truly enjoyed the book, the ending left me saddened. I thoroughly enjoyed the addition of the love of Agatha. 3/5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Violence
ollieshark's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
**this book contains themes of grief, anger control issues, mental illness, gaslighting and emotional manipulation, death by suffocation, and mentions of animal cruelty, animal death, drinking, and bullying. if you are sensitive to any of these, this may not be a good read for you.**
pretty much all of my thoughts on this novel can be boiled down to a few points.
1.) the pacing was too slow for a novel as short as horrid (my edition is 322 pages of story).
2.) as a result, the ending suffered greatly. it feels like it was cut off too quickly in order to keep the story short. i have a bad habit of rushing endings but usually fix it before the final version. horrid ends AT the climax. there's no falling action or resolution, so if you're looking for a neat little ending, you won't find it here.
3.) the prose itself is great. i actually love the meandering tone it had at the beginning. it sets the atmosphere of small town maine up well. BUT, when the novel takes 100 pages out of 322 to get going, you need to speed things up a bit. just a tad.
4.) however, the resulting tropes and cliches used didn't wow me. i know you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you use a trope, but they're considered cliche for a reason.
5.) i found the synopsis on the dust jacket somewhat misleading. jane wasn't bullied by the "bad seed" so much as had like 3 unpleasant encounters, and then they avoided each other the rest of the novel.
6.) it has absolutely no romance whatsoever, which is the only thing about horrid that makes me want to recommend it.
while i would be willing to give leno another try in the future, i found horrid rather basic. it's a typical ghost story that doesn't really do anything fancy, but it's a good way to dip your toes into spooky season before getting into more hardcore novels, or for those who are looking for lighter horror/ghost stories in general.
pretty much all of my thoughts on this novel can be boiled down to a few points.
1.) the pacing was too slow for a novel as short as horrid (my edition is 322 pages of story).
2.) as a result, the ending suffered greatly. it feels like it was cut off too quickly in order to keep the story short. i have a bad habit of rushing endings but usually fix it before the final version. horrid ends AT the climax. there's no falling action or resolution, so if you're looking for a neat little ending, you won't find it here.
3.) the prose itself is great. i actually love the meandering tone it had at the beginning. it sets the atmosphere of small town maine up well. BUT, when the novel takes 100 pages out of 322 to get going, you need to speed things up a bit. just a tad.
4.) however, the resulting tropes and cliches used didn't wow me. i know you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you use a trope, but they're considered cliche for a reason.
5.) i found the synopsis on the dust jacket somewhat misleading. jane wasn't bullied by the "bad seed" so much as had like 3 unpleasant encounters, and then they avoided each other the rest of the novel.
6.) it has absolutely no romance whatsoever, which is the only thing about horrid that makes me want to recommend it.
while i would be willing to give leno another try in the future, i found horrid rather basic. it's a typical ghost story that doesn't really do anything fancy, but it's a good way to dip your toes into spooky season before getting into more hardcore novels, or for those who are looking for lighter horror/ghost stories in general.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Confinement
drlampshade's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is not what I expected. It was definitely one of the weirder books Iโve read. Having said that, I really enjoyed it and look forward to trying more of this authorโs books. As someone who is easily scared and does not normally enjoy this genre I was able to read it without any issues. I thought the ending really worked with the tone of the book.
If you do not like vague open endings where things are not fully explained or tied up, you will not like this.
If you do not like vague open endings where things are not fully explained or tied up, you will not like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Suicide
Moderate: Bullying and Child death
Minor: Self harm