Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Creeper

⚠️ CW: torture, murder and mentions of incest ⚠️ If you're looking for a chilling horror surrounding superstitions then this one is for you. Renowned academic Dr Sparling seeks help with his project on a remote Irish village. Historical researchers Ben and Chloe are thrilled to be chosen - until they arrive. The village is isolated and forgotten. There is no record of its history or its stories. There is no friendliness from the locals, only wary looks and whispers. The villagers lock down their homes at sundown. It seems a nameless fear stalks the streets, but nobody will talk except for one little girl. Her words strike dread into the hearts of the newcomers. Three times you see him. Each night he comes closer. That night, Ben and Chloe see a sinister figure watching them. He is the Creeper. He is the nameless fear in the night. Stories keep him alive. And nothing will keep him away. This book was such a good read and really gave me that eerie, chilling feel throughout that I loved. The plot was so intriguing and really held my attention with the twists and turns. However, I didn't like any of the characters. I found them all to be quite irritating and they didn't seem to have much depth in my opinion. Despite this though I still really enjoyed this read and the lore behind the Creeper. Overall, this was a good read and if you're in to atmospheric and chilling horrors then I recommend giving this one a go.

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shivani_reads's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Where do I even start?

This sounded like such a cool premise, and I was so ready to be creeped out... but the whole thing just kinda sucked?

Firstly, the characters were insufferable. Ben in particular just had me rolling my eyes constantly. What a miserable loser. As for Chloe, we didn't really get to know her much at all beyond Ben's confusing thoughts on her? So she's childlike and reminds him of his TODDLER, but she's also flirty and giggly (to the point of irritating) and he's kinda into it? Eww.

Ngl, I went into this not knowing squat about the author, but just the way Chloe was written was an instant giveaway that the author was male 🙄
Men write women in a realistic and not gross way challenge: impossible.

The pacing was also frustrating as hell. Things would finally start to get interesting, and suddenly we'd be talking about something in the past, or switching to see what Alec was up to in his boring fortress of a home.

And the similes. Dear god, the similes! Every few sentences, for no good reason. Please add more varied writing tools to your toolkit, I beg. Because this was like constantly hoping for a hammer, but continually finding endless broken wrenches (see how annoying it is?).

For such a short book, it felt like it dragged on forever, and I swear the ridiculous amount of "like" and "as" fillers were half the reason.

The village was the most interesting part of the story, and I just wanted more focus on the villagers and the supposed folklore, but it was just all over the place. And as for the "twist" at the end? Honestly, the worst possible outcome. All that build up and for what? None of it even makes sense - if you try to analyse it even a tiny bit the whole idea falls apart? Plot holes galore.

Sorry, Shine. I was really hoping for some creepy horror with this but found myself bored more often than not. And on finishing the story, I'm mostly just annoyed at myself for not bothering to DNF the multiple times I'd considered it.

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amelia_d's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

I enjoyed reading this book, I found it fairly gripping and creepy.
The problem for me is...
MASSIVE SPOILER AHEAD!!! THIS WILL RUIN THE ENDING AND THE MYSTERY OF THE WHOLE BOOK!!!!
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.
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It loses points for me because of the ending, the revelation that The Creeper is not a supernatural being. I feel that this doesn't make sense given that various people were followed and stalked by the Creeper and we know that even after years it would still kill them if they saw it. I also don't know how these people who were severely injured to the point of such deformity that they no longer resemble humans were able to stalk and kill the characters we've been told about, traveling great distances and overpowering every one- surely the victims would have been able to outrun the Creeper at least!
I also just thought that the supernatural explanation we were given in the book was so dark and compelling it's a shame that that was just thrown away.

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aroy011's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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ishouldreadthat's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

While the book started out great, I found the ending to be a bit of a letdown. I have a lot of logistical questions!

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saltedsnail's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I struggled to decide exactly how to rate this book and finally landed on 2.5/5 being the most appropriate seeing there are just enough things I liked about this book to counterbalance out everything I didn’t like. The initial premise is exciting and intriguing enough to carry the story some ways and Shine’s writing style is one I find enjoyable enough to listen to for an extended period…

But there’s so much of this book that feels like a waste of time. Many folks complain about the pacing of the Creeper, saying it doesn’t get exciting until two thirds in, but I actually don’t mind a very slow build horror. I think the sense of boredom the first half of this book elicits has more to do with the characters being uninteresting and flat than it does the plot. Ben is a somewhat pitiful absentee dad academic-turned-shoe-salesman with obvious insecurity issues that I believe we’re supposed to empathize with… and Chloe is a very typical spunky-petite-female written by a male author. Shine tries like hell to make us believe these characters (that might as well be cardboard cut outs) have chemistry but they’re just… profoundly flat and unlikable.

That being said, I truly enjoyed the actual plot of The Creeper all the way until

the twist. Hilariously, I find the actual ending of this book (the villagers mutilate each other into monsters through an extensive process of physical torture) more unbelievable than the original assumption that there is some paranormal being out there stalking and killing. Even the villagers, in this way, are horribly written; Shine simply doesn’t do enough to convince us of their motivations. I believe we’re supposed to feel vindicated by this ending that Ben was correct all along…. But seeing as Ben is so profoundly unlikable, his smug right-ness doesn’t really pay off.

So basically: great premise, incredibly rote and flat characters written with a very limited understanding of what motivates actual human beings.

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maregred's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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