Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I picked this book up from a free little library and thought I'd give it a go..I slogged through the Devil in Silver but the premise sounded interesting.
Man, I wanted to give up on this book. How could you not if you didn't stick with it? It depicts something awful.
But that's just where the quest begins and this was an epic one. The layer kept unfurling and I furiously read on. I devoured the book in just a few days.
There's still some unanswered questions, like why was the survivors group lady's child gone if the troll had Brian? What became of all the changeling children? What was up with the Wise Ones?
Even more perplexing to these mysteries were some of how the author described the baby, Brian. A 2-month old would not face forward in a carrier, a 6-month is rarely crawling and a 10 month old walking? I guess it's possible but makes me wonder if they were intentional or is Victor is not quite the new dad he might strive to be.
Man, I wanted to give up on this book. How could you not if you didn't stick with it? It depicts something awful.
But that's just where the quest begins and this was an epic one. The layer kept unfurling and I furiously read on. I devoured the book in just a few days.
There's still some unanswered questions, like why was the survivors group lady's child gone if the troll had Brian? What became of all the changeling children? What was up with the Wise Ones?
Even more perplexing to these mysteries were some of how the author described the baby, Brian. A 2-month old would not face forward in a carrier, a 6-month is rarely crawling and a 10 month old walking? I guess it's possible but makes me wonder if they were intentional or is Victor is not quite the new dad he might strive to be.
Wow! This book was so well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not really into fantasy but I don’t think this went so far out there. There were times that it felt a little disconnected but it always came back around. I listened to the audio book read by the author and loved it. He has a fantastic voice. Very soothing but didn’t put me to sleep. I love when author’s read their own books, it gives it a special feel since they know the book from the inside out they know how exactly to read it aloud. I will be finding more titles by him.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
This was such a unique book, I honestly never knew where it was going to go next! I just really kept rooting for this family to have a happy ending.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An enchantingly dark fairytale centering on the horrors of parenting.
“A thought, an idea, a shared dream; parenthood is a story two people start telling together.”
This book opens with the brief love story of two New York City transplants, before moving to their son (our protagonist, Apollo) and his very own contemporary love/family story. The further we go though, the more 'off' things start to feel - like an itch at the back of your throat or the suggestion of movement at the shadowy periphery of your vision, it's a sour tinge to the air that you can't quite place. This book is rough and slippery at the same time.
LaValle takes some time establishing the characters and their relationships so that once we start to see the cracks and feel the foreboding tension, we care - and I think that is an absolute requirement for good horror, we need to be invested in order to really feel the dread. And, if you read this book, you WILL feel the dread. What's more is the writing is SO much better than it has any right to be for a book with an intriguing and super-duper ultra twisty plot. That being said, I'm not even going to go much into the plot - it centers on contemporary parenting and the eternal fears around parenting, which is simultaneously all you need to know of the plot and also tells you nothing of where this book will take you, which is for the best IMO.
If you still need convincing, let me tell you, this book positively FLIES - it is comprised of a whopping 103 chapters, but only 431 pages, and somehow manages to not feel choppy, in fact I thought it flowed seamlessly right through, deceptively chugging along until I ran out of pages. This book develops into something devastatingly darkly fantastical that made me think very much of a more modern (and, as far as I know, far less problematic) Neil Gaiman. I gotta say it, one of the BEST books of horror I have read in a long time!
“Do you know how much harm ‘happily ever after’ has done to mankind? I wish they said something else at the end of those stories instead. ‘They tried to be happy.’ Or ‘Eternal happiness is a fruitless pursuit.”
“A thought, an idea, a shared dream; parenthood is a story two people start telling together.”
This book opens with the brief love story of two New York City transplants, before moving to their son (our protagonist, Apollo) and his very own contemporary love/family story. The further we go though, the more 'off' things start to feel - like an itch at the back of your throat or the suggestion of movement at the shadowy periphery of your vision, it's a sour tinge to the air that you can't quite place. This book is rough and slippery at the same time.
LaValle takes some time establishing the characters and their relationships so that once we start to see the cracks and feel the foreboding tension, we care - and I think that is an absolute requirement for good horror, we need to be invested in order to really feel the dread. And, if you read this book, you WILL feel the dread. What's more is the writing is SO much better than it has any right to be for a book with an intriguing and super-duper ultra twisty plot. That being said, I'm not even going to go much into the plot - it centers on contemporary parenting and the eternal fears around parenting, which is simultaneously all you need to know of the plot and also tells you nothing of where this book will take you, which is for the best IMO.
If you still need convincing, let me tell you, this book positively FLIES - it is comprised of a whopping 103 chapters, but only 431 pages, and somehow manages to not feel choppy, in fact I thought it flowed seamlessly right through, deceptively chugging along until I ran out of pages. This book develops into something devastatingly darkly fantastical that made me think very much of a more modern (and, as far as I know, far less problematic) Neil Gaiman. I gotta say it, one of the BEST books of horror I have read in a long time!
“Do you know how much harm ‘happily ever after’ has done to mankind? I wish they said something else at the end of those stories instead. ‘They tried to be happy.’ Or ‘Eternal happiness is a fruitless pursuit.”
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wish I could give half stars. The first half of the book is great! The last half dragged, especially when we meet a character who literally sits down and explains every single thing that’s been going on. In a book filled with plenty of creepy action up till then - that just brought everything to a grinding halt for me. 3.5, wishing it was 4.