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hollsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
indogswetrust's review
5.0
Really fantastic
The character development and story line is great. I had trouble putting it down, you get so immersed in the story. Highly recommend this book.
The character development and story line is great. I had trouble putting it down, you get so immersed in the story. Highly recommend this book.
peterkeep's review against another edition
3.0
Somewhere in between 3 and 3.5 stars.
Overall, I liked it. It's a long saga about a woman surviving a world filled with a new disease resulting in spontaneous combustion, which is cool. It's got a good premise, and the writing is good. I liked the full use of the omniscient narrator - it was like a non-comedic Arrested Development, where Ron Howard corrects characters..."We're finally going to get out of this mess!" says a chatacter, only for Joe Hill to but in: "They won't."
For a horror/thriller, there weren't a huge amount of twists, and the ones that were there were laid out pretty clearly for the most part. I'm ok with that, but I would have liked to have been on my toes a bit more. Similarly, it was a long book with a lot of opportunity to create some tense, scary scenes, but there weren't as many as I would have liked. The slower scenes in between were fine, but I was itching for something to keep my nerves up. Oh well.
Another thing on the length: it seemed like there was a small identity crisis going on - I had a hard time figuring out what this story was going to be. Is it an apocalyptic survival? A creepy cult story? A mystery? A fantasy (complete with superpowers)? It almost felt like as soon as one of these was exhausted, we just switch to some other plot event that changes the style of the book. I'm fine that, but it was a bit overdone.
I'm glad I read it still, but these gripes are keeping this one floating around a 3.5/5 for me.
Overall, I liked it. It's a long saga about a woman surviving a world filled with a new disease resulting in spontaneous combustion, which is cool. It's got a good premise, and the writing is good. I liked the full use of the omniscient narrator - it was like a non-comedic Arrested Development, where Ron Howard corrects characters..."We're finally going to get out of this mess!" says a chatacter, only for Joe Hill to but in: "They won't."
For a horror/thriller, there weren't a huge amount of twists, and the ones that were there were laid out pretty clearly for the most part. I'm ok with that, but I would have liked to have been on my toes a bit more. Similarly, it was a long book with a lot of opportunity to create some tense, scary scenes, but there weren't as many as I would have liked. The slower scenes in between were fine, but I was itching for something to keep my nerves up. Oh well.
Another thing on the length: it seemed like there was a small identity crisis going on - I had a hard time figuring out what this story was going to be. Is it an apocalyptic survival? A creepy cult story? A mystery? A fantasy (complete with superpowers)? It almost felt like as soon as one of these was exhausted, we just switch to some other plot event that changes the style of the book. I'm fine that, but it was a bit overdone.
I'm glad I read it still, but these gripes are keeping this one floating around a 3.5/5 for me.
amy123456789's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.5
tishywishy's review
4.0
Not exactly sure how this got nominated for Goodreads Choice Award for Horror -2016. It's a decent book, a lot of action, great characters, that feeling of wanting to kick the protagonist sometimes...you know, the usual stuff that happens in books. But horror??! Maybe there needs to be a new category of awards for books with dystopian/apocalyptic plots like Suspenseful Drama. There are a few blood and gore scenes, which mostly happens when Harper has a nightmare, but it's nothing further than what would be written for a crime scene.
veganheathen's review
4.0
This book captured me from the beginning. The characters are very interesting and well written. The idea of a dragonscale pandemic felt unique, especially since there have been so many other books written about flu-type pandemics. (No shade, The Stand is one of my favourite books of all time.) Even though I felt like Harper's love of Mary Poppins and the like was a bit unsufferable (definitely not my jam), I still liked her quite a bit as a character and didn't feel like she was a charicature, though she definitely was quite a bit naive. I loved the nods to Stephen King with casusal mentions of things like Tom Gordon and Nozz-A-La.
wojciechk87's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
ctc115's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
5.0
This was one of my all time favorite reads. I couldn’t put it down.
hinesight's review
2.0
I'm not finishing this, no matter what I need Goodreads to say in order to get it off my current lists. I have no real problem with the way the book is written, the language, the skill, but the story was unrelenting. No happy endings here, nor hope of one, even in the early pages. It was just too much - too much pain, and not enough - well, not any - hope. This is an unfair criticism, and says more about my life right now than it does about the author.