Reviews - Gallows Hill | The StoryGraph

962 reviews for:

Gallows Hill

Darcy Coates

3.91 AVERAGE

lisabrune's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tlonuqbarorbistertius's review

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

adrienne_l's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars

Heavy on the atmosphere but sometimes painfully slow in moving the plot forward. Darcy Coates can write some really creepy scenes, and I'm all for a strong gothic buildup in tension, but MC Margot spent scene after protracted scene creeping through dark hallways, dark tunnels, or dark attics and it got a little tiresome. The plot didn't move forward at all until about the 62% mark. Still, a decent, cozy horror read most of the time. Extra credit for goodest boy Marsh.

violetturtledove's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'm in two minds about this one because on one hand I enjoyed reading it and it kept me wanting to read on (and isn't that the important thing?) But there were also lots of bits that I found a bit silly and I can see how they would be off-putting to some readers.

There's a bit of a mess of horror tropes - mysterious bells, spooky reflections, spiders - things that would be jump-scares in a horror film, so in a way it's like a cheesy horror film in book form. And as I'm a huge wuss when it comes to films, I did feel quite spooked, especially in the first half of the book. After that it got a bit less scary and focused more on solving the mystery.

The protagonist is also a bit of a horror movie type, easily spooked one moment and then shockingly brave the next (I think there's a thing where you're reading/ watching horror and because you know it's a horror you can't believe they don't just run at the first opportunity- of course in real life you probably would try to rationalise it more as Margot does here).

It was a lot more original than it seemed to be at first (there's some bits that sort of subvert some horror tropes, even if they're also very convenient for covering any plot hole), and while some of the final chapters made me groan, the ending was quite satisfying. It's at least one where everything is wrapped up neatly.

If you need to take your horror seriously this won't be for you, but it might suit you if you like a bit of silliness with your spookiness.