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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
“The deepest bonds are elemental, built upon the friction of opposition. Water and fire, night and day, life and death. The transition from adolescence to adulthood lives at this nexus. It’s why you remember the chapped lips of your first kiss and the songs of summer.”
This goes both ways, for the memories that are good and those that are bad. A void as “black as your soul” created for the really bad ones, which was the case for this friend group. Regret, repression, and rejection causing the emptiness for most, but revenge (among other things) driving one of them.
Growing up as an Upstate New Yorker who is currently a New Englander, I loved the familiarity of the locale references. I still have a few questions, but enjoyed the ride of what I would characterize as a creature feature book with some body horror highlights. I am excited to see the author’s other books, which appear to be available for my Kindle as well.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
WTF in the best way possible! Consistently eerie and can totally see A24 getting their hands on this in the future. Definitely making this author one of my 'to-reads!'
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a very-immersive, gross, spooky body-horror!
The "disgusting" language really really makes this shine. I love this kind of horror -- violent, sure, and bloody sometimes, but mostly, just gross. I like body horror stuff and this is super skin-crawly in a great way. The "squelching" types of verbs really evoke sound and touch and smell and it's fantastic for the tone. Really good gross creepy stuff that's exactly as unnerving as I wanted it to be.
I think this could be a 4.75 out of 5 stars just because there's a LOT of plot threads and characters, and once in a while I had to re-orient myself and kind of remind myself what was going on. But that's a bit nitpicky -- the plot points are indeed set up and even the twists don't feel like they came out of nowhere, but nothing was overly predictable either.
In general, this is a well-paced, tense horror! Good stuff!
The "disgusting" language really really makes this shine. I love this kind of horror -- violent, sure, and bloody sometimes, but mostly, just gross. I like body horror stuff and this is super skin-crawly in a great way. The "squelching" types of verbs really evoke sound and touch and smell and it's fantastic for the tone. Really good gross creepy stuff that's exactly as unnerving as I wanted it to be.
I think this could be a 4.75 out of 5 stars just because there's a LOT of plot threads and characters, and once in a while I had to re-orient myself and kind of remind myself what was going on. But that's a bit nitpicky -- the plot points are indeed set up and even the twists don't feel like they came out of nowhere, but nothing was overly predictable either.
In general, this is a well-paced, tense horror! Good stuff!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
I really enjoyed this one! I loved all of the body horror, and I’m a HUGE sucker for anything Chernobyl related, so it was a pleasant surprise to have that tie-in!
The ending actually really threw me for a loop, admittedly I had to reread the last few pages again to realize what had actually happened!
I’d love to read more by this author!
The ending actually really threw me for a loop, admittedly I had to reread the last few pages again to realize what had actually happened!
I’d love to read more by this author!
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a horrifying and mysterious horror novel. The cast of characters seems big at first, but as each has a specific function/role it's easy to keep track of them.
The pacing is a little all over the place, times where ten things seemed to happen at once and others where I had to force myself to stick with the story. There are so many twists and turns, all leading up to an ending - that if I'm totally honest - I only understand partially ..
Still a very eerie, creepy and strange book with one of the most stunning covers I've ever seen.
The pacing is a little all over the place, times where ten things seemed to happen at once and others where I had to force myself to stick with the story. There are so many twists and turns, all leading up to an ending - that if I'm totally honest - I only understand partially ..
Still a very eerie, creepy and strange book with one of the most stunning covers I've ever seen.