Reviews - The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

1.42k reviews for:

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands

Sarah Brooks

3.75 AVERAGE

disasterfemme's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

jamiedark10's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jjjmjjj's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

I may yet upgrade this one to 4 stars. Creeping eldritch tension on a train traveling from China to Russia at the start of the last century. This one pulls off some really strong Lovecraftian dread in a time and place that doesn’t really feel commonly explored in western fiction, and certainly not in Lovecraftian horror that I’ve seen. In addition to the novelty of the setting, the alternate history is woven nicely in to the story in ways that usually feels very incidental/natural. I thought her writing style featured some weird phrases but this also added to the unease that I think you want in a book like this.

If you like Lovecraft, you need to read this one. If you don’t have an opinion on Lovecraft, I still think it’s nice.

Content Warnings

librerin's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense 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: Complicated

This book was really compelling! It set the scene so well (something has changed in Siberia), and I really enjoyed the writing style. I liked that you get to read the story from the perspective of several distinct and flawed characters. However, it wasn't entirely clear to me what the plot conflict was that needed resolving, and the ending wasn't exactly hand-wavy, but it was a little hand-wavy.

vanessa_in_tucson's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

vale_jo's review against another edition

3.0

3.5/5 estrellas!
Honestamente el inicio de eeste libro es LENTÍSIMO. Yo tengo mucha paciencia, pero ya en casi el 40% estaba casi quedándome dormida. Y no porque no fuese interesante, el lore es muy interesante, si no que el ritmo se me hizo terrible. PEERO cuando repunta, repunta. Soy muy fan de las imágenes descritas por la autora. Del conflicto central. Lamentablemente volvió a bajar 0.5 estrellas para mi porque (spoiler!!) el final me pareció decepcionante. Tanto build up para qué! Todos somos felices y buenos y nos quedamos juntos!
Pero bueno. Igual me encariñé de los personajes. Lo recomiendo si tienes ganas de leer algo fantasioso y gótico, pero ligero al mismo tiempo