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ladycatsnark's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
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? It's complicated
4.0
Fun. Relatable narrator that I enjoyed a lot. I liked the Annihilation vibe.
jess_mango's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! My 2nd 4.5 star read this week. This is another one that just sucked me right in.
When Kara finds herself divorced, she moves back to the small town of Hog Chapel to help out at her uncle's Wonder Museum. The museum is full of all sorts of curiosities like taxidermy animals, skulls, and strange knick knacks. When her uncle goes away for a bit to have surgery, Kara is left in charge of the museum. One evening, she discovers a whole punched in the wall of the museum. She assumes some tourist must've made it. With the help of the barista from the neighboring coffee shop, Kara investigates the hall and determines it leads to a mysterious impossible bunker that is way too big to be in the same building as the museum. They discover a dead body in the bunker and that if they go through a door it leads to a strange watery world with lots of willows and a strange light. This world is occupied by mysterious things including a presence that can apparently hear you thinking.
This book was quirky, weird, spooky and oh so good! I love quirky and weird stuff so this was near PERFECTION for me. I loved the wry observations of the characters such as them calling it the "portal to really bad Narnia". This is an AWESOME entry into the world of portal fantasy/horror.
Highly recommend!
When Kara finds herself divorced, she moves back to the small town of Hog Chapel to help out at her uncle's Wonder Museum. The museum is full of all sorts of curiosities like taxidermy animals, skulls, and strange knick knacks. When her uncle goes away for a bit to have surgery, Kara is left in charge of the museum. One evening, she discovers a whole punched in the wall of the museum. She assumes some tourist must've made it. With the help of the barista from the neighboring coffee shop, Kara investigates the hall and determines it leads to a mysterious impossible bunker that is way too big to be in the same building as the museum. They discover a dead body in the bunker and that if they go through a door it leads to a strange watery world with lots of willows and a strange light. This world is occupied by mysterious things including a presence that can apparently hear you thinking.
This book was quirky, weird, spooky and oh so good! I love quirky and weird stuff so this was near PERFECTION for me. I loved the wry observations of the characters such as them calling it the "portal to really bad Narnia". This is an AWESOME entry into the world of portal fantasy/horror.
Highly recommend!
esterie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.25
Hollow, but not empty.
Words are meaningless until you read them.
liked:
- the backrooms-esque vibes, but outside
- the body horror (Sturdivant swimming in his own organs, "the squad" being unraveled like thread )
- the descriptions of how other dimensions work: a 1 pixel thick layer over the world, a thin skin over reality and if pushed too hard a hole opens and it goes..... somewhere, the comparison to clipping through the ground in a video game and seeing through everything from below
-the horror elements, PARTICULARLYkara realizing she's bee sleepwalking & clawing at the patch in the wall - full body goosebumps. smth about sleepwalking in horror really does it for me
- i obviously peeped the algernon blackwood inspiration, but a good part of the "off"ness of There gave me Annihilation vibes too
neutral:
- so many unanswered questions:who built the bunkers? were the built in retaliation to Them? did They/the willows overtake the area? i want to know more about "the squad" and their world, and Singer's world. Sturdivant? so much i wanna know.
-the resigned nature of the characters just... moving on after. like i get the hole is patched fully - no way thru to There, but like. the existential dread of KNOWING it's there, pressing on our reality. i guess kinda feels like real life. we can get the most soul-crushing, life-changing, terrible news and just.... have to keep going
disliked:
- honestly only one thing:the taxidermy in the museum taking up defense near the end. i get it, it just didn't really land for me and felt cheesy imo
so far that's 3/3 of t kingfisher books ive read and really enjoyed! overall there was A LOT i liked, way more than i didn't. this setting is gonna be rotating in my head for a while.
Words are meaningless until you read them.
liked:
- the backrooms-esque vibes, but outside
- the body horror (
- the descriptions of how other dimensions work: a 1 pixel thick layer over the world, a thin skin over reality and if pushed too hard a hole opens and it goes..... somewhere, the comparison to clipping through the ground in a video game and seeing through everything from below
-the horror elements, PARTICULARLY
- i obviously peeped the algernon blackwood inspiration, but a good part of the "off"ness of There gave me Annihilation vibes too
neutral:
- so many unanswered questions:
-
disliked:
- honestly only one thing:
so far that's 3/3 of t kingfisher books ive read and really enjoyed! overall there was A LOT i liked, way more than i didn't. this setting is gonna be rotating in my head for a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
nadiajohnsonbooks's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
As always, Kingfisher balanced some truly creepy shit with a light and conversational sense of humor. Within the first page, she had me deeply rooted in Southern Appalachia, and I felt like the protagonist and I were already friends. Relatable exasperation + cosmic whatthefuckery = a good time all around.
canibefictionaltoo's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like my expectations were let down for this book because the cover gives such eerie vibes and the horror narnia aspect of it sounds so interesting and so I was expecting this to be creepier than it is.
I wanted more exploration into the Narnia world, more description, more weird things happening, I feel like it had great potential had this book chosen to lean more heavily into the horror side.
However I found this to be on the more fun, light side. The writing was light and almost quirky like you would find in a romcom. Which weirdly was the thing I loved most about this, the characters had great banter which was entertaining.
I wanted more exploration into the Narnia world, more description, more weird things happening, I feel like it had great potential had this book chosen to lean more heavily into the horror side.
However I found this to be on the more fun, light side. The writing was light and almost quirky like you would find in a romcom. Which weirdly was the thing I loved most about this, the characters had great banter which was entertaining.
dragonhearts_library's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
birbmcbirb's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
amethyst15's review against another edition
Kingfisher’s creepy style usually keeps me on edge in a fun way, but this one moved to disturbing in the first 50 pages and then had a scene not even 50% in that made my heart come out my rear end. I personally can’t handle this and would love to try again if I can ever handle that.
laurenkraigco's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5