Reviews tagging 'Murder'

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

29 reviews

kingsamong's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75


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selenareads's review against another edition

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3.75

Rating horror is really hard Bc it’s not my usual genre

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ae_young's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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dannybrown59's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book as much as I did but it was amazing. All the characters were so well developed. Its different than most things I've read too. Loved the Christmas horror aspect.

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spoookycat's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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ranocchietto's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed the novel, I particularly liked the well-rounded characters, how each had its distinctive "voice" and the descriptions matched their personalities.

The book deals with cycles of trauma, growing up and the loss of innocence, and how people close to us make a difference in our lives, it was quite moving at times.

I would say my main problem was with the pacing, it felt unfocused towards the last third, it would have benefited from fewer digressions. I also felt the tone towards the end didn't match the tension the author was probably going for, but it didn't really spoil the experience for me.

Do check the content warnings before reading, it can get a bit heavy. The fatphobic undertones made it quite uncomfortable for me.

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Caution: There are animal deaths that get way more detail and time than the final deaths in the book.
You don't even see Vic die on page you just know she's gravely injured and then her son recollects that she died. Manx simply gets an engine to his chest. Hooper the dog gets hammered to near death and then ran over.
This book isn't so much horror as gore porn. It was a drag to push through from about 61% of the book on. One of the only fat characters gets a "happy ending" only once he becomes thin and goes to finish something saying he was told to when this wasn't ever shown to the reader.

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latham9's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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sarahasyouwish's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

 I’ve been anticipating reading this book in the hopes that I would love it. Turning the nostalgia and whimsy of Christmas on its head and making it the center of a horror story sounded like a creative way to make my spine tingle. NOS4A2 starts off with a bang and really drew me in. Even after a quick jump in the perspective to 20 years earlier when we are following our protagonist Vic as a child, I found the story gripping. I ran into trouble after the first third or so when things started to feel unnecessary drawn out, and I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. If I have a strong connection with a character, I will happily hang out with them for a few hundred pages without need for much plot. When I don’t care about them, I find myself getting bored and wishing an editor had trimmed things down considerably. These characters just didn’t feel fully developed to me. Even the villain felt more like a caricature of a villain instead of someone who elicited fear or horror in me. The only scene that elicited any shivers was a description of someone post-autopsy. When I finally arrived at the climax and the dramatic events that take place in the last 50-100 pages, they had no effect on me and felt a bit predictable in terms of setting this book up for a sequel. I also could have done without the body-shaming and fat-phobia sprinkled throughout, though the character most of it is directed at ended up being the one character I found I cared at least something for. While this book was a miss for me, I’m definitely up for trying another Hill novel. The concept for this one is brilliant. I just need a bit more depth and believability from the characters. 

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