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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
dark
tense
slow-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:
Complicated
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
In my opinion, Nevill writes the scariest horror on the market today. If people are looking for an author that drives home the most fear-based horror book for book, Nevill is your guy.
..
LAST DAYS terrified me. It's the story of an indie filmmaker making a documentary on The Temple of the Last Days, a cult responsible for the ritualistic massacre of its members back in the 70s.
..
Of course, Kyle Freeman and his production team realize (too late) that the mystical, fucked up secrets the cult was willing to defend at all costs, are not exactly done fighting. The filmmakers get in way over their heads.
There were times, reading about 'The Old Friends' where I was like, I gotta stop reading this at night.
Despite the book's size (it's a chunky one), the chapters do go by quickly with very few lulls (although there are some and a few chapters are pretty lengthy).
The characters are very life-like and it's easy to invest in their plight to finish the doc in order to FINALLY make some money doing something that takes up so much of their time for very little reward. The stakes are high enough for them that it's not unrealistic they would endure all this fucked-up stuff in order to just finish. This is quintessential cult horror at its best. A must-read for horror fans looking for genuine scares in this sub-genre. Nobody does it like Nevill.
..
LAST DAYS terrified me. It's the story of an indie filmmaker making a documentary on The Temple of the Last Days, a cult responsible for the ritualistic massacre of its members back in the 70s.
..
Of course, Kyle Freeman and his production team realize (too late) that the mystical, fucked up secrets the cult was willing to defend at all costs, are not exactly done fighting. The filmmakers get in way over their heads.
There were times, reading about 'The Old Friends' where I was like, I gotta stop reading this at night.
Despite the book's size (it's a chunky one), the chapters do go by quickly with very few lulls (although there are some and a few chapters are pretty lengthy).
The characters are very life-like and it's easy to invest in their plight to finish the doc in order to FINALLY make some money doing something that takes up so much of their time for very little reward. The stakes are high enough for them that it's not unrealistic they would endure all this fucked-up stuff in order to just finish. This is quintessential cult horror at its best. A must-read for horror fans looking for genuine scares in this sub-genre. Nobody does it like Nevill.
This started off so strong that by the time I was a quarter through, I couldn't understand what would fill the back end of the book. All the creepiness and action had already been put into play. Which then made sense because the back half made a U-turn in terms of style and plot. The creepiness (sort of rosemary's baby-esque but more supernatural) just became the over the top action-horror of predator or alien, which kind of killed it for me (even though I love both those films). This would've made a better movie.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Really enjoyed but felt the ending was a bit abrupt and rushed
dark
mysterious
slow-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Suicide
For a horror book about a notorious cult, this was awfully boring... The end picked up steam which was good but overall it was quite dense. I felt like prior to the 70% mark there was really only a handful of suspenseful/spooky scenes, so it was a bit of a let down based on reviews.
2.5 rounded down. I need to not take recs from booktok ever again because holy shit.
I am a very firm believer in the concept of "less is more," particularly where it relates to fiction and particularly particularly where it relates to horror fiction. I think it's basically impossible to be scary when you're doing it over 500 pages; I'm sure someone could prove me wrong but this book certainly doesn't. The actual bones of the story were interesting to me, but like did anyone edit this? The manner in which information is revealed is a bit wonky, mostly because it exists in infodumps from various involved characters. Even though I found these sections very interesting generally, I question the technical utility of this method. Also, Nevill does a lot of phonetic dialogue, which has been a bane of my existence since I was like 12 because it's rarely done well. I can't speak to the correctness with which he writes British dialogue, but almost every American character in this novel speaks with a pronounced Southern accent and it's grating every single time.
So much of this book is just painstaking descriptions of various locations. Like every location gets pages of description and it just was not necessary. I do not need to know exactly what a character's fucking kitchen looks like down to the moulding, I just need the general impression of the place. Detail is not scary, it's tedious. I think you could cut half this book if you properly edited these sections specifically.
Lastly, whenever Nevill digresses from the actual story to wax poetic about the nature of fame, religion, narcisism, humanity, or whatever he says absolutely nothing of value. He compares things that are not materially similar and he draws conclusions that are just misanthropic middle-aged white guy shit. Like I could just go talk to my dad about this stuff and it would maybe be more insightful, which is saying a lot! I was initially very forgiving about this because I just assumed it was part of the 3rd person limited and it was more Kyle's perspective, but the author has other characters say exactly the same borderline reddit atheist nonsense. Is there some kind of bonus authors get when they clumsily discuss the Holodomor with zero reason or like is that just something these guys do for fun?
I am a very firm believer in the concept of "less is more," particularly where it relates to fiction and particularly particularly where it relates to horror fiction. I think it's basically impossible to be scary when you're doing it over 500 pages; I'm sure someone could prove me wrong but this book certainly doesn't. The actual bones of the story were interesting to me, but like did anyone edit this? The manner in which information is revealed is a bit wonky, mostly because it exists in infodumps from various involved characters. Even though I found these sections very interesting generally, I question the technical utility of this method. Also, Nevill does a lot of phonetic dialogue, which has been a bane of my existence since I was like 12 because it's rarely done well. I can't speak to the correctness with which he writes British dialogue, but almost every American character in this novel speaks with a pronounced Southern accent and it's grating every single time.
So much of this book is just painstaking descriptions of various locations. Like every location gets pages of description and it just was not necessary. I do not need to know exactly what a character's fucking kitchen looks like down to the moulding, I just need the general impression of the place. Detail is not scary, it's tedious. I think you could cut half this book if you properly edited these sections specifically.
Lastly, whenever Nevill digresses from the actual story to wax poetic about the nature of fame, religion, narcisism, humanity, or whatever he says absolutely nothing of value. He compares things that are not materially similar and he draws conclusions that are just misanthropic middle-aged white guy shit. Like I could just go talk to my dad about this stuff and it would maybe be more insightful, which is saying a lot! I was initially very forgiving about this because I just assumed it was part of the 3rd person limited and it was more Kyle's perspective, but the author has other characters say exactly the same borderline reddit atheist nonsense. Is there some kind of bonus authors get when they clumsily discuss the Holodomor with zero reason or like is that just something these guys do for fun?