Scan barcode
emmacartlidge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Animal death, and Blood
Moderate: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Sexual content, Gore, and Violence
Minor: Infidelity
rachelunabridged's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
This started out really strong, but steadily declined the longer the story went on. I still enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped I would. Pretty much everything was great except the main characters. I just found them to be super unlikable + couldn't bring myself to care at all about their personal drama, which unfortunately took up a huge portion of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Pregnancy and Sexual content
breazatoth's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence
Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual content
entanglednovels's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
A satisfyingly creepy read. Unfortunately for this book, one of my favourite video games is <i>very</i> similar to it in both plot and characters. I'm not going to name the video game since that will give away <i>so much</i> of this book - that's how similar some of it is. But if you know, you know.
<i>The Shuddering</i> was published a few years before the video game was released, so it's suffering the unfortunate reality that I read it second, and thus compared it heavily to the game. There are definitely some major differences. <i>The Shuddering</i> doesn't name this enemy that hunts our heroes of the story. The characters are also older, and there's less of them. The video game has another couple of subplots that are resolved halfway to a third of the way through. None of them are present in this book. The ending is also vastly different - depending on how you play the game. So I still enjoyed this, but it did feel like the same story in a different form for the first 50-60%. I've actually tried to find out if the game developer took inspiration from this book, or if Ahlborn worked on the project at all, but nothing that I can see.
I have to say, I was satisfied with the uncertain ending Ahlborn gives us. So many questions left unanswered but in a good way. I loved the characters and think they were well done overall. I'd be happy to read some more from Ahlborn.
<i>The Shuddering</i> was published a few years before the video game was released, so it's suffering the unfortunate reality that I read it second, and thus compared it heavily to the game. There are definitely some major differences. <i>The Shuddering</i> doesn't name this enemy that hunts our heroes of the story. The characters are also older, and there's less of them. The video game has another couple of subplots that are resolved halfway to a third of the way through. None of them are present in this book. The ending is also vastly different - depending on how you play the game. So I still enjoyed this, but it did feel like the same story in a different form for the first 50-60%. I've actually tried to find out if the game developer took inspiration from this book, or if Ahlborn worked on the project at all, but nothing that I can see.
I have to say, I was satisfied with the uncertain ending Ahlborn gives us. So many questions left unanswered but in a good way. I loved the characters and think they were well done overall. I'd be happy to read some more from Ahlborn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content
More...