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nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition
I just found none of the characters likable and the pace to be extremely slow. As much as I wanted to finish it because it wasn’t that long of a book, I had to be real with myself that I wasn’t finding it enjoyable. Dare I say the most sinful thing a reader can say? “The movie was better.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit
sunduck's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
4.25
Act 1 is absolutely solid. Act 2 has great moments but feels out of place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, and Murder
archaicrobin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Adam Nevill is one of my favorite horror authors and The Ritual is a perfect example why. Nevill has amazing characterizations, suspenseful storytelling, and a plot with so many layers it’s hard to put down!
Four college bros meet up again years later for a holiday weekend hiking in Sweden. The four all have unresolved tensions, which linger over the holiday, and worsen the trip. In hopes of ending it early, they decide to take an uncharted path through the forest. But what once seemed like a good idea quickly darkens as the four realize the forest is off in some way, and much bigger than anticipated. And there’s something following them …..
I love creature features, especially when the creature is based on regional lore. The Ritual has an excellent mix of survival horror and supernatural horror woven into myth and lore native to Norway and Sweden. The descriptions of the unknown creature that lurks in these woods alongside the slowly crumbling friendship of these men is truly horrifying.
Survival horror and Supernatural horror are my favorite genres, so to see the two combined so well was perfect.
If you enjoy dark fantasy, supernatural horror, or survival horror I would recommend The Ritual for its excellent storytelling.
Four college bros meet up again years later for a holiday weekend hiking in Sweden. The four all have unresolved tensions, which linger over the holiday, and worsen the trip. In hopes of ending it early, they decide to take an uncharted path through the forest. But what once seemed like a good idea quickly darkens as the four realize the forest is off in some way, and much bigger than anticipated. And there’s something following them …..
I love creature features, especially when the creature is based on regional lore. The Ritual has an excellent mix of survival horror and supernatural horror woven into myth and lore native to Norway and Sweden. The descriptions of the unknown creature that lurks in these woods alongside the slowly crumbling friendship of these men is truly horrifying.
Survival horror and Supernatural horror are my favorite genres, so to see the two combined so well was perfect.
If you enjoy dark fantasy, supernatural horror, or survival horror I would recommend The Ritual for its excellent storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
chessakat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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? Yes
3.0
I feel like this was almost two books smashed together. I greatly preferred the first half - so scary and atmospheric! Lots of dread but also just magic, friend tension, drama.
The second half just epically needed an editor - I think I just got EXTREMELY fatigued by the high state of tension. Like, you can only feel despair and hopelessness for so long before my brain is just like, please, for the love of dog, make something plot-y happen again. It just dragged so so much. I think I just strongly preferred the supernatural scary to the humans. They were so banal.
By the time the end came I was so ready for it to be over that finally seeing the monster was just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
Curious to see the movie adaptation, as I heard it diverges from the book quite a bit.
The second half just epically needed an editor - I think I just got EXTREMELY fatigued by the high state of tension. Like, you can only feel despair and hopelessness for so long before my brain is just like, please, for the love of dog, make something plot-y happen again. It just dragged so so much. I think I just strongly preferred the supernatural scary to the humans. They were so banal.
By the time the end came I was so ready for it to be over that finally seeing the monster was just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
Curious to see the movie adaptation, as I heard it diverges from the book quite a bit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
owlribbon's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia and Religious bigotry
giggles692's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-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
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
cuppachaii's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Ritual was fun! It's like Call Of The Wild had a Lovecraft-inspired fanfiction written by a guy who only wears Patagonia. While I found myself thinking about it when we were apart, the actual experience reading would sometimes drag. This might be due to the fact that I can't visualize, and Adam really leans on visuals to get his ideas across. I found myself getting turned around during fast paced sequences, and many of the scares flew over my head because of how imagery-oriented they are. Don't get me wrong, I still got some good scares in (I shat myself when he realized Moder had been stalking behind him and Dom was long gone, for example ) especially in Adam's amazing non-visual descriptions, like the soundscape and textures of the attic . The characters don't develop so much as their existing dispositions are recontextualized, which I loved. Luke's anger is obviously out of place in London, but instead of just trope-ily going "but in the wild it's an a s s e t" Adam instead constantly puts Luke in new situations where this anger can mean survival OR death. And while I absolutely loved the scares of the body in the truck bed, or the goat legs on meemaw you know what scares I DON'T love?? Fatphobia. Oh my gOd this book has so much pointless, distracting fatphobic moments. Several times, even during the rad climax, Adam couldn't help taking a few lines to remind us how unattractive he thought this fat person looked while fighting for their life through an ancient wood, home to long-forgotten horrors older than any gods for which we still have names, older than names at all. THERE'S MORE INTERESTING STUFF IN THIS FOREST THAN CELLULITE, FRIEND.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and think it's worth reading if you're a fan of horror. It has a lot of cool ideas, and explores themes of nature, survival, and humanity in ways I haven't seen before. For real one of the best contemporary depictions of cosmic horror, and as a former Pretentious Lovecraft Teen, I oohoohoohoo!-d at that.
Love you bye
All in all, I enjoyed this book and think it's worth reading if you're a fan of horror. It has a lot of cool ideas, and explores themes of nature, survival, and humanity in ways I haven't seen before. For real one of the best contemporary depictions of cosmic horror, and as a former Pretentious Lovecraft Teen, I oohoohoohoo!-d at that.
Love you bye
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Fatphobia
Minor: Homophobia
raychelbennet's review against another edition
challenging
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? Yes
1.0
If (like me) you decided to read this book because you enjoyed the movie so much, do yourself a favor and don't do that.
Here's what Adam Nevill told me is the worst horror in the world: being fat. Being fat is the most monstrous thing about humanity. We're going to overlook the cool, tree-like monster thing and instead talk about the fat, flubby, and/or chubby bodies of people in nearly every single sentence. It's exhausting. It's fatphobic. It ruins the whole book IMO
The *real* cincher for me though was when--for absolutely no reason other than to be a creep--Neville decided to describe a teen girl as having a doughy, yogurty-smelling c*nt. I'm going to go vomit somewhere to get that sentence out of my head.
This is another book I wish I hadn't read. Usually I can find some redeeming qualities, but the bad far outweighs the good.
Here's what Adam Nevill told me is the worst horror in the world: being fat. Being fat is the most monstrous thing about humanity. We're going to overlook the cool, tree-like monster thing and instead talk about the fat, flubby, and/or chubby bodies of people in nearly every single sentence. It's exhausting. It's fatphobic. It ruins the whole book IMO
The *real* cincher for me though was when--for absolutely no reason other than to be a creep--Neville decided to describe a teen girl as having a doughy, yogurty-smelling c*nt. I'm going to go vomit somewhere to get that sentence out of my head.
This is another book I wish I hadn't read. Usually I can find some redeeming qualities, but the bad far outweighs the good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death and Violence
sargasso_c's review against another edition
The book was plodding (literally and figuratively). I enjoyed the hiking bit well enough, but I remember checking the page count when just Dom and Luke were left alive in the group and thinking "what is possibly going to happen for another 200 pages? The first half of the book was fairly well paced and decently disturbing. The second half should have just been a new book - I had absolutely no desire to go on another plodding journey within the same narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
danimacuk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Toxic friendship