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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
My hopes for this book were too high. It started off pretty good, but the ending became convoluted and anti-climactic. I disagree with the reviews that call this the creepiest book ever, or a classic in horror. Mostly I was glad when it was finally over.
Straub is one of my favorite authors and one of the things I love about reading his work is that you'll usually encounter scenes of pop-lit efficiency nestled inside a more inscrutable quote-unquote Literary structure. It can be a little like watching a Terrence Malick film, only every fifteen minutes or so there's a Spielbergian action setpiece. Straub loves jazz and it shows: his work is a combination of recognizable heads and angular riffs.
SHADOWLANDS tips the balance a little more into the inscrutable than some of this other works, but most of it is still compulsively readable and pulpy. A plot about teenaged magicians elicits a lot of easy comparisons to Harry Potter, but, as many have pointed out, the similarities end there. This is dark, mind-bending stuff. A more apt analog would be an evil, drunken, insane Willy Wonka, and instead of the snozzberries tasting like snozzberries they're laced with bad trip-inducing LSD. There are bits that feel like they should be emotional that will leave you cold, and other bits that will have you rereading them over and over again to really try to understand what just happened, but there are far more scenes and images that will linger and expand in your memory until even the moments you were maybe not so keen on have taken on new meaning and you find yourself eager to read the novel again just to see how he did it.
In other words, it's very much like magic.
SHADOWLANDS tips the balance a little more into the inscrutable than some of this other works, but most of it is still compulsively readable and pulpy. A plot about teenaged magicians elicits a lot of easy comparisons to Harry Potter, but, as many have pointed out, the similarities end there. This is dark, mind-bending stuff. A more apt analog would be an evil, drunken, insane Willy Wonka, and instead of the snozzberries tasting like snozzberries they're laced with bad trip-inducing LSD. There are bits that feel like they should be emotional that will leave you cold, and other bits that will have you rereading them over and over again to really try to understand what just happened, but there are far more scenes and images that will linger and expand in your memory until even the moments you were maybe not so keen on have taken on new meaning and you find yourself eager to read the novel again just to see how he did it.
In other words, it's very much like magic.
dark
mysterious
tense
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
I really did not enjoy this book. It didn’t feel like it was attempting to be a horror book until the last few chapters, and those were just unintelligible.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For such an interesting premise, Shadowland fails to deliver a story that is sharp and concise enough to be a powerful horror fantasy story. It takes a great while to get into anything remotely frightening, and even then, the horror was not really that horrifying at all. It was more akin to someone trying their darnedest to tell you the scariest ghost story at a campfire, but instead of evoking any fear in you, you can't help but feel sorry for their poor attempt at spookiness. And the fantastical moments were not much better. While imaginative, there wasn't much weight to them, causing certain scenes that were intended to be powerful to fall flat.
Perhaps I would've been more invested in the goings-on if Straub was a better writer. His sentences and descriptive choices often left me scratching my head or repulsed. The way in which an author chooses to write their story is just as important as the story itself, for how can you grab readers' interest if your writing style is underdeveloped? Sometimes it doesn't matter how great or deep a book is, you can still alienate the reader if the writing is flawed.
I saw the promise here--the setup, the way that magic was handled--but it wasn't executed well at all. One of the other issues was that characters act in comically bad ways, making it hard to feel invested in their lives--and thusly, every major story event. And the convoluted way that the story is told in makes it hard to enjoy anything, regardless of how poorly the characters are written. Straub's focus is all over the place and he never really settles down long enough to get anything substantial going. Surprisingly, Shadowland was a chaotic mess that squandered anything good that Straub tried to set up. Maybe I'll find some of his older, punchier works to be more enjoyable, but I don't think I'll be giving those a shot for a long time.
Perhaps I would've been more invested in the goings-on if Straub was a better writer. His sentences and descriptive choices often left me scratching my head or repulsed. The way in which an author chooses to write their story is just as important as the story itself, for how can you grab readers' interest if your writing style is underdeveloped? Sometimes it doesn't matter how great or deep a book is, you can still alienate the reader if the writing is flawed.
I saw the promise here--the setup, the way that magic was handled--but it wasn't executed well at all. One of the other issues was that characters act in comically bad ways, making it hard to feel invested in their lives--and thusly, every major story event. And the convoluted way that the story is told in makes it hard to enjoy anything, regardless of how poorly the characters are written. Straub's focus is all over the place and he never really settles down long enough to get anything substantial going. Surprisingly, Shadowland was a chaotic mess that squandered anything good that Straub tried to set up. Maybe I'll find some of his older, punchier works to be more enjoyable, but I don't think I'll be giving those a shot for a long time.
Just couldn't finish it... I just kept asking myself what the heck is going on, and when will something scary happen! I got to page 190 out of 468 where the kids go to the uncles house, but I put it down and just lost the little bit of remaining interest.
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
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes