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2.9 AVERAGE
2.9 AVERAGE
Review for Monster Librarian forthcoming. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I made it about halfway through this pedestrian haunted house story that was lightly decorated with Lovecraftian touches. Neither the story or the characters were holding my attention and I gave up.
This was a fantastic read that just kept getting better. It managed to creep me out, which (given the sheer amount I read) is surprisingly hard to do. The Lovecraft Squad managed to get me to the point where I had to stop reading one night. I was pretty sure one of the creatures was behind me, staring at me while I read it. And there was definitely too much eerie light in the room. (Regardless of the fact that I knew it was just my Kindle Paperwhite‘s illumination). It kicked my overactive imagination firmly into high gear. Finally, I had to start thinking about something else, or I wasn’t going to sleep. Period.
When The Lovecraft Squad first starts out, you have no inkling that it’s going to turn out the way it does. It opens with a bit of Poltergeist-esque action, and you think the mood is set. But then as you read on, you think maybe light mystery with a tinge of the supernatural. Mildly creepy, but nothing special. And then…then there’s a scene involving a swirling ‘snowstorm’ of maggots. You start to realize you’re in for something special at that point. John Llewellyn Probert has a talent for disturbing descriptions that rivals some of Stephen King’s best works. This is a book to sink into when you’re in the mood for a good bit of soul-dampening unease and paranoia.
(Speaking of paranoia, just as I wrote the above line, I noticed my cat was on the back of the couch, staring at me like she’d really like to add human female to her dietary requirements.)
The characters aren’t particularly fleshed out, but then again they don’t particularly need to be. The Lovecraft Squad is a horror/mystery that’s set in a world where the Lovecraft mythos is a (mostly) unacknowledged reality. Probert thrusts you directly into the action, and you don’t have time to think much about character development. I will say by the end of it I definitely liked Chambers, the main male protagonist, though. He had a level head that I couldn’t help but appreciate. Speaking of characters, there was only one point where I had a quibble with the book. It was more of a twinge of disappointment, really. One of the characters had an unexpected twist that saw me drawing a jagged line through my notes on “How nice it was to have…” Ah well, nothing’s perfect.
Probert’s imagery sucks you in, and the action propels you along. This is not a book to read if you’re easily disturbed by vivid descriptions of gross, terrible, and/or unusual things. The Lovecraft Squad is, thankfully, also a book that can be read as a stand-alone. We need more books like that on bookseller’s shelves again, please. It’s a slower read, but a good one. I found myself going back and re-reading sections just to let it sink into my mind at times. Overall, this is a book that I highly recommend for horror readers in general. Well worth the read. Every word of it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free from Netgalley for review consideration.
When The Lovecraft Squad first starts out, you have no inkling that it’s going to turn out the way it does. It opens with a bit of Poltergeist-esque action, and you think the mood is set. But then as you read on, you think maybe light mystery with a tinge of the supernatural. Mildly creepy, but nothing special. And then…then there’s a scene involving a swirling ‘snowstorm’ of maggots. You start to realize you’re in for something special at that point. John Llewellyn Probert has a talent for disturbing descriptions that rivals some of Stephen King’s best works. This is a book to sink into when you’re in the mood for a good bit of soul-dampening unease and paranoia.
(Speaking of paranoia, just as I wrote the above line, I noticed my cat was on the back of the couch, staring at me like she’d really like to add human female to her dietary requirements.)
The characters aren’t particularly fleshed out, but then again they don’t particularly need to be. The Lovecraft Squad is a horror/mystery that’s set in a world where the Lovecraft mythos is a (mostly) unacknowledged reality. Probert thrusts you directly into the action, and you don’t have time to think much about character development. I will say by the end of it I definitely liked Chambers, the main male protagonist, though. He had a level head that I couldn’t help but appreciate. Speaking of characters, there was only one point where I had a quibble with the book. It was more of a twinge of disappointment, really. One of the characters had an unexpected twist that saw me drawing a jagged line through my notes on “How nice it was to have…” Ah well, nothing’s perfect.
Probert’s imagery sucks you in, and the action propels you along. This is not a book to read if you’re easily disturbed by vivid descriptions of gross, terrible, and/or unusual things. The Lovecraft Squad is, thankfully, also a book that can be read as a stand-alone. We need more books like that on bookseller’s shelves again, please. It’s a slower read, but a good one. I found myself going back and re-reading sections just to let it sink into my mind at times. Overall, this is a book that I highly recommend for horror readers in general. Well worth the read. Every word of it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free from Netgalley for review consideration.