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kfreund28's review against another edition
5.0
Oh man, oh man, oh man!
I was drawn to this book because of the description. A girl who can find things by crossing a magical bridge. A man who takes children to a creepy, unheard of place called Christmasland. The girl winds up in the evil man's clutches, only to escape. Years later, creepy man is out to exact revenge. Sign me up, this sounds awesome.
Initially, I thought this sounded a lot like a Stephen King novel and was excited, because I've been reading Stephen King since I was thirteen. Totally didn't realize that Joe Hill was Stephen King's son.
This book does not disappoint. I loved it from cover to cover. All the characters were brilliantly fleshed out and I really ended up caring about Vic, Lou, Wayne and Maggie. It was delightfully descriptive, ever so creepy and I just couldn't put it down. I can't even formulate a better review than this.
Go read it.
I was drawn to this book because of the description. A girl who can find things by crossing a magical bridge. A man who takes children to a creepy, unheard of place called Christmasland. The girl winds up in the evil man's clutches, only to escape. Years later, creepy man is out to exact revenge. Sign me up, this sounds awesome.
Initially, I thought this sounded a lot like a Stephen King novel and was excited, because I've been reading Stephen King since I was thirteen. Totally didn't realize that Joe Hill was Stephen King's son.
This book does not disappoint. I loved it from cover to cover. All the characters were brilliantly fleshed out and I really ended up caring about Vic, Lou, Wayne and Maggie. It was delightfully descriptive, ever so creepy and I just couldn't put it down. I can't even formulate a better review than this.
Go read it.
jmarie93420's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
beybladeb1tch's review against another edition
5.0
Sharkboy and Lavagirl vibes. Just more messed up. And Festive.
kristins911's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
evaromero's review against another edition
3.0
Esperaba otra cosa de este libro, pero bueno tampoco ha estado mal. Siento que empieza fuerte, pero llega un punto en el que se alarga demasiado. Sobre todo hacia un poco más de la mitad del libro (solo recuerdo páginas y páginas de viajes en coche y conversaciones absurdas). No obstante, en la última parte empieza a cobrar fuerza otra vez, y reconozco que el final me ha gustado mucho. Resumidamente, para mí sobran páginas jaja.
kimberlyf's review against another edition
2.0
Man, I am clearly an outlier with this one and trust me, I’m sad about it. It’s a really great story and I actually enjoyed many parts of it but it was wayyyyy too damn long. Some books are long in a good way, but that wasn’t the case for me here. The prose was so bloated and the story was so dragged out it started to make me angry. I contemplated moving it to the DNF shelf many times throughout.
With the jump forward in timeline and the back and forth between different point of views, it took a little while for me to really get in to this story. It wasn’t until about 35% in that I actually felt a pull to keep reading. Unfortunately that was short lived and even at that point in the story, the plot seemed to move forward without much sense of direction for a majority of the novel. I didn’t care about any of the characters, especially the villains, and that made it difficult to want to pick this book up after I put it down. By the time I got to the 75% mark, I was skimming and jumping sections just the get to the end.
This book was a hit for a lot of folks so I would still encourage others to read if interested, but it was an unfortunate L for me.
With the jump forward in timeline and the back and forth between different point of views, it took a little while for me to really get in to this story. It wasn’t until about 35% in that I actually felt a pull to keep reading. Unfortunately that was short lived and even at that point in the story, the plot seemed to move forward without much sense of direction for a majority of the novel. I didn’t care about any of the characters, especially the villains, and that made it difficult to want to pick this book up after I put it down. By the time I got to the 75% mark, I was skimming and jumping sections just the get to the end.
This book was a hit for a lot of folks so I would still encourage others to read if interested, but it was an unfortunate L for me.
natashiataylor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0