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scytheria's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Suicide
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Bullying, Toxic friendship, and Torture
Minor: War
bibliomich's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
What I enjoyed:
- The exposition was fantastic. It was creepy and gory in all the right ways, and I was excited to see the "true crime podcaster investigating a story" device.
- I liked the nostalgic cult classic 90s/00s horror vibes, particularly throughout the first 2/3 of the book.
- This was a quick read, and I found that I could get lost in the book for long stretches of time without getting bored or distracted.
- Even though there were many characters and different timelines, I found it relatively easy to keep track of them all.
- The narrator, Tom Jordan, did an excellent job.
What didn't quite work for me:
- While several aspects of the book were gory and/or graphic, I didn't find the book to be particularly scary. I would have loved to see Van Wey introduce more elements of psychological horror into the book, as I think this could have really taken the book to the next level.
- The ending was both predictable and also super confusing. Too much happened right at the end, and a lot of it wasn't particularly clear. While I think this was probably intentional in a you-can-interpret-this-however-you-want sort of way, I mostly found it to be a disappointing resolution.
- The book suffered from not having a clear narrator. It was initially framed as though the protagonist were telling the story to the interviewer, but the narration was actually third-person omniscient and jumped around between multiple different characters. At the end you're left wondering if the narrator was a reliable narrator, but that doesn't really make sense because the story was being told *about* the characters, rather than truly from the point of view of the characters.
I would still consider reading more Andrew Van Wey, especially another book narrated by Tom Jordan.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicide
Moderate: Car accident, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Racism and Drug use
atleastelise's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Murder
Minor: Car accident
minimicropup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
We open with a famous, exploitative podcaster chasing their latest story involving an artist and now mother with a tragic past from College days. We also get the POV of the detective that worked with the young artist to investigate a slew of murders, a down-on-their-luck crabber enraptured by an unconventional catch, and a mysterious exchange student from Ukraine.
🍂 Autumn/Thanksgiving time for the 90's parts
🐺🐕Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags:
🤔 Except the narrative, though told in typical novel form, is actually Megan's recollection of what happened as told to the podcaster. It isn't transcript/epistolary form, we get a full novel written with flash forwards to her interview with the podcaster who has access to the case notes from the detective that worked with her back when her former College friends started showing up brutally murdered. It adds an unreliable narrator energy that comes from another unreliable narrator.
🕵️ We get a semi-retired detective's POV, but there is no police procedural trope. Just him trying to figure out what is going on with support from his department and he gets wrapped up in the overall case in a fairly organic way.
🥴🤢 The creature feature elements could have been laughable if not written well. But they were. Sometimes I'd start off imagining it cartoonish, and as the paragraph progressed it became full body (or lack thereof) horrific.
🤞I want this to be a movie.
- Splattering of investigative and exploitative podcast journalism
- Mishmash of '90s true crime, dark cozy detective mystery, marine-hybrid creature feature, body horror, dark academia, unreliable narrator (memory loss), and amateur sleuthing with police and PI pal
- Slightly open-to-interpretation ending about who was telling the truth
- "I know what you did last decade" murder mystery/slasher
- Speculative creature feature horror with ecological and evolutionary biology sci-fi elements
- Hit of surreal action-adventure fight-for-their-lives escape from international assassins
- Touch of "monsters everywhere?" woven through the plot
Content Heads-Up: Body horror. Dog death (kind of done out of desperation like in the sacrifice/food realm. We don't know about the dog prior to the incident). Car accident (single-vehicle drunk driver). Fatal house fire (off page). Death of parents (off page).
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Car accident
kier__'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Car accident, Confinement, Torture, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Violence, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child death, Death, and Murder
sarah984's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Racism, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Xenophobia, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Murder, Racial slurs, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Mental illness
Minor: Emotional abuse, Cancer, Child death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Drug use, and Gun violence
caseyf's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Car accident, Body horror, Violence, Death, and Blood
haleybre's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gore, Body horror, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Car accident, Cannibalism, Child death, and Cancer
booksofautumn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Death, Medical content, Cancer, Alcohol, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, Stalking, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Gore, Mental illness, Cursing, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Terminal illness, and Violence