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annemaries_shelves's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Compulsively readable with short chapters that all end on 'cliffhangers' but ultimately will be forgettable.
I enjoyed the isolated closed circle element with the horror vibes (and definitely a lot of on-page gore) but it wasn't particularly scary (much harder in books for me, to be fair to Armstrong) and the twists towards the end were a little lackluster.
Armstrong is a decent writer though and I can tell she tried to put some personality and backstory into her characters, which can be difficult with 300 pages and a mystery/horror plot as the focus. And props for some attempts at character diversity with two Black characters (including one queer Black character) and a bisexual main character.
I'm still not sure if the book was set on the American or Canadian side of Lake Superior either, which was annoying. The author lives in Ontario but everything hinted at it being set in the States so I'm not sure I can call this book CanLit?
That said, I read 90% of it in two days and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
CW: mentions of underage drinking and rape (MC was drunk, unable to properly consent and the other person was several years older and of legal age), murder, gore, graphic injury and blood descriptions, birds, animal death, references to covid-19 pandemic, biphobic comments, off-page cancer death.
I enjoyed the isolated closed circle element with the horror vibes (and definitely a lot of on-page gore) but it wasn't particularly scary (much harder in books for me, to be fair to Armstrong) and the twists towards the end were a little lackluster.
Armstrong is a decent writer though and I can tell she tried to put some personality and backstory into her characters, which can be difficult with 300 pages and a mystery/horror plot as the focus. And props for some attempts at character diversity with two Black characters (including one queer Black character) and a bisexual main character.
I'm still not sure if the book was set on the American or Canadian side of Lake Superior either, which was annoying. The author lives in Ontario but everything hinted at it being set in the States so I'm not sure I can call this book CanLit?
That said, I read 90% of it in two days and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
CW: mentions of underage drinking and rape (MC was drunk, unable to properly consent and the other person was several years older and of legal age), murder, gore, graphic injury and blood descriptions, birds, animal death, references to covid-19 pandemic, biphobic comments, off-page cancer death.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Grief, Biphobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, Rape, and Cancer
blacksphinx's review against another edition
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
This book doesn't feel like a horror novel to me but a thriller (a genre I dislike).
- Despite being in first person, there is a key conversation that happens early on where the subject is completely hidden from the reader and is used as a twist later on. There's another section where a character completely tunes out important information that doesn't get retold for along time. It felt like the book was trying to outsmart or trick me?
- Characters jump to mind-numbingly stupid explanations for what is occurring instead of acknowledging the obvious. Like, a character will make a correct inference about something and then spend paragraphs to chapters convincing themselves that isn't the truth, only for it to be revealed they were correct the first time.How on earth did the protagonist convince herself the body of a grown man that fell on top of her was some wild animal corpse?!
- Information we discover (after characters finally let themselves understand the obvious) is then constantly repeated to us like we're too stupid to recall a thing that happened a chapter ago.
- Despite being structured like a mystery/thriller, there is no foreshadowing of what the truth is. Especially when after over half a book of these characters gibbering their way through the most stupid and outlandish of ideas, they eventually hit on something mostly-correct that sounds just as dumb and outlandish as everything else. I literally didn't realize that was the truth until about 90% of the way through the book.
- Most of this book is focused on domestic drama that has almost nothing to do with the actual plot and they don't overlap well thematically.
My previous poor experience with thrillers have left me with the feeling the genre is about deceiving the reader by keeping important information from them and pulling out an entire clown handkerchief of twists until the remaining answer is something you could never logically guess. And that's how I feel about this novel. It feels like the author was twirling a proverbial mustache going "you THOUGHT this was a thriller, but it's actually a HORROR novel! I tricked you ha ha!" and it's sad and poorly done. The extra half star is because I did actually like the way it shakes out in the end, where the protagonist actually develops half a brain. (Sadly, the book then has an epilogue that it really, REALLY didn't need.)
(PS: This book gets GORY.)
- Despite being in first person, there is a key conversation that happens early on where the subject is completely hidden from the reader and is used as a twist later on. There's another section where a character completely tunes out important information that doesn't get retold for along time. It felt like the book was trying to outsmart or trick me?
- Characters jump to mind-numbingly stupid explanations for what is occurring instead of acknowledging the obvious. Like, a character will make a correct inference about something and then spend paragraphs to chapters convincing themselves that isn't the truth, only for it to be revealed they were correct the first time.
- Information we discover (after characters finally let themselves understand the obvious) is then constantly repeated to us like we're too stupid to recall a thing that happened a chapter ago.
- Despite being structured like a mystery/thriller, there is no foreshadowing of what the truth is. Especially when after over half a book of these characters gibbering their way through the most stupid and outlandish of ideas, they eventually hit on something mostly-correct that sounds just as dumb and outlandish as everything else. I literally didn't realize that was the truth until about 90% of the way through the book.
- Most of this book is focused on domestic drama that has almost nothing to do with the actual plot and they don't overlap well thematically.
My previous poor experience with thrillers have left me with the feeling the genre is about deceiving the reader by keeping important information from them and pulling out an entire clown handkerchief of twists until the remaining answer is something you could never logically guess. And that's how I feel about this novel. It feels like the author was twirling a proverbial mustache going "you THOUGHT this was a thriller, but it's actually a HORROR novel! I tricked you ha ha!" and it's sad and poorly done. The extra half star is because I did actually like the way it shakes out in the end, where the protagonist actually develops half a brain. (Sadly, the book then has an epilogue that it really, REALLY didn't need.)
(PS: This book gets GORY.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Death, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Gaslighting, Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Rape, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Biphobia, Sexual assault, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Infertility and Cancer
Dismemberment, Victim Blaming, Slut Shaming, Homophobic Slur. It's a spoiler but a lot of the novel moves around a backstory wherecaity_h's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Gore
Minor: Homophobia and Infertility
emmakchapman's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Gore
Moderate: Infertility, Racism, Cancer, and Pandemic/Epidemic
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