Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Winterset Hollow

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Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

9 reviews

melmentomori's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A truly unsettling twist on a classic sub-genre of horror. Written by one of my favorite online personalities, I loved the wit and humor woven throughout. While sometimes it felt like the main trio might speak a little too similarly, it was a language I enjoyed and would happily continue reading.

I would argue that all the primary characters were lovable, if not always complex— even the ones that were truly horrifying. They demonstrated the range of reactions that grief can produce, growing deep roots that sprout very different personalities. Since no one gets to pick how the grieve, I appreciated this range because I could relate to each of them to some degree. I was truly sorry to say goodbye to them by finishing the book.

While not as tightly-formed in some respects as it could have been, this is easily one of my new favorite books. It is because I loved this book, that I feel like addressing the parts I found challenging. These did not undermine my overall enjoyment of the book, but represent the ways this is evidently a first work for the author. Not having finished a single story in my entire life, I'd say he's still miles ahead of whatever criticisms I can level. Mild spoilers ahead.

Eamon's Fickle Survival Instincts: Being an unwilling survivalist, I would've liked to have seen his "training" kick into place more thoroughly. Caught in several near-death instances, he was always a bit too willing to leave his mortal coil behind. One of the best parts of "final girls" is the transformation from vulnerable to powerful, and while Eamon does have some growth in this direction, it wasn't as fully-fledged as I would prefer.
Deus Ex Machina (Kind Of): Speaking of near-death instances, Eamon was often saved just in time by one entity or another. And when I say "often", I mean about half a dozen times. This feels like an issue that could've been better resolved if his development arc had been more complete.
Crying War: There was one specific description that was used over and over. When one character bellows a war cry, it invariably described as "cries war". It's a great description— once. After that it's just repetitive.
Failed Bechtel: Not unusual, but still a little frustrating that the characters were overwhelmingly male. Of the female characters, only two had real roles in the story vs. the six primary male characters.

As a sub-note, there was an allusion to "children" and the world outside of the island that was not fully resolved. While it might be a little tricky, I could see a sequel possibility and I'm wondering if that is why this small thread was left. If so, I'm all in. Happy Barley Day to all.

Content Warnings

confidenterr0r's review

3.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The first quarter of the book was fantastic to me. The atmosphere and world building with the growing sense of “something isn’t quite right here” really pulled me in. That’s why I think the entire rest of the book disappointed me so much and fell flat. The 3 main characters were so very dull and dense. At first I thought it was on purpose since the

animals

are very full of personality by comparison but as the book went on…nope. They’re just dull and dense.

They’ll get major context clues that something horrible happened to the animals and they’re all just kinda like “welp. that’s wild.” and keep going. It took them until pretty late story to even fully recognize they’d been brought there against their will, like come on. I didn’t feel like any of the MCs truly acknowledged how their favorite little book was written and either continued idolizing it or just kinda…didn’t say much about it until the very end when Eamon suddenly realizes it in the final showdown with Bing for no particular reason, when he felt seemingly no remorse for the other 3 animals the whole book. By the end of the book I actually couldn’t stand Eamon with his high level plot armor and Christopher Columbus ancestry and watching him win by locking Finn in the same cage his ancestor did was infuriating. ~~I was rooting hard for Eamon to die but that’s neither here nor there lol~~

I wish the entire middle of the book would’ve been cut down a bit and added more focus on the lore since that’s where the book really seemed to shine. I found the action parts became repetitive and very quickly realized

the 3 MCs were not actually in danger of dying which made that portion drag on for me. They would just run through their major injuries without much hindrance while the animals stood 5 feet away missing every shot.

I do still recommend reading this since the concept itself was unique and the storybook characters were very enjoyable and vibrant. This is definitely an Eamon hate page but I seem to be in the minority so he may not bother you as much lol. The overall story was interesting enough to deal with his mary sue-ness and where Eamon and friends fall flat the storybook characters pick up the slack (ironically).

Content Warnings

rivercat0338's review

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The author's prose style is a lot. The story is worth pushing through if you can, however.

I wish the owls' part was explained better, and how Gene fits in. There's no way he doesn't have some idea of what was going on if

people you take out to a "deserted" island routinely vanish

Content Warnings

gondorgirl's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

franzys_whip's review

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Literally beautiful book. Think The Most Dangerous Game but like 10 times better (at least imo). Covers topics of colonialism (in sort of a fictional way but still) and being haunted by your past so well. Lighthearted/funny moments never felt forced or out of place, and there aren't so many of them in the hunt bits to make it lessen the sense of danger. Characters had so much depth and I loved every minute of it.

A teeny tiny bit slow in the beginning. Just a little. Coming from a person who reads pretty fast-paced books most of the time though, it's really not that bad.

#edward addington needs to choke on a bag of rotten horse dicks #olivia did nothing wrong #fuck manifest destiny and all of its consequences

Content Warnings

kurumipanda's review

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

cait's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Content Warnings

tkatt20's review

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did. I almost DNFd at 20 pages because I did not like the writing style and I found it too descriptive and long winded, but something told me to keep reading and I am so happy I did. The characters were so fleshed out and well crafted that they were practically jumping off the pages, with an equally elegant setting to boot. There were so many layers to this story I could go on and on about all the emotions it made me feel and all the questions it gave me about my own morality but I truly have no words to express how good this book is. I rarely cry when reading books but this one had me sobbing when I reached the ending. The pacing was beautiful and matched an equally beautiful story and I am forever adding this book to my recommendations.

Content Warnings

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