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shelfofunread's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- 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? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, Suicide, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Animal death, and Mental illness
Minor: Miscarriage and Misogyny
cateyeschloe's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
“I wonder if this book is ever going to get interesting?” That’s a question I asked myself for the first 60% or so of this book.
“Lazy” is the best word I could use to describe the author’s writing style. A lot of tropes you can easily rattle off the top of your head are inside the pages. And the “foreshadowing” at the beginning of the book was so extremely blatant that I could do nothing else but hope they were all red herrings to deflect from the ensuing plot twist. Unfortunately, I hoped in vain.
One of the things that put me off the most was how clearly it is evident that the author is a man, writing a woman as his main character. At one point, someone is literally threatening the MC with torture and death and she thinks to herself that she could envision herself being attracted to him in any other setting.
She also mourns some injuries that happen to her feet, whining to herself - “Abigail loved her feet - small, feminine, exuding a slender, proportionate beauty her friends openly envied.” I don’t know about you, girls, but I always have conversations amongst friends about who has the most beautiful, feminine feet between us.
It definitely gives the idea that this man has never had a fleshed out whole conversation with a woman in his life.
This book has big focus on veteran’s and their mental health post-combat. Suicide rates among veterans is a major, very prominent issue in the real world. In this book, PTSD and suicide attempts among veterans is absolutely nothing more than a shabby and clumsy plot device. It’s honestly embarrassing and shameful.
The book describes veterans as unhinged, extremely over-the-top violent, cold, and completely unfeeling. It doesn’t offer a sympathetic view into the world of PTSD or post-combat coping methods. It simply villainizes veterans and creates a miopic, singular lens with which to view them as a whole.
I also really didn’t enjoy in the “1893” chapters that the book constantly refers to Indigenous peoples as “heathens” and “injuns” and simply “Indians”. Regardless of the time period setting, I found every instance uselessly irrelevant and distasteful, to say the least.
This author presents this book as a supernatural, spooky tale about a “ghost town” and there is basically nothing supernatural about this book, which was a huge disappointment to me, as that was exactly what I was looking for.
The “plot twist”, if you can call it that, is more of an explanation of events, and quite honestly was predictable long before it was explained.
The mystery element of this book was definitely there; there were plenty of questions to be answered. Unfortunately, many of them had obvious answers that fell flat when written out.
The characters are completely detached and hollow with a complete lack of character development or growth of any kind. There is a very feeble and clumsy attempt to build a subplot about Abigail’s relationship with her father but it is so uninteresting and tepid that any resolution that comes is almost boring.
The only moment in the book that resonated with me emotionally at all was Lana’s story arch, and truthfully she was only used as a plot device so her story doesn’t even get any kind of pay off she deserves.
I kept reading this book in the hopes that a major twist was coming that would upset all my disappointment and disinterest with the first three-quarters of the book. Unfortunately, the pay off just wasn’t enough.
If you want to read a mystery, sure this will fill the hours, but don’t expect any emotional investment in the characters nor any of the alleged supernatural elements.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Alcohol, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Racism, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Misogyny, Cursing, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Suicide
fayelle's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Okay, I'm giving it a 4.5 really. I take off half a star for the following:
*Lofty word choice - it may just be me, but his word choice slowed me down a LOT. And not like, big words, but really unusual words that don't help the story at all. There WERE unusual words that were pertinent during the time period and so, yes, I don't mind looking those up, rock on. But LOADS of other words I feel like nobody would use over and over and it helps nothing. Maybe I'm just grouchy, but it seemed arrogant-ish.
* So many characters that were hard to keep up with. I had to go back a few times and say, "wait, what?"
HOWEVER.
This is THRILLING and I found myself holding my breath while I read sometimes. Ridiculously good story (of course it is, it's Blake Crouch). The back and forth in time were aligned perfectly and many times I found myself shivering because the cold was described so perfectly. So much of it believable and unbelievable at the same time.
*Lofty word choice - it may just be me, but his word choice slowed me down a LOT. And not like, big words, but really unusual words that don't help the story at all. There WERE unusual words that were pertinent during the time period and so, yes, I don't mind looking those up, rock on. But LOADS of other words I feel like nobody would use over and over and it helps nothing. Maybe I'm just grouchy, but it seemed arrogant-ish.
* So many characters that were hard to keep up with. I had to go back a few times and say, "wait, what?"
HOWEVER.
This is THRILLING and I found myself holding my breath while I read sometimes. Ridiculously good story (of course it is, it's Blake Crouch). The back and forth in time were aligned perfectly and many times I found myself shivering because the cold was described so perfectly. So much of it believable and unbelievable at the same time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Minor: Torture
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