Reviews

Clawing Free by Josh Roberts

bookish_riz's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

colleensreadingadventures's review

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challenging dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

3.0

๐…๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐†๐จ๐จ๐๐ซ๐ž๐š๐๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐‰๐จ๐ฌ๐ก ๐‘๐จ๐›๐ž๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฆ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฏ๐ข๐ž๐ฐ ๐‚๐ฅ๐š๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐…๐ซ๐ž๐ž! โฃโฃ
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โ€œ๐˜“๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ฆโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต ๐˜ข ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜บ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜บ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ, ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ด. ๐˜ˆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏโ€™๐˜ต ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ, ๐˜ช๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด. ๐˜ž๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜บ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด. ๐˜ž๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ธ๐˜ด ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜จ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ป๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜บ. ๐˜ž๐˜ฆโ€™๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ. ๐˜‰๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ฆโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฉ๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ.โ€โฃโฃ
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๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‘๐ฎ๐ง๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง:โฃโฃ
Lissy is a twenty something waitress living in a small town in Colorado. Sheโ€™s never gotten over losing her older sister Mia when Lissy was just a kid. Her Mom has left town and her Dad had passed even earlier than Mia. All that loss has left a hole in Lissy. But Mia left the biggest hole because her murder has never been solved. Lissy is being drawn to Diamond Lake where it all happened 11 years prior. Sheโ€™s having weird visions and is being โ€œcalledโ€ to the lake, she knows itโ€™s tied to her sisters death somehow. She follows her hunch and goes back to the scene to discover another girlโ€™s body torn up and burned the same way Mia died. Sheโ€™s never believed in monsters but what ever is killing people at the lake cannot possibly be human?! Whomever or whatever is doing this is evil to the core. And whether human or monster Lissy has to find away to stop this before she herself and/or others end up dead. โฃโฃ
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๐‚๐ก๐š๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ:โฃโฃ
To be honest I did not like Lissy in the beginning. I knew she was going through a lot but her personality was a lot to take. She was pretty assholish to those who cared about her. And I especially did not like the way she treated Neil, who is a total sweetheart. But during the course of the book she started to change and I really started to admire her strength and root for her to get her life together. โฃโฃ
Neil was there for Lissy totally and completely no matter what she did or how much she pushed him away. I loved him for that but I also wanted to see him put Lissy in her place and stop letting her walk all over him like a doormat. By the end I was hoping they would get their HEA. โฃโฃ
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๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ญ:โฃโฃ
The story has dual time lines the present and past right before and the night Mia was killed. Itโ€™s mostly the present but it was nice to see glimpses of Mia. โฃ
I canโ€™t go into to much depth about the actual plot or Iโ€™ll ruin the book. But I enjoyed the horror story that was infused with Korean Mythology. I thought that was vey imaginative and unique. The story had twists that I appreciated not being able to guess right off the bat, which I can pin point in .02 seconds it seems nowadays. But there wasnโ€™t a whole lot of anticipation, which I feel is essential in horror. โฃ
I was definitely getting Stephen King-ish  vibes, but I feel like the writing was a little rough at times and a bit too repetitive. โฃ
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Basically this is a decent start to a first book. I think Josh Roberts has talent and has some great stories to come. And I canโ€™t wait to see what he comes up with next! โฃโฃ


fizreads's review

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3.0

Thank you to the author for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book definitely keeps you hooked from start to finish. The starting was really well written and exactly what a thriller should be like...I forgot that it included monsters so when I came to that part it did really surprise me. I really liked the relationship between Lissy and Neil too.

ashleytebbs's review

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medium-paced

3.0

bbehring12's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

jxur28's review

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dark informative medium-paced

3.0

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway - thank you to the author and Goodreads. 

Now before I start this review I just want to say that writing a book is hard. I know it is and I admire the author for getting his work out there. 

I will start with what I liked about it, and that is simply put by saying that it was the subject matter - the storyline.  This was a creature feature to the core and I thoroughly enjoyed what the creature turned out to be. I am interested to learning more about this Korean folktale/myth. 

What I didn't like about this book is the writing style.  There was a lot of repetitive words such as little sister, baby sister, younger sister, big sister - over and over again. It was rare that when one of the sisters were referred to that it just read sister or their names.  And there were a lot of extra words within the text that just left me feeling annoyed with. There are also some editing issues -extra words, missing words, etc., that I hope the author can go and fix at some point. 

I didn't really believe a lot of Mia's motivations. In the beginning of the book she was a shell of a person, going through the motions and then near the end she was becoming self sacrificing. I just didn't believe the character arch - sorry to the author.  I think part of why I didn't believe if was the author didn't build up the relationship strong enough for me. But this is only my opinion and others may have a different view. I also hated the way Lissy treated Niel - who to me was the best character in the story. 

There were a couple of other things that didn't work for me, but I don't want to be over critical becuase overall I thought it was a fun read. And as I said in the beginning I know how hard it is to write a book. 

So overall a solid 3 stars.  If the description speaks to you I say read it.  It is fun and quick and you may disagree with me - just look at the other reviews. 
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