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madarauchiha's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
โค๏ธ ๐งก ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐งก โค๏ธ
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
hey look there's a godawful scene where the MC goes to a ultra secret dark underground super exclusive rich people club that apparently Cordova frequented from time to time. The author and MC make a huge deal about WHOA there's transwomen here wha t the? This also comes up briefly later in some 'that woman from the club... or WAS she a 'woman'...?!?!?' speculation that the MC does.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
What a fuck.
Ok the depth and miscellania of the world setting was fucking fantastic. It felt like a very solid ground to such a convoluted mystery. Who is Cordova? No actually you should be asking where is Ashley? No actually you should be asking something else! The questions kept piling up.
ok not to be a huge loser but this mc dude does remind me a whole lot of Alan wake from the titular game 'Alan wake'. An unlikeable on purpose protagonist, mostly decent motive albeit totally self serving. He's very well written so far and it's not entirely grating to read. I still want to beat his ass though. And at some point it felt like it was glancing the fourth wall, becoming bizarrely self aware.
Also the multimedia portion of the book? Stunning. The newspaper clippings, screencaps, websites, really added something amazing to the story. I liked the additional, brief view points these gave, and how they broke up the story so it wasn't an endless asshole investigating this mystery.
I really loved the ending. I think it maintained the ambiguity of the mystery very well. The story was strong enough that I don't mind this type of closure, either. Is it supernatural? Or is it something else? What was that cheesy phrase? The greatest lie the devil ever told was that the devil doesn't exist.
I never reread books, but this one I'll make the exception for.
Transmisogyny in the book. Major spoilers.
It's utterly jarring and took me out of the plot because, to me, it's not a big deal. Oh a woman at a location where women go to, whatever. I get that the author is making the MC a purposefully unlikeable character but I think this goes a lil too far. At that point in the book, it's pretty well established the MC is a piece of shit.
Because we're discussing this I'll mention that I'm transmisogyny exempt trans nonbinary person. Just to be clear this is the pov that I am seeing this content from.
Major ableism, alcohol use, anti japanese racism, anti native racism, antiblack racism, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, classism, fatphobia, death, dogs, drowning, drug abuse, gore, hand trauma, misgendering, misogyny, paranoia, psychiatric institutions, racial fetishization, sibling rivalry, sinophobia, suicide, suicide baiting, transmisogyny, xenophobia
medium ableism towards addiction, divorce, drowning, fatphobia, fungus, gore, insects, kidnapping, marital infidelity, misogyny, paranoia, parasites, pedophilia, grooming, age gap
drug use , unsanitary
minor Charles manson mention, Islamophobia, anti Japanese j slur used once, cults, death threats, genocide, human trafficking, pedophilia, quentin tarantino, self harm, sexual abuse, sexual content, tasteless torture camp reference, teacher student relationship, torture, water boarding joke
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Transphobia, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Genocide, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Trafficking
nicolinebl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was a confusing but intriguing read. Honestly, just calling it that is underselling it; it was definitely an experience.
I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.
It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.
None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!
There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.
There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?
Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.
Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)
I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary andI hated that they had a whole supernatural plot, then decided to explain it all away and then afterwards sort of went back to the supernatural route.
I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.
PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!
I started reading this book two days ago and barely did anything else besides that because I just needed to know how it ended.
It starts of slow, then it gets really intense for a while but then it takes a turn that I honestly didn't appreciate nor understand and then it changes directions near the end again, leaving me quite puzzled.
None of the characters in this book seem like nice people, Nora probably being the nicest one and the main character Scott honestly being one of the most annoying characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of by the way, I started writing them down lol!
There are also a lot of trigger warnings for this book, the one that made me the most upset being transphobic undertones. Not sure if that's the writers prejudice coming through or her showing that her character is transphobic, but I got really pissed at that part.
There were some parts where the writer tried to make things lighter by jokes or "funny" thoughts but in my opinion, they didn't really work. Also some parts - besides supernatural plotlines or course - were a bit unbelievable. Like how Scott was apparently so rich even though he'd been fired from his job and didn't seem to have a great job at the moment. And since he's investigating for like +-7 months and not actually working or something he's only spending money (and spending it like crazy). Nobody has that many spare change right?
Also, an in my opinion unnecessary loveplot near the ending - if you've read the book you know the part.
Besides that I am still fascinated by this book. I love the mix of mediums: articles, websitepages, documents, photo's etc. and even bonus content on the writers website (definitely check it out, especially the last one!)
I chose to read this book in October because of Halloween and must admit I was kind of let down, it wasn't that scary and
I will end my review by saying that I do think this story could have been told in less than 600 pages and dragged a little at some parts but I most certainly do no regret reading this story; because at its main core, it did have some intriguing themes and phenomenal aesthetics. And gosh darn, I'm kind of sad that I'm not able to see the movies Cordova has made, him being fictional and all.
PS: Think this would be awesome in film format so that I could show my brother and friend who will never read a 600-pages book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, and Torture
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Trafficking, and Transphobia
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Slavery, and Vomit
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