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This is my second Josh Malerman book. The first one being Bird Box
It's another good one.
Creepy and current, Daphne is a spooky read with an extremely tall young adult who was a metal head who drove a muscle car. The same person that made a lot of people uncomfortable. The way she watched children... Was she a victim or villain?
The other main characters is anxiety. How it manifests itself.
I read it in one sitting. It was an almost perfect read once I got past the slow beginning.
It's another good one.
Creepy and current, Daphne is a spooky read with an extremely tall young adult who was a metal head who drove a muscle car. The same person that made a lot of people uncomfortable. The way she watched children... Was she a victim or villain?
The other main characters is anxiety. How it manifests itself.
I read it in one sitting. It was an almost perfect read once I got past the slow beginning.
I loved this book so much! I really connected with it in multiple ways!!! Read it so fast I was just so into it. As a huge basketball fan, horror fan and someone with anxiety this book was just everything for me! I have so many pages bookmarked because of some of the ways this author describes anxiety and how it feels! I couldn’t recommend this book more!! Love it!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early review copy of the book!
Daphne follows a girl's basketball team shortly before they're heading off to college. The night before a big game, one of the players tells a ghost story of a seven-foot tall girl named Daphne, who has haunted the town, though no one seems to talk about her, since her death. The story has it that all it takes is thinking about Daphne to call her back from the grave, eager to enact her revenge.
I liked this story. It very much gave nostalgic Fear Street vibes, down to cheesy writing. I kept forgetting that technically the story takes place closer to present day than the 90s, because everything felt so very 90s. Because of the tone and the overall vibe the story gave, this story worked much more for a younger version of me than the adult version of me. There's quite a lot of repetition and, like I said, the writing is pretty cheesy (and sometimes confusing. There are so many fragments used in this story that didn't need to be there).
That said, I liked that this was a fun slasher type story, and because Freddy K is my fave, I enjoyed the overall premise that you can't really run away from Daphne once she's on your mind. Just like you can't not sleep, you probably can't not think about the seven-foot tall girl, looming in the darkness.
The characters are also pretty surface level. You don't learn much about them save that they like basketball and the MC (who did not give main character vibes at all) has anxiety. Because she talks about it all the time. I kind of wanted her to have more personality, because she got simplified down so much to her anxiety disorder. (I have anxiety, but my anxiety is not my sole personality trait, so this bothered me on a personal level.) Again, this all gave me Fear Street echoes, so I went along with it, but these aren't memorable characters.
Overall, this was a solid read that filled the part of me looking for nostalgic horror tales of yore. I would probably only recommend this to folks looking for that nostalgic read or younger horror readers.
Daphne follows a girl's basketball team shortly before they're heading off to college. The night before a big game, one of the players tells a ghost story of a seven-foot tall girl named Daphne, who has haunted the town, though no one seems to talk about her, since her death. The story has it that all it takes is thinking about Daphne to call her back from the grave, eager to enact her revenge.
I liked this story. It very much gave nostalgic Fear Street vibes, down to cheesy writing. I kept forgetting that technically the story takes place closer to present day than the 90s, because everything felt so very 90s. Because of the tone and the overall vibe the story gave, this story worked much more for a younger version of me than the adult version of me. There's quite a lot of repetition and, like I said, the writing is pretty cheesy (and sometimes confusing. There are so many fragments used in this story that didn't need to be there).
That said, I liked that this was a fun slasher type story, and because Freddy K is my fave, I enjoyed the overall premise that you can't really run away from Daphne once she's on your mind. Just like you can't not sleep, you probably can't not think about the seven-foot tall girl, looming in the darkness.
The characters are also pretty surface level. You don't learn much about them save that they like basketball and the MC (who did not give main character vibes at all) has anxiety. Because she talks about it all the time. I kind of wanted her to have more personality, because she got simplified down so much to her anxiety disorder. (I have anxiety, but my anxiety is not my sole personality trait, so this bothered me on a personal level.) Again, this all gave me Fear Street echoes, so I went along with it, but these aren't memorable characters.
Overall, this was a solid read that filled the part of me looking for nostalgic horror tales of yore. I would probably only recommend this to folks looking for that nostalgic read or younger horror readers.
Daphne is my first Josh Malerman read; though, I have seen the film adaptation of Bird Box. I was pleasantly blown away by this book. I got my horror fix in a big way with our supernatural titular character stalking and killing characters with brutal ease. There are some genuinely terrifying and creepy moments, a lot of which reminded me of the film, It Follows.
The story revolves around the Samhattan high school girls basketball team and more specifically the player Kit Lamb. She not only scores a game-winning buzzer beater but gets the terrifying answer to a question from the rim as to whether local urban legend Daphne will kill her. Daphne is a 7-foot girl decked out in denim with an interest in heavy metal music. She was supposedly murdered a long time ago in Freddy Krueger mob justice fashion. But that doesn't stop her from coming back, especially if you think of her until it becomes an obsession.
Unfortunately, our basketball team can't stop thinking about her after hearing the story at a sleepover. Kit already deals with crippling anxiety, but now that's not the only terror creeping up on her.
I loved a lot of this book from Kit to the spooky Daphne to the various basketball references here and there. This was a sharp teen-based novel that I could see a lot of snooty, highbrow critics hating. But, man, I devoured this savory dish with delight.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The story revolves around the Samhattan high school girls basketball team and more specifically the player Kit Lamb. She not only scores a game-winning buzzer beater but gets the terrifying answer to a question from the rim as to whether local urban legend Daphne will kill her. Daphne is a 7-foot girl decked out in denim with an interest in heavy metal music. She was supposedly murdered a long time ago in Freddy Krueger mob justice fashion. But that doesn't stop her from coming back, especially if you think of her until it becomes an obsession.
Unfortunately, our basketball team can't stop thinking about her after hearing the story at a sleepover. Kit already deals with crippling anxiety, but now that's not the only terror creeping up on her.
I loved a lot of this book from Kit to the spooky Daphne to the various basketball references here and there. This was a sharp teen-based novel that I could see a lot of snooty, highbrow critics hating. But, man, I devoured this savory dish with delight.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I've only read the Bird Box duology from Malerman which I loved. Daphne couldn't be FURTHER from those books. The writing style is the opposite, it is overwritten, cringy af, annoying characters, and using mental illness as a plot device was a poor choice. It could have been a great short story, but instead it became a terrible novel.
I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't get into it. I fell asleep reading it at least 3 times but I'm sure it's a me problem and not the book problem. I really like Malerman's other books but this one didn't do it for me
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Don't think about it. Don't talk about it. Forget it happened.
"Daphne" will creep up on you. Haunt you. Terrorize you. Replay over and over and over in your head and you WILL NOT get her out.
All I can say is, this book won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I related to it. I appreciate that Josh Malerman expresses the nuances of anxiety disorders through a medium he certainly understands: horror writing.
This novel has no chapters and is one long rambling narrative told though multiple perspectives. It's chaotic. It's what anxiety is. And I honestly couldn't put this book down. Well done!
**contains graphic, violent scenes; child kidnapping
"Daphne" will creep up on you. Haunt you. Terrorize you. Replay over and over and over in your head and you WILL NOT get her out.
All I can say is, this book won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I related to it. I appreciate that Josh Malerman expresses the nuances of anxiety disorders through a medium he certainly understands: horror writing.
This novel has no chapters and is one long rambling narrative told though multiple perspectives. It's chaotic. It's what anxiety is. And I honestly couldn't put this book down. Well done!
**contains graphic, violent scenes; child kidnapping
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Kidnapping
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes