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3.41 AVERAGE
3.41 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
My original thoughts on Malerman's Bird Box were fairly ambivalent, the novel not delivering much of substance for me at the time. It isn't that the book was bad by any means, but that I didn't feel it had very much to say or explore. There was no cohesive statement that stood out about that particular book, and while it was very popular, I moved on from Malerman without having given any of his other books a second thought.
But Daphne--and the social media campaign put together by Malerman and many of his other fans--tugged at my interest enough to pick it up. I'm really glad I did, too; I had written Malerman off on account of Bird Box only to find that Daphne contained all of that thematic substance I was looking for in his earlier work.
This book is much more than the sum of its parts, largely on account of how well Malerman executes his dialogue with anxiety through the course of this book. His prose, too, feels much more polished and unconventional, taking what should be a fairly standard ghost slasher to new heights. Throughout Daphne, Malerman explores issues of collective grief, of the inconvenient truths of trauma, and the devastating effect anxiety can have on a person--while simultaneously finding ways to utilize things like anxiety for personal empowerment.
If Daphne is what Malerman is capable of, I'm ready for everything else he puts out.
But Daphne--and the social media campaign put together by Malerman and many of his other fans--tugged at my interest enough to pick it up. I'm really glad I did, too; I had written Malerman off on account of Bird Box only to find that Daphne contained all of that thematic substance I was looking for in his earlier work.
This book is much more than the sum of its parts, largely on account of how well Malerman executes his dialogue with anxiety through the course of this book. His prose, too, feels much more polished and unconventional, taking what should be a fairly standard ghost slasher to new heights. Throughout Daphne, Malerman explores issues of collective grief, of the inconvenient truths of trauma, and the devastating effect anxiety can have on a person--while simultaneously finding ways to utilize things like anxiety for personal empowerment.
If Daphne is what Malerman is capable of, I'm ready for everything else he puts out.
dark
medium-paced
I was really excited to read this book. Bird Box is one of my favorite books ever, and I was hoping this one would contain the same type of suspense/horror as that one. The idea of the book is so good--if you even think about Daphne she will come for you, but once you know that, how can you NOT think of her?
That said, this just didn't hit the mark for me. There was some suspense, but it wasn't really enough. I felt like each "chapter" (there were no chapters in the book!) that had an event was almost like its own short story. I would have liked to see the suspense building more over time. I also couldn't really get behind the writing style. The thought process of the characters seemed to be all over the place. I'm sure this was a choice made by the author, but it didn't really work for me. Also, I think it was a bad choice to not use chapters in the book.
I found myself bored through most of the book, hoping it would grip me eventually. And the ending was very confusing, with very little resolution or explanation for what happened.
I hate giving negative reviews, because I know authors put so much work into these books. It didn't work for me, but I hope it works for other readers.
That said, this just didn't hit the mark for me. There was some suspense, but it wasn't really enough. I felt like each "chapter" (there were no chapters in the book!) that had an event was almost like its own short story. I would have liked to see the suspense building more over time. I also couldn't really get behind the writing style. The thought process of the characters seemed to be all over the place. I'm sure this was a choice made by the author, but it didn't really work for me. Also, I think it was a bad choice to not use chapters in the book.
I found myself bored through most of the book, hoping it would grip me eventually. And the ending was very confusing, with very little resolution or explanation for what happened.
I hate giving negative reviews, because I know authors put so much work into these books. It didn't work for me, but I hope it works for other readers.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was very excited for this book as I’ve read a few of Malerman’s other books, but this one - at least for me - wasn’t as good as the others. I was expecting this to be outright horror like his other ones, but it ended up reading more like a ya murder mystery. Yes, there were more than a few disturbing aspects in this book, but I found it to be slow and the murders to be repetitive. Also, I’m not sure if this is just my brain being weird, but the book felt like it was written in a different style than the others of his that I’ve read - it took a bit longer than I would have liked to get to the action whereas, in his other books, the action starts almost immediately. I felt no connection to Kit as the main character whatsoever and didn’t form any emotional attachment to any other characters - murdered or not. Right before the victims are killed, their backstories, aspirations, and small bits of their personality are explained, but I found that I probably would have grown more attached to them if they actually interacted with each other - I feel that this would have grown their characters better as well as Kit’s since we never really see them interact too much even though they’re all friends. I did appreciate the actual message behind the book and how it tackles mental health and the fear of not knowing what you want to do with your life, but I still feel that the overall plot could’ve been executed much better.
I’m SO conflicted about this book. It has a lot of things I like: it’s less than 300 pages, it’s horror, and it’s a ghost story. Sadly, it has some weird elements too. There are no chapters in this book. For me, it made picking it back up each day a real dread. It also has a lot of diary entries from the main character which I thought slowed it down a good bit. Side note: was there a prize for mentioning the word Samhattan a million times? Either way, it’s not a bad book and I really liked the story, especially when it picked up the last 75 pages or so. Would recommend to someone who doesn’t mind the formatting. Also this is for sure YA. Why not label it that?
This was an audiobook regret. Learn from me -- READ IN PRINT!!!
Every town has a legend -- some local lore where the authenticity is questionable but the creepiness is maximum. Samhattan's legend is Daphne, a towering, metal-listening, muscle car-driving, child abductor killed by the locals years ago. The rumor is she comes back when you think about her which seems impossible to do now since she seems to be killing the members of the girls basketball team. Is Daphne actually real? And how to you stop something that is already dead?
Since major parts of this book was told through a teenager's journal and the plot was to not think of Daphne, there were several redundant segments of the main character testing/saying/writing the same thoughts over and over. In a print book, you can breeze past this but in audio, it was painfully distracting and slowed the story down a lot. I think had I read this in print, it would have been a 4-4.5 star rating. Lots of creepy imagery. A cool twist on a familiar concept. Would recommend.
Every town has a legend -- some local lore where the authenticity is questionable but the creepiness is maximum. Samhattan's legend is Daphne, a towering, metal-listening, muscle car-driving, child abductor killed by the locals years ago. The rumor is she comes back when you think about her which seems impossible to do now since she seems to be killing the members of the girls basketball team. Is Daphne actually real? And how to you stop something that is already dead?
Since major parts of this book was told through a teenager's journal and the plot was to not think of Daphne, there were several redundant segments of the main character testing/saying/writing the same thoughts over and over. In a print book, you can breeze past this but in audio, it was painfully distracting and slowed the story down a lot. I think had I read this in print, it would have been a 4-4.5 star rating. Lots of creepy imagery. A cool twist on a familiar concept. Would recommend.
I really wanted to love this one, but it was a struggle to get into it. I never got invested in these characters. But I think a lot of it was me - I was never into sports in school and this relied so much on basketball, team dynamics, etc. I compared this a lot to The Only Good Indians that started out amazing and then just so much freaking basketball lol. If this focused more on the horror, I probably would have loved it. Bonus star for the anxiety rep, it was written very well.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes