Reviews - Daphne | The StoryGraph

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

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A story about a Bloody Mary-like urban legend come to life, which drew me in right away - I am a sucker for anything involving an urban legend. Daphne is a terrifying allegory for anxiety (personal and cultural), as any urban legend should be - though I did find it interesting that rather than some sort of truly evil villain out to get children, Daphne was described from the beginning as simply being a pretty weird person. I thought the journal entries were the most interesting part of the book and I think it lent a lot to the characterization of Kit. also enjoyed the exploration of how Daphne's story got twisted over time and the truth was forgotten. This story is definitely weird and different, but fun. My main complaint was there was too much of a focus on Basketball, and it didn't seem like the game itself was integral. I also found that it dragged at times.

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Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

jennyferguson's review against another edition

4.5

dark mysterious tense medium-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: Complicated

amy_in_wonderland's review against another edition

I can't rate this. I honestly don't know what I just read. Parts of it were 5 stars; a truly clever allegory about the dangers of suppressing trauma and the insidious nature of anxiety. Parts were 1 star; repetitive inner monologues, constant overuse of character and place names, expostion that really grated, and an ending so abrupt as to have you turning the closing pages over again, so sure are you that there has to be more.

My Heart is a Chainsaw had similar themes, and it's exploration of them was more deftly done, whilst still being a fun and vivid ride. This is a short book, but it often felt like a chore to get through, with an odd staccato structure to the writing that made for a disjointed and distracting experience. This was clearly a very personal story, and I'm glad that I read it, but I still don't know exactly what it was trying to say or if it did it remotely well.

rbagels's review against another edition

2.5

This book was only alright. There were some spooky bits, but there were things that annoyed me that brought me out of the story. The first being the amount of times the word "baller" was used. It made me cringe every time and just felt wrong. From having played basketball, we did not refer to ourselves as "ballers" every other sentence. Another thing I did not like was this magic rim. While I can understand teams and small towns having superstitions, this magic 8 ball rim just seemed too cheesy to me. And the fact that this rim could magically get rid of this supernatural killer? The ending did not even make sense to me.

However, this did have a Nightmare on Elm Street vibes to it.