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dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This objectively isn’t a terrible book. It was just one I did not enjoy. I found it very hard to get through. And very confusing at times. There weren’t enough descriptions for me to delve into the storyline.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I went into this book mostly blind - I appreciate that the synopsis doesn't over-explain.
The beginning was absolutely brilliant. I had to force myself to stop reading and go to bed. Then the entire next day at work I couldn't wait to get home to keep reading. I really thought this was going to be a 5 star read.
Then the beginning tapers off leading into a story with weird pacing and honestly, too many characters. I think this book would have benefitted from less characters as we didn't have enough time to truly get to know them and their motives. Many of the characters felt one-dimensional. Our MC, Connie's backstory was revealed in a way that felt clunky and took away from the action taking place in the moment. There were also a few too many villains that were hard to differentiate between as they were all so similar.
This book had a decent amount of gore in it. I'm not totally surprised - it felt a bit similar to Under The Wicked Moon (although I think that book was a bit better). My problem with the gore is that the characters just didn't seem to have much of a pain response to it. I was cringing a bit during a few scenes and thinking that if that happened to someone in real life, they'd totally pass out. They wouldn't be able to just carry on with the serious injury they have.
Let's talk about the setting. The book starts out at Evan's parents summer home and I was stoked about this because a large secluded mansion is such a neat place for spooks to unfold. But after the beginning, the characters are moved to a new location that I didn't find as easy to visualize or as interesting.
The villains had a ton of potential, but unfortunately we never got to understand any their true motives or backstory. Towards the last third of the book, I felt like the author was trying to hard to show the parallels between Evan's dysfunctional family and the villains dysfunctional family. But it made the villains less scary.
The MC was a bit of a mary sue. I was hoping this book would be a real "good for her" type of story where our female MC is able to get the upper hand through wit, survival experience, and critical thinking (similar to The Housemaid, Ready or Not? and You're Next). It was almost like that but I found that the characters were either totally powerless, or things felt too easy. I needed more of a power struggle! I wanted the characters to be sneaking around, playing cat and mouse, and slowly revealing more of whats going on.
Something else that didn't quite work for me is that the story jumped around between Connie's, Evan's, Myle's, and Riley's POV's and I think I would have been happier not knowing all their thoughts. It would have been better to not know who Connie could trust or not.
Overall, I ended up being pretty disappointed in the actual story, but I read it quickly because Abe Moss knows how to write a fast paced book. He's a compelling writer - I just felt like some key elements were missing here.
The beginning was absolutely brilliant. I had to force myself to stop reading and go to bed. Then the entire next day at work I couldn't wait to get home to keep reading. I really thought this was going to be a 5 star read.
Then the beginning tapers off leading into a story with weird pacing and honestly, too many characters. I think this book would have benefitted from less characters as we didn't have enough time to truly get to know them and their motives. Many of the characters felt one-dimensional. Our MC, Connie's backstory was revealed in a way that felt clunky and took away from the action taking place in the moment. There were also a few too many villains that were hard to differentiate between as they were all so similar.
This book had a decent amount of gore in it. I'm not totally surprised - it felt a bit similar to Under The Wicked Moon (although I think that book was a bit better). My problem with the gore is that the characters just didn't seem to have much of a pain response to it. I was cringing a bit during a few scenes and thinking that if that happened to someone in real life, they'd totally pass out. They wouldn't be able to just carry on with the serious injury they have.
Let's talk about the setting. The book starts out at Evan's parents summer home and I was stoked about this because a large secluded mansion is such a neat place for spooks to unfold. But after the beginning, the characters are moved to a new location that I didn't find as easy to visualize or as interesting.
The villains had a ton of potential, but unfortunately we never got to understand any their true motives or backstory. Towards the last third of the book, I felt like the author was trying to hard to show the parallels between Evan's dysfunctional family and the villains dysfunctional family. But it made the villains less scary.
The MC was a bit of a mary sue. I was hoping this book would be a real "good for her" type of story where our female MC is able to get the upper hand through wit, survival experience, and critical thinking (similar to The Housemaid, Ready or Not? and You're Next). It was almost like that but I found that the characters were either totally powerless, or things felt too easy. I needed more of a power struggle! I wanted the characters to be sneaking around, playing cat and mouse, and slowly revealing more of whats going on.
Something else that didn't quite work for me is that the story jumped around between Connie's, Evan's, Myle's, and Riley's POV's and I think I would have been happier not knowing all their thoughts. It would have been better to not know who Connie could trust or not.
Overall, I ended up being pretty disappointed in the actual story, but I read it quickly because Abe Moss knows how to write a fast paced book. He's a compelling writer - I just felt like some key elements were missing here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death
Minor: Cannibalism
dark
tense
fast-paced
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
tense
fast-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
I finished it. I’m still sitting here like wtf did I read but to be fair… I read mostly romance books that have a LOT of story building. This had very little story building and was straight intensity from like 10% - the end. I spent most of the book feeling like I had whiplash. I wanted to know more about the creatures, more about how they infiltrated the family, and more at the end. The epilogue wasn’t focused on who it needed to be focused on! But yay it was a good ending for the forest children I guess.
Idk. I was able to finish but not sure I’d recommend.
Idk. I was able to finish but not sure I’d recommend.
fast-paced