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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This sort of took a while to become horror and then really derailed towards the end. some parts were pretty hard to understand around 80% -end of the book. Maybe it was to show that Jade was fading in and out of consciousness or show the weird limbo between the ghost’s world and real world but i felt like that could’ve been better Also towards the ending of the book with the big final scenes, the pacing was a bit off and the extra usage of Vietnamese w no explanation really confused me. There were some parts i did enjoy so i didn’t think this deserved lower than 2 stars.
Content Warnings
I’d still want to read some of the authors other works since this was an okay debut
dark
mysterious
tense
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The audiobook feels like one long run-on sentence. It's very stream-of-consciousness and I'm having trouble following without visual cues for what's dialogue vs internal, when subjects shift, etc. Will revisit this in print/ebook
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
-1 star for the aud obook narrator, I have a feeling they were cast for their abil ty to pronounce all of the Vietnamese words (great!) BUT the performance otherwise has huge areas for improvement. For example all of the characters in dialogue have the same speed, intonation, accent, etc so it can be very hard to follow how is talking. Similarly, all of the dramatic and tense or horrific moments often seemed to be delivered alongside mundane prose and with both receiving equal fanfare it can be kind of tough to follow, I frequently needed to rewind 3-5 times to follow exactly what happened
Ok bad things list ends there! The book itself feels like it is way better enjoyed as a read than a listen, and I recommended to my partner who loves haunted house stories. The layering of different types of horror were all fantastic, and while the plot wasn't always perfect, it's definitely a great read for any horror fan
Ok bad things list ends there! The book itself feels like it is way better enjoyed as a read than a listen, and I recommended to my partner who loves haunted house stories. The layering of different types of horror were all fantastic, and while the plot wasn't always perfect, it's definitely a great read for any horror fan
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Body horror, Racism, Violence
Minor: Body shaming
adventurous
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
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:
Yes
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved this setting and the writing had real moments of striking beauty, but my main issue is that a good finale and a couple of writing high points can’t quite outweigh the slow, confused path we took to get there.