Reviews - Nakarmię Cię Strachem

2.34k reviews for:

Nakarmię Cię Strachem

Trang Thanh Tran

3.5 AVERAGE

got_sass's review against another edition

3.0

Nicely written prose, but it was pretty boring for a horror novel.

oh_yeah_no's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emblazedwords's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

lyall_reads's review against another edition

2.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I started with the audiobook, then switched to the hard copy- I finished it, but must admit that I just couldn’t get into the writing style. It’s very poetic, but sometimes in a way that feels messy rather than intentional. Example:

this is a nightmare, the stuff that almost makes sense until it doesn’t. The few details that stray out of place, such as a person I can touch but she’s not what she seems.

I understand what they’re getting at, but I don’t think stating it that way adds to the meaning. There’s other examples of odd tense shifts that also didn’t seem intentional and places where the poetic writing didn’t match Jade, our perspective character, and what she’s feeling.

I got more into it by the end. I liked that Jade is a mess (even when she was soooo frustrating to follow, that just felt very real and I felt for her always), I liked the complex family bonds, I liked (maybe the wrong word?) how Tran incorporated horrific history into their imagined haunting, but in the end, I just didn’t like the writing style.

I love poetry, even when it is difficult to parse, in part because each word is picked out specifically. In a book this length, that’s not really possible, so there’s lots of places where I couldn’t tell if something was a typo, missed by the editor, or intentionally cryptic and it made the reading experience a bit frustrating rather than frightening.

But, clearly other people do, so that’s ok! There’s lots to like here, I just couldn’t get past that.

ctbyrd929's review against another edition

3.25

dark mysterious reflective 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

seraphicpetal's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

This Vietnamese horror novel made me sick to my stomach in the way that the best gory novels should. Hauntingly engrossing, it blends chilling supernatural elements with the real-life horrors of 1859 French colonization in Vietnam. With a struggling to come out queer protagonist at its center, it’s also a deeply personal story about identity, family, and survival