Scan barcode
atipsygiraffe's review
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
After a near death experience in his newly acquired Victorian house, David finds himself haunted by ghosts. The weirdest part? The ghosts don't just stick to his old house and some of the ghosts are people who are still alive. Is he losing his mind or are there really ghosts trying to get an important message to him?
This was a haunted house story, but not as you know it. The premise and how the story unfolds was definitely unique., It was genuinely very creepy and I was definitely scared at some points, which doesn't happen often for me (growing up reading Stephen King, when I was way too young for his books, made me pretty difficult to scare in a book). I enjoyed the nod to King's The Dead Zone without it trying to imitate it.
This book had so much promise and I wanted to love it, but in the end it just didn't deliver. The writing style was not for me, it was written more like statements and didn't flow well, and the dialogue was very clunky and unnatural. I don't need my horror to be written in prose, but I also don't want to be walked through every step - show, don't tell. Despite that, I was enjoying it and it kept me turning pages. Until the end, which felt flat and rushed. I was left thinking "oh, was that it?". I rarely say this, but it could have done with being a little longer to really flesh out the ending.
I'm rating this a 3.5 overall (rounded up), because despite the writing style and the disappointing ending, it was a unique and mostly unpredictable ghost story that did have me scared multiple times. It was a quick read as well, so while it won't go on my favourites list I wouldn't necessarily shy away from recommending it.
Thank you to NetGalley and FlameTree for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was a haunted house story, but not as you know it. The premise and how the story unfolds was definitely unique., It was genuinely very creepy and I was definitely scared at some points, which doesn't happen often for me (growing up reading Stephen King, when I was way too young for his books, made me pretty difficult to scare in a book). I enjoyed the nod to King's The Dead Zone without it trying to imitate it.
This book had so much promise and I wanted to love it, but in the end it just didn't deliver. The writing style was not for me, it was written more like statements and didn't flow well, and the dialogue was very clunky and unnatural. I don't need my horror to be written in prose, but I also don't want to be walked through every step - show, don't tell. Despite that, I was enjoying it and it kept me turning pages. Until the end, which felt flat and rushed. I was left thinking "oh, was that it?". I rarely say this, but it could have done with being a little longer to really flesh out the ending.
I'm rating this a 3.5 overall (rounded up), because despite the writing style and the disappointing ending, it was a unique and mostly unpredictable ghost story that did have me scared multiple times. It was a quick read as well, so while it won't go on my favourites list I wouldn't necessarily shy away from recommending it.
Thank you to NetGalley and FlameTree for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Gore, and Murder
More...