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mariyavd's review
2.0
This book was so hard for me to read. It took me few months. When you hear urban legend you expect a story filed with horror, action, suspence. But here it is not the case. Acually Daphne apears few times and her killing are so fast it takes 2-3 sentences. And she is gone. The rest is talking about feelings and toughts and it is the same thing over and over again. The end could've been acually really good but all the important things and investigation are happening fo fast and caotic that I was wondering "what just happend".
jptpls's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
nelem's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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? Yes
2.75
janagaton's review
3.0
The basketball aspect was a lot more distracting to me than I anticipated, and there were several parts that just felt redundant. I also don't like when there are a ton of characters in the same demographic, but they all either have one personality trait each, or nothing unique about them at all. Also, I'm sure no one is surprised by the fact that I hated that there were no chapters. However, it read super quickly, and there were some creepy parts that made me feel uneasy, but I'm not sure Josh Malerman's writing style is for me.
thephdivabooks's review
1.0
I was excited by the premise of this book. It has a sort of bloody mary / slender man vibe to it. A team of high school basketball players share the story of Daphne one night at a sleepover. Daphne was allegedly a former female basketball player who died as a teenager in their very town of Samhattan and now haunts over the town. The more you think about Daphne, the more attracted towards you she becomes and she ultimately murders you if you think of her too much.
Daphne is a bizarre but impressive figure, described as being 7 feet tall, having hands the size of basketballs, and wearing Kiss make up on her face. This strange image was less scary to me than odd. Leading character Kit suffers from anxiety and so a story like Daphne becomes a metaphor for anxiety--can we ever really control our thoughts and keep from fixating on the things that worry us?
Often we were introduced to a character in the same chapter they meet their untimely end at the hands of Daphne, which made it difficult to really get into the book for me. I had an interesting conversation with my book club because I felt this book read very young adult, but some others said it didn't to them. And interesting is that in the tags for this book on Goodreads, it is tagged as Adult, not YA.
Ultimately I think this book never really delivered for my taste. It was too long and not quite scary enough. The second half is better than the first half. If I hadn't been reading it for book club, I'm not sure I would have finished it. And I don't mean that in an "it's horrible" way... just that it isn't great and didn't really grab my attention.
Seems like this author has some other great books and I definitely saw some fans of this one on here. It wasn't for me personally.
Daphne is a bizarre but impressive figure, described as being 7 feet tall, having hands the size of basketballs, and wearing Kiss make up on her face. This strange image was less scary to me than odd. Leading character Kit suffers from anxiety and so a story like Daphne becomes a metaphor for anxiety--can we ever really control our thoughts and keep from fixating on the things that worry us?
Often we were introduced to a character in the same chapter they meet their untimely end at the hands of Daphne, which made it difficult to really get into the book for me. I had an interesting conversation with my book club because I felt this book read very young adult, but some others said it didn't to them. And interesting is that in the tags for this book on Goodreads, it is tagged as Adult, not YA.
Ultimately I think this book never really delivered for my taste. It was too long and not quite scary enough. The second half is better than the first half. If I hadn't been reading it for book club, I'm not sure I would have finished it. And I don't mean that in an "it's horrible" way... just that it isn't great and didn't really grab my attention.
Seems like this author has some other great books and I definitely saw some fans of this one on here. It wasn't for me personally.
jillreads55's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
horriblestgremlin's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0