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cwgonzales's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A supernatural murder mystery of sorts playing out around a high school girls basketball team.
The monster murderer side of things is fun, chilling and gruesome, but I’m pretty tired of characters needing to overcome trauma as a key point of a story.
You can do anything with your BARE HANDS, got it?
The monster murderer side of things is fun, chilling and gruesome, but I’m pretty tired of characters needing to overcome trauma as a key point of a story.
You can do anything with your BARE HANDS, got it?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
jourdanicus's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Hmm, this book was more interesting than scary or horrifying to me. I don't have a very vivid visual imagination so the gory character deaths didn't do much to me. But the metaphor of the monster being anxiety, that was interesting to me.
Some of the plot points were a little confusing but maybe that was just me not paying close enough attention. I also felt like the ending was a bit rushed, maybe for the sake of tension, but that fell through as I didn't feel that much tension had been built up to that point.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves basketball and horror, lol. We love a niche sub-genre. I'm interested to explore more by this author and see if anything else he wrote falls more into my wheelhouse.
Some of the plot points were a little confusing but maybe that was just me not paying close enough attention. I also felt like the ending was a bit rushed, maybe for the sake of tension, but that fell through as I didn't feel that much tension had been built up to that point.
I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves basketball and horror, lol. We love a niche sub-genre. I'm interested to explore more by this author and see if anything else he wrote falls more into my wheelhouse.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
seawarrior's review
4.0
Reviewing this several months after I first read it, so I don't remember details. I thought that Daphne was mostly a well-constructed allegory for how anxiety often feels relentless and never-ending. The characters were fairly simplistic, but they're mostly there to die anyway. The uniqueness and thrill of this slasher story are what make it worth reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail
connorjdaley's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
This author has been an auto buy for me since reading Bird Box (although I don’t always read them immediately). I didn’t get it on release day, but I’m into the timely release.
I strangely read this before/at the same time as/during/ two other reads (Wild Things by Ian Thomas/ Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors: Claws by R. L. Stine) that also starred young kids/teenage girls. It’s interesting to see how all of the author’s portrayed them and the differences. Malerman’s features high school characters from the girl’s basketball team, and it was nice to see him have them act/speak age appropriate. One thing that surprised me though was that it’s meant to be current, but there wasn’t anything indicting the generation in any way in terms of slang.
This book very heavily leans into basketball. It bleeds into the plot, the settings, the characters, everything. As someone that doesn’t really care for it, it made it kind of hard to get into the story for me. While I understand that reading is a way to learn and experience perspectives we do not live ourselves, it just doesn’t work for me in that way. IE. I’ve never been a teenage girl living through the trauma of a horror novel, therefore that’s a perspective I can get behind. However, entire pages about free throws is not the same in my opinion, although I’ve never been a basketball player either.
After reading the afterward where the author speaks to his love of basketball I can accept it though. He also speaks of his experience with anxiety, as this novel goes pretty heavily into bad anxiety, anxiety attacks, and panic attacks. I myself suffer from some pretty bad anxiety, and although what the author is describing does not match my personal experience, knowing it entails a bit of his personal experience makes it more enjoyable.
One writing technique that the author uses that I thoroughly enjoyed was doing away with normal chapters. The novel does feature typical breaking points, but there is not a single conventional chapter in its entirety. At first I think it took me a while to get into in terms to pacing, as well as making a few points confusing, but it lead to one hell of an explosive ending.
Another good entry from the author.
I strangely read this before/at the same time as/during/ two other reads (Wild Things by Ian Thomas/ Goosebumps: Hall of Horrors: Claws by R. L. Stine) that also starred young kids/teenage girls. It’s interesting to see how all of the author’s portrayed them and the differences. Malerman’s features high school characters from the girl’s basketball team, and it was nice to see him have them act/speak age appropriate. One thing that surprised me though was that it’s meant to be current, but there wasn’t anything indicting the generation in any way in terms of slang.
This book very heavily leans into basketball. It bleeds into the plot, the settings, the characters, everything. As someone that doesn’t really care for it, it made it kind of hard to get into the story for me. While I understand that reading is a way to learn and experience perspectives we do not live ourselves, it just doesn’t work for me in that way. IE. I’ve never been a teenage girl living through the trauma of a horror novel, therefore that’s a perspective I can get behind. However, entire pages about free throws is not the same in my opinion, although I’ve never been a basketball player either.
After reading the afterward where the author speaks to his love of basketball I can accept it though. He also speaks of his experience with anxiety, as this novel goes pretty heavily into bad anxiety, anxiety attacks, and panic attacks. I myself suffer from some pretty bad anxiety, and although what the author is describing does not match my personal experience, knowing it entails a bit of his personal experience makes it more enjoyable.
One writing technique that the author uses that I thoroughly enjoyed was doing away with normal chapters. The novel does feature typical breaking points, but there is not a single conventional chapter in its entirety. At first I think it took me a while to get into in terms to pacing, as well as making a few points confusing, but it lead to one hell of an explosive ending.
Another good entry from the author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
oracle_of_madness's review
dark
tense
4.5
Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this Arc!!!
After finishing this book, I read in the acknowledgements Malerman expressing that Daphne is a love letter to horror, to basketball, and also to anxiety. This made me really see how powerful this horror story is. It's anxiety that the main character, Kit, deals with and it's the ghost story of Daphne that really burrows in the girls basketball team's minds which creates the reality of the horror itself. It's the constant unwanted thoughts of this scary ghost, Daphne, that brings her to life to actually murder her victims.
This is brilliant horror. I felt like the writing is similar to Stephen King 80's-90's era which I love. I definitely recommend this to horror fans!
Out September 20, 2022!
After finishing this book, I read in the acknowledgements Malerman expressing that Daphne is a love letter to horror, to basketball, and also to anxiety. This made me really see how powerful this horror story is. It's anxiety that the main character, Kit, deals with and it's the ghost story of Daphne that really burrows in the girls basketball team's minds which creates the reality of the horror itself. It's the constant unwanted thoughts of this scary ghost, Daphne, that brings her to life to actually murder her victims.
This is brilliant horror. I felt like the writing is similar to Stephen King 80's-90's era which I love. I definitely recommend this to horror fans!
Out September 20, 2022!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail