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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death
dark
mysterious
Unfortunately this just felt like evil kid nonsense with no real reason or explanation for the evil.
I wasn’t as emotionally invested in theses characters as I was with Brother’s characters. This was still a good book though. I couldn’t guess the ending
I think maybe if the book was a bit longer and spent more time building up empathy with Jack, I’d have liked this better.
Spoiler
even with the knowledge that all of Ahlborn’s endings are bad.I think maybe if the book was a bit longer and spent more time building up empathy with Jack, I’d have liked this better.
A good read-in-one-sitting book. Creepy and very good, gets to the point from the beginning.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"I saw it, Daddy. I saw it just like you."
Heritable demonic possession is a helluva concept, but something about its execution in Seed leaves much to be desired. Two unwitting children, and two absolutely witless parents; I'm hard-pressed to think of two worse characters in a recent novel than Aimee and Jack. Aimee likes to bitch that Jack doesn't make enough money to support their family or get them into a nicer house, but she also - apparently - refuses to get her own job to help and instead takes it all out on Jack for not being a better breadwinner. Jack, however, is kind of a witless dingdong who has never managed to break free from whatever the hell happened to him back home.
Could this be read as a deeply metaphorical examination of generational trauma and the ways that families perpetuate the cycle of abuse even when they're determined to avoid it? Sure. Could this be a pseudo-allegory for epigenetic impacts on family trees? Could be. Would it achieve all of these things much more soundly if Ania Ahlborn was a more effective writer? Sorry - yes.
The problem is that she crafts great story concepts and then serves them up with the most awkward, bog-standard prose imaginable. Here's my rant about that hidden behind a spoiler tag because it's really not relevant to my review:
I dunno, y'all. At the end of the day, I think Ahlborn's writing just isn't for me. She comes up with some dastardly-great plots, but I never really enjoy the books the way everyone else seems to. Great start. Middling to dragging middle. Brutal conclusion, but also kind of lackluster when you examine it in context.
Heritable demonic possession is a helluva concept, but something about its execution in Seed leaves much to be desired. Two unwitting children, and two absolutely witless parents; I'm hard-pressed to think of two worse characters in a recent novel than Aimee and Jack. Aimee likes to bitch that Jack doesn't make enough money to support their family or get them into a nicer house, but she also - apparently - refuses to get her own job to help and instead takes it all out on Jack for not being a better breadwinner. Jack, however, is kind of a witless dingdong who has never managed to break free from whatever the hell happened to him back home.
Could this be read as a deeply metaphorical examination of generational trauma and the ways that families perpetuate the cycle of abuse even when they're determined to avoid it? Sure. Could this be a pseudo-allegory for epigenetic impacts on family trees? Could be. Would it achieve all of these things much more soundly if Ania Ahlborn was a more effective writer? Sorry - yes.
The problem is that she crafts great story concepts and then serves them up with the most awkward, bog-standard prose imaginable. Here's my rant about that hidden behind a spoiler tag because it's really not relevant to my review:
Spoiler
"She grabbed the remote and paused her movie, abandoning her bowl of popcorn upon the couch cushions, ready to track it down." WE GET IT. We were there when she made the popcorn. We were there when she started the movie. Not everything needs to be told a million times over; sometimes it really is okay to just show.I dunno, y'all. At the end of the day, I think Ahlborn's writing just isn't for me. She comes up with some dastardly-great plots, but I never really enjoy the books the way everyone else seems to. Great start. Middling to dragging middle. Brutal conclusion, but also kind of lackluster when you examine it in context.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an insane book that truly sent shivers up my spine. I wanted to yell and shake all the characters to do something before something really really bad happened, but also saw why they felt/were so helpless to stop anything from happening. The author truly showed me how scary it is to watch someone you love transform into something that’s violent, evil, and hungry. I can’t wait to read more of her books!