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3.07 AVERAGE
3.07 AVERAGE
My introduction to DeMeester did NOT disappoint! This was a great book and irked me hardcore - full review to come!
This book isn’t perfect, but it is very scary. It has elements of cultish religion, body horror, nature horror, and just dread. Some of the scenes Demeester writes are incredibly disturbing and dark and gross. Her writing makes you feel covered in dirt and earth and that something is crawling on you or in you. It’s amazing. The dialogue could be stronger, but her descriptions just blew me away that the sometimes trope-filled dialogue didn’t bother me. I need to read more by her!
Finished Beneath, and was...disappointed? Unimpressed? I think it just wasn’t a horror book for me for a few reasons:
1) I hate snakes, with a fearful passion
2) I apparently am not a huge fan of gross body horror
3) I found it went off the rails plot wise too soon, and it felt like it did so just to amp up the horror aspect of it all.
It had great potential, and it did keep me hooked (hence the 3 * rating and not two). Since it is a debut novel, I'll probably give her short story collection a try, because I feel like this would have been a much better short story. I really wanted there to be a bit more mystery before the big reveal as to who the big bad was.
1) I hate snakes, with a fearful passion
2) I apparently am not a huge fan of gross body horror
3) I found it went off the rails plot wise too soon, and it felt like it did so just to amp up the horror aspect of it all.
It had great potential, and it did keep me hooked (hence the 3 * rating and not two). Since it is a debut novel, I'll probably give her short story collection a try, because I feel like this would have been a much better short story. I really wanted there to be a bit more mystery before the big reveal as to who the big bad was.
A snake handling religion located in a small church in an even smaller backwoods town. A reporter with a dark history surrounding the church of her childhood. A mother and daughter enveloped in a slinking, slithery darkness with ties to horrors that aren’t as removed from the everyday world as we’d like to think.
Beneath boasts a dark beauty and DeMeester’s talent lies in her descriptive writing and her world-building when it comes to this novel. The characters are well-developed, and some of the most disturbing scenes are written with a grace and a believability that left me feeling cringe-y for days to follow. I may rethink my gardening habits from now on.
The last section or so moved a little too hurriedly, and the ending left me wanting just a bit more. The interactions between two of the main characters (no spoilers here) were a tad confusing.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. I’m picking up her collection, Everything Underneath, soon and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.
Beneath boasts a dark beauty and DeMeester’s talent lies in her descriptive writing and her world-building when it comes to this novel. The characters are well-developed, and some of the most disturbing scenes are written with a grace and a believability that left me feeling cringe-y for days to follow. I may rethink my gardening habits from now on.
The last section or so moved a little too hurriedly, and the ending left me wanting just a bit more. The interactions between two of the main characters (no spoilers here) were a tad confusing.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book. I’m picking up her collection, Everything Underneath, soon and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.