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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was really excited to read something by Elizabeth Hand and while this was good - it was anything spectacular. I was hopeful this would be a good thriller, but instead it was slow in the beginning and didn’t provide a lot of follow through in the end. It upheld a sense of mystery but not enough for me to feel enamored by it.
Oh boy, I really really enjoyed that.
To start, I should say that I listened to the audiobook, which had a full cast. That really enhanced the experience, hearing different voices for all the various people being interviewed. I loved the conversational tone, and the way nostalgia was laced into all the accounts. It felt very authentic to famous people reflecting back on their youths, the moment their celebrity crystalized.
The vibe of Wylding Hall as a setting was properly cozy and spooky all at the same time. I love how it could feel like a comforting space for the creation of something magical, but then also a horror movie setting the next minute. And the two were linked: whatever was happening to Julian was spurring on his creativity, helping him to make magic with his songs.
In contrast, I loved that the rest of the band wasn't taken in by any of the haunting stuff particularly, but they couldn't resist the feeling that something was seriously off. That final reveal of the photographs, and the inhuman visage of the girl in white, was really chilling because of how subtle and slow the build had been up to then. The endless staircase, the room full of dead birds, the "optical illusion" on top of the hill... and then add in the fact that many of the people involved were high or drunk or both for a lot of the time, and you could chalk it all up to faulty memory.
But the photographs, and the fact that everyone saw the same, seemingly impossible, thing in them... oof. Properly scary!
This is a very vibes-based reading experience and it feels hard to talk about it in terms of plot. I greatly enjoyed myself with this one!
The few things that stop it getting to five stars... well, one is that the narrative voice of many of the characters feels quite similar, so it took me a while even with a full voice recording for me to figure out who was who in the band. Will and Ashton in particular felt a little interchangeable to me sometimes.
The other flaw in the text for me was Arianna. I kept waiting for the tragedy that started off this novel to end up having a deeper meaning, or for things to get re-contextualized in some form or other, but it never really did. I don't know how functionally different the story would have been, had Arianna never existed, and Lesley's just the girl lead singer from the start. If there's some implication that Arianna and the Girl in White are connected in some way, or that there's something more going on with Julian than meets the eye, even before they get to Wylding Hall, well... I needed a bit more of a hint of that, to help me understand why the story starts the way it does.
But honestly, this was excellent, and I'm so glad I read it.
To start, I should say that I listened to the audiobook, which had a full cast. That really enhanced the experience, hearing different voices for all the various people being interviewed. I loved the conversational tone, and the way nostalgia was laced into all the accounts. It felt very authentic to famous people reflecting back on their youths, the moment their celebrity crystalized.
The vibe of Wylding Hall as a setting was properly cozy and spooky all at the same time. I love how it could feel like a comforting space for the creation of something magical, but then also a horror movie setting the next minute. And the two were linked: whatever was happening to Julian was spurring on his creativity, helping him to make magic with his songs.
In contrast, I loved that the rest of the band wasn't taken in by any of the haunting stuff particularly, but they couldn't resist the feeling that something was seriously off. That final reveal of the photographs, and the inhuman visage of the girl in white, was really chilling because of how subtle and slow the build had been up to then. The endless staircase, the room full of dead birds, the "optical illusion" on top of the hill... and then add in the fact that many of the people involved were high or drunk or both for a lot of the time, and you could chalk it all up to faulty memory.
But the photographs, and the fact that everyone saw the same, seemingly impossible, thing in them... oof. Properly scary!
This is a very vibes-based reading experience and it feels hard to talk about it in terms of plot. I greatly enjoyed myself with this one!
The few things that stop it getting to five stars... well, one is that the narrative voice of many of the characters feels quite similar, so it took me a while even with a full voice recording for me to figure out who was who in the band. Will and Ashton in particular felt a little interchangeable to me sometimes.
The other flaw in the text for me was Arianna. I kept waiting for the tragedy that started off this novel to end up having a deeper meaning, or for things to get re-contextualized in some form or other, but it never really did. I don't know how functionally different the story would have been, had Arianna never existed, and Lesley's just the girl lead singer from the start. If there's some implication that Arianna and the Girl in White are connected in some way, or that there's something more going on with Julian than meets the eye, even before they get to Wylding Hall, well... I needed a bit more of a hint of that, to help me understand why the story starts the way it does.
But honestly, this was excellent, and I'm so glad I read it.
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/day-690-wylding-hall/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/day-690-wylding-hall/
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Alcohol
Moderate: Death, Suicide
Minor: Vomit
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not a bad read. Intriguing. Well written. Just very short, and very vague.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No