Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Night House by Jo Nesbø

14 reviews

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Other than some fatophobia I really enjoyed this book. It's definitely an oddly written one, but it somehow worked out for me. 

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adventurous dark funny 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

I love an unreliable narrator, but I'm not a fan of twist endings where it turns out
everything you just read was the dream of a schizophrenic.
I really enjoyed the world building, characters, and writing style, but the ending wasn't it for me.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I finished this book in 7 hours.

Its told in three parts:

The first part I did not enjoy much. I thought it was just full of cheesy horror clichés, which in its defence, was meant to be the point. It’s just not at all my thing, and the writing felt lazy and gross.

The second part changed my interest entirely, and turned into the type of fever dream horror that I absolutely love. 

The third part weaves the first two parts together seamlessly, and made most of the criticisms I had towards the first part make complete sense. 

I hated this book at first, and ended up obsessed over some of the small patterns and details I didn’t notice until thinking back in hindsight.

If the first part was a 3 star at best, the second part turned it into a 3.5, and the third part made it 4.

But I’m still going to nock some points off for throw away lines that seem inappropriate to find in a book written this year, as well as tropes that I find tired and unnecessary, even though I understand that it’s part of the story being told.

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character

What makes a good horror? I honestly have no idea. Every time I try to write a review my brain starts short-circuiting. This book was just so trippy!!!! The temporal disorientation and the unreliable narrator and all things weird and bizarre and incomprehensible had my mind turning itself into knots. It's been a while since I read a good horror (or even a bad horror), so this was a thrilling shock to the system! It reminded me of the Goosebumps books I devoured as a kid. I would not recommend this book to kids though. It's what Freud would call... the uncanny. And it made for the perfect late night spooky season thriller! 

If you're a fan of Stranger Things, Goosebumps, and books that go bump in the night, this may just be the book for you. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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