Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

11 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

The athmosphere in this story was palpable, but it didn’t quite grab me. Could’ve maybe benefited from being condenced? I got bored at many parts, which is really saying something because I’m all about ”no plot, just vibes” type of books.

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

I really enjoyed the ride of this book, the tension that rose all around the Funhole and its quirks was… well fun! Everyone was equally unlikable in many ways, but I did feel bad for the main character Nicholas. His girlfriend was super annoying, great writing on that part, she was truly insufferable and horrible. Same with all the art gallery goons, I was happy about what happened to that one mask douche at the end. 

Even though the video was indicative as to what was most likely going to happen post book, I still was sort of left dissatisfied when he never jumped in. I get the appeal of leaving an open ending of sorts, like “will he or won’t he? We all know he did” but yeah idk just wish it was slightly longer? 

pretty bad ass about the girlfriends feet getting ripped off tho lmaoooo

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious reflective sad slow-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
challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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

I've been wanting to read this one for a while and it did not disappoint: nasty characters in nasty situations as everything spins out of control. It got a little repetitive for me near the end and the kindle edition had some annoying OCR errors but overall highly recommended to anyone who likes weird horror.

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was delightfully weird and gruesome. As a horror story it drags at times, but the payoff is more or less worth it. There's no twist, no real surprises as you see everything coming from the beginning but the MC's slow descent is brutal and its take on toxic relationships is subtle enough it doesn't feel cloying, but gritty and sometimes all too real.

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challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

I’ve heard Kathe Koja’s horror novels are excellent, but until now I’d never read one. I absolutely loved The Cipher. Nakota and Nicholas are semi-sorta-sometimes a thing (or at least they sleep together, and Nicholas believes he loves Nakota). But what really draws them together is the mysterious hole to nowhere in the storage room downstairs from Nicholas’s flat. Nakota is determined to experiment with it, using bugs and then a mouse. Something happens to all of them–the bugs mutate strangely before dying, and the mouse… well, we just won’t go there. When Nicholas’s hand goes into the hole, a mysterious sore appears on his palm. They’re able to get some footage of what’s down there using a camcorder on a string, and the results are literally mind-bending. Nakota uses the video tape to draw in more and more people, even when there end up being multiple factions of people fighting over access to the hole. As for Nakota herself, she hopes for a more radical transformation courtesy of whatever’s going on in there.


Wow, the characters. Okay. Phew! Nakota is positively repellant. She uses people. She manipulates people. In fact, I daresay she does not bother to interact with anyone unless she is using and manipulating them. She knows Nicholas loves her and uses that to twist him around her little finger. She’s calculatedly vicious. As for Nicholas, he isn’t Mr. Perfect himself. He loves Nakota in his own weird way, mostly by letting her walk all over him. He spends most of his time drunk. If Nakota had been the point of view character, she would have been too unlikable and obnoxious. Nicholas is perfect as the PoV character, because while he’s no angel, he’s better enough to be engaging despite (or maybe because of) his flaws. Both characters constantly grate against one another. It galls Nakota that Nicholas is transforming when she is not. Nearly all of the characters in here are deeply flawed people.


The flow of the narrative–told from Nicholas’s point of view–is somewhat stream-of-consciousness-like. There’s a lot of exploration of Nicholas’s thoughts and ruminations, and yet I wasn’t bored at all once I got into the story. I never felt like we were retreading too much ground, or that there wasn’t a need for it, or that it slowed things down. Nicholas’s thoughts made things more interesting instead of less.


My only (totally minor) objection is that I wanted just a little bit more at the end. I felt like it ended a bit abruptly. The ending was still very good; I just felt it wasn’t quite as amazing as the rest of the book.


Content note: Sex, animal harm/death, suicidality, and the amount of violence and gore you can expect from pretty much any horror novel. 


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