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aromarrie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“When I smile, you don’t have to be scared of me, okay?”
if there was a top three category of books i cherish with my whole life, this one is definitely it.
i loved nick & sam’s pov’s so much the first time and fell back in love with it again in this reread. and that bittersweet feeling pervaded throughout the whole story as always!! especially in all of sam’s terror disguised with wise cracks + nick’s awe of the mountains that veered into possessive territory.
absolutely wicked atmosphere, with so much striking detail, it made the horror hit harder (that and the love story that tangled in between). the vivid details would be a hit or miss for some, all of its long monologues and such, but i adored it.
i’ve always loved horror legends and sam’s childhood fascination with it made the events that unfolded feel even more surreal.
this story has stuck with me since 2021, and the numb feeling i felt at the ending was as strong as ever in 2024 and i feel relieved. because it confirmed how much nick & sam’s story has still stuck with me, that i could relive that first moment of grief with them :’)
if there was a top three category of books i cherish with my whole life, this one is definitely it.
i loved nick & sam’s pov’s so much the first time and fell back in love with it again in this reread. and that bittersweet feeling pervaded throughout the whole story as always!! especially in all of sam’s terror disguised with wise cracks + nick’s awe of the mountains that veered into possessive territory.
absolutely wicked atmosphere, with so much striking detail, it made the horror hit harder (that and the love story that tangled in between). the vivid details would be a hit or miss for some, all of its long monologues and such, but i adored it.
i’ve always loved horror legends and sam’s childhood fascination with it made the events that unfolded feel even more surreal.
this story has stuck with me since 2021, and the numb feeling i felt at the ending was as strong as ever in 2024 and i feel relieved. because it confirmed how much nick & sam’s story has still stuck with me, that i could relive that first moment of grief with them :’)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
liltakeawaygirl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicide
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Sexual content
bunniv's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Body horror, and Sexual content
Minor: Child death, Car accident, and Self harm
erinmjustice's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Gore
Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Self harm
katiemack's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I received this as an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is deeply horrifying, but I didn't expect it to be so wry and...romantic? It's horror first and foremost, but there's some tenderness within Nick and Sam's relationship that I didn't expect.
As much as Sam frustrated me, I quite enjoyed him and his relatable defense mechanism (i.e., using humor as deflection). I wish we had spent more time with his sister, Julia, especially after that traumatizing start to the book, but it was still an epic, supernatural, car-crash of a journey as Nick, Sam, and another character or two try to piece together exactly what the hell happened to Nick's face after his perilous journey up the Maudit. (If you know any French, this should tell you exactly what kind of mountain the Maudit is.)
Do you like alpinism, Stephen King, Dutch novels, or all of the above? Pick this up.
This is deeply horrifying, but I didn't expect it to be so wry and...romantic? It's horror first and foremost, but there's some tenderness within Nick and Sam's relationship that I didn't expect.
As much as Sam frustrated me, I quite enjoyed him and his relatable defense mechanism (i.e., using humor as deflection). I wish we had spent more time with his sister, Julia, especially after that traumatizing start to the book, but it was still an epic, supernatural, car-crash of a journey as Nick, Sam, and another character or two try to piece together exactly what the hell happened to Nick's face after his perilous journey up the Maudit. (If you know any French, this should tell you exactly what kind of mountain the Maudit is.)
Do you like alpinism, Stephen King, Dutch novels, or all of the above? Pick this up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Suicide, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, and Blood
Minor: Sexual content
rachelunabridged's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
thanks to netgalley for the arc!
not gonna lie, i read the first few chapters of this and thought i was going to have a bad time. the beginning felt really jumbled and confusing. paired with my immediate dislike of one of the main characters, i thought i was setting myself up for a rough read; or worse, a dnf. that ended up not being the case as the story snatched my attention around the 20% mark and would not let me go until the end.
this story has three primary characters: nick (a journalist and outdoorsman), sam (nick's city slicker boyfriend), and the maudit (a mountain with a sinister will of its own). after a climb with fellow mountaineer augustin goes south, nick barely escapes with his life. now heavily disfigured and haunted by his memories of the doomed climb, nick begins to suspect that he didn't return from the mountain alone.
i'm a huge fan of folk horror, and this book really scratched that itch for me. it was incredibly atmospheric (after the mess that was the beginning) and full of some great moments that left me chilled.
i should go ahead and warn that this book has a heavy romance subplot. as someone that doesn't enjoy reading romance, i was worried that this would be a deal breaker for me, but it ended up being significant thematically and fit in the plot enough that it didn't feel out of place. (though there were some bits toward the beginning that really had me wanting to throw sam off a cliff, tbh.)
overall, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this read. i was so invested once the plot picked up and started moving. it definitely could've benefited from an extra editing session or two since it's quite long for what it is, but it wasn't distractingly so. definitely give it a read if you enjoy folk horror!
not gonna lie, i read the first few chapters of this and thought i was going to have a bad time. the beginning felt really jumbled and confusing. paired with my immediate dislike of one of the main characters, i thought i was setting myself up for a rough read; or worse, a dnf. that ended up not being the case as the story snatched my attention around the 20% mark and would not let me go until the end.
this story has three primary characters: nick (a journalist and outdoorsman), sam (nick's city slicker boyfriend), and the maudit (a mountain with a sinister will of its own). after a climb with fellow mountaineer augustin goes south, nick barely escapes with his life. now heavily disfigured and haunted by his memories of the doomed climb, nick begins to suspect that he didn't return from the mountain alone.
i'm a huge fan of folk horror, and this book really scratched that itch for me. it was incredibly atmospheric (after the mess that was the beginning) and full of some great moments that left me chilled.
i should go ahead and warn that this book has a heavy romance subplot. as someone that doesn't enjoy reading romance, i was worried that this would be a deal breaker for me, but it ended up being significant thematically and fit in the plot enough that it didn't feel out of place. (though there were some bits toward the beginning that really had me wanting to throw sam off a cliff, tbh.)
overall, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this read. i was so invested once the plot picked up and started moving. it definitely could've benefited from an extra editing session or two since it's quite long for what it is, but it wasn't distractingly so. definitely give it a read if you enjoy folk horror!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Child death
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