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mouse42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction and Body horror
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism
dustghosts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
+ great narration from the audiobook reader
+ a fantastic writing style that meanders through the slow moments well, evocative and high-tension at more horrific/scary scenes, overall I would read more from this author
+ some truly scary visuals / moments that felt almost made for the screen
+ at least nearer the beginning, a really well-balanced homage to a place with a complicated history, past and present
+ excellent depiction of a toxic, all-consuming relationship, and a complicated and nuanced depiction of what grief for that might look like
o not a particularly likeable cast, and the other three characters in the friend group were more vividly and interestingly depicted than our narrator, Erin. a few characters call her “empty,” though, and I think this blankness might have been purposeful
- this book is trying to handle a lot of difficult topics (grief, history and how to reckon with it, toxic relationships and friendships, addiction, the creation of “ghost stories,” and some more minor ones). sometimes it does this really well, but more often feels muddled and the pace suffers for it. not that a book can’t focus on multiple themes, but I think that leaning stronger into one or two could have helped the book to feel more focused and purposeful. (For example: we spend a lot of time talking about facing history and giving it its due, but that seems to fall by the wayside the further we get into the book, and feels unsatisfying to be reminded of again at the end when we haven’t looked dead on at any of it in some time.)
- I’m not sure whether this is a helpful or harmful depiction of addiction, and I don’t really have the tools to analyze that— will have to learn and listen more to do so properly. lots of reviewers say this does a good job of portraying the “horrors of addiction,” the destructive patterns and loss of self that can come with. to me, on a surface level, this feels often very sensationalized and demonizing of drug users— not unlike those books we would have been obsessed with in middle school. having the narrator be an addict herself, and the natural marriage of genre to subject, helps some, but I have a major issue reconciling the moralizing of the epilogue with
- as a sucker for repetition, I still felt that this book leaned a bit too heavily on it at times, and it just felt like when you start nodding along to someone as they’re speaking to you just to see them through
anyway. it was an interesting and mostly-enjoyable read, but felt like it went off the rails at some point and I’m not sure that it ever made it all the way back on
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Drug use, Gaslighting, Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Gore
jrharris's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I will say I feel especially attached to this book because I live in central Virginia and this is set in Richmond(and Hopewell). Chapman was born and raised in Richmond and he references a lot of distinct areas in town. You really get the vibe of the city in the book. With that said, not all of it is presented in a positive light. I don’t think Chapman chose Richmond as the setting just for nostalgia. With the heavy themes of drug addiction, it mirrors the real-life increase of opioid overdoses in the last few years here. With this book also involving ghosts, Virginia and its history are a perfect setting for this.
This book isn’t a light-hearted read. It’s got heavy themes of grief, death, and drug addiction. I really sympathized and felt the pain of Erin, as she tries to get through each day after her friend/ex Silas dies. When she’s given an opportunity to see him again, it’s understandable why she risks everything to do it. The horror scenes in this book…incredible. The séance scenes with be stuck in my head for awhile. The physical descriptions of the characters as they descend further into addiction are traumatizing. Chapman really shows the struggle of addiction in this and how it’s a day-to-day battle for a lot of people.
I could go on and on about how good this book was but I don’t want to give anything away. I highly recommend this but just be prepared for a lot of heavy topics. Thank you to Net Galley and Quirk Books for the digital ARC of this! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Graphic: Addiction and Drug abuse
Moderate: Death and Body horror
abanks's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Alcohol, Excrement, Abortion, and Child death