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soobooksalot's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death, and Gun violence
charlottesreadingweb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
This book gives major "Men Writing Women" vibes. In this way, I found Claire's journal entries especially grating & Jessica was sort of a caricature. It was also about 100 pages too long. I listened to the audiobook- to it's credit, the production was fantastic. The narrators did what they could with this material. Honestly, this book has been written before. It's a combination of The Deep & Little Heaven, both written by Nick Cutter and both are better than this book in my opinion. This is not so much a horror book as a book about enlightenment? If you could call it that? I think horror fans can largely skip this one, but if you are going to read it, the audiobook is the way to go. I cannot imagine what this book would be like reading it in print.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Murder
shadowspinner's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Murder and Gun violence
Minor: Self harm, Death of parent, and Alcoholism
priscillarobock's review against another edition
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Death, and Gun violence
ambenicole418's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
So, I want to preface this review by saying I’m not a ghost story/horror person. In fact the only reason I read this book is because I saw a booktuber I enjoy talking about it and I wanted to switch up the genres I read. That being said….I ATE THIS BOOK UP, but also the ending and the characters kinda pissed me off lol.
This story caught me off guard because it’s not told in a traditional format. It’s told exclusively as if we’re watching found footage from a reality show complete with production notes, film footage, journal entries from the cast, emails/texts from cast mates to family members, and emails with producers. When I noticed this, I was originally nervous about how that would impact the storytelling, but I think it actually worked in the story’s and helped with the pacing of the book. It never felt like the story was dragging and I think the storytelling format had a lot to do with that.
Now I do have to say I’m very conflicted with this book, because the story was really interesting, I was having fun with it, and I was ready to give this book 4-4.5 stars, but then it started to fall into the same pitfall that a lot of horror books/movies fall into for me, which is when characters make really stupid decisions so the horror can take place. What I mean by this is, (minor spoilers ahead) we’ll have things like a character deciding to leave after seeing a ghost because they know it’s too dangerous to continue, then they decide to come back just because, and then spend the rest of the book being scared of said ghosts. What was the point of that? Just let the character leave and stay gone I mean it’s not like that would be an unrealistic thing for them to do. Then there’s the stereotypical character that blatantly puts everyone in danger because for some reason they have decided they know what’s best even though they are dealing with things they don’t understand 🤦🏽♀️. Without giving away any more spoilers, it was just a lot of things like that that pissed me off and truly kept me from loving this book.
All that being said I did have a good enough time with this book to motivate me to read more horror books in the future, so I’m calling that a win for Episode 13. 💖
This story caught me off guard because it’s not told in a traditional format. It’s told exclusively as if we’re watching found footage from a reality show complete with production notes, film footage, journal entries from the cast, emails/texts from cast mates to family members, and emails with producers. When I noticed this, I was originally nervous about how that would impact the storytelling, but I think it actually worked in the story’s and helped with the pacing of the book. It never felt like the story was dragging and I think the storytelling format had a lot to do with that.
Now I do have to say I’m very conflicted with this book, because the story was really interesting, I was having fun with it, and I was ready to give this book 4-4.5 stars, but then it started to fall into the same pitfall that a lot of horror books/movies fall into for me, which is when characters make really stupid decisions so the horror can take place. What I mean by this is, (minor spoilers ahead) we’ll have things like a character deciding to leave after seeing a ghost because they know it’s too dangerous to continue, then they decide to come back just because, and then spend the rest of the book being scared of said ghosts. What was the point of that? Just let the character leave and stay gone I mean it’s not like that would be an unrealistic thing for them to do. Then there’s the stereotypical character that blatantly puts everyone in danger because for some reason they have decided they know what’s best even though they are dealing with things they don’t understand 🤦🏽♀️. Without giving away any more spoilers, it was just a lot of things like that that pissed me off and truly kept me from loving this book.
All that being said I did have a good enough time with this book to motivate me to read more horror books in the future, so I’m calling that a win for Episode 13. 💖
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Murder, Death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Cannibalism, Mental illness, and Self harm
blacksphinx's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
As a lover of horror and the epistolary format, this book was a highly anticipated release for me. While it turned out to be a fun ride and would make a GREAT movie, it stumbled a bit at a basic level that constantly nagged at me. See, the two hardest aspects of the epistolary format are "does this sound like an authentic record a person would make?" and "does it make sense that this information is being recorded in this situation?"
A large portion of this book is journal entries. The reasoning behind having the characters journal (excerpts would be pulled from them for blog posts to promote upcoming episodes of the TV show) is great. But, often these "journal entries" felt like regular first-person narration, of the kind that constantly pinged my brain as "someone is making stuff up in a reddit post." (who the hell is out here writing down conversations word-for-word with quotation marks hours after the event??) While these entries bothered me, there are other aspects that truly shined - I loved the text messages between Jessica and her sister in particular.
The closer we get to the end of the novel, the more it cracked my suspension of disbelief that people in threatening, possibly lethal, situations with a ticking clock would stop every couple of feet and write about their feelings. It's okay for there to be gaps the audience gets to puzzle over! I promise!
Overall, it is still an entertaining book and a solid B horror movie, but it didn't set the genre on fire or anything. I will be checking out the author's back catalog in the future. If you are looking for more epistolary horror, may I recommend the short story collection Among the Lilies by Daniel Mills?
A large portion of this book is journal entries. The reasoning behind having the characters journal (excerpts would be pulled from them for blog posts to promote upcoming episodes of the TV show) is great. But, often these "journal entries" felt like regular first-person narration, of the kind that constantly pinged my brain as "someone is making stuff up in a reddit post." (who the hell is out here writing down conversations word-for-word with quotation marks hours after the event??) While these entries bothered me, there are other aspects that truly shined - I loved the text messages between Jessica and her sister in particular.
The closer we get to the end of the novel, the more it cracked my suspension of disbelief that people in threatening, possibly lethal, situations with a ticking clock would stop every couple of feet and write about their feelings. It's okay for there to be gaps the audience gets to puzzle over! I promise!
Overall, it is still an entertaining book and a solid B horror movie, but it didn't set the genre on fire or anything. I will be checking out the author's back catalog in the future. If you are looking for more epistolary horror, may I recommend the short story collection Among the Lilies by Daniel Mills?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Murder, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Self harm, Excrement, and Physical abuse
Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, Racism, Alcoholism, and Injury/Injury detail
anniup's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Death
Moderate: Murder, Vomit, and Excrement
Minor: Sexual content
thecozyrogue's review against another edition
challenging
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Gun violence
ejsimpson's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm, Death, and Murder
katkinslee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm a sucker for found footage stuff so I really enjoyed this book!
Don't go into this expecting it to end all nicely wrapped up because if anything I finished this book with more questions than answers.
The characters all kind of suck and I'd also say I didn't really enjoy how the author wrote his females.
It was definitely creepy in parts but I wish there was more haunted house stuff and less cosmic horror.
If you like a mixed media style book you might enjoy this one, I have heard good things about the audiobook.
Don't go into this expecting it to end all nicely wrapped up because if anything I finished this book with more questions than answers.
The characters all kind of suck and I'd also say I didn't really enjoy how the author wrote his females.
It was definitely creepy in parts but I wish there was more haunted house stuff and less cosmic horror.
If you like a mixed media style book you might enjoy this one, I have heard good things about the audiobook.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Death, and Vomit