Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Episode Thirteen

Very creepy. Very weird. This would be a good movie or TV series. I liked the way it was written as a series of journal entries, film footage transcripts, interviews, and text message threads from the various perspectives of the characters. That and the creepy plot line made the reading fly by.

Content Warnings

charlottesreadingweb's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

blacksphinx's review against another edition

Go to review page

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?

Content Warnings

paronomaniac's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

emimli's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Wait, I actually really liked this.

Was not expecting it to go full House of Leaves at the end, but I’m so glad it did!

If you’re looking for a more traditional haunted house/ghost story then I would recommend skipping this one. But if you enjoy sci-fi horror with cosmic/Lovecraftian themes then definitely check it out!

Content Warnings

caidyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow. This book blew me away! It sounded intriguing to me, but it's honestly quite scary and creepy. Very atmospheric. If you enjoy horror, this is one to check out.

Content Warnings

ripxw's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

More...