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angie11290's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Violence, Gun violence, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, and Blood
zarakoconnor'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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Great exploration of trauma and internal struggles that fuel people, asking questions about existence and science and the supernatural and what that means for humanity. The mixed media style made the story flow quickly and characterisation was uniquely engaging. This is not just a ghost story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Police brutality
awkwardimagination's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
god what to make of this, i dont think i fully grasped what was going despite being mostly right about what was going on. that being said this fully did not go the way i thought it would at all. I loved the multimedium writing style, i love that in any book. liked jake and matt, rashida grew on me. I started the book really liking claire but then I just got really annoyed with her. started the book hating kevin, ended it hating kevin.
i guess the story was interesting and it kept me occupied for a majority of my near twelve hr flight home, but that ending just threw me off what the fuck.
from my perspective the more "socially sensitive" parts of the book were handedly well, but i truly cant make any distinctive descion on that (i am white) at the beginning it felt like Rashida was put into a stereotypical archetype for black characters (couldnt tell you which one, but it truely felt like id seen it far too many times before) but i dont know enough about media analysis to say that with any certainty. also the only black person, or poc really, in the series. And im hesitant to count her sister and son bc a we dont ever see her son or her sister until the very end. we only interact with the sister through nonverbal communication via rashida until one speaking line in like the epiloge. even still thats not a lot.
best part of the book hands down were all the 60s references. the only one that irked me was the "How many licks?" bc goddammit that is not an obscure reference that only white man in his 60s should get, the rest of them were millenials and if i, a gen-z person, know that reference without it being explained to me so should they.
but yeah thats it. fun found footage horror story but written, filled with fun 60s bits, fucked human experiments, and many questions (who the fuck was the hoodie guy? am i missing something??) ACAB baby ✌️
i guess the story was interesting and it kept me occupied for a majority of my near twelve hr flight home, but that ending just threw me off what the fuck.
from my perspective the more "socially sensitive" parts of the book were handedly well, but i truly cant make any distinctive descion on that (i am white) at the beginning it felt like Rashida was put into a stereotypical archetype for black characters (couldnt tell you which one, but it truely felt like id seen it far too many times before) but i dont know enough about media analysis to say that with any certainty. also the only black person, or poc really, in the series. And im hesitant to count her sister and son bc a we dont ever see her son or her sister until the very end. we only interact with the sister through nonverbal communication via rashida until one speaking line in like the epiloge. even still thats not a lot.
best part of the book hands down were all the 60s references. the only one that irked me was the "How many licks?" bc goddammit that is not an obscure reference that only white man in his 60s should get, the rest of them were millenials and if i, a gen-z person, know that reference without it being explained to me so should they.
but yeah thats it. fun found footage horror story but written, filled with fun 60s bits, fucked human experiments, and many questions (who the fuck was the hoodie guy? am i missing something??) ACAB baby ✌️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Excrement, and Medical content
Moderate: Mental illness, Murder, Gun violence, Vomit, and Torture
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
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
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Drug use, Bullying, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
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
dogearedbooks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Mental illness, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Gun violence
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