Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Episode Thirteen

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.

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sky_maris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

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kittiesss's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

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cryptidenthusiast's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was….meh. Nothing groundbreaking, although the concept was really cool! The delivery overall just fell flat at points (though that could be due to the audiobook format. I think listening to narration hurt this book more than it helped). It just didn’t really deliver on the scares I was hoping for? And the cast was either bland, or very irritating. Personally, I didn’t like any of them, so it made the last act weak when you don’t really care about what happens to anyone.

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maregred's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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

3.0

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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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?

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chris_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

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saric7's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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