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mdpenguin's review
dark
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
That was a lot more existential terror than I expected from a horror novel. It was a grand and painful exploration of the weaknesses of the human spirit that can drive them to believe in the horrors they perpetrate on each other expressed as the respective wills of competing demons struggling to gain dominion of hell through the manipulation of humans. And, wow, those were some seriously horrific things. Really, if you need trigger warnings for anything at all, just don't read this book.
This was so beautifully written, with each description flowing with beauty without it feeling overdone or unnatural. And I loved how the city itself is infused into the characters, each of which was so well drawn and so psychologically complete that it was never hard to feel for them in their respective sufferings. The thing that I think that I'll remember the most, though, is how the author made it so that readers had almost no choice but to root for the lesser of two evils only to turn it around the next chapter to remind the reader of the damage they are doing, all of the horrific assaults on life and human dignity they were perpetrating. It created a constant sense of unease not just with the things that were happening but with the actual act of being pulled into story itself. It was really quite brilliant.
This was so beautifully written, with each description flowing with beauty without it feeling overdone or unnatural. And I loved how the city itself is infused into the characters, each of which was so well drawn and so psychologically complete that it was never hard to feel for them in their respective sufferings. The thing that I think that I'll remember the most, though, is how the author made it so that readers had almost no choice but to root for the lesser of two evils only to turn it around the next chapter to remind the reader of the damage they are doing, all of the horrific assaults on life and human dignity they were perpetrating. It created a constant sense of unease not just with the things that were happening but with the actual act of being pulled into story itself. It was really quite brilliant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Racism, Murder, Xenophobia, Blood, Rape, and Violence
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