Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Hunted by Darcy Coates

7 reviews

gamerreaper13's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This book hits the ground running and does not slow down at all. 

Hunted had me on the edge of my seat the whole way along. Every twist was unexpected and every perspective was a new adventure. 

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omair's review

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

Hunted delivers in bunches what it promises, but does it do so at the cost of having the depth to be truly memorable?

Hunted is an easy read, with short chapters that change scenes at a frantic pace. Mixed with the extremely generic world - more on this in a moment - everything feels foggy or blurry. If this is by design, as I'm choosing to believe to credit author Darcy Coates, then it meets the mood at every turn of the page. If you don't believe this to be intentional, well, then the cracks in the story will likely prove to be too great.

From the first paragraphs, Hunted really imparts a vision of a horror B-movie, something made to be straight to streaming. The character and story tropes are laid on thick
and you realize there's a twist coming that you're not given enough clues to solve with certainty... well, unless you know the tropes already


One of our main POVs
is a group of post-teenagers that truly had me thinking of a knock-off Scooby-Doo quartet, just Shaggy replaced with a stereotypical jock. It doesn't help that they literally get in a van that clinched the Mystery Machine feel to me.


And with that, the mystery is afoot... except that it's not really a mystery at all. Pay just a bit of attention, and you quickly
begin to expect a masked villain at play.
Coates keeps the shrouded sense of it all pretty well though, and the story is never so dull that you're tempted to put it down and walk away.

But what it does lack is anything to really draw you in, to get lost amidst the details or to feel transported into its world. Nothing feels particularly vibrant or lived in. Frankly, I found myself questioning when and where the story takes place. It may as well be set in an alternate USA where they did adopt the metric system and Zuckerberg's rise stalled well into the 2010's.

In the end, I did not hate reading it, nor did I particularly enjoy it, but - most telling for me - I'm not even sure I'll remember having done so a month from now. As such, it's hard for me to recommend this to others, but maybe it'll be a guilty pleasure read for you. I finished it over the course of two nights, so could be worth for anyone wanting to sneak in a title while waiting for a hold on something else.

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katkinslee's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

It was definitely very tense. It was a bit more of a crime thriller than a horror books which is an interesting change of pace for Coates. I enjoyed the twist even though I saw it coming towards the end. 
I didn't really like any of the characters although
I was sad to see Anna die because she was the probably the least annoying

Todd was the biggest idiot and it was amusing to hear his chapters. 
All in all it was a decent read and very atmospheric but definitely not my favourite Coates book.

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witchy_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0


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ahbmacgregor's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Pretty enjoyable overall! While it isn't a book that's going to win any prizes, this is still a pretty engaging read with just enough tension and mystery to keep it going. I went into it expecting something schlocky and was pleasantly surprised, and that's probably the way to do it. 

Aside from Todd (ugh), none of the character perspectives were flawed in an annoying/frustrating way, and at least Todd feels less present when more perspectives are introduced.
Honestly I was more than happy to see the end of him, even if the decomposition was particularly graphic. He drove me nuts, especially in the blase way he treated wilderness survival, and that's not even mentioning the stalkerish obsession.


The twist was guessable, but not in a way that felt obvious and more like a reward for paying attention. In some ways it felt like the final confrontations were with the wrong people/not enough people, but that wasn't enough to ruin the book. It's worth picking this up if you don't mind some horror tropes and semi-expected beats. 

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beckyremillard's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Eileen has gone missing while hiking by herself and the police don’t have any leads. Her brother and friends set out on their own to find her - whether she is alive or dead. 

This book varied with how much it held my attention. I got kind of bored in the middle but the ending was captivating. 

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rachelunabridged's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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