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waterlogged's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Child death
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Confinement
Minor: Homophobia
r_o_s_e's review against another edition
dark
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Violence, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Blood, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Hate crime, Excrement, and Vomit
gorbon's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Child death, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Confinement
jessy4550's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I liked the book, but I do wish the ending was a little longer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Violence, Child death, Self harm, Death, Gaslighting, and Gore
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Physical abuse, Suicide, Kidnapping, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War
thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
The only scary thing about this book is how long it took me to get angry at it.
I finished it late last night and felt ambivalent at best. My thought before going to bed was, "That was dumb. Guess Paul Tremblay isn't for me." Then I woke up this morning, logged on to Goodreads once I got to work, and realized, no. That book wasn't just dumb. It was so absurd and inexpertly executed, it reads like a college freshman creative writing exercise. The idea carries menace, but the "because lmao" reasoning for WHY all of this is happening drove me up a wall.
WHY did the people in shirts decide they needed to meet and torment this family?
WHY is the apocalypse coming now?
WHY is this based so lightly on the book of Revelation and yet carries it off so poorly?
WHY is a sacrifice required?
WHY THIS FAMILY???
"But, Caitlin, don't you think you just can't appreciate the abstract and nebulous?"
Don't start with me. Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favorite weird fiction authors, and I can take hinting at something, dancing with the ghost of an idea, flirting with the frayed ends of theme as it glances me in the dark hallways of the story. If Paul Tremblay was anymore heavy-handed with his imagery, he could enter the Russian Slap Tournaments as a serious contender by proxy.
There's not always a clear reason why something happens in a horror novel. An explanation isn't entirely necessary. An explanation IS necessary when you keep having your antagonists dance around the idea that what they're doing will save the world, or when they keep hinting at there being a reason. "A sacrifice will save the world!" But why is it ending??? We didn't know a sacrifice was needed! "IT JUST IS."
That's like "Why is Hill House so scary!?!?!? BECAUSE. That's why!" And the house blows up.
Or "Why is Elk Head Woman coming after these folks? OooOooOOh cuz she's spoOOoOoooOooky!" And the story has nothing to do with intergenerational trauma and ending the cycle of violence.
And honestly, "horror" is such a stretch for this book, Leslie Hall wants to curl some body rolls around it. I don't care how nice the prose is. I don't care that the story starts out having a thread of menace hanging over everything. The execution was terrible, the repetition bogged down the pacing, and the threat was so unbelievable as to be silly.
I can live with putting pieces together as a reader. Spoon-feeding by authors shows not only a lack of experience, but a lack of trust in your audience. But the blanks here were so big, Tremblay essentially gave us an empty crossword puzzle and no clues, then decided that was clever. Maybe he just isn't an author for me. I have an ARC of one of his newer ones, so I'll give him one more try. But if it doesn't land, we'll know the experiment was a failure.
I finished it late last night and felt ambivalent at best. My thought before going to bed was, "That was dumb. Guess Paul Tremblay isn't for me." Then I woke up this morning, logged on to Goodreads once I got to work, and realized, no. That book wasn't just dumb. It was so absurd and inexpertly executed, it reads like a college freshman creative writing exercise. The idea carries menace, but the "because lmao" reasoning for WHY all of this is happening drove me up a wall.
WHY did the people in shirts decide they needed to meet and torment this family?
WHY is the apocalypse coming now?
WHY is this based so lightly on the book of Revelation and yet carries it off so poorly?
WHY is a sacrifice required?
WHY THIS FAMILY???
"But, Caitlin, don't you think you just can't appreciate the abstract and nebulous?"
Don't start with me. Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favorite weird fiction authors, and I can take hinting at something, dancing with the ghost of an idea, flirting with the frayed ends of theme as it glances me in the dark hallways of the story. If Paul Tremblay was anymore heavy-handed with his imagery, he could enter the Russian Slap Tournaments as a serious contender by proxy.
There's not always a clear reason why something happens in a horror novel. An explanation isn't entirely necessary. An explanation IS necessary when you keep having your antagonists dance around the idea that what they're doing will save the world, or when they keep hinting at there being a reason. "A sacrifice will save the world!" But why is it ending??? We didn't know a sacrifice was needed! "IT JUST IS."
That's like "Why is Hill House so scary!?!?!? BECAUSE. That's why!" And the house blows up.
Or "Why is Elk Head Woman coming after these folks? OooOooOOh cuz she's spoOOoOoooOooky!" And the story has nothing to do with intergenerational trauma and ending the cycle of violence.
And honestly, "horror" is such a stretch for this book, Leslie Hall wants to curl some body rolls around it. I don't care how nice the prose is. I don't care that the story starts out having a thread of menace hanging over everything. The execution was terrible, the repetition bogged down the pacing, and the threat was so unbelievable as to be silly.
I can live with putting pieces together as a reader. Spoon-feeding by authors shows not only a lack of experience, but a lack of trust in your audience. But the blanks here were so big, Tremblay essentially gave us an empty crossword puzzle and no clues, then decided that was clever. Maybe he just isn't an author for me. I have an ARC of one of his newer ones, so I'll give him one more try. But if it doesn't land, we'll know the experiment was a failure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Violence, Murder, Confinement, and Child death
Minor: Homophobia and Religious bigotry
ell_n's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Blood, and Homophobia
bethboo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.5
Don't look at my Content Warnings because they have major spoilers.
I feel like I probably should have had a better grip on what this book was about before I began reading it. That's a mistake I seem to make pretty often. I went into this book expecting a horror book, based on the title and the original cover (which is an abstract red, classic scary book look). There were definitely horror elements based on the premise alone.
A lively family visits a cabin in the middle of nowhere for a getaway, but four people armed with twisted tools force their way into their temporary abode and give them an ultimatum: Choose one of your family to sacrifice to stop the impending apocalypse or the world will end.
It was creepy and violent and contradictory, which was fascinating. My main desire the entire read was whether or not this "apocalypse" was actually real in the world of this book. I wanted to know the answer so badly, I thought I was going to crawl out of my own skin.
But, in warning, this book is tragic. Nothing good happens to this family, which should be a given, but I was caught off guard by how many tears I shed for this book.
I really liked how everyone kept on repeating how they were just an everyday person but then the visions and the sameness. I knew from the second Andrew came back into the cabin with the gun that something bad was going to happen to Wen. I was fucking devastated. I cried when it happened and then Leonard's POV was so good with his confusion and regret. Eric losing it and Andrew trying to keep it together. Oh gods it hurt.
The ending? Oh fuck the ending. I was SOBBING. I was listening to the book while doing my makeup and I had to redo my eyes. How they spoke to each other and held each other and loved each other despite everything, because of everything. Fuck, I'm tearing up right now. Shit, this book got me good.
I feel like I probably should have had a better grip on what this book was about before I began reading it. That's a mistake I seem to make pretty often. I went into this book expecting a horror book, based on the title and the original cover (which is an abstract red, classic scary book look). There were definitely horror elements based on the premise alone.
A lively family visits a cabin in the middle of nowhere for a getaway, but four people armed with twisted tools force their way into their temporary abode and give them an ultimatum: Choose one of your family to sacrifice to stop the impending apocalypse or the world will end.
It was creepy and violent and contradictory, which was fascinating. My main desire the entire read was whether or not this "apocalypse" was actually real in the world of this book. I wanted to know the answer so badly, I thought I was going to crawl out of my own skin.
But, in warning, this book is tragic. Nothing good happens to this family, which should be a given, but I was caught off guard by how many tears I shed for this book.
The ending? Oh fuck the ending. I was SOBBING. I was listening to the book while doing my makeup and I had to redo my eyes. How they spoke to each other and held each other and loved each other despite everything, because of everything. Fuck, I'm tearing up right now. Shit, this book got me good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Religious bigotry
kelsywild's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Death, Murder, Hate crime, Gun violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting, Cursing, Grief, and Child death
sipping_tea_with_ghosts's review
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I don't come on here to sound like a contrarian, but its books like these that make me genuinely disregard any quote or blurb ever left on covers by other authors in the industry - especially horror or thriller books. This is the prime example of a provocative concept being stretched out far beyond its means - cruising by on its shocking question and hoping that you don't bother to look behind the curtain, leaving the theater in silent awe.
Worse than that however is witnessing a narrative that is trying to come off as insightful and well meaning, when it unintentionally confirms a very harmful view on the "non-traditional" family and doesn't do enough to dissuade a crazy person from believing they're being supported. If someone tells you this is an LGBTQ+ book, they're either dense or should no longer be your friend.
Outside of the troubling morals, purely accidental I'm sure - the story itself just isn't that compelling. Once you get over that moral quandary, a good 2/3rds of the runtime is:
"No, we won't sacrifice anyone!"
"But you have to!"
"No we won't!"
And there isn't enough tension building to keep the knife against your throat, loading off flashback exposition in the most egregious way - like it was a last minute addition...13 times. The ending is ambiguous in a way that might be interesting to think about later down the line, but that also means a lack of payoff for a question I already knew the answer for far before we got there.
I hope Paul's other works are more interesting and don't come off so much as a messy stumble in the dark, but even if there's an apocalypse going on outside our windows - just hire an editor for the good of mankind.
Worse than that however is witnessing a narrative that is trying to come off as insightful and well meaning, when it unintentionally confirms a very harmful view on the "non-traditional" family and doesn't do enough to dissuade a crazy person from believing they're being supported. If someone tells you this is an LGBTQ+ book, they're either dense or should no longer be your friend.
Outside of the troubling morals, purely accidental I'm sure - the story itself just isn't that compelling. Once you get over that moral quandary, a good 2/3rds of the runtime is:
"No, we won't sacrifice anyone!"
"But you have to!"
"No we won't!"
And there isn't enough tension building to keep the knife against your throat, loading off flashback exposition in the most egregious way - like it was a last minute addition...13 times. The ending is ambiguous in a way that might be interesting to think about later down the line, but that also means a lack of payoff for a question I already knew the answer for far before we got there.
I hope Paul's other works are more interesting and don't come off so much as a messy stumble in the dark, but even if there's an apocalypse going on outside our windows - just hire an editor for the good of mankind.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia
soraydiant's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Blood, Child death, Violence, Homophobia, Hate crime, Grief, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore and Religious bigotry