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powerpuffgoat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
1.5
Man, was this book frustrating to read! Great premise, terrible execution.
The book starts with a family of two dads and their adopted daughter having a relaxing weekend in a cabin. Suddenly, a group of strangers show up carrying strange weapons and talking about the end of the world. What a great hook, right? A home invasion with a side of apocalypse - yes please, I'll have a double serving.
Except that's as good as it got. The writing was simply confusing. The pace was awful, broken, nonsensical. The first chapter, narrated from the child's point of view, seemed to go on for ages. The second chapter was somehow worse. Dialog that was just the same three sentences, on repeat, infinitely.
As if that wasn't bad enough, narration is frequently interrupted by completely irrelevant flashbacks, and description of interior in excruciating detail. It was painful to read. Trying to get into the rhythm of the action, only to be suddenly told about the curtains, or the exact episode of Steven Universe that's on TV, what was that?
Now, the first violent scene was probably the highlight of the book, cruel as it sounds.
Another thing that confused me is why the author included the part about Redmond being someone else? It didn't actually affect the plot, and we never even got the confirmation if that was the case!
To top it off, the narration was so poorly done! Some chapters are written from a child's point of view, which jumped between complete naïveté and sudden bouts of philosophical musings. Some chapters were intended to be told from two characters point of view, and that just didn't work. Also, whose idea was it to start switching between third person and first person narration mid-sentence? Was there no editor? No beta readers? Who approved this?
The book ends abruptly, leaving the reader wondering what in the hell they just read. Honestly, I wish I never read it at all.
The book starts with a family of two dads and their adopted daughter having a relaxing weekend in a cabin. Suddenly, a group of strangers show up carrying strange weapons and talking about the end of the world. What a great hook, right? A home invasion with a side of apocalypse - yes please, I'll have a double serving.
Except that's as good as it got. The writing was simply confusing. The pace was awful, broken, nonsensical. The first chapter, narrated from the child's point of view, seemed to go on for ages. The second chapter was somehow worse. Dialog that was just the same three sentences, on repeat, infinitely.
As if that wasn't bad enough, narration is frequently interrupted by completely irrelevant flashbacks, and description of interior in excruciating detail. It was painful to read. Trying to get into the rhythm of the action, only to be suddenly told about the curtains, or the exact episode of Steven Universe that's on TV, what was that?
Now, the first violent scene was probably the highlight of the book, cruel as it sounds.
To top it off, the narration was so poorly done! Some chapters are written from a child's point of view, which jumped between complete naïveté and sudden bouts of philosophical musings. Some chapters were intended to be told from two characters point of view, and that just didn't work. Also, whose idea was it to start switching between third person and first person narration mid-sentence? Was there no editor? No beta readers? Who approved this?
The book ends abruptly, leaving the reader wondering what in the hell they just read. Honestly, I wish I never read it at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Medical trauma
Moderate: Homophobia
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