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keele103's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
siri1's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
annamickreads's review
3.0
3.5
NOT a book to read alone at night all in one sitting (and therefore, a perfect horror book you should definitely read in one sitting lest you get too scared to put it down). Definitely more atmosphere driven than character driven and anyone who has seen "The Thing" might find it predictable but for me, a perpetual scaredy-cat, this was terrifying!
NOT a book to read alone at night all in one sitting (and therefore, a perfect horror book you should definitely read in one sitting lest you get too scared to put it down). Definitely more atmosphere driven than character driven and anyone who has seen "The Thing" might find it predictable but for me, a perpetual scaredy-cat, this was terrifying!
mehsi's review
5.0
I received this book from TBR Beyond Tours/Publisher in exchange of an honest review.
5 reasons why you should read the book:
1. The monster. That one was just horrifically scary. I mean, it already started out creepy as hell. With the feeling of being watched. Seeing something slither under the ice. Seeing something in the ice or snow stare at you. But then it is inside… and you don’t know because It Looks Like Us. The monster was an absolute horror-fest and the author did a freaking amazing job on writing it. I was terrified each time we got to see the monster, and that is a lot because hello stuck on freaking Antarctica and with a megalomaniac rich dude controlling things… good luck outrunning it. It knows. I was just constantly going NOPE and fuck that and OH FUCKITY FUCK. I mean, bones re-arranging themselves? Big gaping maws? Blood or something that looks like that everywhere? It being able to talk with the voices of those eaten? And more… because I don’t want to give everything away. It was just NOPE.
2. The whole vibe of you are stuck and it is fighting for survival all the way. Which I also had with a book named 172 Hours on the Moon. It makes everything much more claustrophobic. And just like with the moon book, you just cannot go outside in a jiffy. You have to prepare. If there is a storm or your oxygen levels are low? You will die. Whereas if you just were on a sunny (or maybe not so sunny) island you can still have some choices. Here? Have fun and good luck.
3. The characters. While we follow Riley as the MC, we do learn more about the other characters along the way and I really liked them. Luke was so sweet and I love how kind he was, he knew how to help Riley when her panic attacks came up, he made sure she was fine. Next up are Dae and Nelson. Lastly Ilse. Yes, Ilse took a bit of a time to get used to. She is a bit crabby and snaps a bit too much for my liking, but later in the book I really liked her. I loved that we got to know each character and that I was rooting for them. I have to also say that while I loved getting to know the characters… it also made things so much harder. Because this is a horror book. A no-escape-everything-is-going-to-fucking-hell book.
4. How fast-paced it was. For reals. The first 30% just flew by and I was oh so worried that the book would just suddenly peter out. And while it did eddy/eddie in some parts (especially later), for most it was just GO GO GOGOOOOOOOOOOO. You just couldn’t take a break. Breaks were NOT accepting by this book. You just had to go go go and run!! Run!
5 The now and then. We get to read how Riley got out. How Riley was saved. In the now parts we see her interviewed and while I hated those cops. I loved the little danger nuggets that the author put in that just made me squee and eeeeeeek, and I couldn’t wait to see how it would turn out. And then the then, in which we read about how the teens got to Antarctica, see them collect samples… see them run and survive and blood and gore go everywhere.
I know it is just 5 reasons, but I have to add a 6th and a 7th one: The gore was well-written. I am normally not a big gore lover these days, though I am sure me from years ago would have absolutely been delighted by this one, haha. Bones clicking and reforming. Deadly blood dripping. Offal here and there. Some other fun bits. Rot in arms. Oh yes, baby. I have to say that I felt less disgusted? I noticed the same with another horror book, so maybe my stomach is steeling itself again? Renewing the levels of how much he can handle?
And then there is 7: the adorable rat we got to see a few times and then especially later. It was just the absolute cutest thing ever. I just love rodents. I should say though, non-talking ones. And thankfully, this isn’t a fantasy so it was just a normal adorable rat.
Oh, and 8. THAT FUCKING ENDING.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
5 reasons why you should read the book:
1. The monster. That one was just horrifically scary. I mean, it already started out creepy as hell. With the feeling of being watched. Seeing something slither under the ice. Seeing something in the ice or snow stare at you. But then it is inside… and you don’t know because It Looks Like Us. The monster was an absolute horror-fest and the author did a freaking amazing job on writing it. I was terrified each time we got to see the monster, and that is a lot because hello stuck on freaking Antarctica and with a megalomaniac rich dude controlling things… good luck outrunning it. It knows. I was just constantly going NOPE and fuck that and OH FUCKITY FUCK. I mean, bones re-arranging themselves? Big gaping maws? Blood or something that looks like that everywhere? It being able to talk with the voices of those eaten? And more… because I don’t want to give everything away. It was just NOPE.
2. The whole vibe of you are stuck and it is fighting for survival all the way. Which I also had with a book named 172 Hours on the Moon. It makes everything much more claustrophobic. And just like with the moon book, you just cannot go outside in a jiffy. You have to prepare. If there is a storm or your oxygen levels are low? You will die. Whereas if you just were on a sunny (or maybe not so sunny) island you can still have some choices. Here? Have fun and good luck.
3. The characters. While we follow Riley as the MC, we do learn more about the other characters along the way and I really liked them. Luke was so sweet and I love how kind he was, he knew how to help Riley when her panic attacks came up, he made sure she was fine. Next up are Dae and Nelson. Lastly Ilse. Yes, Ilse took a bit of a time to get used to. She is a bit crabby and snaps a bit too much for my liking, but later in the book I really liked her. I loved that we got to know each character and that I was rooting for them. I have to also say that while I loved getting to know the characters… it also made things so much harder. Because this is a horror book. A no-escape-everything-is-going-to-fucking-hell book.
4. How fast-paced it was. For reals. The first 30% just flew by and I was oh so worried that the book would just suddenly peter out. And while it did eddy/eddie in some parts (especially later), for most it was just GO GO GOGOOOOOOOOOOO. You just couldn’t take a break. Breaks were NOT accepting by this book. You just had to go go go and run!! Run!
5 The now and then. We get to read how Riley got out. How Riley was saved. In the now parts we see her interviewed and while I hated those cops. I loved the little danger nuggets that the author put in that just made me squee and eeeeeeek, and I couldn’t wait to see how it would turn out. And then the then, in which we read about how the teens got to Antarctica, see them collect samples… see them run and survive and blood and gore go everywhere.
I know it is just 5 reasons, but I have to add a 6th and a 7th one: The gore was well-written. I am normally not a big gore lover these days, though I am sure me from years ago would have absolutely been delighted by this one, haha. Bones clicking and reforming. Deadly blood dripping. Offal here and there. Some other fun bits. Rot in arms. Oh yes, baby. I have to say that I felt less disgusted? I noticed the same with another horror book, so maybe my stomach is steeling itself again? Renewing the levels of how much he can handle?
And then there is 7: the adorable rat we got to see a few times and then especially later. It was just the absolute cutest thing ever. I just love rodents. I should say though, non-talking ones. And thankfully, this isn’t a fantasy so it was just a normal adorable rat.
Oh, and 8. THAT FUCKING ENDING.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
defnotnora13's review
5.0
Maybe im being a little too nice, but I really liked it. Reminded me of the movie “the thing”
gggina13's review against another edition
4.0
I posted a review on my bookstagram
But basically this is a very enthralling isolationist monster and body horror story and I really liked it, my one regret is that it ended so soon
But basically this is a very enthralling isolationist monster and body horror story and I really liked it, my one regret is that it ended so soon
soy_ahoy's review
5.0
I didn't recognize the author's name when I started reading this book but then I instantly remembered Ames also wrote To Break a Covenant, a sapphic horror I loved last year. This one isn't sapphic but the rep is asexual mc and a gay sc, fyi. And it's really good! It's about terrifying stuff going down in Antarctica while endearing minors engage in silly goose behavior. Literally a group of characters with way less common sense than normally seen even in horror try to stumble through survival. And somehow the story still works and doesn't get to the point where I found the characters annoying. Heartbreaking, scary, gripping.
karlies's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
3.5
Just pretty meh. I do not get scared when I read horror fiction, so I cannot speak on if the book is actually scary, but there is a lot of body horror. Which is something that I think can get old after a while.
I have to point out that the villain's name is Anton Rusk, and he is a tech-bro billionaire. Gee, sound familiar? His personality, though, is nothing more than being rich and evil. He doesn't have any reasoning for wanting the monster in the story, he just seems to want it because he's rich and evil. At least say what he plans on doing with it, that offers at least something to his character.
The other characters are pretty boring too. The British guy's whole personality is being British. The German girl is tense and angry all the time. There's the nice guy whose always helping everyone, the journalist who wants the "big scoop," a middle-aged scientist who does nothing and then dies, and an annoyed millennial corporate puppet. Nobody ever develops and stays written like this for the entire book.
Their unifying point is that they all have some traumatic backstory and that's why they all were able to join this trip, but when you think about it, how does our main character, Riley, fit into this crowd? Spoilers, but one person killed their father, and the other has extreme guilt that he caused his best friend to die. And Riley just...has anxiety. And her "traumatic" backstory is that she had a big, hyperventilating panic attack during class, and all her friends stopped talking to her. Number one, in what world does that happen (the friends ditching her for being anxious)? Number two, she goes to therapy, gets medicated, and knows all these techniques to calm her nerves, so how is she anywhere close to being on the same level as her peers on this trip? She seems so ridiculous whenever they're sharing their dark backgrounds, and she's just like, "You guys aren't going to believe this, but...I have anxiety." Three people have criminal backgrounds, how did you get chosen for this delinquency trip?
Another pet peeve with the characters is the random shoving in of two of their sexualities. At one point, Riley and Luke have to get into a sleeping bag together because Luke says they "need to warm each other up." He starts taking his shirt off, and Riley blurts out that she's asexual, and Luke is awkwardly like, "Oh, I didn't mean anything like that. I'm gay." And then...that's it. Very obviously the author just trying to earn some diversity points. If you took this part away, you wouldn't really have any clue about their sexualities, so, therefore, what was the point? Hardly representation.
The horror starts immediately, which is fine I guess for a short YA horror novel, but I would have liked a bit more buildup. The horror is all mostly body horror. I wish there had been more paranoia, but I also might not have noticed the paranoia that would have worked in any other story because it just reads like Riley being Riley. Perhaps don't have a highly paranoid MC if you want the story to have suspense?
The ending was utter dogshit. It would have been fine had the final chapter not been included. But no, we had to add something that was the equivalent of going, "And then I woke up and realized it was all a dream." Everything just sort of falls into place in its own way, i.e. we can suspect that a lot of revenge/destruction/whatever is coming, but I think this is just trying to squeeze in a "happy" ending as best as you can considering the circumstances. I don't think this story deserves a happy ending, though. Not if you want your bare minimum commentary on billionaires always getting what they want to stand.
It's better than other YA horror I've read. But it still felt pretty unsatisfactory overall.
I have to point out that the villain's name is Anton Rusk, and he is a tech-bro billionaire. Gee, sound familiar? His personality, though, is nothing more than being rich and evil. He doesn't have any reasoning for wanting the monster in the story, he just seems to want it because he's rich and evil. At least say what he plans on doing with it, that offers at least something to his character.
The other characters are pretty boring too. The British guy's whole personality is being British. The German girl is tense and angry all the time. There's the nice guy whose always helping everyone, the journalist who wants the "big scoop," a middle-aged scientist who does nothing and then dies, and an annoyed millennial corporate puppet. Nobody ever develops and stays written like this for the entire book.
Their unifying point is that they all have some traumatic backstory and that's why they all were able to join this trip, but when you think about it, how does our main character, Riley, fit into this crowd? Spoilers, but one person killed their father, and the other has extreme guilt that he caused his best friend to die. And Riley just...has anxiety. And her "traumatic" backstory is that she had a big, hyperventilating panic attack during class, and all her friends stopped talking to her. Number one, in what world does that happen (the friends ditching her for being anxious)? Number two, she goes to therapy, gets medicated, and knows all these techniques to calm her nerves, so how is she anywhere close to being on the same level as her peers on this trip? She seems so ridiculous whenever they're sharing their dark backgrounds, and she's just like, "You guys aren't going to believe this, but...I have anxiety." Three people have criminal backgrounds, how did you get chosen for this delinquency trip?
Another pet peeve with the characters is the random shoving in of two of their sexualities. At one point, Riley and Luke have to get into a sleeping bag together because Luke says they "need to warm each other up." He starts taking his shirt off, and Riley blurts out that she's asexual, and Luke is awkwardly like, "Oh, I didn't mean anything like that. I'm gay." And then...that's it. Very obviously the author just trying to earn some diversity points. If you took this part away, you wouldn't really have any clue about their sexualities, so, therefore, what was the point? Hardly representation.
The horror starts immediately, which is fine I guess for a short YA horror novel, but I would have liked a bit more buildup. The horror is all mostly body horror. I wish there had been more paranoia, but I also might not have noticed the paranoia that would have worked in any other story because it just reads like Riley being Riley. Perhaps don't have a highly paranoid MC if you want the story to have suspense?
The ending was utter dogshit. It would have been fine had the final chapter not been included. But no, we had to add something that was the equivalent of going, "And then I woke up and realized it was all a dream." Everything just sort of falls into place in its own way, i.e. we can suspect that a lot of revenge/destruction/whatever is coming, but I think this is just trying to squeeze in a "happy" ending as best as you can considering the circumstances. I don't think this story deserves a happy ending, though. Not if you want your bare minimum commentary on billionaires always getting what they want to stand.
It's better than other YA horror I've read. But it still felt pretty unsatisfactory overall.