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bernardom 's review for:
Little Stranger
by Leigh Rivers
This book unsettled me in the best way. Little strangers isn't just a story; it is an atmosphere that creeps under the skin with the quiet tension-and part of it comes down to Malakai.
Let me just say-Malakai, coolest character-really hauntingly human kind of person I have read in a while. He walks that razor-thin area between vulnerability and danger. From the moment he enters the story, you feel it. Something's just slightly...off. Not villain-off, but deeply broken-off. He's magnetic, unpredictable, and emotionally raw, the type of person you want to protect and run from at the same time.
The way his personality is revealed is subtle but sharp-through silences, strange bursts of intensity, and these quiet manipulations that never feel overt. You sense that he is carrying more than what he lets on, and that hidden weight bleeds into every interaction, especially with the brother.
Speaking of which, it is in the most believable sense complicated: there's love but buried under years of resentment, inapplicable trauma, and emotional neglect. They feel like a slow-motion collision: you know that something will break, but you just don't know when. This makes it very powerful because most of what the two express through is tension and gesture, not dialogue, though they don't say much.
Malakai steals the show. Even after reading the book, his presence lingers. One does not find it easy to explain him or put him in a category, and that is what makes him so real. This is the type of character that makes you pause and flip a few pages before asking, "Did I miss something?" But, you didn't. That's just who he is-beautifully broken and painfully memorable.
Would I recommend Little Strangers? Yes, especially if you love character-driven stories with dark emotional undercurrents. But fair warning, this isn't a feel-good read. It's a slow, tense unraveling. And Malakai? He'll stay with you.
Let me just say-Malakai, coolest character-really hauntingly human kind of person I have read in a while. He walks that razor-thin area between vulnerability and danger. From the moment he enters the story, you feel it. Something's just slightly...off. Not villain-off, but deeply broken-off. He's magnetic, unpredictable, and emotionally raw, the type of person you want to protect and run from at the same time.
The way his personality is revealed is subtle but sharp-through silences, strange bursts of intensity, and these quiet manipulations that never feel overt. You sense that he is carrying more than what he lets on, and that hidden weight bleeds into every interaction, especially with the brother.
Speaking of which, it is in the most believable sense complicated: there's love but buried under years of resentment, inapplicable trauma, and emotional neglect. They feel like a slow-motion collision: you know that something will break, but you just don't know when. This makes it very powerful because most of what the two express through is tension and gesture, not dialogue, though they don't say much.
Malakai steals the show. Even after reading the book, his presence lingers. One does not find it easy to explain him or put him in a category, and that is what makes him so real. This is the type of character that makes you pause and flip a few pages before asking, "Did I miss something?" But, you didn't. That's just who he is-beautifully broken and painfully memorable.
Would I recommend Little Strangers? Yes, especially if you love character-driven stories with dark emotional undercurrents. But fair warning, this isn't a feel-good read. It's a slow, tense unraveling. And Malakai? He'll stay with you.