A review by the_books_music_life
Horrid by Katrina Leno

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

2.25

I think I hyped this book up a little too much and was left disappointed. I didn’t care for any of the characters and while Jane is a very complex character, she reads like an unreliable narrator and I don’t particularly enjoy that trope. 
 
The story follows Jane as she struggles with the recent loss of her father and being forced to leave everything she knew and move to her mother’s hometown, which she knows next to nothing about. 
 
Jane is a very complex character and throughout the book she goes through so much. And a lot of it could have been avoided if people around her actually talked and told the truth about things. 
 
I thought the story would/could go in 1 to 2 ways and it went in neither. The direction it took was confusing and unclear and it didn’t help anything that the ending was very rushed. 
 
If I had to describe this book in one sentence it would be “Gaslighting at it finest.” 
 
The whole ‘mystery’ of the book is dragged on forever and the pay off wasn’t that great in my opinion. The only thing I did enjoy was the depiction of grief that we get to see. Grief is never one emotion, it’s many little emotions that mix and mingle into an even biggest emotion and this book did a great job showing that and the ways Jane dealt with her grief was realistic to me. 
 
I did not care for the haunted house/ghost story element as it was very poorly done and just plain confusing. 
 
The ending of the book is done in an open ending kind of way and it didn’t work for this story. 
 
Most of the ‘side characters’ didn’t even have a point in the story, they were just there as someone for Jane to talk to or as conflict. No one had depth or meaning other than being someone Jane talked to. 
 
Overall I found this book confusing, rushed, and the ending very disappointing. 

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