cindypepper 's review for:

Private Rites by Julia Armfield

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

For the most part, reading this was like the literary equivalent of whiskey; the prose goes down smoothly and elegantly until you feel the burn a little too sharply. Though I know that Julia Armfield writes a lot of magical realism x horror, the story unfolds and plays out quite realistically that I forgot that this is supposed to be horror. Her prose has a buttery, lyrical quality that glides off the page; I read this on a plane ride from start to finish and managed to fly through it. However! The last few pages took a huge tonal shift that had me whispering to myself <I>what the fuck</I> à la Selina Meyer. I still don't know how I feel about it; it had the creepiness that it intended to have, but I felt kinda disconnected by the way things took a turn.