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A review by njdarkish
Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay
3.0
I came into this book less than a fan of Tremblay's work-- I felt like his hit success Head Full of Ghosts was mediocre at best and definitely didn't deserve the Stoker it won. But, since even some of my favorite writers have written some duds, I decided to pick this up.
And it was okay. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than HFoG, though it wasn't quite as strong as it could have been. I liked how it played with expectations about the supernatural and that even though most parts of the story were tied up pretty nicely that there was enough left to leave you asking some (less critical) questions.
What this story suffered from, more than anything else, was fairly flat characters. I often lost track of who was who in dialogue-heavy sections, which is problematic. The characters didn't feel like they were people outside of their pop culture references and concern about the main story. I get that the disappearance of a child is definitely going to dominate your life and thoughts, but it would be difficult to pin down clear characteristics that weren't related to that other than surface-level stuff like "not that tech savvy," and "likes Minecraft."
I think Tremblay is moving in a positive direction in his writing, though, and before too long maywarrant more stars and maybe even more awards.
And it was okay. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than HFoG, though it wasn't quite as strong as it could have been. I liked how it played with expectations about the supernatural and that even though most parts of the story were tied up pretty nicely that there was enough left to leave you asking some (less critical) questions.
What this story suffered from, more than anything else, was fairly flat characters. I often lost track of who was who in dialogue-heavy sections, which is problematic. The characters didn't feel like they were people outside of their pop culture references and concern about the main story. I get that the disappearance of a child is definitely going to dominate your life and thoughts, but it would be difficult to pin down clear characteristics that weren't related to that other than surface-level stuff like "not that tech savvy," and "likes Minecraft."
I think Tremblay is moving in a positive direction in his writing, though, and before too long maywarrant more stars and maybe even more awards.