A review by andrewspink
November by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was very well-written. It was gripping and really enabled the reader to feel empathy with and identify with the characters. The characters were complex, interesting and believable. A Dutch language book being set in America felt a bit odd, it was a bit like reading a translation. But then again, why not? Books can be set anywhere, also in countries where their own writers are frequently translated.
The problem I had with this book was the genre. The horror was convincingly described, and I didn't like that. On the one hand, reading about unpleasant things isn't pleasant, and on the other hand, I have difficultly suspending my disbelief in order to accept all the stuff about devils and ghosts and supernatural powers and so on. I don't really understand that (I've no difficulty believing in impossible things in sci-fi books like faster than light travel and humanoid aliens), but that's just how it is. Maybe my scientific background makes me allergic to superstition. This book was so well written that I did find it easier to believe the plot than normal (perhaps also because of the classical Faustian story), but that only made the first aspect (unpleasant gore) worse. 
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