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A review by plxths
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I couldn't put this book down and read through it in less than 24 hours. It could just be that I'm new to the horror genre, but many people who read this will agree: I have never felt as terrified reading something as I did with Stolen Tongues. Despite every anxious cell in my body trying to tell me to stop, and being hyper-aware of every noise and shadow that I caught as I was reading, I was invested in the characters and finding out how the story ended.
if two things were different, it would've been a five-star read for me. spoilers ahead.
1. the lack of closure or explanation regarding the importance of the cellar. if it was only mentioned once, I could've overlooked it. However, it was mentioned multiple times during important moments... the fact that we didn't get any explanation for that made it feel gimmicky and overall unimportant to the story. so why even mention it?
2. the death of both Tíwé and Nathan. as camapola mentioned in their review, I was impressed and appreciative of the author's acknowledgment of whether he should use/ write about indigenous folks in his story when he is not a native/indigenous person. his sensitivity to this, his attempts at avoiding stereotypes, clarification of terminology, and essay at the ending discussing this made me appreciate the story more. However, the violent deaths of two of the three main indigenous characters didn't sit well with me. Alternatively, if more than just the indigenous characters had been killed off, it might've mitigated the issue. But the only violent deaths of characters that had dialogue were two indigenous characters (and only after they had helped the white man). Yeah.. it bumped down the rating for me.
Aside from those two issues, it was a very entertaining and terrifying read for me that I'm sure I'll think (or dream) about for years to come.
if two things were different, it would've been a five-star read for me. spoilers ahead.
2. the death of both Tíwé and Nathan. as camapola mentioned in their review, I was impressed and appreciative of the author's acknowledgment of whether he should use/ write about indigenous folks in his story when he is not a native/indigenous person. his sensitivity to this, his attempts at avoiding stereotypes, clarification of terminology, and essay at the ending discussing this made me appreciate the story more. However, the violent deaths of two of the three main indigenous characters didn't sit well with me. Alternatively, if more than just the indigenous characters had been killed off, it might've mitigated the issue. But the only violent deaths of characters that had dialogue were two indigenous characters (and only after they had helped the white man). Yeah.. it bumped down the rating for me.
Aside from those two issues, it was a very entertaining and terrifying read for me that I'm sure I'll think (or dream) about for years to come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Gore
Moderate: Child death and Vomit