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stephanieluxton 's review for:
Stolen Tongues
by Felix Blackwell
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I put off reading this for awhile because I had listened to an audio version of the creepypasta a few years ago and wanted to wait until I'd forgotten a lot of it before picking up this book so I could enjoy it more fully.
This book is genuinely scary. The sense of isolation and an omniprescent humanoid entity pretty much sums up all my fears. This book is about Felix and Faye, an engaged couple who go to her parents cabin in Colarado for some time away and end up stuck up there after a storm. Then weird shit starts happening in which a figure can be seen in the dark near the treeline and someone or something is whispering to Faye (who's a sleepwalker) while she sleeps, and she's answering it.
The best thing about this book is the atmosphere. It's dark. It's unsafe even in areas that should be safe. The entity is mysterious, scary, and uncanny. We spend most of the book having basically no idea what's going on and I think that's what makes it scary. Some people might find it a little repetitive but it worked for me.
The problem was the ending. The reveal was so weak. In the original creepypasta, I vaguely recall the ending being more ambiguous and I think that would have been the better way to go. Throughout the story the entity is basically tormenting Faye and Felix because he's trying to extract a certain but of information from Faye while she's sleeping. Once we learn the information, we are so underwhelmed.
The entity is trying to figure out "what makes 5?" The number 5 is very important and Felix is trying to get to the bottom of what that number means and why the entity needs to know it. It's finally revealed that 5 represents Faye's brother, the fifth member of their family, that was stillborn. Once she rememebrs she had a brother, she grieves his passing (even though this was like 20 years ago) and then the entity just leaves the alone? That makes no sense. I also felt like the locked cellar door was going to be really important and the it was never spoken of again. I have a lot more questions too. Who made the dreamcatchers and what was their actual significance. I thought it was really cool that when Felix destroyed the dreamcatcher, it gave the entity access to come into the house and attack him. It seemed like the entity did it, but why would the entity make a totem to protect them from him? Maybe I misunderstood.
Overall, this book is quite spooky but I think it would have benefitted from making the entity's motivations more clear. A book like this should either answer all our questions, or keep it totally ambiguous. I was thrown off by it being in the middle of the road.
This book is genuinely scary. The sense of isolation and an omniprescent humanoid entity pretty much sums up all my fears. This book is about Felix and Faye, an engaged couple who go to her parents cabin in Colarado for some time away and end up stuck up there after a storm. Then weird shit starts happening in which a figure can be seen in the dark near the treeline and someone or something is whispering to Faye (who's a sleepwalker) while she sleeps, and she's answering it.
The best thing about this book is the atmosphere. It's dark. It's unsafe even in areas that should be safe. The entity is mysterious, scary, and uncanny. We spend most of the book having basically no idea what's going on and I think that's what makes it scary. Some people might find it a little repetitive but it worked for me.
The problem was the ending. The reveal was so weak. In the original creepypasta, I vaguely recall the ending being more ambiguous and I think that would have been the better way to go. Throughout the story the entity is basically tormenting Faye and Felix because he's trying to extract a certain but of information from Faye while she's sleeping. Once we learn the information, we are so underwhelmed.
Overall, this book is quite spooky but I think it would have benefitted from making the entity's motivations more clear. A book like this should either answer all our questions, or keep it totally ambiguous. I was thrown off by it being in the middle of the road.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting