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A review by lukewhenderson
Daphne by Josh Malerman
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The short version of this review is “cool ideas, terrible execution” and the premise fell apart the further the book went.
At first, the book leads the reader to think that Daphne was wrongly murdered by the high school basketball team because she was a 7 foot tall metalhead who they deemed a freak. This would make sense why no one in town wants to talk or think about Daphne if they covered up this atrocity.
But it turns out she’s a child kidnapping serial killer cannibal, so I’m confused what the town is guilty for. They stopped an evil person from doing more evil. It was very confusing why this was meant to be a secret that was eating at everyone in this small town. My best guess is that they wanted to hide the vigilantism of the basketball team, but then that would contradict the ending of the book where the detective who is one of the main POV characters just continuously breaks the rules (with the blessing of the police chief as well, so this book kind of justifies police corruption in a way) to find the cause of these murders. That detective just continued this cycle of vigilantism (if this is what the book was trying to say was the bad thing to try and forget, but again, this is very confusing).
On top of the story having issues, the writing is very slow and every point of view switch seems more to info dump backstory than anything that really pushes the story forward. This entire story could be summed up briefly as not much happens beyond people dying and Kit, the protagonist, having anxiety about everything.
The theme of something that never leaves the consciousness of a town because they are trying so hard to not think about it, and therefore are constantly thinking about it, is a really cool thing to explore, but not with this story. This was a bit of a mess.
At first, the book leads the reader to think that Daphne was wrongly murdered by the high school basketball team because she was a 7 foot tall metalhead who they deemed a freak. This would make sense why no one in town wants to talk or think about Daphne if they covered up this atrocity.
But it turns out she’s a child kidnapping serial killer cannibal, so I’m confused what the town is guilty for. They stopped an evil person from doing more evil. It was very confusing why this was meant to be a secret that was eating at everyone in this small town. My best guess is that they wanted to hide the vigilantism of the basketball team, but then that would contradict the ending of the book where the detective who is one of the main POV characters just continuously breaks the rules (with the blessing of the police chief as well, so this book kind of justifies police corruption in a way) to find the cause of these murders. That detective just continued this cycle of vigilantism (if this is what the book was trying to say was the bad thing to try and forget, but again, this is very confusing).
On top of the story having issues, the writing is very slow and every point of view switch seems more to info dump backstory than anything that really pushes the story forward. This entire story could be summed up briefly as not much happens beyond people dying and Kit, the protagonist, having anxiety about everything.
The theme of something that never leaves the consciousness of a town because they are trying so hard to not think about it, and therefore are constantly thinking about it, is a really cool thing to explore, but not with this story. This was a bit of a mess.