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A review by jen_p_reads_too_much
If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens
4.0
I had the pleasure of reading this book a few months ago, and now I get to review the audiobook version.
Audiobook specific feedback: : I think I enjoyed this more than the actual book. The male narrator gave an excellent, if not somewhat goofy, performance that injected a lot of fun and energy into the story.
Full review: What a delightful marriage of genres!
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. So glad that I gave it a chance. It was by turns funny, romantic, and poignant.
I somehow always struggle to accurately describe the central relationship in romances without saying something incredibly boring and uninformative like ‘I thought they were good together’ or ‘They had good chemistry’, both of which are true in this case. But I think what I liked best about Neil and Pen is that they help each other find and recognize their strengths. Neil helps Pen see the strength she already possesses, and Pen helps Neil find the strength to stand for what he believes in.
While Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House gets named dropped in the book, the storyline actually more closely resembles another of his works, The Haunting of Bly Manor. Not to the extent that this work feels derivative - more like a nice little nod to the series, with shades of Henry James showing through.
The scope of this book is fairly ambitious. It’s an enemies-to-lovers romance. It’s a gothic horror. It’s a statement about the very narrow sliver of the publishing industry allotted to Native authors. I feel like it accomplishes all of these things reasonably well, but I would have appreciated a little more time being spent on Georgina and Archie’s story, as well as a slower transition from enemies to lovers for Neil and Pen.
Audiobook specific feedback: : I think I enjoyed this more than the actual book. The male narrator gave an excellent, if not somewhat goofy, performance that injected a lot of fun and energy into the story.
Full review: What a delightful marriage of genres!
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. So glad that I gave it a chance. It was by turns funny, romantic, and poignant.
I somehow always struggle to accurately describe the central relationship in romances without saying something incredibly boring and uninformative like ‘I thought they were good together’ or ‘They had good chemistry’, both of which are true in this case. But I think what I liked best about Neil and Pen is that they help each other find and recognize their strengths. Neil helps Pen see the strength she already possesses, and Pen helps Neil find the strength to stand for what he believes in.
While Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House gets named dropped in the book, the storyline actually more closely resembles another of his works, The Haunting of Bly Manor. Not to the extent that this work feels derivative - more like a nice little nod to the series, with shades of Henry James showing through.
The scope of this book is fairly ambitious. It’s an enemies-to-lovers romance. It’s a gothic horror. It’s a statement about the very narrow sliver of the publishing industry allotted to Native authors. I feel like it accomplishes all of these things reasonably well, but I would have appreciated a little more time being spent on Georgina and Archie’s story, as well as a slower transition from enemies to lovers for Neil and Pen.