A review by whatellisreadnext
Horrid by Katrina Leno

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

3.0

𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦. 
𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮.

Following her father's passing, Jane and her Mum, move from sunny California to an old decrepit house in Maine. Her mother grew up there, and they have plans to do it up and sell it on, but Jane hears bumps in the night and starts to feel that they're not alone...

Did I buy this book because the cover is incredible? Yes. Did the story live upto the cover? No. That being said, I did absolutely devour this one in less that 24 hours. It is compulsively readable and super easy to follow. I enjoyed it overall, but just felt like I was reading a lesser version of Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power.

Taking a step back, this is young adult fiction and I could totally see a teenager absolutely loving it. I just felt as an adult, it was all too circumstance. Some YA books transcend age and can be enjoyed by all, but I just don't think this is one of those books.

I usually just put trigger warnings at the bottom, but this one is deeply rooted with Jane's grief of losing her father, and although this was really well written, I think this could be quite traumatic to read for somebody who has lost a parent.

The main thing that bothered me was the ending. Yes, I figured out the mystery before the protagonist, I mean this is often a given with YA fiction,  but the last 10 pages just made no sense for me in terms of the decisions made by the main character. I threw the book on my bed when I was done and if this book wasn't so pretty, I probably would have launched it across the room💁🏻‍♀️

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