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A review by wisteriariaa
All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book is so, so incredibly frustrating to me. It’s so close to being genuinely great and there is a lot to love about it. I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of this book. I liked seeing Marin bond with Thea and Wren, along with her sweet romance with Evie. Usually I find the beginning of these types of books tedious as I wait for the supernatural elements to kick in, but these characters all have such good chemistry with each other that I hardly noticed. I also found said supernatural elements to be interesting, and I liked that the whole mystery of the house wasn’t that the family was evil satanic cultists or something. It was more personal and character driven, and helped develop the book’s themes of loss and grief. I also liked the climax and ending, and I thought it was executed well and made sense.
But goddamn the last third of this book is an absolute mess. It meanders around so much and it feels like the author was adding random bullshit and deliberately keeping the characters from doing things to advance the plot to make the book longer. The book completely falls apart at this point, which was extremely frustrating to read. The amount of time Marin and Evie spend making out and repeatedly having the “I’m a monster! How could you love me?” angst moment made me want to rip my hair out. At first I didn’t mind because I liked their relationship and was happy to see them together. But oh my god, why did the book choose to do all this when there were like 3 other more interesting reveals and plot lines that I was waiting to see be developed. I also felt like there were some reveals that came a bit out of nowhere and would have benefited from more foreshadowing before being dropped on the reader.
I don’t know. I still think that most of this book is good enough, and I’d probably reread it again just to get more of that sweet chemistry between Marin and the family. It just upsets me that this book fumbles most of its last third so badly
But goddamn the last third of this book is an absolute mess. It meanders around so much and it feels like the author was adding random bullshit and deliberately keeping the characters from doing things to advance the plot to make the book longer. The book completely falls apart at this point, which was extremely frustrating to read. The amount of time Marin and Evie spend making out and repeatedly having the “I’m a monster! How could you love me?” angst moment made me want to rip my hair out. At first I didn’t mind because I liked their relationship and was happy to see them together. But oh my god, why did the book choose to do all this when there were like 3 other more interesting reveals and plot lines that I was waiting to see be developed. I also felt like there were some reveals that came a bit out of nowhere and would have benefited from more foreshadowing before being dropped on the reader.
I don’t know. I still think that most of this book is good enough, and I’d probably reread it again just to get more of that sweet chemistry between Marin and the family. It just upsets me that this book fumbles most of its last third so badly