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A review by crafty_goblin
The Devil's Colony by Marie Lestrange
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I was aware of the Roanoki Colony's stories and speculation around the lost colony, and the idea to read an horror fiction around it was why I requested the ARC. I am a big fan of folk horror stories working with puritan and witchcraft subjects. So I thought I would enjoy the ride. But I didn't. Or at least not enough to recommend it.
The general idea is good, the journal entries format allowing to introduce smoothly different POVs definitely worked for me, I really like this part. It is mostly well written, though the book definitely needs editing. I Highlighted so much weird structures, typos, names written differently from one chapter to another, that I guessed several time if the story had been beta read or not. This, is a super bad point for me. My neurospicy brain tend to focus on this only then, and i cannot enjoy the rest.
I loose focus here and there because of some weird jumps allowing too much lost information for the plot to be coherent all the way from beginning to the end.
A warning for cannibalism, child death and graphic sex should be added. I don't read SMUT or romantasy/romance (just because I don't like how the relationship are painted most of the time and how bad the women are depicted pushing further lenient misogyny) but I don't have issue with graphic sex in case of ritual, for example, in horror. But here, it just felt like the spice had been added as an after thought to contempt the crowd and fit the trend. Unfortunately this part wasn't good, in my opinion. It adds nothing to the story and as it wasn't announced in the warning it made me almost DNF it at the first intercourse because it felt out of place.
The bigger issue, for me, in this book, is how women are painted. Absolutely every one of the female character has been poorly written and/or badly developed (or maybe just not enough). Of course, I don't speak about the position of women per se, as it was a tough period for women. But fitting the moeurs, bigotry and religious believes of the era doesn't mean butchering the character development. I would advise to take a look at Gerald Brom's female Character development in Slewfoot to have an example of what I meant by witchcraft/puritan era and excellent female character development.
All together, it think that a revision of the text for all the typo and a beta reading session, to have a second opinion about the character development and about the "world building" would have been enough to make of this book a great one. That's a really good first attempt but it feels raw still.
I was aware of the Roanoki Colony's stories and speculation around the lost colony, and the idea to read an horror fiction around it was why I requested the ARC. I am a big fan of folk horror stories working with puritan and witchcraft subjects. So I thought I would enjoy the ride. But I didn't. Or at least not enough to recommend it.
The general idea is good, the journal entries format allowing to introduce smoothly different POVs definitely worked for me, I really like this part. It is mostly well written, though the book definitely needs editing. I Highlighted so much weird structures, typos, names written differently from one chapter to another, that I guessed several time if the story had been beta read or not. This, is a super bad point for me. My neurospicy brain tend to focus on this only then, and i cannot enjoy the rest.
I loose focus here and there because of some weird jumps allowing too much lost information for the plot to be coherent all the way from beginning to the end.
A warning for cannibalism, child death and graphic sex should be added. I don't read SMUT or romantasy/romance (just because I don't like how the relationship are painted most of the time and how bad the women are depicted pushing further lenient misogyny) but I don't have issue with graphic sex in case of ritual, for example, in horror. But here, it just felt like the spice had been added as an after thought to contempt the crowd and fit the trend. Unfortunately this part wasn't good, in my opinion. It adds nothing to the story and as it wasn't announced in the warning it made me almost DNF it at the first intercourse because it felt out of place.
The bigger issue, for me, in this book, is how women are painted. Absolutely every one of the female character has been poorly written and/or badly developed (or maybe just not enough). Of course, I don't speak about the position of women per se, as it was a tough period for women. But fitting the moeurs, bigotry and religious believes of the era doesn't mean butchering the character development. I would advise to take a look at Gerald Brom's female Character development in Slewfoot to have an example of what I meant by witchcraft/puritan era and excellent female character development.
All together, it think that a revision of the text for all the typo and a beta reading session, to have a second opinion about the character development and about the "world building" would have been enough to make of this book a great one. That's a really good first attempt but it feels raw still.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation