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challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This is my third book I've read by Nick Cutter and its easily my favorite!!! The whole book is tense and Cutter does an amazing job of describing scenes so that you feel like you're right there! Overall, I found the writing wonderfully terrifying and I loved some of the deeper themes and characters. However, there is one glaring issue that I couldn't give it a full 5 stars for. More details with spoilers below:
One of my favorite aspects of this book was the way each character symbolized a different way people cover up their fear. For example, Kent takes leadership and orders others around when scared. Ephraim turns to anger and Newton tends to roll over and let others bully him. Tim is shown as using empathy and "logic" to overwhelm his base instincts to run away and protect the boys.
But then comes Shelley. Shelley runs mud right over this and is just a cartoonishly evil brat for no real reason. I love horror and I don't mind an evil character. But I feel like Shelley could have been used to continue the dialogue of how various different people hide their fear. I think there are many routes that Shelley could've been taken in to make his sadism make sense and also continue on the discussion of the dangers of ignoring your fear constantly. But the only explanation we get is just that he enjoy tormenting things and people and that's it. I feel like he was just put in the book to add more conflict with nothing to actually add.
But then comes Shelley. Shelley runs mud right over this and is just a cartoonishly evil brat for no real reason. I love horror and I don't mind an evil character. But I feel like Shelley could have been used to continue the dialogue of how various different people hide their fear. I think there are many routes that Shelley could've been taken in to make his sadism make sense and also continue on the discussion of the dangers of ignoring your fear constantly. But the only explanation we get is just that he enjoy tormenting things and people and that's it. I feel like he was just put in the book to add more conflict with nothing to actually add.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Vomit, Police brutality