A review by lindentea
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

2.75

So yes I've only read 2 books by him, but I keep having the same problems with P Djeli Clark's books: really really awesome and exciting premises that miss the mark for me in execution. I didn't have as much of a problem with the relatively flatter characterization because like this is a novella, ofc you're not gonna get as much space to develop the characters, and the fleshing out we did get was interesting enough! But I think this book was just too packed with... magic?? ... for those characters to have really shined. Did we need 3 (or potentially 4? ) different forms of supernatural entities from 3 different supernatural realms, one of which doesn't even enter the story until the last like 75%?  The horror just leaned a lot more fantasy than I was expecting, which like isn't the book's fault,  but like what can I say!!