bohobookmama 's review for:

The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn

3.5

dark mysterious fast-paced

---

This had the potential to be so great, but fell flat for me. I love a good creature feature and this one was perfect for the recent snowstorms that many of us have been experiencing, but between the plot, or lack-there-of and the characters that I didn’t love, it was a bit blah. However I really did love the dog in this and I really loved the imagery, the creatures and the gore!

I was not a fan of any characters here, none were super likable and lacked common sense badly. The ending was very blah and felt a bit rushed. I think this book needed a bit more plot concerning the creatures and their backstory, and even a bit more about the events after this. They were just there and we have no idea why or anything like that. 

I normally do spoiler free reviews, but this one does contain a few 

⚠️ spoilers ⚠️

.

.

.

.

.

I really didn’t like these characters and the best part of the book was them all dying one by one 😂 I felt this lacked some plot, like where did the creatures come from? What were they? Why were they there? Apart from the beginning when one character mentioned his father telling them about the creatures and him thinking it was just a scary story we get no backstory. The main characters mention how they have been coming to this cabin for years and years and they never have run into these creatures before?! This book could have been so good, but just sadly wasn’t. The group of friends was dumb, they didn’t bring much food at all for their trip, and they are hiding from monsters but forget to lock the door?! Don’t get me started on the lack of ending and the poor dog 😭😭😭 I really wish this just had a bit more meat to it!