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A review by couldbestephen
The Watchers by A.M. Shine
4.0
This Gothic Fae horror stumbles with it's delivery, but ultimately delivers a thrilling, exciting read that leaves you wishing you had the next book in your hands. I rated this 4/5 stars and would recommend!
Mina is a lonely young artist, disconnected from humanity. She is tasked by the closest thing she has to a friend to deliver a small, yellow bird to someone in the next town over. On her way over, she finds herself in a forest that shouldn't exist, populated by horrible monsters and 3 other human survivors. Those survivors live in a strange structure in the middle of the woods, a concrete house with a glass wall. Every night, the monsters come and watch them. Will the group figure out who these monsters are and find a way out of the dark forest maze?
My biggest criticism of the book was the author's writing style. The writing bordered on purple prose most of the time and took me out of the story in the first few chapters. I understand the author wanted to emulate a "gothic style" of writing, and I think he accomplished it, but I wish he had pulled back a little. Things were described over and over as Shine used different metaphors to describe them. We get it. One of the characters has red hair and large eyes. Don't need to continuously tell us that.
Fae Gothic Horror/Thriller wasn't a genre I knew I loved until this book. Shine steeps The Watchers in Irish folklore and culture, which made the book incredibly rich. The pacing was slow to start, but picked up and kept me on my toes through the rest of the novel. I was hooked pretty quickly, and when we got to some fun reveals near the end, I was on the edge of my seat. As soon as the book was done, I was online looking for when the next book drops (not until November of 2024!!).
Would recommend this, I hope the movie does this justice!
Mina is a lonely young artist, disconnected from humanity. She is tasked by the closest thing she has to a friend to deliver a small, yellow bird to someone in the next town over. On her way over, she finds herself in a forest that shouldn't exist, populated by horrible monsters and 3 other human survivors. Those survivors live in a strange structure in the middle of the woods, a concrete house with a glass wall. Every night, the monsters come and watch them. Will the group figure out who these monsters are and find a way out of the dark forest maze?
My biggest criticism of the book was the author's writing style. The writing bordered on purple prose most of the time and took me out of the story in the first few chapters. I understand the author wanted to emulate a "gothic style" of writing, and I think he accomplished it, but I wish he had pulled back a little. Things were described over and over as Shine used different metaphors to describe them. We get it. One of the characters has red hair and large eyes. Don't need to continuously tell us that.
Fae Gothic Horror/Thriller wasn't a genre I knew I loved until this book. Shine steeps The Watchers in Irish folklore and culture, which made the book incredibly rich. The pacing was slow to start, but picked up and kept me on my toes through the rest of the novel. I was hooked pretty quickly, and when we got to some fun reveals near the end, I was on the edge of my seat. As soon as the book was done, I was online looking for when the next book drops (not until November of 2024!!).
Would recommend this, I hope the movie does this justice!