A review by grierkelsey
The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan

2.0

I was very excited about this book. The cover promises suspense and horror, the premise is intriguing, and the first 100 or so pages are full of prose that I couldn’t get enough of. However, the book sort of sours after that. The suspense and horror doesn’t come in until about page 350, 20 or so pages until the end of the book. The rest of the book is just an uninteresting man playing young, inexperienced girls and naive women for his own personal gratification with no real motive other than sexual. I found the male adversary as compelling as wet bread, and the female characters, while very intriguing, disappointingly preoccupied with the wet bread and their interesting histories and secrets barely explored. Would have given 3 stars, but my disappointed expectations knocked one off.