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A review by branomander
Under the Blade by Matt Serafini
4.0
3.5/5
Surprisingly, this featured really good character writing and dialogue. The people here were shockingly vivid and realistic. The prose otherwise was nothing special but was certainly functional.
The book definitely subverted pretty much every expectation I had. I went in thinking Friday the 13th and left thinking The Void. Don't read this if you're expecting something typical. It goes to great lengths to avoid that.
There's a pretty good, coherent theme that's interwoven with nearly every plotline in the book, about things with relatively innocent beginnings or good intentions getting distorted and perverted with time.
As far as negatives, the violence here, while befitting a horror novel, occasionally strayed into... uncomfortable territory. I'd have trouble recommending this to most people because of that.
Some of the concepts were a bit on the nose, and there's a pretty sloppy exposition scene at the end that was quite jarring.
Not all of the POVs were as engaging as others, but I still found myself interested no matter whose viewpoint I was supposed to assume.
For a book that I read for free, I'm happy with it. Certainly wasn't what I expected, entertained me, and made me think. Also made me uncomfortable.
Surprisingly, this featured really good character writing and dialogue. The people here were shockingly vivid and realistic. The prose otherwise was nothing special but was certainly functional.
The book definitely subverted pretty much every expectation I had. I went in thinking Friday the 13th and left thinking The Void. Don't read this if you're expecting something typical. It goes to great lengths to avoid that.
There's a pretty good, coherent theme that's interwoven with nearly every plotline in the book, about things with relatively innocent beginnings or good intentions getting distorted and perverted with time.
As far as negatives, the violence here, while befitting a horror novel, occasionally strayed into... uncomfortable territory. I'd have trouble recommending this to most people because of that.
Some of the concepts were a bit on the nose, and there's a pretty sloppy exposition scene at the end that was quite jarring.
Not all of the POVs were as engaging as others, but I still found myself interested no matter whose viewpoint I was supposed to assume.
For a book that I read for free, I'm happy with it. Certainly wasn't what I expected, entertained me, and made me think. Also made me uncomfortable.