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A review by angelsbeforeman
A History of Fear by Luke Dumas
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
sort of an analysis of human psychology through a guy who confesses to murder, but says the devil made him do it. the whole 'satan made me do it' part of the blurb is what drew me in in the first place. i actually quite liked it! not that i expected otherwise, it's just that i didn't expect anything at all, so it was a nice surprise.
i like books that analyse the way a person can essentially go insane, and if you add religious themes to it, then i'm very happy. especially because the execution here is alright, and i was honestly kind of scared that it wouldn't be (i found the devil's advocate thing a bit corny for just a second, my bad). kind of strange to say this book was easy to get through, but it truly was. the overall theme kept me interested and it turns out luke dumas is quite a good writer, so i might check out his other work. loved the atmosphere, the mysterious elements, and the way the horror aspects were more psychological than physical.
what i didn't like would be some aspects of the religious themes. personally, i'm not super offended by it, and different people will take this differently. despite not personally being shaken by it due to some of my experiences, i recognise that many could be uncomfortable with comparing being gay to having the devil in you. i don't know if the author's gay himself, so i can't say whether this should be considered good gay representation or not. depends. but it's something to be cautious about both when writing and reading something like this.
another thing i disliked was the pacing, mostly because it was sort of messy. sometimes things happened too fast, other times it dragged. don't think this should be 350+ pages, i'd cut some parts. i also hated the main character, but it's not an issue since he's not written to be likable. overall, pretty good.
i like books that analyse the way a person can essentially go insane, and if you add religious themes to it, then i'm very happy. especially because the execution here is alright, and i was honestly kind of scared that it wouldn't be (i found the devil's advocate thing a bit corny for just a second, my bad). kind of strange to say this book was easy to get through, but it truly was. the overall theme kept me interested and it turns out luke dumas is quite a good writer, so i might check out his other work. loved the atmosphere, the mysterious elements, and the way the horror aspects were more psychological than physical.
what i didn't like would be some aspects of the religious themes.
another thing i disliked was the pacing, mostly because it was sort of messy. sometimes things happened too fast, other times it dragged. don't think this should be 350+ pages, i'd cut some parts. i also hated the main character, but it's not an issue since he's not written to be likable. overall, pretty good.