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cristi_ivan 's review for:
Poor man’s Stephen King.
Phantoms started interesting enough to catch my attention, but it failed to keep it until the end. Highly reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Mist, it starts very strong, with an interesting and eerie premise – the inhabitants of a small, isolated town disappear without trace, in a matter of minutes. Just a few bloated bodies are left behind, but they can’t tell the horrific story which took place in this idyllic setting.
Drawing from real events, like the Mary Celeste mystery and the Roanoke Colony vanishing, the novel tries to come with an explanation for mass disappearances throughout recorded history. The final reveal of the “ancient enemy” that committed these atrocities felt unsatisfying and it made me think of the Blob.
The novel had some problems in keeping a steady tense atmosphere, and the alternating scenes of peace and quiet versus “here comes Johnny”, quickly became a habit. Sometimes, it’s ok to give the reader some relief, but it’s not ok to do it in such a programmed manner. Another problem of the novel was how predictable it was, in terms of who’s going to die. You could’ve easily figured out who was next, by looking at the way the characters were built. If they were not developed enough, clearly, they were expendable.
** stars
Phantoms started interesting enough to catch my attention, but it failed to keep it until the end. Highly reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Mist, it starts very strong, with an interesting and eerie premise – the inhabitants of a small, isolated town disappear without trace, in a matter of minutes. Just a few bloated bodies are left behind, but they can’t tell the horrific story which took place in this idyllic setting.
Drawing from real events, like the Mary Celeste mystery and the Roanoke Colony vanishing, the novel tries to come with an explanation for mass disappearances throughout recorded history. The final reveal of the “ancient enemy” that committed these atrocities felt unsatisfying and it made me think of the Blob.
The novel had some problems in keeping a steady tense atmosphere, and the alternating scenes of peace and quiet versus “here comes Johnny”, quickly became a habit. Sometimes, it’s ok to give the reader some relief, but it’s not ok to do it in such a programmed manner. Another problem of the novel was how predictable it was, in terms of who’s going to die. You could’ve easily figured out who was next, by looking at the way the characters were built. If they were not developed enough, clearly, they were expendable.
** stars