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nina_chan01 's review for:
If I Stopped Haunting You
by Colby Wilkens
Penelope Skinner is a Native horror writer who gets thrust into the spotlight after throwing a book at fellow Native horror writer Neil Storm and accusing him of perpetuating negative stereotypes. The fallout has her battling writer's block bad enough that she splurges on a last-minute trip to Scotland with her best friend for a writer's retreat in a supposedly haunted castle. The problems begin when she discovers that not only is the castle most definitely haunted, but even worse, Storm is also participating in the retreat.
I enjoyed it while reading, but promptly forgot almost all about it when I finished the story. It's enjoyable but not memorable beyond appreciating that it tries to emphasize the hardships of BIPOC authors and what they have to do to get published.
Wilken's writing is good, but the switching between romance scenes and horror ones felt abrupt enough that I wonder if these were originally two ideas that got meshed into one as both elements feel incomplete.
Then there's the fact that my favorite part of enemies to lovers is the banter and seeing how the characters interact before they admit that they're crazy for each other, but we hardly get any of that as both Penelope and Neil handle things by avoiding each other or keeping quiet when they're forced to be together. Then it turns out it's just a big misunderstanding and insecure personalities and we skip most of the bantery goodness.
In the end, it's a story that I don't regret reading but doesn't stand out from the rest enough for me to want to rave about it. It has its good points but the mediocre ones outweigh it.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the read!
I enjoyed it while reading, but promptly forgot almost all about it when I finished the story. It's enjoyable but not memorable beyond appreciating that it tries to emphasize the hardships of BIPOC authors and what they have to do to get published.
Wilken's writing is good, but the switching between romance scenes and horror ones felt abrupt enough that I wonder if these were originally two ideas that got meshed into one as both elements feel incomplete.
Then there's the fact that my favorite part of enemies to lovers is the banter and seeing how the characters interact before they admit that they're crazy for each other, but we hardly get any of that as both Penelope and Neil handle things by avoiding each other or keeping quiet when they're forced to be together. Then it turns out it's just a big misunderstanding and insecure personalities and we skip most of the bantery goodness.
In the end, it's a story that I don't regret reading but doesn't stand out from the rest enough for me to want to rave about it. It has its good points but the mediocre ones outweigh it.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the read!