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A review by lilonishi
Grave Matter by Karina Halle
4.0
This is my first book by this author so i didn't really know what to expect when going into it, but i was not disappointed at all.
The reviews for this book really do it justice, and i knew i wanted to read a copy of this when i saw the content warning list. It's a whole page long and covers things from off page deaths, animal deaths (also off page), gore, bdsm and torture. If that doesn't sound like a wild ride then i don't know what does.
This entire book was crazy from start to finish, with the pacing and momentum of the book really picking up at the halfway point. It did take me a little while to get into it properly, but once i did i was fully invested and couldn't put it down.
Things were a little hard to understand at the beginning becasue there was just so much explaining, and so much info dumping about the different types of wildlife/fungi/the island that they were on. I think it was all of this context and info right at the start of the book (and honestly up to the 25% mark) that makes it a little slower to get through.
The only problem i had, which was entirely on me, was that i didn't really connect with any of the characters. Maybe because the focus of the story wasn't actually on them but on this creepy island and all the weird things going on there?
I did like that there was such a wide variety of characters, and that they weren't all the 'good guys'. It was really cool to see just how manipulative some of them could be, and even more enjoyable when you saw a different side of them come out on the page simply because things weren't going their way.
I also didn't really understand the chemistry between Kincaid and Sydney, but maybe that was the point?
It just seemed like the obsession/romance between the two of them kind of came out of nowhere, same as all the spicy scenes. I don't know i just felt like i missed some kind of connecting moment that actually brought them together?
Everything about this just felt kind of off in some way, but now that i've finished the book and actually thought about it, i really do think that this was the intention. Things just didn't add up or make sense until the end, and with the pacing being so off you really lose all sense of time within the book until all of a sudden really intense and graphic things are happening again.
It was 'off' in the best way possible and a really enjoyable psychological thriller/romance.
The reviews for this book really do it justice, and i knew i wanted to read a copy of this when i saw the content warning list. It's a whole page long and covers things from off page deaths, animal deaths (also off page), gore, bdsm and torture. If that doesn't sound like a wild ride then i don't know what does.
This entire book was crazy from start to finish, with the pacing and momentum of the book really picking up at the halfway point. It did take me a little while to get into it properly, but once i did i was fully invested and couldn't put it down.
Things were a little hard to understand at the beginning becasue there was just so much explaining, and so much info dumping about the different types of wildlife/fungi/the island that they were on. I think it was all of this context and info right at the start of the book (and honestly up to the 25% mark) that makes it a little slower to get through.
The only problem i had, which was entirely on me, was that i didn't really connect with any of the characters. Maybe because the focus of the story wasn't actually on them but on this creepy island and all the weird things going on there?
I did like that there was such a wide variety of characters, and that they weren't all the 'good guys'. It was really cool to see just how manipulative some of them could be, and even more enjoyable when you saw a different side of them come out on the page simply because things weren't going their way.
I also didn't really understand the chemistry between Kincaid and Sydney, but maybe that was the point?
It just seemed like the obsession/romance between the two of them kind of came out of nowhere, same as all the spicy scenes. I don't know i just felt like i missed some kind of connecting moment that actually brought them together?
Everything about this just felt kind of off in some way, but now that i've finished the book and actually thought about it, i really do think that this was the intention. Things just didn't add up or make sense until the end, and with the pacing being so off you really lose all sense of time within the book until all of a sudden really intense and graphic things are happening again.
It was 'off' in the best way possible and a really enjoyable psychological thriller/romance.