Take a photo of a barcode or cover
bibliomich 's review for:
Head Like a Hole
by Andrew Van Wey
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Listening to the audiobook for Head Like a Hole was *quite* the experience. This book felt like Stranger Things meets Final Destination with a hint of M. Night Shyamalan thrown in at the end. I absolutely flew through the book and then found myself stymied by the last 10%-15%, which I had to rewind and listen to multiple times to truly wrap my head around.
What I enjoyed:
- The exposition was fantastic. It was creepy and gory in all the right ways, and I was excited to see the "true crime podcaster investigating a story" device.
- I liked the nostalgic cult classic 90s/00s horror vibes, particularly throughout the first 2/3 of the book.
- This was a quick read, and I found that I could get lost in the book for long stretches of time without getting bored or distracted.
- Even though there were many characters and different timelines, I found it relatively easy to keep track of them all.
- The narrator, Tom Jordan, did an excellent job.
What didn't quite work for me:
- While several aspects of the book were gory and/or graphic, I didn't find the book to be particularly scary. I would have loved to see Van Wey introduce more elements of psychological horror into the book, as I think this could have really taken the book to the next level.
- The ending was both predictable and also super confusing. Too much happened right at the end, and a lot of it wasn't particularly clear. While I think this was probably intentional in a you-can-interpret-this-however-you-want sort of way, I mostly found it to be a disappointing resolution.
- The book suffered from not having a clear narrator. It was initially framed as though the protagonist were telling the story to the interviewer, but the narration was actually third-person omniscient and jumped around between multiple different characters. At the end you're left wondering if the narrator was a reliable narrator, but that doesn't really make sense because the story was being told *about* the characters, rather than truly from the point of view of the characters.
I would still consider reading more Andrew Van Wey, especially another book narrated by Tom Jordan.
What I enjoyed:
- The exposition was fantastic. It was creepy and gory in all the right ways, and I was excited to see the "true crime podcaster investigating a story" device.
- I liked the nostalgic cult classic 90s/00s horror vibes, particularly throughout the first 2/3 of the book.
- This was a quick read, and I found that I could get lost in the book for long stretches of time without getting bored or distracted.
- Even though there were many characters and different timelines, I found it relatively easy to keep track of them all.
- The narrator, Tom Jordan, did an excellent job.
What didn't quite work for me:
- While several aspects of the book were gory and/or graphic, I didn't find the book to be particularly scary. I would have loved to see Van Wey introduce more elements of psychological horror into the book, as I think this could have really taken the book to the next level.
- The ending was both predictable and also super confusing. Too much happened right at the end, and a lot of it wasn't particularly clear. While I think this was probably intentional in a you-can-interpret-this-however-you-want sort of way, I mostly found it to be a disappointing resolution.
- The book suffered from not having a clear narrator. It was initially framed as though the protagonist were telling the story to the interviewer, but the narration was actually third-person omniscient and jumped around between multiple different characters. At the end you're left wondering if the narrator was a reliable narrator, but that doesn't really make sense because the story was being told *about* the characters, rather than truly from the point of view of the characters.
I would still consider reading more Andrew Van Wey, especially another book narrated by Tom Jordan.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Drug use, Racism