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casualcostumer 's review for:
The Secret of Crickley Hall
by James Herbert, Fabrice Borio
Spooky enough to get four stars, but not terribly well-written, so that knocks it down to a three. I'm settling for 3.5. I'll probably change it later after I've had a while to think about it.
I couldn't wait to read this book each night, as it had a great creep factor, but the writing really was groan-worthy. Yes, the father's American. It doesn't need to be pointed out every other chapter. Yes, he's a mechanical engineer. We don't really need details on how he's working out a problem with the thingie that he's working on (and, amazingly, seems to have solved the issue within three days, even though they planned on being at the house for two months).
As other reviewers have pointed out, there was a lot of repetition, and it made certain parts of the book become pretty boring. At one point, Gabe would think, "huh, where'd all that dust come from?" and Eve would say out loud, "where'd all that dust come from?" and Gabe would reply, "I was just wondering that myself." That kind of thing happens A. LOT.
I would have liked a better death for the one boy - dying because someone cut your penis and you bled to death? Ugh. And the scene where Maurice remembers Susan getting her first period? Come on. That is NOT how menstruation works, especially when it's the first time. Women don't just hemorrhage, and I think 11 is too young for a girl to have endometriosis.
The whole part with the Cribbens' madness was just meh to me. I preferred the parts that were spooky to the parts that were just gross.
I couldn't wait to read this book each night, as it had a great creep factor, but the writing really was groan-worthy. Yes, the father's American. It doesn't need to be pointed out every other chapter. Yes, he's a mechanical engineer. We don't really need details on how he's working out a problem with the thingie that he's working on (and, amazingly, seems to have solved the issue within three days, even though they planned on being at the house for two months).
As other reviewers have pointed out, there was a lot of repetition, and it made certain parts of the book become pretty boring. At one point, Gabe would think, "huh, where'd all that dust come from?" and Eve would say out loud, "where'd all that dust come from?" and Gabe would reply, "I was just wondering that myself." That kind of thing happens A. LOT.
I would have liked a better death for the one boy - dying because someone cut your penis and you bled to death? Ugh. And the scene where Maurice remembers Susan getting her first period? Come on. That is NOT how menstruation works, especially when it's the first time. Women don't just hemorrhage, and I think 11 is too young for a girl to have endometriosis.
The whole part with the Cribbens' madness was just meh to me. I preferred the parts that were spooky to the parts that were just gross.