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walzkiddo 's review for:
The Harrowing
by Alexandra Sokoloff
Sokoloff's selling a box set of three of her books on Amazon for five dollars flat. When I read the synopses of these three novels, I couldn't possibly pass up the bargain; I love scary things, and I needed something dumb to read after the mentally trying odyssey that is John Fowles' The Magus. The Harrowing was a good book, to my delight, but left some (not much) room for improvement. It reminded me of the film The Possession (in a good way, if that makes sense; I didn't care for The Possession myself and though that this novel was much desirable over that film). Both are Jewish horror stories (i.e. there's a religious tie-in that has to do with Judaism and variants thereof). I'm not Jewish, but I appreciated Sokoloff's knowledge of the subject, as well as her clearly well-developed writing skills. She plays around with horror archetypes, a lot like The Cabin in the Woods (which I enjoyed immensely), and chooses some very interesting things to do with the characters she creates with these archetypes. I really liked the heroine, Robin, as well as the ironic transformation she undergoes as the novel progresses. I also enjoyed Cain's character, which was pretty much an enigma from start to finish... I only have a couple complaints, and they're not all that important. Firstly, there is a lot of repetition and more than a few errors in the text; a solid (or better) editor probably could have caught those. The ending moves very, very, very fast; I feel like the dramatic quality could have been increased if Sokoloff had slowed down for a moment to write out that last scene. The last one's more of a personal thing, though I'm not giving any spoilers... There was one character I really didn't care for (we all have them), and would have been more than happy to see him/her bite the dust by the end of the thing, though my wish was not granted (for whatever reason). I don't quite understand why Sokoloff kills her heroes but leaves the idiots alive... hm. Something to think about. Anyway, I'll be moving on to the next book in the collection as soon as I get a chance. Solid work.