maxgardner 's review for:

Below by Laurel Hightower

3.5

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This novella starts off strong, and I think it mostly maintains its momentum. We're pretty quickly thrown into chaos, and Laurel Hightower does an excellent job of continuing to up the stakes and push the story forward, forcing the character down a path that it feels difficult to imagine she can come back from. Great moments of tension and fear, some cool body horror, and an overarching sense of dread. The only gripes I have are the ending feeling a little "Huh?" and the wasted potential of making the protagonist a horror superfan on her way to a convention only to make very limited use of this fact throughout (we get maybe 1-2 horror references, maybe a line or two about knowledge learned from the genre). Why even include this detail about her at all? But all in all, a good creature feature and worth it to check out.