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A review by sreddous
Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a new favorite of mine!!
Wil, at first, is a hard protagonist to get behind, but the more we see little details about her life and the state of her home (through details like her room), the more you see why she acts the way she does and the more you want to root for her. Elwood's narrative voice is lovely; I love how in his chapters he describes things in sort of scienc-y terms while Wil is just all chaos. It's a great balance and led to distinct character voices for this duo-POV story.
I liked the descriptions a lot too. Things got REAL gross when they needed to but were respectful when they needed to, so I found myself RESPECTING this scary forest and scary nature. I could just picture this eerie, snowy, gray location, but all the plants and bugs and living things too. Super cool.
I found the ending and resolution satisfying but also difficult to predict. I believe the way the mystery and the cult's actions were built up never felt info-dump-y, and the fact that there were a few loose ends "that didn't quite make sense" until the ending I found to be actually quite natural, and I feel like ultimately this book's ending had a great balance between "all nice and tied up, all details revisited" and also "things don't always go the way you hoped." Really engaging stuff!!
I think this book could have been a liiittle longer -- I think if we maybe had a handful more pages to build the emotional connection and shared hobbies and such between Wil and Elwood, that could have helped without slogging down the overall pacing. But IMO that's a little nitpicky -- I found their connection and how Wil was unique in how she treated Elwood and how Elwood was unique in how he treated Wil to be believable. It makes sense why they think the other is special.
Really cool stuff. This is the kind of body horror and monster stuff I definitely want to keep reading!!
Wil, at first, is a hard protagonist to get behind, but the more we see little details about her life and the state of her home (through details like her room), the more you see why she acts the way she does and the more you want to root for her. Elwood's narrative voice is lovely; I love how in his chapters he describes things in sort of scienc-y terms while Wil is just all chaos. It's a great balance and led to distinct character voices for this duo-POV story.
I liked the descriptions a lot too. Things got REAL gross when they needed to but were respectful when they needed to, so I found myself RESPECTING this scary forest and scary nature. I could just picture this eerie, snowy, gray location, but all the plants and bugs and living things too. Super cool.
I found the ending and resolution satisfying but also difficult to predict. I believe the way the mystery and the cult's actions were built up never felt info-dump-y, and the fact that there were a few loose ends "that didn't quite make sense" until the ending I found to be actually quite natural, and I feel like ultimately this book's ending had a great balance between "all nice and tied up, all details revisited" and also "things don't always go the way you hoped." Really engaging stuff!!
I think this book could have been a liiittle longer -- I think if we maybe had a handful more pages to build the emotional connection and shared hobbies and such between Wil and Elwood, that could have helped without slogging down the overall pacing. But IMO that's a little nitpicky -- I found their connection and how Wil was unique in how she treated Elwood and how Elwood was unique in how he treated Wil to be believable. It makes sense why they think the other is special.
Really cool stuff. This is the kind of body horror and monster stuff I definitely want to keep reading!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Violence, and Child abuse