A review by melbsreads
The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude

3.0

Trigger warnings: murder, mutilation, animal cruelty, assault, mental health,
Spoilerdeath of an LGBTQIA+ character
.

The whole time I was reading this, it reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. It's about a teenage girl who lives in a community that keeps itself separate from the world, that embraces the ways of the past, that is kept out of the woods that surround it by a monster (although in this case, it's a man who murdered a girl 20ish years earlier), that finds itself dealing with animal mutilations. And much like in The Village, she's in love with the boy next door, and the relationship between them feels very similar.

Aaaaaaaaanyway.

This took a really long time to get going. And then once it DID get going, I found the story kind of...basic? IDK, it's dealing with horrific crimes and disturbing content. But at the same time, I didn't find the writing particularly compelling and I was kind of bored by the characters. It should have been creepy and spooky and mostly it was just...kind of mediocre. Womp.