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A review by findingmontauk1
The Blackening by Seán O'Connor
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
I keep telling myself I love or want to love cosmic horror, but maybe that sub-genre just is not my thing. But here is an element of cosmic horror that I DO love: I love creepy tentacle horror. But that is not what defines cosmic horror in totality. That might have been the reason I did, for the most part, enjoy THE BLACKENING by Seán O'Connor. Tentacles just get me. Maybe I need to focus on the tentacles and not the word/description "cosmic" anymore?
THE BLACKENING is the story of an Icelandic village that is about to have a Northern Lights Festival. Tourists start to go missing. There is an angry and hot-tempered cop who ultimately wants to do the right thing, a power hungry and greedy police commissioner, and a quirky and curious scientist and her research assistant. I wanted more from these characters than some of the same tropes and repetitive dialogue. I could not connect to any of them and was already fairly annoyed by our lead protagonist, police inspector John Ward, from the first few pages of his entrance.
I did really enjoy the Icelandic scenic descriptions of black sand beaches, underground caves, and when the overall mood would be detailed. I thought the action that picks up heavily in the last 1/3 of the book was written well and turned this book into something more fast-paced. And I think descriptions of some of the deaths, the corpses in the aftermath, the combination of Nordic noir with cultish monster mayhem, and the monster itself were quite intriguing. So I think my biggest issue with the book is the character development or somewhat lack thereof.
(Special thanks to Night Worms and author Seán O’Connor for this #NightWormsBookParty review copy)!
THE BLACKENING is the story of an Icelandic village that is about to have a Northern Lights Festival. Tourists start to go missing. There is an angry and hot-tempered cop who ultimately wants to do the right thing, a power hungry and greedy police commissioner, and a quirky and curious scientist and her research assistant. I wanted more from these characters than some of the same tropes and repetitive dialogue. I could not connect to any of them and was already fairly annoyed by our lead protagonist, police inspector John Ward, from the first few pages of his entrance.
I did really enjoy the Icelandic scenic descriptions of black sand beaches, underground caves, and when the overall mood would be detailed. I thought the action that picks up heavily in the last 1/3 of the book was written well and turned this book into something more fast-paced. And I think descriptions of some of the deaths, the corpses in the aftermath, the combination of Nordic noir with cultish monster mayhem, and the monster itself were quite intriguing. So I think my biggest issue with the book is the character development or somewhat lack thereof.
(Special thanks to Night Worms and author Seán O’Connor for this #NightWormsBookParty review copy)!