A review by hexatrance
All These Bodies by Kendare Blake

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This had potential and I love an ambiguous ending but this didn't execute it right. It would have felt more ambiguous if it had actually given us more details, rather than less, to confuse the real/supernatural details more. Those details should have been with the other murders, which get lost in the murders of the Carlson's and became forgettable. Also no character felt developed. Michael wants to be a journalist but shows no passion for it and hardly any journalism takes place. The plot focuses on the interviews but there's too many artificial gaps in between them to draw it out long enough to create a whole book, and instead too much happens off the page. I think a short novella would have been creepier because it would require less of these drawn out pauses. I didn't understand the motivations for the town turning on them any more than I understood the motivations of the niceties and lack of urgency shown to Marie at the station. There was no build up to any of these because there was too much telling rather than showing. It made it feel like all side characters flipped at the flick of a switch to whatever mystery required. No one felt real, except the one character that was written to not be believed as real. It was all just meh, tropes that I like, but I've seen pulled off way better elsewhere.