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A review by sucreslibrary
At the End of Every Day by Arianna Reiche
1.5
this read a bit like creepypasta/Reddit r/nosleep, but not in the same way 2024 horror darling 'We Used to Live Here' did. I hated 'We Used to Live Here' for pulling from the same generic well all of the reddit stories do, relying on the same tropes and ultimately being generic tripe. this book is not like that, but the same kind of creepypasta feeling crept over me while I read it.
while you could say this is using a pretty overused setting as a base (beloved amusement park actually has a horrifying secret and isn't as nice as everyone thinks!) the way the story goes about all of that is unique. but it's also extremely boring, and by the end I did not care. I finished this book this morning and it is already leaving my brain. it barely made an impact. and that's how it felt the entire time I was reading it - so much effort put into the setting, into having so much theme park history (though much of it is just mirroring Disney) and in the end, what did any of it matter? it just felt like someone padding out their story so they can have more updates to share while they waffle about on what direction to take the ending.
i think the letters between the siblings really pushed it into creepypasta territory for me - they were clunky and felt superfluous. the info in them could have been delivered in a much better way, and by the end they just felt kinda silly to have at the end of every chapter. sure, they connect into the main story, but it barely has anything to do with the main character and only serve to really hammer an element of the story into your head. the reveal is so dragged out that I didn't care once it was "confirmed". the cult is extremely boring. the actual truth behind what is going on felt completely random. just kind of a nothing book honestly, though it is trying to say things about escapism (and possibly "disney adults" in general?). i don't think it comes down super hard on that angle, and seems to really cushion the idea, but it is trying to say SOMETHING. I just don't think it was enough of a focus or done well enough to mean much in the end.
while you could say this is using a pretty overused setting as a base (beloved amusement park actually has a horrifying secret and isn't as nice as everyone thinks!) the way the story goes about all of that is unique. but it's also extremely boring, and by the end I did not care. I finished this book this morning and it is already leaving my brain. it barely made an impact. and that's how it felt the entire time I was reading it - so much effort put into the setting, into having so much theme park history (though much of it is just mirroring Disney) and in the end, what did any of it matter? it just felt like someone padding out their story so they can have more updates to share while they waffle about on what direction to take the ending.
i think the letters between the siblings really pushed it into creepypasta territory for me - they were clunky and felt superfluous. the info in them could have been delivered in a much better way, and by the end they just felt kinda silly to have at the end of every chapter. sure, they connect into the main story, but it barely has anything to do with the main character and only serve to really hammer an element of the story into your head. the reveal is so dragged out that I didn't care once it was "confirmed". the cult is extremely boring. the actual truth behind what is going on felt completely random. just kind of a nothing book honestly, though it is trying to say things about escapism (and possibly "disney adults" in general?). i don't think it comes down super hard on that angle, and seems to really cushion the idea, but it is trying to say SOMETHING. I just don't think it was enough of a focus or done well enough to mean much in the end.