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A review by coriandercake
Valley of Terror by Zhou Haohui
2.0
I waffled on whether I liked this book or not, but at the end of the day the cons outweigh the pros.
The biggest issue was prose, and I am not sure if that was an issue in the original or an issue of translation. At best, it is utilitarian, and at worst, it's choppy and uninteresting. The book gets into a nice groove for about 50 pages, but that doesn't happen until 300 pages in.
There would be random scenes where the perspective would switch but it wasn't sustained and it rarely added anything to the story.
The only major female character existed as a semi-love interest and was more of a plot device than a real character. All her development was explained to the reader because she didn't receive enough actual development/time on page for the reader to see this change naturally. In fact, the book would have been more unique and interesting if her perspective was followed instead.
Luo is a stereotypical detective type--unreadable, trustworthy, magnetic, intelligent. The other characters felt like caricatures.
This felt more like a mystery than a horror. Once again, I'm not sure if the translation is at fault for this.
The biggest issue was prose, and I am not sure if that was an issue in the original or an issue of translation. At best, it is utilitarian, and at worst, it's choppy and uninteresting. The book gets into a nice groove for about 50 pages, but that doesn't happen until 300 pages in.
There would be random scenes where the perspective would switch but it wasn't sustained and it rarely added anything to the story.
The only major female character existed as a semi-love interest and was more of a plot device than a real character. All her development was explained to the reader because she didn't receive enough actual development/time on page for the reader to see this change naturally. In fact, the book would have been more unique and interesting if her perspective was followed instead.
Luo is a stereotypical detective type--unreadable, trustworthy, magnetic, intelligent. The other characters felt like caricatures.
This felt more like a mystery than a horror. Once again, I'm not sure if the translation is at fault for this.