charles_rowland's reviews
202 reviews

challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i don’t know how to feel about this book. in a lot of ways, this is what i was hoping for from ‘hide’ by kiersten white. felt like a mix of that and the hunger games. there are loose ends that i wish were tied up at all or better.

the warthogs specifically and especially brock’s interview. i enjoy the reminder of the fact all the interviews are unreliable narrators however

im left with not a lot of questions, but large ones that leave me dissatisfied, not ones that are open ended in a thought provoking yet satisfying way. i heavily enjoyed this book, however. although i am really just proving the point that the afterword provides, i do wish that it had less of the kinda filler explanations and more of the action and gore. i typically like this sort of style of writing, interviews and such, but because of the plot it felt like we needed maybe just a chapter at the end that explains exactly what happened during one of the raids or something so we could have some of those questions squarely answered. i think, actually, my previous statement of wanting more action isn’t necessarily true if we have more questions answered and more information

The Ruins by Scott Smith

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

despite how fast the main plot/‘horror’ aspect starts, i was so god damn bored.

all the deaths shoved in the last 50 pages, making us wait so long for such lame deaths? like right before the deaths r always really good, eric skinning himself but then dying of a stab wound. pablo hanging on the entire book to get smothered randomly as if the author forgot about him

the ritual was one of my favorite horror books to date and this was a let down

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