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howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.89k)
Morbid curiosity got the best of me with this one, despite the fact that, for years, my only trigger has been stuff related to small children and babies. I started feeling over the past year like that trigger had passed, but this story started getting to me and I got the feeling I might regret it if I continued right now. That said, the writing itself was great and I'm VERY interested in reading something else by this author soon!
I hate to do it, but I've gotta put this one down. I love CK's writing so much typically, but something about these stories... for the most part, they haven't worked for me at all so far. I rarely DNF a short story collection since I like to give each story a chance, so I may give this one another try in the future.
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There's no such thing as monsters, right? Right?
There are.
And they look like you and I.
I've been terrified of the idea of doppelgangers and body-snatchers since I was a little kid. I remember waking up in the mornings and being afraid to get out of bed and say hello to my parents because I was convinced that I would wake up one day and they would have been replaced with something else. I had nightmares about it for years! Needless to say, doppelganger horror hits me in a sweet spot and Them tackled the trope pretty well. I wish there had been more emphasis on the fear of not knowing if someone is really who they say they are or a mimic, but there is one scene (I won't tell you where) that hit the nail on the head and gave me full-blown goosebumps!
I can't review this without talking about the violence and gore, because wow, this book is depraved lol. I read a decent amount of extreme horror, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm hard to please because gratuitous violence rarely affects me, but this book had a couple of scenes that left me feeling sick to my stomach for a few hours afterward. DEFINITELY check my trigger warnings below if you think you'll need them! A lot of the novella's strengths lay in the fact that Mique Watson did a great job of making me care about the characters before harm came to them, which made it hit home a lot harder.
As far as downsides go, the writing could have used a little more editing, mostly in terms of continuity and dialogue (there are a few scenes with back-and-forth dialogue with nothing to break it up and no "she said", "so-and-so said", etc.; hard to explain in a review, but it made it tough to follow). I also wish there had been more of an explanation as to what was going on and how this all began. Honestly, Them could have been fleshed out into a full-length novel, no problem! All of that said, I had a really good time reading this (even if I spent a good bit of that time wrinkling my nose in disgust or cringing in sympathy) and I'm excited to read more of this author's work soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
