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madarauchiha's reviews
446 reviews
Bone China by Laura Purcell
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
I hate gothic genre. I should really check genres before reading. That said, it wasn't tooooo bad. It was historical gothic with a hint of horror and supernatual in the The Fae flavor. If you read Purcell's previous books, you'd familiar with the tones and themes also present in this book.
I suppose it was a bit slow. I thought it was very well written and competently described. Much of the historical details were not confusing to someone like me who does not read much historical genre. I liked the MC, if only because she was stubborn and clever and tried her best to survive in a shitty misogynistic society. She's a fucked up person who has done fucked up things. Neat!
The ending was sudden and honestly I can't disagree with that. In context it makes perfect sense. The POV is of the MC, why wouldn't it flow just like that?
You know what's fuckign weird tho?the nurse girl character fucking the prisoner / medical abuse experiment subject guy. What th efuck.
All that said, I didn't care for the book. Just didn't click for me. I appreciate how well made it is, and can tell the author is pretty skilled at what she does.
major addiction, blood, classism, death, dogs, medical content, miscarriage, murder, parental death, racial slurs, religion christianity, sinophobia, suicide ideation
medium ableism, alcohol, classism, parasites, pedophilia, psychiatric abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking, whorephobia
Minor alcoholism, drowning, excrement, infertility, kidnapping, pregnancy, sexual content, vomit
I hate gothic genre. I should really check genres before reading. That said, it wasn't tooooo bad. It was historical gothic with a hint of horror and supernatual in the The Fae flavor. If you read Purcell's previous books, you'd familiar with the tones and themes also present in this book.
I suppose it was a bit slow. I thought it was very well written and competently described. Much of the historical details were not confusing to someone like me who does not read much historical genre. I liked the MC, if only because she was stubborn and clever and tried her best to survive in a shitty misogynistic society. She's a fucked up person who has done fucked up things. Neat!
The ending was sudden and honestly I can't disagree with that. In context it makes perfect sense. The POV is of the MC, why wouldn't it flow just like that?
You know what's fuckign weird tho?
All that said, I didn't care for the book. Just didn't click for me. I appreciate how well made it is, and can tell the author is pretty skilled at what she does.
major addiction, blood, classism, death, dogs, medical content, miscarriage, murder, parental death, racial slurs, religion christianity, sinophobia, suicide ideation
medium ableism, alcohol, classism, parasites, pedophilia, psychiatric abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking, whorephobia
Minor alcoholism, drowning, excrement, infertility, kidnapping, pregnancy, sexual content, vomit
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Death, Medical content, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Racial slurs, and Addiction
Moderate: Trafficking, Ableism, Alcohol, Classism, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Excrement, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Vomit
Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Weird and creepy story about grief. Well written, interesting, the supernatural portion wasn't goofy and I appreciate that it didn't go fully scooby doo. I thought it handled the heavy subject matter fairly well.
It's an incredibly white book. Zero diversity. Which like I'm not exactly demanding because useless authors shoehorning useless sidekicks of color or black sidekicks to white main characters is the LAST thing I want to read.
major suicide, suicide ideation, gore, injuries, blood, self harm, death, grief, alcohol,
medium medical content, infertility, pregnancy, car accidents,
minor sexual content, alcohol,
Weird and creepy story about grief. Well written, interesting, the supernatural portion wasn't goofy and I appreciate that it didn't go fully scooby doo. I thought it handled the heavy subject matter fairly well.
It's an incredibly white book. Zero diversity. Which like I'm not exactly demanding because useless authors shoehorning useless sidekicks of color or black sidekicks to white main characters is the LAST thing I want to read.
major suicide, suicide ideation, gore, injuries, blood, self harm, death, grief, alcohol,
medium medical content, infertility, pregnancy, car accidents,
minor sexual content, alcohol,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Grief, Alcohol, Death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Infertility, Car accident, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
To The Center Of The Earth by Greig Beck
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-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
1.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
The author is incredibly sexist. all the female characters are interested in clothes and little else. The one woman character with a speaking part is esentially the romance plot point. As in, if the male character accomplishes a task, he will be rewards with sex from her. That's all her character is good for, frankly.
The book is very generic white male author writing. It reminds me of a horror scifi movie that would play on the Turner Classic Movie channel, complete with rubber suit monsters and stop motion fighting. Very dated and sexist and oriented to a very specific audience which I hope will die out and not be carried into the future. I genuinely cannot believe this was printed in 2020. I was expecting the first printing date to be something like 1950, just based on the rampant sexism and poor plotting.
Cave horror?! No. Nah. The caving parts were very glossed over. If you want tense climbing sequences or any passing mentions of spelunking / caving information, skip this. It's very 'they scaled down the wall'. Not that I'm a caving expert, but I've read other books which had better, more in depth caving scenes. It's not a nitpick, I simply expect a book about caving to have decent caving scenes.
Most of the plot is just going from one place to another with a brief info dump speculation about how different this place is from the above land on earth. Bad things happen. One persondies or is badly injured in which case they will die very soon in the future. Rinse and repeat. This is a brief part of tension in a bunch of monster insect people are hunting the protagonists.
Note for Jewish readers. The plot involves the concept of hollow earth theory. I don't think the antisemitic conspiracy version is involved beyond it having the same origin. Like, obviously you cannot escape the antisemitic, nazi origins of Flat Earth. This takes more inspiration from Jules Verne's idea of a hollow earth. But I admit that I'm not familiar with Verne's concept or if it is somehow separate from the antisemitic version of Flat Earth. Nazism and Jewish people are not mentioned as far as I saw. Frankly, even aside from this, I don't recommend this book. It does mention these things.
▪ Lemuriya.” Michael smiled. “That’s what Katya called this place. It was a mythical lost continent.”
▪ Arkady Saknussov is?”
“Yes, I do,” Michael replied. “He was the 15th century Russian scholar and alchemist who believed the world was hollow.” He smiled sympathetically. “There are many, like me, who believe in that wild theory. That hundreds of millions of years ago the Earth’s molten core began to cool and shrink, and then pulled away from the mantle. It created a space…a space for an entire new world. An untouched paradise.”
Make of this what you will.
Lastly, the dialogue felt like the author grew up solely on marvel movies and joss wheton snappy one liners. Awful.
major ableism, animal death, death, forced institutionalized, gore, spiders, psychiatric abuse, vomit
minor alcohol, cannibalism,
The author is incredibly sexist. all the female characters are interested in clothes and little else. The one woman character with a speaking part is esentially the romance plot point. As in, if the male character accomplishes a task, he will be rewards with sex from her. That's all her character is good for, frankly.
The book is very generic white male author writing. It reminds me of a horror scifi movie that would play on the Turner Classic Movie channel, complete with rubber suit monsters and stop motion fighting. Very dated and sexist and oriented to a very specific audience which I hope will die out and not be carried into the future. I genuinely cannot believe this was printed in 2020. I was expecting the first printing date to be something like 1950, just based on the rampant sexism and poor plotting.
Cave horror?! No. Nah. The caving parts were very glossed over. If you want tense climbing sequences or any passing mentions of spelunking / caving information, skip this. It's very 'they scaled down the wall'. Not that I'm a caving expert, but I've read other books which had better, more in depth caving scenes. It's not a nitpick, I simply expect a book about caving to have decent caving scenes.
Most of the plot is just going from one place to another with a brief info dump speculation about how different this place is from the above land on earth. Bad things happen. One person
Note for Jewish readers. The plot involves the concept of hollow earth theory. I don't think the antisemitic conspiracy version is involved beyond it having the same origin. Like, obviously you cannot escape the antisemitic, nazi origins of Flat Earth. This takes more inspiration from Jules Verne's idea of a hollow earth. But I admit that I'm not familiar with Verne's concept or if it is somehow separate from the antisemitic version of Flat Earth. Nazism and Jewish people are not mentioned as far as I saw. Frankly, even aside from this, I don't recommend this book. It does mention these things.
▪ Lemuriya.” Michael smiled. “That’s what Katya called this place. It was a mythical lost continent.”
▪ Arkady Saknussov is?”
“Yes, I do,” Michael replied. “He was the 15th century Russian scholar and alchemist who believed the world was hollow.” He smiled sympathetically. “There are many, like me, who believe in that wild theory. That hundreds of millions of years ago the Earth’s molten core began to cool and shrink, and then pulled away from the mantle. It created a space…a space for an entire new world. An untouched paradise.”
Make of this what you will.
Lastly, the dialogue felt like the author grew up solely on marvel movies and joss wheton snappy one liners. Awful.
major ableism, animal death, death, forced institutionalized, gore, spiders, psychiatric abuse, vomit
minor alcohol, cannibalism,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Ableism, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Gore
Moderate: Cannibalism and Alcohol
The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved by Joey Comeau
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Just gory enough to be splatterpunk but aimed at children as this is ya genre. I had no idea before reading this and double checking because, hey, storygraph as of writing this does not list it as ya in both summaries. Welp. dnf at chapter eight. It's not bad per se but it's just not a horror subgenre i am interested in. The charactera do feel a little flat as well. The villain is also incredibly superficial. The main cast is a pre teen boy and I have very little interest in reading his pov, esp one written so... eh.
I guess if you like generic summer camp slaughter fest horror stories to turn your brain off to, this is for you.
major alcohol, alcoholism, blood, child abuse, child death, hand trauma, injuries, medical content, pregnancy, religion christianity / catholic, snakes
medium ableism, sexism?
Just gory enough to be splatterpunk but aimed at children as this is ya genre. I had no idea before reading this and double checking because, hey, storygraph as of writing this does not list it as ya in both summaries. Welp. dnf at chapter eight. It's not bad per se but it's just not a horror subgenre i am interested in. The charactera do feel a little flat as well. The villain is also incredibly superficial. The main cast is a pre teen boy and I have very little interest in reading his pov, esp one written so... eh.
I guess if you like generic summer camp slaughter fest horror stories to turn your brain off to, this is for you.
major alcohol, alcoholism, blood, child abuse, child death, hand trauma, injuries, medical content, pregnancy, religion christianity / catholic, snakes
medium ableism, sexism?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Ableism and Sexism
The Boy with the Spider Face by A.J. Franks
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
The themes are really heavy handed here. I think the worse part of that is how it just... fizzled out. I don't want a afternoon special preached at me, an adult, but it's pretty strangling and comes across as flat.
The ending was... goofy. I guess you could say the cycle of abuse is continuing? Just because theMC learned all the 'wrong' lessons from his childhood and is imparting that to the next generation. Idk, I hope that's not too spoilery. It's a very standard generic white person horror story. That's about it.
It was pretty gore horror rather than supernatural horror. I don't think that's for me, hence the flip flop wishy wash rating of 3 stars. It's not a bad book per se, just pretty superficial.
major alcoholism, animal death, body horror, bullying, child abuse, confinement, death, gore, homophobia, insects, murder, parental death, peer abuse, racism, vomit, xenophobia
The themes are really heavy handed here. I think the worse part of that is how it just... fizzled out. I don't want a afternoon special preached at me, an adult, but it's pretty strangling and comes across as flat.
The ending was... goofy. I guess you could say the cycle of abuse is continuing? Just because the
It was pretty gore horror rather than supernatural horror. I don't think that's for me, hence the flip flop wishy wash rating of 3 stars. It's not a bad book per se, just pretty superficial.
major alcoholism, animal death, body horror, bullying, child abuse, confinement, death, gore, homophobia, insects, murder, parental death, peer abuse, racism, vomit, xenophobia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Death of parent, Murder, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Body horror, Racism, Vomit, Drug abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, and Homophobia
The Making of Gabriel Davenport by Beverley Lee
slow-paced
1.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Nearly eighty chapters of wandering bullshit and a bloated cast of rotating pov with very little to distinguish one white person from another aside from how old that are. Also inconsistent magic system. So only children can be possessed but a 19(?) yo adult can be possessed? Like girl what's the cut off. Or is this unreliable narrator? I doubt it, it was fairly consistent up to that point.
Also, *looks at the very generic reviews with very little detail about the books contents*. Who else thinks this author has been buying five star reviews?
Content warnings. Incomplete because at some point I stopped being invested so much that I foreswore marking CWs. Sorry.
minor dogs, animal death
major religion catholic, body horror, violence,
Nearly eighty chapters of wandering bullshit and a bloated cast of rotating pov with very little to distinguish one white person from another aside from how old that are. Also inconsistent magic system. So only children can be possessed but a 19(?) yo adult can be possessed? Like girl what's the cut off. Or is this unreliable narrator? I doubt it, it was fairly consistent up to that point.
Also, *looks at the very generic reviews with very little detail about the books contents*. Who else thinks this author has been buying five star reviews?
Content warnings. Incomplete because at some point I stopped being invested so much that I foreswore marking CWs. Sorry.
minor dogs, animal death
major religion catholic, body horror, violence,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
Minor: Animal death
A House of Ruin by Pamela Crane
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
Kinda pretty straight forward. Someone(?, mentioned this was like Clue [or cluedo if you're a filthy br*t*sh person] But it's not really like Clue beyond hey, people died in a mansion and they did, in fact, have a bunch of household servants who had motive.
The author does get points for writing really unlikeable characters. It's a little bit on the nose and goes a touch too far, but it works. And thankfully it's not fully over board by making them rapists or pedophiles or sadistic abusers.
The ending was a calamity of plot twists that kinda stumble over each other. I can appreciate the bluntness of it all.
This took... 40 minutes to read for me. A fun, quick novella. Not a huge investment, not a terrible regret.
▪ “We gotta confab, Derl!” Sam grumbled as he approached.
“My man, Sam. I’m really sorry about Mrs. Eyler’s overreaction—”
The index finger Sam jabbed against my chest cut my apology short. “Don’t try to cover for them, Derl. You and I both know that family is trippin’. I always see the lady giving me the hairy eyeball when I pass, as if they’re better than me.”
“I understand, but—”
“And her kid’s jive-talking, accusing Sprocket of biting her. She was throwing rocks at her, that mean little devil spawn! Sprocket wasn’t even on her property, by the way. She was in my yard, so technically that kid was trespassing! So if that lady’s going to come at me threatening animal control, she’s got another thing coming
Is... is this a Black character??????? I have no idea. Jive talking? What the fuck.
major classism, gore, murder, grief, gun violence, child death, parental death, infidelity,
medium gun violence, racism, anti immigration sentiment, sexual abuse, Vietnam war,
minor car crash, death, dogs, parent death, cancer, suicide, nazism,
Kinda pretty straight forward. Someone(?, mentioned this was like Clue [or cluedo if you're a filthy br*t*sh person] But it's not really like Clue beyond hey, people died in a mansion and they did, in fact, have a bunch of household servants who had motive.
The author does get points for writing really unlikeable characters. It's a little bit on the nose and goes a touch too far, but it works. And thankfully it's not fully over board by making them rapists or pedophiles or sadistic abusers.
The ending was a calamity of plot twists that kinda stumble over each other. I can appreciate the bluntness of it all.
This took... 40 minutes to read for me. A fun, quick novella. Not a huge investment, not a terrible regret.
▪ “We gotta confab, Derl!” Sam grumbled as he approached.
“My man, Sam. I’m really sorry about Mrs. Eyler’s overreaction—”
The index finger Sam jabbed against my chest cut my apology short. “Don’t try to cover for them, Derl. You and I both know that family is trippin’. I always see the lady giving me the hairy eyeball when I pass, as if they’re better than me.”
“I understand, but—”
“And her kid’s jive-talking, accusing Sprocket of biting her. She was throwing rocks at her, that mean little devil spawn! Sprocket wasn’t even on her property, by the way. She was in my yard, so technically that kid was trespassing! So if that lady’s going to come at me threatening animal control, she’s got another thing coming
Is... is this a Black character??????? I have no idea. Jive talking? What the fuck.
major classism, gore, murder, grief, gun violence, child death, parental death, infidelity,
medium gun violence, racism, anti immigration sentiment, sexual abuse, Vietnam war,
minor car crash, death, dogs, parent death, cancer, suicide, nazism,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Classism, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Grief, Child death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Gun violence, War, Racism, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Cancer
The Haunting Season by Michelle Muto
slow-paced
2.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
It's very tedious how authors just mimic other authors and don't do any research into paganuim or catholicism or in general how to banish evil spirits slash demons. They just do the same old shit about burning sage and oujia boards.
▪ “With a few things I snagged from Brandt’s room. He printed out some voodoo crap about vanquishing spirits. I guess in case things got out of control. There’s a small bag of weird stuff still in his room, too.”
Some anti black racism. Vodou is a closed religion and this white guy would not and should not be practicing it.
The plot points are pretty standard and contrived. It's like sleep walking theough a generic horror ghost story.
The plot is pretty flimsy. what the fuck ia this experiment anyways. the government / big brother wants to um.... weaponize ghosts? MKUltra up these teen children into super child soldiers??? Who the fuck knows, it's never explained.
The plot takes forever. Oh we're going to do something? Well, better hem and haw over it for at least five chapters. Children deserve better horror than this shit.
The underage sex scene was embarassing. You think teens fuck like a porn stars? Virgin children who never made fuck before? ok buddy.........................................................................
This is a childrens book. Irritatingly, storygraph doesnt list it as such. this at least explains how childish the writing is. The characters are pretty stereotypical tropes. Horny teens, one teen boy is a sexist asshole, one girl is the mentally unstable ps*cho, you got the female mc love interest. Slap that in a pot and publish it at dinner time.
major arson, fire, murder, body horror, cannibalism, gore, sexual content,
medium cancer, child death, child abuse, alcoholism, forced institutionalized, schizophrenia, injuries, parental death, murder,
minor animal death, blood, child death, murder, parent death, sexism, suicide,
It's very tedious how authors just mimic other authors and don't do any research into paganuim or catholicism or in general how to banish evil spirits slash demons. They just do the same old shit about burning sage and oujia boards.
▪ “With a few things I snagged from Brandt’s room. He printed out some voodoo crap about vanquishing spirits. I guess in case things got out of control. There’s a small bag of weird stuff still in his room, too.”
Some anti black racism. Vodou is a closed religion and this white guy would not and should not be practicing it.
The plot points are pretty standard and contrived. It's like sleep walking theough a generic horror ghost story.
The plot is pretty flimsy. what the fuck ia this experiment anyways. the government / big brother wants to um.... weaponize ghosts? MKUltra up these teen children into super child soldiers??? Who the fuck knows, it's never explained.
The plot takes forever. Oh we're going to do something? Well, better hem and haw over it for at least five chapters. Children deserve better horror than this shit.
The underage sex scene was embarassing. You think teens fuck like a porn stars? Virgin children who never made fuck before? ok buddy.........................................................................
This is a childrens book. Irritatingly, storygraph doesnt list it as such. this at least explains how childish the writing is. The characters are pretty stereotypical tropes. Horny teens, one teen boy is a sexist asshole, one girl is the mentally unstable ps*cho, you got the female mc love interest. Slap that in a pot and publish it at dinner time.
major arson, fire, murder, body horror, cannibalism, gore, sexual content,
medium cancer, child death, child abuse, alcoholism, forced institutionalized, schizophrenia, injuries, parental death, murder,
minor animal death, blood, child death, murder, parent death, sexism, suicide,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content
Moderate: Mental illness, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Murder, Cancer, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Sexism, and Suicide
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
I liked the folk horror, the music based horror, and the supernatural portion that felt Fae like but not at all Fae. I enjoyed the rotating pov and large cast, I thought it helped maintain interest and tension.
I loved the animal death horror, I wish the book did more with that. I know that makes me sound like a freak who wants animals hurt, but no way! I think the use of birds was very unique and interesting. Were they being controlled by the monster, or were they trying to escape a supernatural predator? Were they an innocent caught up in a paranoia fueled witch hunt propagated for centuries in a small village? Who knows, the book doesn't go into that. And I know overexplaining the horror really does destroy the spookiness. But it felt like there just wasn't enough information shared. Oh you got a funny lil animal hunting ritual. SIKE we're not telling you any more of it bye bye now.
It also did that with the 'Summer King' reference. Unless that's a reference to something I'm just not familiar with.
But other than that, it was a bit of a let down. I don't regret reading it and MIGHT rec it, but it was pretty underwhelming.
I was disappointed at how little it did. I felt like it could have done more in general with what the story had created.
There could have been a little more architecture horror beyond a single scene, and implied unreality that isn't caused by tripping massive donkey balls. Notsomuch a House of Leaves rip off, but like. There was potential!!! And yet it went no where. You could say that about this entire book.
The supernatural could've had a greater presence especially if it lingered long after since the book a decades later intervew.
The 'monster' could have had a more prominent place beyond appearing maybe twice? I think if it was proper stalking and not just hey, you showed up just when I did, welp let's do something monster-y now!
The appearance of the monster itself felt... cheesy. Not in a good way either. Maybe it was fresh and compelling for the literary scene in 2015(?) but if you were a internet loser [like me] then Black Eyed Kids flavored monsters don't do much for you. And you CAN do something interesting with Black Eyed Kids, for sure.
If there was a stronger 'oh fuck' moment. By that I mean all the major characters realizing "hey, something isn't right and it might not be the drugs. Let's sober up and see if this fucked up shit is still happening when there's not a drop of weed/etc in our bodies.Oh yup it is? well FUCK!"
It's ok to laugh if I'm getting / using this term wrong, but Delayed Decoding. Apparently coined by Ian Watt in the 1970s, about a technique used by Joseph Conrad in 'Lord Jim' and 'Heart of Darkness'. Though a lot of writers before and after have probably used it. I wish this book had more of that in this book. Yes there is the photograph for the album, but I'd love to see more of it, a more consistent haunting. Hindsight is 20/20, and seeing how close you got to death or disaster is horrifying! Like taking a hiking selfie, only to see when you get back home that there was a mountain lion or wolf walking right behind you in that moment.
I wish there was a pov from Julian Blake, like his journals being used in lieu of an in person interview.
All in all, I don't regret reading it.
If you're looking for more supernatural horror music band themed books, I tentatively rec The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling. It's about the The Yellow King mythos that Robert W Chambers created. It's got a lot of canon typical misogyny and anti Rromani slurs, but ehhhh it was. Decent. It scratches an itch, so to speak. I don't whole heartedly rec it for the aforementioned reasons, and because I thought the ending was pretty stupid.
major animal death, drug use smoking tobacco, gore,
medium animal cruelty, animal death, parental death, car crash, suicide, child death, blood,
minor ableist c slur, body weight mention, bullying, cancer, drug abuse lsd marijuana, infidelity, injuries, sexual content
I liked the folk horror, the music based horror, and the supernatural portion that felt Fae like but not at all Fae. I enjoyed the rotating pov and large cast, I thought it helped maintain interest and tension.
I loved the animal death horror, I wish the book did more with that. I know that makes me sound like a freak who wants animals hurt, but no way! I think the use of birds was very unique and interesting. Were they being controlled by the monster, or were they trying to escape a supernatural predator? Were they an innocent caught up in a paranoia fueled witch hunt propagated for centuries in a small village? Who knows, the book doesn't go into that. And I know overexplaining the horror really does destroy the spookiness. But it felt like there just wasn't enough information shared. Oh you got a funny lil animal hunting ritual. SIKE we're not telling you any more of it bye bye now.
It also did that with the 'Summer King' reference. Unless that's a reference to something I'm just not familiar with.
But other than that, it was a bit of a let down. I don't regret reading it and MIGHT rec it, but it was pretty underwhelming.
I was disappointed at how little it did. I felt like it could have done more in general with what the story had created.
There could have been a little more architecture horror beyond a single scene, and implied unreality that isn't caused by tripping massive donkey balls. Notsomuch a House of Leaves rip off, but like. There was potential!!! And yet it went no where. You could say that about this entire book.
The supernatural could've had a greater presence especially if it lingered long after since the book a decades later intervew.
The 'monster' could have had a more prominent place beyond appearing maybe twice? I think if it was proper stalking and not just hey, you showed up just when I did, welp let's do something monster-y now!
The appearance of the monster itself felt... cheesy. Not in a good way either. Maybe it was fresh and compelling for the literary scene in 2015(?) but if you were a internet loser [like me] then Black Eyed Kids flavored monsters don't do much for you. And you CAN do something interesting with Black Eyed Kids, for sure.
If there was a stronger 'oh fuck' moment. By that I mean all the major characters realizing "hey, something isn't right and it might not be the drugs. Let's sober up and see if this fucked up shit is still happening when there's not a drop of weed/etc in our bodies.Oh yup it is? well FUCK!"
It's ok to laugh if I'm getting / using this term wrong, but Delayed Decoding. Apparently coined by Ian Watt in the 1970s, about a technique used by Joseph Conrad in 'Lord Jim' and 'Heart of Darkness'. Though a lot of writers before and after have probably used it. I wish this book had more of that in this book. Yes there is the photograph for the album, but I'd love to see more of it, a more consistent haunting. Hindsight is 20/20, and seeing how close you got to death or disaster is horrifying! Like taking a hiking selfie, only to see when you get back home that there was a mountain lion or wolf walking right behind you in that moment.
I wish there was a pov from Julian Blake, like his journals being used in lieu of an in person interview.
All in all, I don't regret reading it.
If you're looking for more supernatural horror music band themed books, I tentatively rec The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling. It's about the The Yellow King mythos that Robert W Chambers created. It's got a lot of canon typical misogyny and anti Rromani slurs, but ehhhh it was. Decent. It scratches an itch, so to speak. I don't whole heartedly rec it for the aforementioned reasons, and because I thought the ending was pretty stupid.
major animal death, drug use smoking tobacco, gore,
medium animal cruelty, animal death, parental death, car crash, suicide, child death, blood,
minor ableist c slur, body weight mention, bullying, cancer, drug abuse lsd marijuana, infidelity, injuries, sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, Child death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Car accident
Minor: Infidelity, Cancer, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Bullying, and Drug use
Come Closer by Sara Gran
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
✨🌠 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 🌠✨
I liked that it wasn't a The Exorcist rip off or mimic, how bleak it was, the use of religious myth, and how fucked up the ending was.
major body horror, child abuse, death, dog attacks, dogs, drowning, homophobia, homophobic f slur, mental illness, prisons, unsanitary
medium alcohol, bone fractures, female on male rape, incest, injuries, rape, violence
minor classism, domestic abuse, drowning, drug use smoking tobacco, addiction, infidelity, parental death, psychosis?, sexual content, vomit
I liked that it wasn't a The Exorcist rip off or mimic, how bleak it was, the use of religious myth, and how fucked up the ending was.
major body horror, child abuse, death, dog attacks, dogs, drowning, homophobia, homophobic f slur, mental illness, prisons, unsanitary
medium alcohol, bone fractures, female on male rape, incest, injuries, rape, violence
minor classism, domestic abuse, drowning, drug use smoking tobacco, addiction, infidelity, parental death, psychosis?, sexual content, vomit
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Confinement, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Alcohol, Rape, and Violence
Minor: Classism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, and Drug use