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manikahemmerixh's Reviews (220)
Bit slow at times but had my attention more in the last quarter. Characters had personality but the setting and atmosphere could have been more strongly developed. Also liked how the mystery elements played out.
More than meets the eye and well written. The way the story plays out may not be the most unique thriller ever told, but I really enjoyed the inclusion of Greek myths.
I was nervous for a second near the end, but I didn't need to be. Margaret, the main character and narrator, is what makes this book for me. She may sound a little off (she is a little off?), but she has an underlying strength and presence of self that I find charming. The only negative I have is that parts of the story, and perhaps the most important part, felt a little rushed.
Writing style wasn’t for me. I did find the premise sort of interesting and would have liked to know more about the ghost story but I was really struggling to get through the beginning. May try again some other time.
I know Sager doesn't usually write ghost stories so I shouldn't be disappointed that this wasn't one, but I would be rating it higher if it was. The House of Horrors chapters were my favorite part of this book, and I guess in a way you do get a well written ghost story , but the whole novel does creepy pretty well. The end is a bit convoluted, but even if it wasn't my ideal direction for the story, I think that Sager does a good job of laying the foundations for where he's taking the reader without revealing too much to them. Even when I thought I may have had an instinct towards what was happening, I actually could not have guessed the final resolution.
Simple and efficient. Felt kind of like reading Clue. All of the characters are blank slates to the reader, but are revealed to have their own demons. If people start dying and you’re surrounded by strangers, you can’t rule anyone out as your killer. I didn’t see the final twist coming at the end of the chapter, but I can’t say I’m mad at it. I really did not like Henry.
The Shining meets The Ritual (or other wilderness horror). A group of people go into the woods and a bunch of messed up stuff occurs is one of my favorite horror sub-genres, and this is what I want when I pick one up. It reads like a movie, nothing too incredibly convoluted, and yet enough that doesn't add up to keep you guessing. There's a sense of dread woven throughout. I wasn't feeling stark, heart racing fear, but I was uncomfortable. There's a bit too much mention of vomit for my liking but at the same time I can see why. I'd love to read a sequel or prequel, there's definitely a lot more lore that could be developed here, but it would be a big ask to have it all spelled out in a single 300 page book.
It doesn't happen to me often, but I feel pretty neutral about The God of the Woods to be honest. If this book wasn't written in a way that I like, I think I would have been kind of bored with it, but the writing is sophisticated but not hard to grasp and that made the story easier to stick with. I wasn't very connected to anyone in the story so that made the stakes significantly lower. There were moments where I felt sympathy for characters like Alice or Louise, but maybe because of all of the different timelines and perspectives, those moments of sympathy didn't do enough to make me emotionally invested in the novel as a whole. The problem with that, is that the vast timeline helps to set the atmosphere of the story and break up pacing in a fairly long book, so I don't consider it a negative. Which leads me to my neutral feelings, it didn't do anything amazing for me, but it didn't do anything bad either.
I got halfway, but am doing myself the kindness of not forcing myself to finish it. I've been avoiding reading contemporary romance books for a while because I wasn't enjoying them, but this one has such a gorgeous cover and it's based in my state so I wanted to give it a try. It has quite literally all of the things that were annoying me about "rom-coms". One dimensional characters, bad references, poor descriptors (at one point a character is described as having "hot chocolate hair"), and the chemistry between the two characters doesn't even feel legitimate. I couldn't take anymore when one character suggests they should "bang out" their tension (is the tension in the room with us? they have very flimsy, at best, reasons to not be able to have a cordial relationship). It's disappointing feeling like I don't like fun, lighthearted books anymore 😔 but I realized quickly that this wasn't going to change my mind.