sonygaystation's reviews
429 reviews

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

2.5

This was fine! It was more unsettling in a gory, graphic, body horror way than scary, although books don't often scare me at all so YMMV. People have been calling it scary and disturbing, which I don't really feel was my experience at all. I think the beginning held a lot of promise that I felt the rest of the book didn't live up to. There is a LOT of graphic animal/creature torture and violence that just isn't for me (I skipped the audiobook ahead 10 secs until I passed those sections lol). If you're squeamish, you've been warned.

It's very much if Lord of the Flies were Canadian boy scouts infected by parasites (re: genetically engineered tapeworms), and it reads similarly masculine. It just felt quite cookie cutter, formulaic, and predictable, and every single one of the boys fits into a particular stereotype (ie. the fat one, the alpha jock/bully, the creep, etc.) where I knew from the get go who was going to survive. I don't feel it added anything new to the genre and while not every book has to do that, I do at least want to have fun while reading it. This book unfortunately just sort of happened and left no real imprint on me at all, outside of now remembering the scene with that poor turtle for all of eternity. While I don't mind body horror and gore at all (in fact I enjoy reading books that are likely to revolt me and make me uncomfortable within reason), this book just felt like shock value and "look how disgusting I can make things sound".

I appreciated the attempt at Epidemiology but felt that the jumps between perspectives of the boys vs. scientists were abrupt and disjointed without adding much additional context. I find Mira Grant's Parasite to be a more effective version of the "science genetically engineering things without concern for nature's consequences" bit. I want to read The Deep, also by Cutter, and then from there will make my decision on if he's an author I enjoy but so far we're batting zeroes.

Content Warnings

A Good Marriage by Jessica Hecht, Stephen King

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mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I normally don’t vibe much with Stephen King’s writing style especially when he makes women his MCs because I think he’s abysmal at writing women, but I really wanna be someone who likes his books since he’s clearly successful for a reason. I haven’t found it yet but this novella brings me closer. It wasn’t bad! I found the MC to be kinda stereotypical but this time it felt like part of character rather than SK just being bad at writing women. It was predictable but I enjoyed the audiobook narrator and I think that’s what really made it for me. It doesn’t really go anywhere so it’s more of a character study than anything else but for whatever reason I didn’t hate it!

Content Warnings

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This was honestly a very disappointing read for me. I was so looking forward to what this had to offer and I'm sad it didn't live up to my expectations. It was hard to follow at certain points and I think it was quite slow with very little happening overall. I was hoping for it to be a lot more tense and/or spookier. I think the extent of tension for me really was maybe one underwater scene and another scene with

Gyre thinking she might be being followed

. It's a unique setting and I loved that at the very least but I wish much more had been done with it. The pacing needs a lot of work, much of the climax is rather anti-climactic, and I found the romance to be alright but not a ton of chemistry (might be because Gyre was actually kind of frustrating!).

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

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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? Yes

2.5

Extremely predictable. I can see why it's enjoyable for some but the formulaic plot really didn't do much for me. Plus I really just don't enjoy the main character's neurotic psychologist schtick. Also as someone who has works in mental health, I have the shortest patience for poor portrayals of client-therapist relationships and use of medications etc. ANOTHER ALSO - at one point the MC describes herself in college as in undergrad hoping to start her PHD the following year and then after that get her Masters and that is SO egregiously wrong that I almost put the book down right there lol. Like???? It takes such a minimum amount of knowledge to know the typical educational attainment is bachelors, masters, PHD. This book could have been really good if it wasn't so predictable and just kind of juvenile and poorly paced in general, but I also read a ton of thrillers so maybe that influences it.

Content Warnings