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thatenbyisisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I loved how Grady Hendrix was able to convey the importance of families working through their issues stemming from generational trauma. In this case, it resulted in a horrific story that later proved that importance in a life or death circumstance.
I related a lot to Louise when it came to her resentment towards her brother, Mark. As someone who grew up as a girl, I can say that Louise was fully justified in her anger towards her parents/brother. This following quote from the book made me have to take a break from reading because of how much it resembled my childhood frustrations. "The point was that her mom had a whole tough-love thing for Louise and let Mark do whatever he wanted and never face any consequences. The point was that she was supposed to look after him and give him everything and never complain, but no one was looking after her. That was the point." It's incredibly heartbreaking to grow up with this resentment only for the adults in my life to understand that resentment only when it directly affected them.
I thought that incorporating the 5 stages of grief into the storyline was beautifully done, and really expressed those emotions during whichever situation the characters found themselves in.
However, I did find a couple of things to be offensive and for Grady, to learn from moving forward. In the beginning of the book, I'm sure it's meant with the intention of the reader to dislike Mark as he can be an insufferable, immature man who says ignorant things from time to time. In both of these instances, there's mentions of cultural appropriation when it came to Mark suggesting that they "sage" the house and his recommendation of doing a Hindu ritual for his white parents' funeral. He had also thought it was okay to compare their parents' house to the conditions in Afghanistan.
I'm the type of person who refuses to have porcelain or ventriloquist dolls in my house because of stories like this. I'd like to learn the easy way instead of the hard way. Overall, I thought this story was written with an exceptional build up that had me wanting more after I had put the book down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Self harm, Violence, and Child death
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