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indieandajean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Is coming of age horror a thing? Because this dark and twisted love letter to the Cthulhu mythos and bildungsroman reads like it very much is a thing. I was thoroughly creeped out and uncomfortable which I think was the goal here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Violence
Moderate: Cannibalism, Murder, Death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Animal death, and Body horror
Minor: Violence
throwback682's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
2.75
This is a personal thing but I don’t enjoy books that leave too much up to the imagination at the end. I need loose ends tied up and explanations given. I needed to know what happened to Ian? What came out of Teach’s cocoon? Did the grandpa cause the grandson to change somehow or was it in him all along and he would’ve become monster whether the grandpa showed up or not? So that impacted my enjoyment personally.
I can see why people liked it though. I really liked the son and the dad. And of course the dog.
Oh and one extremely specific complaint that no one but me would care about because I’m a nerd: alligators don’t chew!!The alligator supposedly chews the egret chicks before swallowing them. Completely irrelevant to the story but it bugged me 😬
I can see why people liked it though. I really liked the son and the dad. And of course the dog.
Oh and one extremely specific complaint that no one but me would care about because I’m a nerd: alligators don’t chew!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Vomit
quartz's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal death
pm_me_book_recs's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Hauntingly beautiful story of unwanted change and family secrets. Coney is incredible at setting the scene and reminds me of Steinbeck- but if the topic was horror cryptids. My heart ached for The Boy, thoroughly despised Grandpa, worried for Mom and Dad, and completely adored Teach ... and shattered into a million pieces as well .
I was not expecting a deeply emotional experience from this novella. But that's exactly what is delivered. There's an allegory here I can't quite put my finger on, but feels familiar.
I was not expecting a deeply emotional experience from this novella. But that's exactly what is delivered. There's an allegory here I can't quite put my finger on, but feels familiar.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
booksbeyondthebinary's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, and Animal death
amandadevoursbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
For a short novella, this packs a punch. It feels like it's either an anti-hero, hero, or villain's origin story. I'm here for it.
Synopsis: A boy lives an idyllic life with his mom, his dad and his dog Teach on the beach in South Carolina. It's filled with adventures and field trips, and each character is distinct. Their relationships are webs of love.
One day his grandfather shows up. Teach doesn't like him. The boy's mother fades a bit, and things don't add up. There's a monstrous secret kept between father and daughter, and the collateral damage shakes the boy's world.
Review: The writing here is sumptuous. I could feel the swampiness of the beach and the wind of the storm. It's a story about family, secrets, loss, and transformation.
I would gladly read more in this world and with these characters. It's difficult to build setting, worlds, characters, and relationships and SL Coney does just that.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review Wild Spaces.
Synopsis: A boy lives an idyllic life with his mom, his dad and his dog Teach on the beach in South Carolina. It's filled with adventures and field trips, and each character is distinct. Their relationships are webs of love.
One day his grandfather shows up. Teach doesn't like him. The boy's mother fades a bit, and things don't add up. There's a monstrous secret kept between father and daughter, and the collateral damage shakes the boy's world.
Review: The writing here is sumptuous. I could feel the swampiness of the beach and the wind of the storm. It's a story about family, secrets, loss, and transformation.
I would gladly read more in this world and with these characters. It's difficult to build setting, worlds, characters, and relationships and SL Coney does just that.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review Wild Spaces.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Death of parent
inwetiewele's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
4.5
“…he wonders how the sea felt when her inhabitants started walking away. He wonders if maybe that’s why she keeps eating away at the land, trying to take back what it stole.”
I received an ARC of Wild Spaces through NetGalley and now that I’ve finished I’m finding it hard to put my thoughts into words. This novella seems to have mastered that creeping sense of discomfort and fear that you look for in Horror. There were parts of it that I found myself, pulse pounding, white-knuckling my coffee mug, because I was so afraid of what was building in a scene or chapter. Chapter 5 had me full stop, tears streaming down my face, weeping on my lunch break. 15 pages from the end and I had to stop and collect myself before I could continue.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t know who I would recommend this book to. Especially after the one thing I had been dreading more than anything did, in fact, happen tearing me to pieces in the process (see above mention of weeping).
The other part of me wants to scream from the rooftops that this book is beautifully written, horrific and terrifying in a way that some full length horror novels can’t even achieve. I can’t remember the last time a paragraph of a book left my hands shaking and my stomach twisted up with nervous dread and Wild Spaces made me feel that way for more than 80% of it.
Overall Wild Spaces is exactly what it’s billed as. A coming of age story a la eldritch horror and it does NOT pull any punches in either of those respective genres.
I received an ARC of Wild Spaces through NetGalley and now that I’ve finished I’m finding it hard to put my thoughts into words. This novella seems to have mastered that creeping sense of discomfort and fear that you look for in Horror. There were parts of it that I found myself, pulse pounding, white-knuckling my coffee mug, because I was so afraid of what was building in a scene or chapter. Chapter 5 had me full stop, tears streaming down my face, weeping on my lunch break. 15 pages from the end and I had to stop and collect myself before I could continue.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t know who I would recommend this book to. Especially after the one thing I had been dreading more than anything did, in fact, happen tearing me to pieces in the process (see above mention of weeping).
The other part of me wants to scream from the rooftops that this book is beautifully written, horrific and terrifying in a way that some full length horror novels can’t even achieve. I can’t remember the last time a paragraph of a book left my hands shaking and my stomach twisted up with nervous dread and Wild Spaces made me feel that way for more than 80% of it.
Overall Wild Spaces is exactly what it’s billed as. A coming of age story a la eldritch horror and it does NOT pull any punches in either of those respective genres.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Death of parent
Moderate: Violence
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