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ledavis37's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. I am torn about this book. On the surface, it's a pretty great, relatively original horror novel about a family of two moms, two young daughters and a teenage boy who move into a new house in an abandoned neighborhood with the intention of flipping it. The youngest daughter begins to see hooded figures outside and is eventually "claimed". However, what I liked about the plot was slightly overshadowed by my distaste for the writing style. It seemed at times both over-edited and under-edited, with a few noticeable errors but also at times not enough exposition to set the scenes properly.
Spoiler
I expected the book to be all about the family trying to get her back, and was pleasantly surprised when she was reunited with them at the halfway point of the book, four years in the future. Seeing the repercussions of her return was much more interesting than had the whole book been a search for her.errantdreams's review against another edition
4.0
I love this book. It was just the sort of creeping horror that I was looking forward to. The characters in particular are quite good–they had fully-developed personalities, they changed in response to the events of the story, and I cared about what happened to them.
There were some surprises. Obviously I’m not going to go into them here or they wouldn’t be surprises. I will say that I did not get bored reading this book–I continually looked forward to what happened next.
The pacing was fantastic; even one four-year jump in the story didn’t trip me up. Tense chases and horrifying events blended well with smaller, calmer interludes, leading up to a great climax.
I had trouble putting The Claiming down to do other things, and I immediately decided to read another Ike Hamill book next. I’m in a definite horror-reading mode this week and I’ve been trying out various authors’ work. Of the handful of authors I’ve tried so far, Hamill’s the only author who has made me want to go out and read his other works.
Original review can be found on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/01/review-the-claiming-ike-hamill/
There were some surprises. Obviously I’m not going to go into them here or they wouldn’t be surprises. I will say that I did not get bored reading this book–I continually looked forward to what happened next.
The pacing was fantastic; even one four-year jump in the story didn’t trip me up. Tense chases and horrifying events blended well with smaller, calmer interludes, leading up to a great climax.
I had trouble putting The Claiming down to do other things, and I immediately decided to read another Ike Hamill book next. I’m in a definite horror-reading mode this week and I’ve been trying out various authors’ work. Of the handful of authors I’ve tried so far, Hamill’s the only author who has made me want to go out and read his other works.
Original review can be found on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/01/review-the-claiming-ike-hamill/
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