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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
I just can't get into it. It's too all over the place. I need to engage emotionally with a character pretty early on in a book to want to keep reading.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The format is part novel, part screenplay. It bounces between different years, but it remains consistent in the POV. It’s uniquely laid out but easy to follow. The ending was a little bit a let down.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall, a good story, but more disturbing than anything, and you have to get to the last few pages to be really disturbed. I'm having a harder time these days finding the horror/thriller books that make my skin crawl and don't allow me to put the book down. Overall, not really for me.
Halfway through the narrator started talking about the book being an audiobook, which hadn't been mentioned before, but there were fully formatted script pages. It was boring and a bit lame.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this will stick with me for awhile. Of the "horror movies that were never made" or "horror movies that don't exist except in this novel's universe" sub-genre, I think Sylvia Moreno-Garcia's "Silver Nitrate" is still my favorite, but this is a good chaser for it. I enjoyed this much more than Tremblay's other, much more popular, novel, "The Cabin At the End of the World," and I want to explain why: I think there's a line in the sand when it comes to horror fiction that we don't really talk about. On one side is horror that's actually scary, and has something interesting to say about the human condition, or society, or inner demons, or whatever. On the other side are stories that are just sadistic for their own sake, where there's not much under the surface. To me, those latter type aren't scary--they're just mean. It's one reason I don't have much use for slashers (with some exceptions). To me, "Cabin" was just mean. But this was scary, and confrontational in a way I haven't seen done before.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Cancer
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Great concept, well-executed. Creepy as hell.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts