Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Follow Me to Ground

This is a bizarre little story that I'm not sure is for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was mostly fascinated by the core concept, the odd species the main character and her father are part of. They both have the ability to plunge their hands into someone's body and remove diseases and other aches. They can also put people to sleep, or "to the ground", burying them alive in a certain state until they are healed and well. The MC and her dad are both revered and feared for this, living on the edge of society and in a sort of quiet isolation. One revels in it, the other not so much.

From this starting point, we get a dark kind of romance developping. When I say dark, I don't mean forbidden love exactly, but that the relationship is rather sick, unbalanced, and darken by one particular err aspect of the guy's life (heed trigger warnings). The main character suffers from a kind of loneliness that is relatable but that renders her a morally ambiguous being. I did not find her completely unlikeable per se, only her choices can be a little repugnant, which made the story very interesting, even if I did not root for her in the end.

I was squicked by the romantic relationship, but I was engrossed in its trajectory (which I gather was the point). I was mostly intrigued by the father-daughter dynamic, though. There is an air of mystery around the strict, taciturn father. The divide between someone who is content being wild and a stranger to humanity, and another who is alienated both by her nature and the humans surrounding her. For a short story, it conveyed a lot on that front.

I also enjoyed all the different perspectives from the villagers peppered throughout the text, like a handful of people interviewed about the strange neighbor they used to reluctantly seek services from. I thought their voices, brief as they were, were also distinct against one another. The range of opinions formed a better picture of the main character, like pieces of the same puzzle that still don't all fit together.

I only wish the story was longer, a full-length novel. I was not ready to part with it when it ended and, frankly, would have preferred a different focus than the romance. It was still good, mind you, but while it gave me insight on the kind of person the main character was, it was not what interested me the most about her. Still a cool, uncanny experience though.

Content Warnings

house_of_hannah's review

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challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

The subjects that were touched on in this book were not what I was expecting ! I think the bolded blurb before the description on Goodreads does a better job at conveying what the book is about than the actual description on the book itself.

CW:

Implied Incest, Pedophilia

This does a good job at making the situation seem as normal as possible in the beginning. We're fed hints of what is actually going on, so we know that things are going to take a darker turn. The "reveals" at the end essentially just confirm what we already know, but the ending was still too abrupt for me.

I read this in one sitting, which I don't normally do, but I was so invested in the story, and the writing is quite beautiful. It is definitely not the most straightforward though. I did have to re-read paragraphs a few times to understand what was going on.

The mysticisme around Ada and her father is just so intriguing, and I'd love to read more about those like them. We don't get a lot of answers, so I'd love another book based in this universe.

Content Warnings

jbellomy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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sarah984's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I picked up this book after seeing another Goodreads reader saying they wanted to put it in the freezer. It's appropriately strange and spooky, and I loved the creepy descriptions of the procedures themselves. However I wasn't really sold on the relationship with Samson and it takes up a huge portion of the book.

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