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vikingwolf's review
5.0
*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*
A local magician does a trick at a kid's birthday party which kills his wife, and a fixed trial and the silence of the kids who were messing around with the guillotine condemn him to prison. Now the children have grown up and the town is going to get a very unwelcome visitor seeking revenge.
It might be nice if Goodreads and Amazon change their blurb to reflect that the magician is called ARNOLD, not Albert. But I digress.
This was an excellent horror read with all the things that I love about the genre. First there was the horrors of the birthday party. I hate kids so a nice bloody party was the perfect start for me to get into the book along with the dry humour of the author as he told us how excited and nervous the kids were getting.
"It was a potent combination and several parents feared for not having brought changes of underwear."
Loved that! There were scenes of inventive and amusing murders of people who deserve what they got, all with a magical twist. The magician was funny and dramatic as he killed people, giving him a twisted kind of charisma.
"The shadow stepped back from the sodden mess and surveyed the work. "Ta-dah" it whispered softly."
There was the tension of knowing that the boogeyman was out in the shadows waiting to pounce. You knew who some of the victims were to be but not how they would die or in which order. As people go to investigate noises in the dark(silly!) or wander off on their own(dumb!) you were just waiting on Arnold to jump out with his silky cloak on. The mixture of tension and bloody death were perfectly combined in a story that moved along smoothly. I enjoyed the way the author put the story together.
The characters were developed well within the story and I disliked Dixon from the start, as the author intended I believe! Out of the five I liked McEwan the best and he seemed to be the one who suffered the most from the events at the party. Even the bad characters were a perfect fit and you looked forward to them getting what they deserved. The grand finale was very good and I was left satisfied by the way everything worked out.
There were good plot twists as well. I did suspect a few of them but the final big reveal I only guessed right at the very last second which shows that the author does an equally good job of hinting and concealing. I'd love to talk more about these twists but of course that would mean huge spoilers and I won't do that. But I can tell you that the twists are great and fit perfectly into the story.
If you love horror and scary thrillers then you should enjoy this book. I will be looking at other work by the author and if this comes out in paperback, I will definitely add it to my collection. Brilliant book!
A local magician does a trick at a kid's birthday party which kills his wife, and a fixed trial and the silence of the kids who were messing around with the guillotine condemn him to prison. Now the children have grown up and the town is going to get a very unwelcome visitor seeking revenge.
It might be nice if Goodreads and Amazon change their blurb to reflect that the magician is called ARNOLD, not Albert. But I digress.
This was an excellent horror read with all the things that I love about the genre. First there was the horrors of the birthday party. I hate kids so a nice bloody party was the perfect start for me to get into the book along with the dry humour of the author as he told us how excited and nervous the kids were getting.
"It was a potent combination and several parents feared for not having brought changes of underwear."
Loved that! There were scenes of inventive and amusing murders of people who deserve what they got, all with a magical twist. The magician was funny and dramatic as he killed people, giving him a twisted kind of charisma.
"The shadow stepped back from the sodden mess and surveyed the work. "Ta-dah" it whispered softly."
There was the tension of knowing that the boogeyman was out in the shadows waiting to pounce. You knew who some of the victims were to be but not how they would die or in which order. As people go to investigate noises in the dark(silly!) or wander off on their own(dumb!) you were just waiting on Arnold to jump out with his silky cloak on. The mixture of tension and bloody death were perfectly combined in a story that moved along smoothly. I enjoyed the way the author put the story together.
The characters were developed well within the story and I disliked Dixon from the start, as the author intended I believe! Out of the five I liked McEwan the best and he seemed to be the one who suffered the most from the events at the party. Even the bad characters were a perfect fit and you looked forward to them getting what they deserved. The grand finale was very good and I was left satisfied by the way everything worked out.
There were good plot twists as well. I did suspect a few of them but the final big reveal I only guessed right at the very last second which shows that the author does an equally good job of hinting and concealing. I'd love to talk more about these twists but of course that would mean huge spoilers and I won't do that. But I can tell you that the twists are great and fit perfectly into the story.
If you love horror and scary thrillers then you should enjoy this book. I will be looking at other work by the author and if this comes out in paperback, I will definitely add it to my collection. Brilliant book!
hookerkitty's review against another edition
2.5
(Yet another review I’m doing much later)
Not a fan of the ending. A LOT of grammatical issues
Oh yeah
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,’’’”” here, I think you dropped these
I know it’s not supposed to be a completely believable story, but come on. And SOO many “well in the REAL world x doesn’t happen,” the NLOG of books. Despite that, there were moments where I found it difficult to put the book down. Unfortunately it wasn’t most of the book. Actually around 30-36% I thought kindle super messed up my page count bc it seemed like everything was about to wrap up, and then got dull for a while, and eventually picked up again towards the end (with another dull and exciting and then eye rolling)
Not a fan of the ending. A LOT of grammatical issues
Oh yeah
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,’’’”” here, I think you dropped these
I know it’s not supposed to be a completely believable story, but come on. And SOO many “well in the REAL world x doesn’t happen,” the NLOG of books. Despite that, there were moments where I found it difficult to put the book down. Unfortunately it wasn’t most of the book. Actually around 30-36% I thought kindle super messed up my page count bc it seemed like everything was about to wrap up, and then got dull for a while, and eventually picked up again towards the end (with another dull and exciting and then eye rolling)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Blood, Murder, and Gore
Moderate: Death of parent, Rape, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, and Medical content
Minor: Sexism, Drug use, Bullying, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Alcoholism, and Child death
bobmetal's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
whatemsreadingx's review
4.0
WOOOOOW, this book was a wild ride that I absolutely loved! Straight away I was hooked into this book, and I could not put it down.
Everything about this book from the premise, to the characters, to the writing, to the actual plot itself and the chapters I thoroughly enjoyed, although there were a couple of little niggles, hence my 4 star rating.
When you first start reading we are introduced to our characters 24 years ago, which is great as we got to see the full background of the story through their own eyes. These first few pages absolutely packed a punch and set up for what would become a truly brilliant and clever book.
Character wise, we stick with the same handful throughout the whole story, and while they weren't the most inventive characters and they retained a lot of their childhood traits they were certainly likable enough.
One thing I did enjoy is how they all seemed to slip back into those childhood roles once they got back together, it cleverly set up for a lot of the later story.
The book itself was written in 3rd person, which I enjoyed as it meant we got a chance to see Great Cosmos X from various points of view, and how he was perceived by each character.
While at points it was a predictable and slightly sloppy story, the introduction of the "magic tricks" used by Great Cosmos X within his wicked games were an original and clever twist on the story.
It did get better though and from about 77% through I literally could not stop reading, it took a complete twist that I wasn't expecting and completely turned the book on it's head - I could not put the book down, I needed to know what was going on!
On the whole, Abra-Cadaver was a really good book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and while some aspects were predictable or sloppy, others were completely original and brought something new to the story.
Everything about this book from the premise, to the characters, to the writing, to the actual plot itself and the chapters I thoroughly enjoyed, although there were a couple of little niggles, hence my 4 star rating.
When you first start reading we are introduced to our characters 24 years ago, which is great as we got to see the full background of the story through their own eyes. These first few pages absolutely packed a punch and set up for what would become a truly brilliant and clever book.
Character wise, we stick with the same handful throughout the whole story, and while they weren't the most inventive characters and they retained a lot of their childhood traits they were certainly likable enough.
One thing I did enjoy is how they all seemed to slip back into those childhood roles once they got back together, it cleverly set up for a lot of the later story.
The book itself was written in 3rd person, which I enjoyed as it meant we got a chance to see Great Cosmos X from various points of view, and how he was perceived by each character.
While at points it was a predictable and slightly sloppy story, the introduction of the "magic tricks" used by Great Cosmos X within his wicked games were an original and clever twist on the story.
It did get better though and from about 77% through I literally could not stop reading, it took a complete twist that I wasn't expecting and completely turned the book on it's head - I could not put the book down, I needed to know what was going on!
On the whole, Abra-Cadaver was a really good book, I thoroughly enjoyed it and while some aspects were predictable or sloppy, others were completely original and brought something new to the story.
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