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jnesbitt1989's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I really liked this book. I think that it helped that I did read some of the reviews beforehand and kind of went into it with no expectations. There are supernatural elements, but it is a love story not a horror story. I'd really love to see it as a movie and see everything come to life.
kturner9's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely amazing
I love Wendy Webb and this book did not disappoint! The characters were interesting and the story was enthralling. So glad I picked up this book!
I love Wendy Webb and this book did not disappoint! The characters were interesting and the story was enthralling. So glad I picked up this book!
justinkhchen's review against another edition
1.0
1.5 stars
2 stars, but taking off an additional 0.5 for the intentionally misleading cover art, title, and marketing material.
The Haunting of Brynn Wilder claims to be a small town mystery thriller, but in reality it's a sappy Lifetime romance drama with just a smidget of the paranormal.
This is not a book I should've picked up: a woman in her 40s, who has suffered a series of traumatic losses (death of her mother, death of her dog, dissolve of her 20+ years marriage, a stagnant career she grows to loathe), decides to refocus and finds peace in a small town by Lake Superior; the story unfolds when she falls in love with a mysterious stranger. The official synopsis purposely obscures crucial information (a story about midlife crisis and grief), and accentuates the enticing supernatural elements that is only loosely related (and left open-ended) to the plot.
Judging by what's actually on the page, for a story about mental suffering and its healing, the emotional trajectory feels shallow and insincere; I've read quite few heartfelt books recently (A Man Called Ove, The Humans), none of them have characters shedding tears in every other page, and be completely ineffective at tugging one's heartstrings. I would've been more than trice drunk if the word 'tear' is part of a drinking game.
Ultimately, I feel cheated by The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, not only did I not receive what was promised, the superficial story also fails to deliver its sentiment in an earnest manner. There are some nice narrative touches throughout, but they are not at all unique, Just watch City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, a faster and more pleasurable route to getting what this book is trying to achieve.
**Winterween 2021 Buddy Read**
2 stars, but taking off an additional 0.5 for the intentionally misleading cover art, title, and marketing material.
The Haunting of Brynn Wilder claims to be a small town mystery thriller, but in reality it's a sappy Lifetime romance drama with just a smidget of the paranormal.
This is not a book I should've picked up: a woman in her 40s, who has suffered a series of traumatic losses (death of her mother, death of her dog, dissolve of her 20+ years marriage, a stagnant career she grows to loathe), decides to refocus and finds peace in a small town by Lake Superior; the story unfolds when she falls in love with a mysterious stranger. The official synopsis purposely obscures crucial information (a story about midlife crisis and grief), and accentuates the enticing supernatural elements that is only loosely related (and left open-ended) to the plot.
Judging by what's actually on the page, for a story about mental suffering and its healing, the emotional trajectory feels shallow and insincere; I've read quite few heartfelt books recently (A Man Called Ove, The Humans), none of them have characters shedding tears in every other page, and be completely ineffective at tugging one's heartstrings. I would've been more than trice drunk if the word 'tear' is part of a drinking game.
Ultimately, I feel cheated by The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, not only did I not receive what was promised, the superficial story also fails to deliver its sentiment in an earnest manner. There are some nice narrative touches throughout, but they are not at all unique, Just watch City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, a faster and more pleasurable route to getting what this book is trying to achieve.
**Winterween 2021 Buddy Read**
missquiss's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? No
4.0
gabbyscarlet's review against another edition
2.0
What do you get when you mix a wannabe ghost story with no depth and a rushed ending? The Haunting of Brynn Wilder!
Seriously, the construction of this story was one-dimensional and had no layers to the story at all. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, even our guy The Illustrated Man, Dominic. I just could not get into this story. I wanted to know more about the place's past, but this book completely missed the mark on what it could've been by only scratching the surface. Sure, we know it used to be a boardinghouse, but was there any significant dark history that happened there? We know the LuAnn has owned it for a while, but since the building is so old, something HAD to have happened there before her presence. Right?
Brynn is staying at this place that used to be a boarding house, gets haunted over and over and over again, and then you get a pathetic explanation of the "haunting" the last 5-7 pages of the book. The title gives it all away, and there was nothing to guess in the story. The woman who died in room number five? It was Brynn herself, just like the title implies! The other deaths in the story have absolutely nothing to do with the paranormal element or the storyline itself, they were just fillers to get the page count up (from my perspective).
I added a star because obviously, with the writing style having no depth, I was able to fly through this book pretty quickly. I probably will not read any more books by this author, but if I eventually do, it would have to be years from now because this one was very lackluster and missed out on reaching it's potential.
This is definitely an emerging adult title, but I really don't understand how this book got the blurbs and reviews that it did. Pretty unfortunate, because this was one of my most anticipated reads.
Seriously, the construction of this story was one-dimensional and had no layers to the story at all. I didn't feel connected to any of the characters, even our guy The Illustrated Man, Dominic. I just could not get into this story. I wanted to know more about the place's past, but this book completely missed the mark on what it could've been by only scratching the surface. Sure, we know it used to be a boardinghouse, but was there any significant dark history that happened there? We know the LuAnn has owned it for a while, but since the building is so old, something HAD to have happened there before her presence. Right?
Brynn is staying at this place that used to be a boarding house, gets haunted over and over and over again, and then you get a pathetic explanation of the "haunting" the last 5-7 pages of the book. The title gives it all away, and there was nothing to guess in the story. The woman who died in room number five? It was Brynn herself, just like the title implies! The other deaths in the story have absolutely nothing to do with the paranormal element or the storyline itself, they were just fillers to get the page count up (from my perspective).
I added a star because obviously, with the writing style having no depth, I was able to fly through this book pretty quickly. I probably will not read any more books by this author, but if I eventually do, it would have to be years from now because this one was very lackluster and missed out on reaching it's potential.
This is definitely an emerging adult title, but I really don't understand how this book got the blurbs and reviews that it did. Pretty unfortunate, because this was one of my most anticipated reads.
brandilee4's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent, Sexual content, Death, Cancer, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Suicide, and Terminal illness
eriicajo_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
elemmire's review against another edition
2.0
This book was really good at using a lot of words to say almost nothing.
Overview:
A woman in a mid-life crisis tries to find herself by spending time away. She meets new people and falls in love. She eats food, tells stories that seem to add very little to the plot, and everyone likes her sooo much.
To the things that I found irritating.
1. The book is difficult to follow and remember as to how much time has gone by. It seems like she meets someone and, in the same day, is nearly best friends with them despite saying that she wanted to keep to herself. Every relations ship builds seems to be instant and trusting, pretty unknown in most people's worlds. Everything happened quickly, but also seemed to take forever because of unneeded details and side stories.
2. The main character is being painted as this takes no-nonsense, get it done, woman. In reality, she has a savior complex. There is a tense situation at a dinner party with the implication of racism. I say implication because not one character has the guts to just say "you are being racist". Instead, we get the classic "what do you really mean" from the angry white woman. And that is honestly what usually happens, but instead of consoling and feeling bad for the person being discriminated against, it's all about how the white woman feels. It does not matter if a black person is accustomed to feeling put out, discriminated against, or downright hated. You do not fawn over the white savior who did nearly nothing. No matter how many times it happens it is terrible.
3. The fish boil. Salt is not enough when seasoning food. Throw some goddamn Tony's in there! Some garlic? Some onion?
4. It felt like a long string of self-centered character tropes. Not only is the main character only thinking of herself, but all the characters around are also just soooo interested in her (with the one exception of when the focus is Alice). It felt very much like a Hallmark movie.
5. It's supposed to be a haunting, 2 things were creepy and everything else sucked. Having dreams that you are seeing a ghost is pretty mild. There is never any kind of threat to it. Hauntings don't have to be scary, but they should be more than simply existing. It's not much of a plot.
6. The ending. It could have ended well if she stopped at the part where she says she's ready. That was a perfect line to end on. At this point, we know the boyfriend is the angel of death (or something like that) and he is there to take her away. But no, she just had to go into the whole afterlife. Leave that stuff to the imagination. That line would have had me crying if it stopped there.
7. OMG, season your food.
Overview:
A woman in a mid-life crisis tries to find herself by spending time away. She meets new people and falls in love. She eats food, tells stories that seem to add very little to the plot, and everyone likes her sooo much.
To the things that I found irritating.
1. The book is difficult to follow and remember as to how much time has gone by. It seems like she meets someone and, in the same day, is nearly best friends with them despite saying that she wanted to keep to herself. Every relations ship builds seems to be instant and trusting, pretty unknown in most people's worlds. Everything happened quickly, but also seemed to take forever because of unneeded details and side stories.
2. The main character is being painted as this takes no-nonsense, get it done, woman. In reality, she has a savior complex. There is a tense situation at a dinner party with the implication of racism. I say implication because not one character has the guts to just say "you are being racist". Instead, we get the classic "what do you really mean" from the angry white woman. And that is honestly what usually happens, but instead of consoling and feeling bad for the person being discriminated against, it's all about how the white woman feels. It does not matter if a black person is accustomed to feeling put out, discriminated against, or downright hated. You do not fawn over the white savior who did nearly nothing. No matter how many times it happens it is terrible.
3. The fish boil. Salt is not enough when seasoning food. Throw some goddamn Tony's in there! Some garlic? Some onion?
4. It felt like a long string of self-centered character tropes. Not only is the main character only thinking of herself, but all the characters around are also just soooo interested in her (with the one exception of when the focus is Alice). It felt very much like a Hallmark movie.
5. It's supposed to be a haunting, 2 things were creepy and everything else sucked. Having dreams that you are seeing a ghost is pretty mild. There is never any kind of threat to it. Hauntings don't have to be scary, but they should be more than simply existing. It's not much of a plot.
6. The ending. It could have ended well if she stopped at the part where she says she's ready. That was a perfect line to end on. At this point, we know the boyfriend is the angel of death (or something like that) and he is there to take her away. But no, she just had to go into the whole afterlife. Leave that stuff to the imagination. That line would have had me crying if it stopped there.
7. OMG, season your food.
alliescott26's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0