Reviews

The Church Beneath the Roots by Felix Blackwell

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jsantucci's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

againanew's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Why does this have such good ratings? Because the first book was good? That's honestly the only reason I can think of, riding the coat tails of the first one.

Complaints:

What did the plane crashes have to do with literally anything? It was a creepy start to the book but... Why are planes crashing into this area all the sudden? Because pilots, specifically only pilots, are finding rocks all the sudden?

Why is 75% of this book focused on the tension between Indian cultural traditions and Christianity? Didn't play a role in the ending whatsoever. And it just kept being mentioned over and over... and over.

People act in completely illogical ways. "I was just assaulted by a terrifying creature but I'll just head back home and tell no one and go to sleep". Okay. And federal agents had people die during the initial search, and thought Onwé may have murdered a bunch of people (the ones that didn't come back from the cave) but they're like... Meh. Whatever. We're out.

These are just a few of the issues I had with this book. But I'll cut it off here. I hate-finished this book only out of pure masochistic determination.

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emu_308's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.5

cnparsons's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

arem419's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

drakaina16's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

I had to take a moment before writing this review. What an achievement this book is! I read Stolen Tongues, and I enjoyed it, but I also wanted more from it. I was not a huge fan of the ending. The Church Beneath the Roots delivers on every level. It contains one of the most distressing, heart-breaking scenes I've read in a very long time. The entire book maintains the creepiness level of the prologue of Stolen Tongues. The hype is absolutely real, and well deserved. 5 stars

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