A review by jan_coco_day
Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I usually get frustrated when secondary characters seem to "vanish" or stop existing when they are not in the scene/on the page. But Wilkes uses this effectively to lay bare Day's obsession with his own loneliness.
The one character who isn't present haunts Day so much that he is "realer" than any of the other characters on the voyage with Day. Much of his isolation is self-imposed.

The story falls apart a little bit at the end at the reveal that there is no larger supernatural horror, but just one psychopath Stevens and his psychopath friends. And they were all pretty easily defeated.
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