Reviews

A nasty kind of story, in a good way, about the inhabitants of an old building with a dark history. It's hard to talk in any more depth without giving away spoilers but it's a grisly story that's written well. Probably not for everyone but i liked it.

palmtreesparmar's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.0

elsie2110's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-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

4.25

billymac1962's review

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2.0

I usually don’t rate books that I DNF, but seeing as I made it to 75% I’m making an exception.
There was a lot a I liked about Carver’s insights and the dialogue of his characters, but this story just got to be so repetitive that I had to throw in the towel. I couldn’t go a couple of pages without checking reviews for reasons to continue or not. A sure sign to stop.
I searched out spoilers and I’m glad I stopped. Too bad, though, because I liked some of the writing.
This story just wasn’t for me.

wednesdayzombie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.75

sophietica's review against another edition

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2.0

A solid meh. The concept sounded interesting, but the story itself was repetitive and bland. Just very not scary. I couldn't make myself care about any of the characters.

amanizaha's review against another edition

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2.0

The Beresford starts off strong with an intriguing, inventive premise and a plot that almost immediately kicks into action, but is soon bogged down by the repetitiveness of its writing. While I understand that the chapters are repetitive by design, I feel that aspect of the story could have been conveyed in more interesting ways. The way it is written seems to leave little room for subtlety, instead continually beating the reader over the head with the narrator's observations and cryptic one-liners. "Things were different at the Beresford"? Ok.

The story might have still been enjoyable overall had at least the resolutions been satisfactory, but many of the mysteries that are introduced in the first third are abandoned somewhere along the halfway mark. Instead, the ending dedicates itself to concluding storylines that are introduced much later in the story, and these are more focused on certain character arcs than the interesting, abstract ideas related to the Beresford itself. Had these characters had more (or any) depth, this wouldn't have been a problem, but most of them are one-dimensional. For all its intrigue and potential, the book seemed to do little apart from revelling in the supposed cleverness of its own premise.

I'm sorry @ Will Carver, liked the idea but not the execution. :-/

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