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jessiihaze's review against another edition
3.0
Not going to lie, the cover drew me in for this one as well. When I read the jacket to the book it only confirmed what I already knew...this was going to be a fantastic book! I could not put it down. The way it's written is so different, I have never read anything like it before. A book inside a book! CRAZY!
The characters are likeable enough and somewhat relatable. The only one I had a hard time with was Pastor Len only because I am not a religious person and had trouble associating with his character.
The background for the suicide forest in Japan is crazy creepy. While reading this book it intrigued me because I had never heard of this eerie place and I do enjoy creeping myself out every now and again. I researched this place and the stories and documentaries on this place are frightening. If you need a good ghost story to tell during a campfire I highly suggust looking into it. So Sarah Lotz definitely did her research on this forest and did it well. The forest gives background to one side of the four plane crashes and it was one of my favourites and the most creepy. However the character of Jess frightened me terribly. If you enjoy creepy kids, creepy backgrounds and all things with a huge creep factor (yes I know I say Creep, Creepy etc a lot) this book is perfect for you.
As for the ending I know people are really hating it but I LOVED it. If you hate ambigious endings or having to decide for yourself what the ending means stay away from it.
The characters are likeable enough and somewhat relatable. The only one I had a hard time with was Pastor Len only because I am not a religious person and had trouble associating with his character.
The background for the suicide forest in Japan is crazy creepy. While reading this book it intrigued me because I had never heard of this eerie place and I do enjoy creeping myself out every now and again. I researched this place and the stories and documentaries on this place are frightening. If you need a good ghost story to tell during a campfire I highly suggust looking into it. So Sarah Lotz definitely did her research on this forest and did it well. The forest gives background to one side of the four plane crashes and it was one of my favourites and the most creepy. However the character of Jess frightened me terribly. If you enjoy creepy kids, creepy backgrounds and all things with a huge creep factor (yes I know I say Creep, Creepy etc a lot) this book is perfect for you.
As for the ending I know people are really hating it but I LOVED it. If you hate ambigious endings or having to decide for yourself what the ending means stay away from it.
sammymus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
just_aliesha's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
vegantrav's review against another edition
4.0
On January 12, 2012 (Black Thursday), four planes crash at the same time in separate areas around the world: Japan, Florida, South Africa, and the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between the Canary Islands and the UK. In Japan, Florida, and the Atlantic, there is a single survivor in each crash: a child; the three child survivors are the titular three. Later speculation is that a child--yet to be found--also survived the crash in South Africa.
Due to the crashes all occurring at the same time and the seemingly miraculous survival of the children, many are quick to attribute the events to supernatural or extraterrestrial forces. One of the most prominent theories is promulgated by a fundamentalist preacher from Texas: he argues that the four children (he believes a child survived the South Africa crash and will be found) represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that the end times have begun with the return of Christ and the rapture near at hand.
The story is told in the form of a frame story: it opens with a section entitled "How It Begins" and closes with "How It Ends" and a final section after that. Sandwiched between these sections is a book written by Elspeth Martins entitled Black Thursday: From Crash to Conspiracy. Martins's book takes up most of this novel and is told in a variety of different forms: Martins's interviews with various prominent figures, newspaper articles, email correspondence between characters, computer records of internet chats, dictaphone recordings of one of the main characters, excerpts from yet another book (this one about a family member of a survivor of Black Thursday), and a few other formats. Thus, Sarah Lotz, our author, gives us a highly variegated narrative structure but one that is still easy to follow.
As we follow the story, we really have no idea what to make of these events: is it all just a huge coincidence with the children's survival just a matter of pure luck? Are God or other supernatural agents involved? Are aliens involved? Are the major players in the story crazy or deluded or completely sane? Until the very end, Lotz keeps us in suspense, and that's what I most loved about this novel: I had no idea where the story was going to take me, but the journey was totally enthralling, and the denouement, for me, was fantastic. I know some will be disappointed or perhaps even somewhat baffled by the ending, but I found it to be nearly perfect.
Due to the crashes all occurring at the same time and the seemingly miraculous survival of the children, many are quick to attribute the events to supernatural or extraterrestrial forces. One of the most prominent theories is promulgated by a fundamentalist preacher from Texas: he argues that the four children (he believes a child survived the South Africa crash and will be found) represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that the end times have begun with the return of Christ and the rapture near at hand.
The story is told in the form of a frame story: it opens with a section entitled "How It Begins" and closes with "How It Ends" and a final section after that. Sandwiched between these sections is a book written by Elspeth Martins entitled Black Thursday: From Crash to Conspiracy. Martins's book takes up most of this novel and is told in a variety of different forms: Martins's interviews with various prominent figures, newspaper articles, email correspondence between characters, computer records of internet chats, dictaphone recordings of one of the main characters, excerpts from yet another book (this one about a family member of a survivor of Black Thursday), and a few other formats. Thus, Sarah Lotz, our author, gives us a highly variegated narrative structure but one that is still easy to follow.
As we follow the story, we really have no idea what to make of these events: is it all just a huge coincidence with the children's survival just a matter of pure luck? Are God or other supernatural agents involved? Are aliens involved? Are the major players in the story crazy or deluded or completely sane? Until the very end, Lotz keeps us in suspense, and that's what I most loved about this novel: I had no idea where the story was going to take me, but the journey was totally enthralling, and the denouement, for me, was fantastic. I know some will be disappointed or perhaps even somewhat baffled by the ending, but I found it to be nearly perfect.
shewriteswithknives's review against another edition
1.0
I got 100 pages in and could not bring myself to finish...I had high hopes for this story as it seemed unique. But the mixed reviews were right, it didn't quite grip me in the way that I hoped it might. I skipped through a couple of chapters hoping to find something that would catch my attention and get me to read it entirely, but I could not.
They say if you can't divide a room though you're doing something wrong so.....
They say if you can't divide a room though you're doing something wrong so.....
nanerbug's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't been writing reviews much lately. My brain is a bit foggy. I am writing a review of this book because I think, for me, the horror was more about the way one strange thing caused the world to lose its marbles. The writer just slightly exaggerated current world events and then inserted spooky plane crash surviving children to use as a catalyst to bring about complete chaos. It was the chaos that spooked me. I also loved the documentary format, similar to World War Z, which worked so well on audio that I listened to the whole thing in one day!
marlamd's review against another edition
1.0
Had high hopes for this but ended up resentful and disappointed. It was hard to follow--partially because it is told in many voices and styles from chapter to chapter, but also because by page 100 I just didn't care. Should have stopped reading then but pushed through and it didn't improve. And the end was lame
kdcourt's review against another edition
3.0
I had high hopes for this book, It has all the ingredients of a really good thriller. It started out well but it seemed to lose its way for me. By the end I felt unsure as to what was meant to have happened. I kept reading as I wanted to find out about the Three/Four but never felt I really found out. It was entertaining to begin with but then I found it became hard to complete.