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niddy's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
throwback682's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Shout out to Chuck Tingle for introducing me to this author.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
kellsbells374's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
1. The pace felt a little off at times. I think it came from switching between "protagonists" but it took me out of the story a bit.
2. For a book that had sortve a revenge plot where a female character was exacting revenge on men who did something shitty, there certainly were a LOT of women who got killed (horribly) as collateral damage. I feel like that maybe fit the horror genre but it kept making me frustrated because I couldn't relate to the "antagonist" destroying all these women almost as pawns or punishment for the men.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism
devinjai6655's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racism, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism and Child death
heynonnynonnie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This was very meh for me. I love the concept. I mean, indigenous supernatural karmic war sounds metal as hell for a horror book, and the first chapter smashed my expectations. It's a perfect combination of concept, style, and pacing. But the next 100 or so pages moves at such a slow pace before giving the reader sporadic moments of action. The voice takes some effort to fully appreciate and can be cumbersome during the slower parts of the story. I didn't care for the basketball scenes and their inclusion left me confused. I'm holding out hope for this author's other works because there were several chapters that were 5 star standalones for me, and I'm so in love with the concepts from his books.
TW: Animal death (hunting and pets), animal cruelty, murder, gore, violence, racism
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, and Alcohol
chriswoody94's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Drug use
zozibelle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Animal death and Gore
Moderate: Racism and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Alcohol
voxvenati's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Two things I was not really expecting going in, that there was quite a lot of: basketball and animal death - specifically
I was not a huge fan of the pacing. Front bit was good, middle dragged, end was good. Perhaps contributing to this, the early parts of the book set up like it was going to be something like four short stories tied together by this vengeful entity, but the second half of the book was not split up. It was all one story at that point.
Quite a lot of descriptions of gore, some really tense scenes, but just didn’t hit that scary vibe. Unfortunate it couldn’t hit all three points, but I did like SGJ’s style. It flowed quite naturally.
I liked the entity. I thought she was neat. I wish I had been more on her side, but I just liked some of the characters too much to agree with her.
Really solid read despite me not knowing or caring about basketball. Not scary, but a little graphic, so maybe check trigger warnings if you use them.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Racism, Violence, and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy
karthnemesis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
spinebreakr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The writing was tense and emotional. You could really feel the weight of generational trauma resting on the shoulders of the main characters. The way it informs all their actions is raw and drawn from a very real place. The character work is super well done. But ultimately, the monster in the story is not nearly so scary as what the men do to the ones they love.
Once we started getting chapters from the perspective of the monster, I had such a hard time being scared of her. I came to this book expecting horror and I just wasn't gripped at any point. The gore was pretty visceral at times. Very graphic, and overdone in some spots. For example
Overall, I feel like it started off strong but lost direction a little as it went.
I still recommend. But only If when you read this book you treat it like a Halloween-esque slasher film. Do that and you'll have a great time.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Colonisation