Reviews

I needed to reread a childhood favorite for a reading challenge so I decided to revisit this after 30+ years and its amazing how much this has stuck with me (and shaped my reading tastes to skew darker and psychological). I've forgotten reads from earlier this year but still remember all of the main plot points. Does it get all the stars? No. It read like a soap opera with the dialogue going into cheesy range and Cathy got extremely annoying with age, but is that going to stop me from doing some nostalgia reading in '22. Nope lol

taylorscozylibrary's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The was the weirdest book I have EVER read.

The way the author describes a child’s underwear and body in detail gave me the ICK 🤮 The fact that this was pitched as a Teen/YA book when it was released is mind blowing to me 🤯 It was so creepy and weird.

I gave this 3 stars because it did absolutely shock and repulse me, which I think was probably the point of this book and I wasn’t expecting it to be so brutal. I was also really rooting for the kids to be ok by the end and there was a TON of suspense.

Also, all I could think about when reading this was learning about Freud in Psychology class. I feel like he would’ve loved this book 😂

kaitlynmccully's review against another edition

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3.0

let’s not shy away from the elephant in the room: this book contains serious “ick” and “heebiejeebies” factor. There is, throughout the novel, a lot of incestuous behaviours. There is a lot of abuse, trauma and just a general layout of “this is gross.”

In saying so! As an OLDER reader, (22), i can appreciate the trauma and abusive tendencies for what they are: wrong. I can (try to) understand the turmoil of the characters who have been placed in captivity. This novel being presented as “suitable for readers 15 and up” is NOT an accurate presentation.

Andrews writing is bewitching. The style - beautiful. The content is the only thing that held me back from a higher rating. The brotherfucking also held me back.

I think the novel held a good amount of plot twists, shock factor and creepy air. It was not hard to read, in an intellectual sense. The content itself was a little harder to bare.

All in all, this is a macabre, gross, creepy read, if you’re into that. I didn’t despise it. I didn’t fall in love with it. I would read it again. I would not let any person under the age of 18 near this novel.

luellen1990's review against another edition

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5.0

Fantastic

Such a great storyline and plot, kept me enthralled throughout and kept me wanting to read more. Roll on book two

ren_tho's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

courtneyla's review against another edition

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3.0

This book made me sad and sick the whole time I was reading it, yet I couldn't put it down. I had to finish and find out what happened. It was heartbreaking, and I wont read it again, but I did enjoy (if you can use that word for this book) wasting a day on this book.

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