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leexpen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Struggling with all-consuming rage, Jane North-Robinson feels chilled by more than just the autumn air when she and her mother move to her mother's childhood home, where Jane must dig up her mother's secrets to understand what is happening.
🏚📚🌹🎒🪦👻👩👧🎃😭
👍🏻 RECOMMENDATION:
💛 READ IF you've got nothing else, if it works for a reading challenge, etc.
💬 FAVORITE QUOTES:
• Pg. 201
do books taste like roses?
A flash of the earth with everything destroyed except this house, the last building standing, and Jane within it, trapped inside its walls, not really caring anymore whether she made it out or not.
She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs.
👓 FORMAT:
📖
📑 COMMENTS:
• The main characters are complex and flawed. Jane's friends are heartwarming and supportive.
• Jane is frustrating slow to figure out what happened, leaping to illogical conclusions for the sake of continuing the mystery.
• I mostly agree with the Booklist quote on the back, which reads, "Leno blends Agatha Christie and Shirley Jackson for a narrative that ranges from unsettling to genuinely terrifying." (I did not find the narrative terrifying but otherwise agree.)
• The book starts a little too slow, and it ends a little too quickly, but the middle is well-paced.
• Race is poorly represented. Some of the characters seem like they were originally intended to be POCs but were changed to white or the author used POC aesthetics. The black characters are black only in description of skin tone.
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Pregnancy
Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
quercine'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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Confinement
vi_holmes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
TLDR: Scary, but the ending -- or really lack thereof -- took a lot away from it.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide
themes of paranoia, anger management issues due to mental health, and feelings of growing insanitykhakipantsofsex's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Animal death and Self harm
mangela_28's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Moderate: Child death and Death of parent
Minor: Self harm
halopink's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Unfortunately the story itself was pretty forgettable. I was really digging this book but wasn’t a big fan of the ending.
Graphic: Child death and Grief
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Self harm and Pregnancy
michleea's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Child death and Self harm
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
issiwerro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Murder
Minor: Child death, Self harm, Suicide, and Death of parent
catsy2022's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
An unexpectedly dark YA horror novel, Horrid by Katrina Leno was a lovely, fast read and a great addition to my 2021 reads. Ruth and Jane move across the country from California to Maine after Greer, Ruth's husband and Jane's father, dies. But the North Manor where Ruth grew up holds mysterious secrets, a locked room in the back and a rose bush that seems to overpower the yard it grows in.
I definitely enjoyed reading about Jane and Ruth's strained relationship and the interaction between Jane, her friends and the other townspeople. I felt that the unravelling of the mystery may have been more interesting that the final reveal. So many parts of this book are strange and unexplained, just bordering on absurd. Seems that Jane has unbridled rage simmering below the surface and anything could set her off. She seems to completely black out when this happens. I loved the interaction with the other characters when this happens and how shocked and unsettled they are. I definitely enjoyed the moments in the house where things are completely scrambled and then back to normal. I liked the bonding moments between Ruth and Jane. The interwoven grieving and new beginnings were great points in the book.
I did like the final reveal but I felt the book ended all too abruptly - with little resolution as to the other plotlines. Definitely a fun, short read.
Graphic: Death and Mental illness
Moderate: Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, and Suicide
ravensandlace's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Self harm, Violence, and Blood