Reviews

The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson

deerdeluxe's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • 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

A fast paced and graphic teen sci-fi horror that explores teens grappling with trauma, classism and relationships. Nothing groundbreaking but an incredibly visceral and exciting journey delving into the way violence shapes teenagers.

elizabethpero's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • 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? No

3.5

sara_beth_11's review against another edition

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4.0

This was beautifully written, and I’m glad I read it. I will never read it again. I wanted to read it because it was hyped up by other horror fans, and it was definitely novel and suspenseful. It was also extremely bleak, to Ari Aster levels. If you saw The Crazies, you’ll find echoes of that here.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

gayfatherof3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Couldn’t really get into this. 
It was fine and a fun idea, but some parts lagged for me. Certainly would revisit this, but it just wasn’t for me this time around 

dysisa's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really dig the kind of modern sci-fi horror this is going for, it's a very cool premise. I think the problem that holds it back though, is that I think it's paced and structured in a bit of a weird way that doesn't quite work. The novel largely plays out the way you'd expect a horror story of this sort to, it's a quite by the numbers story. Opens on a horrid event, slows things down to get us into the rhythm of the main character, Lucy, before it kicks things up a few notches when the horrid event reemerges. Where it tries to sorta separate itself from that is with the really frequent inner monologues Lucy has. On paper I appreciate what the story is going for with them, but in practice it instead results in sometimes an entire page of Lucy fantasizing some scenario of what can or can't happen, all while in the midst of some really major and immediate event. It causes the story to flow very poorly, which is a shame as I really do think there's something cool past that. As a gorehound myself I won't claim to dislike how graphic things get in The Loop, but the really indepth and detailed explanations of every bit of gore feel overly excessive and could have probably actually been toned down too.

cdeane61's review against another edition

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4.0

This was by turns a horror novel, a coming of age story, a sci-fi tech ala Crichton, an eploration of wealth disparity, even somewhat of a Zombie novel.

Some of the writing seemed geared towards YA, but some of it was greatly mature and rather poignant.

It certainly zips along at a neck-breaking pace, and keeps the reader interested and hoping for more.

Will certainly consider other works by this author.

jessica_l_fasano's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

zhoronto's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

tombristow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

awkward_bee's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0