Reviews

I wanted to love this book on its premise alone. However the execution and pace had issues that didn’t work for me. It either needs to be longer or needed a second rewrite to tighten things up.
I was struggling to really give a damn about these characters because the development on them was mostly surface level.
The main objective I understood fine: a contest to murder a ghostly town legend on Halloween before they reach the town church before midnight and the winner gets to leave this hole of a town.
As is there is a price for the winner though to take the place of the legend Sawtooth Jack every year.
It’s loosely explained why the community does this every year, but there is no real explanation as to Why? If there was I missed it.
The novel is very atmospheric though.
If it fleshed out the story and characters a bit more or gave an explanation to why they do this ceremony every autumn I would have liked it a bit more.

2kerrymehome's review against another edition

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This prose is exhausting. Its like you took diner fry cook slang and tried to make it Vonnegut. Without variation between sentences, its a lot.

reyesreadingreview's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

mvanslam_2001's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.75

erinsabourin's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a short story about a random midwestern town which is trapped in a never ending cycle. This book was spooky and atmospheric. It was the perfect read before Halloween!

I enjoyed the story and the lore that went along with it. This book brought me into the story. It was different but in a good way.

If this was a 500 page book Iam not sure if I would have read the whole thing. While it was good it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read. I think it being less than 200 pages was a huge bonus for this one. Because even though I liked it I wouldn’t have wanted to read much more of it.

This book has a running commentary and breaks the fourth wall, but I think it worked for the writing style and the story.

jenniferip's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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