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emory's review
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
I'm not sure how to describe this book. It doesnt follow your typical story beats for a mystery (or really have story beats at all...most important plot points are anticlimactic simple decisions). None of the characters or town landmarks are really introduced all that well, our main character included. The descriptions, while beautifully written, dip farther and farther into purple as you go on, to the point where you forget what the characters are doing by the time you get to the end of the three paragaph description of how the street mirrors the emotion of our main character.
Here's one of the more egregious examples if you, like I do, doubt when someone in a review calls descriptive writing excessive:
"The day felt like it lasted the entire span of the Dark Age—dim and rocky, crags and lava, monsters emerging from volcanoes and mountain lakes, from thorny deserts and mildewed forests. Monsters lived in every land yet to be explored. And nothing had been explored, ever, not back then, not before fire and the imitation shadows it made. There were thick animal skins, fearsome night sounds in the light of day, the curved bones of rib cages baking in the dry sun. Tall, chalk-skinned trees, their leaves and branches too high to climb, too out of reach to see anything." After this begins a truly hard to follow and extremely long dream sequence where the main character is pursued by the actual devil.
I did enjoy the mood this book built, and I felt like particular scenes and tangents were very evocative, especially the ending. However, I didn't feel like the plot or the characters were strong enough to carry me through these divergences into long, aesthetic/mood-building sequences of endless adjectives and useless descriptive metaphors. Every time a character made a decision, it was always something out of left field that the narrative seemed to prescribe as second nature. The main "villain" has an extremely poor motive in my opinion. Barely anything that moves the main story forward happens at all until almost 3/4 of the way in!
Not necessarily an unenjoyable read, but a veeeeeery slow and immersion based one.
Here's one of the more egregious examples if you, like I do, doubt when someone in a review calls descriptive writing excessive:
"The day felt like it lasted the entire span of the Dark Age—dim and rocky, crags and lava, monsters emerging from volcanoes and mountain lakes, from thorny deserts and mildewed forests. Monsters lived in every land yet to be explored. And nothing had been explored, ever, not back then, not before fire and the imitation shadows it made. There were thick animal skins, fearsome night sounds in the light of day, the curved bones of rib cages baking in the dry sun. Tall, chalk-skinned trees, their leaves and branches too high to climb, too out of reach to see anything." After this begins a truly hard to follow and extremely long dream sequence where the main character is pursued by the actual devil.
I did enjoy the mood this book built, and I felt like particular scenes and tangents were very evocative, especially the ending. However, I didn't feel like the plot or the characters were strong enough to carry me through these divergences into long, aesthetic/mood-building sequences of endless adjectives and useless descriptive metaphors. Every time a character made a decision, it was always something out of left field that the narrative seemed to prescribe as second nature. The main "villain" has an extremely poor motive in my opinion. Barely anything that moves the main story forward happens at all until almost 3/4 of the way in!
Not necessarily an unenjoyable read, but a veeeeeery slow and immersion based one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Rape, and Abandonment
Main character spends the first half of the book being stalked by a teenage boy known for raping and assaulting other girls in the town. Two upsetting sequences in which children are separated from their mothers briefly and then find their mothers murdered. Very bleak atmosphere overall for this bookirisestacansado's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Thank you to Witch Way Publishing for holding a giveaway for this book (and for the free copy I received from said giveaway)!
The Swallows is a paranormal gothic centering around 15-year-old Pearl as increasingly more concerning events unfold around her and she learns more about what the town believes are suicides. Ultimately, I found this an enjoyable read, although a little slower than I would prefer for the first half. Clanton takes this story as an opportunity to use the paranormal to explore loss and allow space for the complicated relationships between every character in a town that, as the book notes, was built on hatred.
Fullmouth is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business to varying degrees, with foundations so complacent they let the unacceptable slide and the mysterious fade away. Shaking this up is a relative newcomer, Pearl, whose supernatural talents are intensified as mysteries pop up. While this story could be described as a ghost story, the ghosts are actually the least horrifying part, which is a nice subversion. As she travels the town to uncover the horrors, the reader is given glimpses into shifty characters that speak to the terrors plaguing women, children, and the general public, fictional or otherwise. These glimpses pick up once we like the characters, from an independent teen (Pearl) looking out for her adorable younger brother to an older woman running a diner and doing her best to help out wherever she can, whether it be through monster-themed milkshakes or help getting rid of the evils in the town.
Clanton uses her first novel as an opportunity to showcase her lovely descriptive prose, which is so vivid it kept me engaged throughout the slower plot. This is horror that thrives on atmosphere, which she delivers beautifully. Pearl's story contains moments that blend reality and illusion without her world, used to empower Pearl, even if bittersweetly. Once the plot picked up, I found myself racing through the book as tensions heightened. I had anticipated two potential endings, but Clanton surprised me with an ending that had me let out a gasp, only to realize that it was, in many ways, an inevitable send-off.
This isn't a perfect book, of course. There were some pacing issues, some elements of the town strayed a little too far to believe, even with suspension, and the tone in the beginning of chapter five was jarring, but this was a solid book. This book is not necessarily a happy book, although it manages to be both hopeful and despairing, almost in equal measure.
The Swallows is a paranormal gothic centering around 15-year-old Pearl as increasingly more concerning events unfold around her and she learns more about what the town believes are suicides. Ultimately, I found this an enjoyable read, although a little slower than I would prefer for the first half. Clanton takes this story as an opportunity to use the paranormal to explore loss and allow space for the complicated relationships between every character in a town that, as the book notes, was built on hatred.
Fullmouth is a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business to varying degrees, with foundations so complacent they let the unacceptable slide and the mysterious fade away. Shaking this up is a relative newcomer, Pearl, whose supernatural talents are intensified as mysteries pop up.
Clanton uses her first novel as an opportunity to showcase her lovely descriptive prose, which is so vivid it kept me engaged throughout the slower plot. This is horror that thrives on atmosphere, which she delivers beautifully. Pearl's story contains moments that blend reality and illusion without her world, used to empower Pearl, even if bittersweetly. Once the plot picked up, I found myself racing through the book as tensions heightened. I had anticipated two potential endings, but Clanton surprised me with an ending that had me let out a gasp, only to realize that it was, in many ways, an inevitable send-off.
This isn't a perfect book, of course. There were some pacing issues, some elements of the town strayed a little too far to believe, even with suspension, and the tone in the beginning of chapter five was jarring, but this was a solid book. This book is not necessarily a happy book, although it manages to be both hopeful and despairing, almost in equal measure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Stalking, and Death of parent
Moderate: Rape and Sexual harassment
Minor: Religious bigotry
Additional CWs: discussion of suicide, occasionally in the context of sinaislynnheart's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The relationship between Pearl and Benny, albeit a bit sad at times, is sweet and touching, and acts as a counterbalance to the secrets and horrific events going on around them.
Content Warnings
Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Death of parent
ms_smith's review
dark
slow-paced
2.25
Thank you for Witch Way Publishing for the free copy of the book!
Great story potential, poor execution. It was a hot mess, like the author wanted to squeeze in every horror trope all at once. For me, this was not authentic enough. I just couldn't believe that a little girl would 'solve' the murder cases just like that. It also got me confused that until the second half of the book I couldn't place the happenings into any era or figure out how old was Pearl. It all confused me. There were so many unnecessary details, like the part where a church service was described or when there was a switched view from Pearl's to another child. There were many misspellings which disintegrated the story as well. I didn't like the ending, because it gave nothing. I got no answers to the questions imposed throughout the story. Like who was the painter guy? Why was he painting on Rose's diner's wall? Why did Pearl see dead mothers? What was the purpose of the murders of the mothers? And so on...
The whole story was pointless, forced. A huge disappointment, because the base of the story carried so much potential which remained unexploited.
Great story potential, poor execution. It was a hot mess, like the author wanted to squeeze in every horror trope all at once. For me, this was not authentic enough. I just couldn't believe that a little girl would 'solve' the murder cases just like that. It also got me confused that until the second half of the book I couldn't place the happenings into any era or figure out how old was Pearl. It all confused me. There were so many unnecessary details, like the part where a church service was described or when there was a switched view from Pearl's to another child. There were many misspellings which disintegrated the story as well. I didn't like the ending, because it gave nothing. I got no answers to the questions imposed throughout the story. Like who was the painter guy? Why was he painting on Rose's diner's wall? Why did Pearl see dead mothers? What was the purpose of the murders of the mothers? And so on...
The whole story was pointless, forced. A huge disappointment, because the base of the story carried so much potential which remained unexploited.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Rape, and Death of parent
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