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owenreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
3.0
I found this book both atmospheric (which almost every reviewer has used) and tense, but also, almost too overly descriptive.
It's a mystery, immersive, paranormal, Witchy novel. That's also, a sad tale about kids who are self-parenting.
Not necessarily my bag, but I'm glad I read it.
I won this in a giveaway via Storygraph.
It's a mystery, immersive, paranormal, Witchy novel. That's also, a sad tale about kids who are self-parenting.
Not necessarily my bag, but I'm glad I read it.
I won this in a giveaway via Storygraph.
rachmc's review
mysterious
sad
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? It's complicated
2.5
xanaouro's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
churrocharizard's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
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 bookwen_kexing's review
6% of the book read..we i did that in class because the class was boring and the guy beside me made me nervous af. I'll read it probably when I'm back in class
hmbnsb's review
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
1.0
Too wordy when not using dialogue. Author is trying too hard
shousers's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
kat52's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
The Swallows is a sad story about a parentified child in a small town in which single mothers are dying and evil is at play but few questions are actually answered. The major plot points of this story were great, a good number of the characters were easy to feel for, and the premise as a whole was pretty interesting. The writing, however, felt as pieced together as the Frankenstein's monster that was referenced apparently for the sole purpose of making it more Halloween themed. It seemed like a lot of the ideas in the book the Horsemen, suddenly invoking the goddess Hecate, the entire resolution of the John-Boy issue, the one time shift to another character's POV, just to list a few were included for the sake of not discarding great ideas but then not pursued. This made what would otherwise have been an amazing ending just another unresolved plot point. Overall, the book was interesting enough to wonder what will happen next and the ending was amazing, but it lacked cohesion and continuity.
nate454's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0