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spookshow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
When Rynn inherits his family's cabin up in the remote wilderness of the Yukon, he could think of nothing worse. The cabin is fraught with memories of strange happenings and of the tension between his uncle and Father that only grew worse as Rynn got older. But after a year of hell, Rynn decides to take his two best friends up to the cabin for the weekend in order to take a break and hopefully begin anew. However, there's something strange in the woods, and a winter storm moving in threatens to cut the men off from the small pocket of civilisation nearby. When the storm hits and the animals begin to act weird, the three friends soon realise that there is darkness here, and the answer to how to survive it lies deep within the Burdette family line. Will delving into his family history help Rynn, or will it send him spiralling down into the deep tunnel of darkness that's been threatening to swallow him whole all along?
I'd had this one sitting on my kindle for AGES, and I've decided that I really need to whittle down my eARCs. I'm doing ARCtober in order to help me do this, though this one I actually finished in September. I'm all about those spooky reads and recs all year round! I loved the sound of this one, I'm a sucker for a 'friends-in-the-woods-cabin-creepy-forest-ancient-evil' vibe, and this one had that in spades.
We meet Rynn and his buddies when they're on their way up to the cabin that Rynn has inherited from his uncle. Rynn's had a rough go the last 12 months, and so have his two friends, so taking a getaway to the remote cabin in order to take time out from life and try to regroup and begin anew is the aim of the game. At least, it is for the two friends, Rynn has other plans. Rynn knew that the cabin was super remote as he'd been coming to it since he was young, but they weren't counting on the storm on the horizon being as brutal as it would turn out to be. I felt that Daigle did a fantastic job of really setting the atmosphere in this story. From the minute the guys stop in the town on their way up to the cabin, you can feel how isolated they are, both in location, as well as personally. While the townsfolk do recognise Rynn, they don't know the friends, and you can feel the segregation between townsfolk and "tourists" from the get-go. Daigle built the atmosphere up slowly until I could feel how palpable the isolation was, it didn't stop at the town, it just kept going, especially with the incoming storm getting worse. This story held a huge feeling of bleakness, desperation and darkness that slowly trickled in as the story progressed until it felt like I was drowning under a river that I didn't even know was there. I could feel the desperation of all three men as the story progressed, desperation of beating the demons they all battled with, and desperation that was brought about by their current declining situation.
I really sympathised with the characters. We are given a run-down of the events that lead them to be where they are now, and what created the depression and demons that they each battle with. All had faced different circumstances which ultimately lead them to the junction that they now stood at. The darkness that surrounds the cabin was tied to one of my favourite types of horror which is an ancient being that holds sway over those that worship it. This story gave me mad The Ritual (Adam Nevill) vibes and I was here for it. I had worked out fairly early on the general gist of the being in the woods...of the woods? But I didn't quite pick the reason behind the animals behaving strangely until the story had progressed a bit further and certain things came to light. As the reveals were slowly dropped, so too did my stomach. The story turned out a lot darker and bleaker in certain ways than I had anticipated. Nothing so dark that I couldn't stomach it, but certain aspects did make the story become darker and darker as it went on.
I did find that at times the pacing dropped a little and some parts became a tiny bit repetitive, but I feel like this was done deliberately in order to allow for the story to slow down and the atmosphere to build a little bit more. I've learned to not give up hope and immediately drop a book just because the pacing slows down, that happened after I'd finally finished No One Gets Out Alive (Adam Nevill). I put that book down because it was so freaking slow, but once I finished it, I was so mad that I had put it on the back burner for so long. I try to see the purpose behind a pacing drop now instead of just writing it off as the author stumbling a little. Which, to be honest, would be totally understandable as I believe this is actually Daigle's debut novel. But I digress, Daigle didn't stumble at all, and this was a fantastic story, so much so, that I was surprised to find out this was a debut! By the last page, I felt like I'd been slowly consumed by that unknown river mentioned earlier, but the bleakness didn't leave. Daigle did a magical job of dangling hope in front of the characters as well as the reader, but kept it just out of reach so you could still see that shining beacon that promised the storm would end, and the sun would rise again, but he dangled it off a stick that was tied to your head, so no matter how fast you ran, you felt like you just could not quite reach it. That last chapter (epilogue?) was a shining example of this, and while I'm a huge fan of leaving what happened next up to the reader's own imagination and interpretation, I still wanted him to TELL me what happened. I feel like we got a kind of closure, but not quite a closure. I'm still thinking about it now and I finished it like a month ago.
All in all, this was an absolutely fantastic debut novel, and I cannot wait to see what Daigle does next. His skill at building atmosphere is phenomenal and he writes deep, complex characters that could be as real as you or I. I actually have his next book on my kindle, so I'm going to try and move that up the list as fast as I can. I feel that Daigle is certainly an author to watch and has a unique voice in a saturated genre. I am keen to keep following him down this rabbit hole of horror.
I'd had this one sitting on my kindle for AGES, and I've decided that I really need to whittle down my eARCs. I'm doing ARCtober in order to help me do this, though this one I actually finished in September. I'm all about those spooky reads and recs all year round! I loved the sound of this one, I'm a sucker for a 'friends-in-the-woods-cabin-creepy-forest-ancient-evil' vibe, and this one had that in spades.
We meet Rynn and his buddies when they're on their way up to the cabin that Rynn has inherited from his uncle. Rynn's had a rough go the last 12 months, and so have his two friends, so taking a getaway to the remote cabin in order to take time out from life and try to regroup and begin anew is the aim of the game. At least, it is for the two friends, Rynn has other plans. Rynn knew that the cabin was super remote as he'd been coming to it since he was young, but they weren't counting on the storm on the horizon being as brutal as it would turn out to be. I felt that Daigle did a fantastic job of really setting the atmosphere in this story. From the minute the guys stop in the town on their way up to the cabin, you can feel how isolated they are, both in location, as well as personally. While the townsfolk do recognise Rynn, they don't know the friends, and you can feel the segregation between townsfolk and "tourists" from the get-go. Daigle built the atmosphere up slowly until I could feel how palpable the isolation was, it didn't stop at the town, it just kept going, especially with the incoming storm getting worse. This story held a huge feeling of bleakness, desperation and darkness that slowly trickled in as the story progressed until it felt like I was drowning under a river that I didn't even know was there. I could feel the desperation of all three men as the story progressed, desperation of beating the demons they all battled with, and desperation that was brought about by their current declining situation.
I really sympathised with the characters. We are given a run-down of the events that lead them to be where they are now, and what created the depression and demons that they each battle with. All had faced different circumstances which ultimately lead them to the junction that they now stood at. The darkness that surrounds the cabin was tied to one of my favourite types of horror which is an ancient being that holds sway over those that worship it. This story gave me mad The Ritual (Adam Nevill) vibes and I was here for it. I had worked out fairly early on the general gist of the being in the woods...of the woods? But I didn't quite pick the reason behind the animals behaving strangely until the story had progressed a bit further and certain things came to light. As the reveals were slowly dropped, so too did my stomach. The story turned out a lot darker and bleaker in certain ways than I had anticipated. Nothing so dark that I couldn't stomach it, but certain aspects did make the story become darker and darker as it went on.
I did find that at times the pacing dropped a little and some parts became a tiny bit repetitive, but I feel like this was done deliberately in order to allow for the story to slow down and the atmosphere to build a little bit more. I've learned to not give up hope and immediately drop a book just because the pacing slows down, that happened after I'd finally finished No One Gets Out Alive (Adam Nevill). I put that book down because it was so freaking slow, but once I finished it, I was so mad that I had put it on the back burner for so long. I try to see the purpose behind a pacing drop now instead of just writing it off as the author stumbling a little. Which, to be honest, would be totally understandable as I believe this is actually Daigle's debut novel. But I digress, Daigle didn't stumble at all, and this was a fantastic story, so much so, that I was surprised to find out this was a debut! By the last page, I felt like I'd been slowly consumed by that unknown river mentioned earlier, but the bleakness didn't leave. Daigle did a magical job of dangling hope in front of the characters as well as the reader, but kept it just out of reach so you could still see that shining beacon that promised the storm would end, and the sun would rise again, but he dangled it off a stick that was tied to your head, so no matter how fast you ran, you felt like you just could not quite reach it. That last chapter (epilogue?) was a shining example of this, and while I'm a huge fan of leaving what happened next up to the reader's own imagination and interpretation, I still wanted him to TELL me what happened. I feel like we got a kind of closure, but not quite a closure. I'm still thinking about it now and I finished it like a month ago.
All in all, this was an absolutely fantastic debut novel, and I cannot wait to see what Daigle does next. His skill at building atmosphere is phenomenal and he writes deep, complex characters that could be as real as you or I. I actually have his next book on my kindle, so I'm going to try and move that up the list as fast as I can. I feel that Daigle is certainly an author to watch and has a unique voice in a saturated genre. I am keen to keep following him down this rabbit hole of horror.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Animal death
Moderate: Miscarriage, Death, and Death of parent
anntharai's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infertility, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Blood
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