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lookingforcaarol's review against another edition
2.0
Halfway through I was genuinely shocked about the average rating because I was really enjoying it, but then it started making less and less sense?? And that final plot twist? Hmmmm no thank you. It gets two and a half stars for the first like 250 pages.
literaturefaerie's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. If you’re really into Black Mirror, you’ll probably love this book. I was somewhat enjoying it while reading, but it was soooo slow, and took forever for any bit of excitement or plot twists to occur, and the ending was just so disappointing to me, and made me feel like I wasted my time.
mastersal's review against another edition
DNF AT page 110 - 24% in
Ok I think I gave this a fair shot but I was reading this quite begrudgingly. I didn’t care about the plot or any of the characters. I didn’t find the writing atmospheric or compelling. I know there is supposed to be this big twist on the book - and maybe that will would have helped but I didn’t care to find out.
If the book hasn’t given me a reason to continue 1000 pages in I thinks it’s fair to say it’s an average book. Maybe …
This was a shame as the glimpses of the history and the discussion on cycles of violence could have been very interesting. Just not sure why this uses this mystery house conceit as it’s distracting. Ah well - meh!
Edit: so I went and read the ending so I know the “big twist” / construct of the novel. And frankly it sounds very interesting, including the thematic conversations that could and should be had with this. BUT - the thought of reading this book for another 300 pages is giving me hives.
Ok I think I gave this a fair shot but I was reading this quite begrudgingly. I didn’t care about the plot or any of the characters. I didn’t find the writing atmospheric or compelling. I know there is supposed to be this big twist on the book - and maybe that will would have helped but I didn’t care to find out.
If the book hasn’t given me a reason to continue 1000 pages in I thinks it’s fair to say it’s an average book. Maybe …
This was a shame as the glimpses of the history and the discussion on cycles of violence could have been very interesting. Just not sure why this uses this mystery house conceit as it’s distracting. Ah well - meh!
Edit: so I went and read the ending so I know the “big twist” / construct of the novel. And frankly it sounds very interesting, including the thematic conversations that could and should be had with this. BUT - the thought of reading this book for another 300 pages is giving me hives.
lefty's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
teweaver819's review against another edition
More effort was put into cramming as many metaphors into each sentence than character development or plot.
dalinarsreads's review against another edition
1.0
Wow, this book was not the book for me, at all. A full review will be posted on instagram soon.
Wow, this book was not the book for me, at all. A full review will be posted on Instagram soon.
update with actual mini review
Trigger warnings: self-harm, suicide, miscarriage, STATUTORY RAPE, PEDOPHILIA
okay so, I had some...high expectations going into this book. I mean just look at this cover, it's beautiful. With a creepy atmosphere that reminds me of those horror movies, you find on syfy, I thought I found a winner. Unfortunately, I couldn't be more wrong.
The writing was good... I'll give it that and because of that, I'm quite interested in seeing future works by the author. But I literally felt like this book was just going in circles and getting nowhere. Angel's POV was... confusing at times and I didn't enjoy reading from her as much as I did Mavi's. There wasn't really any character development and at times it was quite confusing (even though yes I know it's supposed to be a horror/mystery, but still.)
One of the things that really brought it down for me was the plot twist that was a complete 180. It changed everything and I will say that it was a clever little plot twist I didn't see coming. Despite that, I don't feel like it worked for this story because after that, might as well throw out the first half of the book and pretend it never happened and not to mention it was SO confusing, I had to re-read a couple of times and still don't understand why. It felt like such a cop-out.
Another big thing for me is the trigger warnings. Yes, I do agree that writers can write what they want, it's not terrible to have triggering content as long as it's done respectfully. But you have to challenge it. And in this case, it wasn't challenged. And I am talking about the statutory rape and pedophilia, and this is where the spoilers come in okay.
So if you don't wanna see spoilers, don't read.
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-
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So basically, the plot twist is that its a game, none of it's real and it's solely for peoples enjoyment and the "others" are the players who upload their consciousness into the game. In the book, the girls who might I add, are between the ages of 10-14/15 tops, report that men touch them at night, and what to the characters/npc's say? Oh okay how wrong let's see what's happening and honestly do nothing about it???? Also, the fact that people upload their consciousness into a game to touch little girls, CHILDREN (idec if it's a game) is just wrong.
And might I add, none of it was challenged. Not to mention one of the teachers 'Mr Lamm' was basically accused of touching the girls, the characters, specifically Mavi, we're like oh no he could never we need to investigate this more, if he did, it's terrible, but how could he? He's a sweet man. Like.... que...??? QUE??? If a little kid comes to you and says this person is touching them inappropriately, you don't look for all the reasons WHy it can't be them. I could honestly go on, but for my sanity, I can't. The pedophilia was not challenged in my eyes and the reasoning for even being IN this book is not okay.
Wow, this book was not the book for me, at all. A full review will be posted on Instagram soon.
update with actual mini review
Trigger warnings: self-harm, suicide, miscarriage, STATUTORY RAPE, PEDOPHILIA
okay so, I had some...high expectations going into this book. I mean just look at this cover, it's beautiful. With a creepy atmosphere that reminds me of those horror movies, you find on syfy, I thought I found a winner. Unfortunately, I couldn't be more wrong.
The writing was good... I'll give it that and because of that, I'm quite interested in seeing future works by the author. But I literally felt like this book was just going in circles and getting nowhere. Angel's POV was... confusing at times and I didn't enjoy reading from her as much as I did Mavi's. There wasn't really any character development and at times it was quite confusing (even though yes I know it's supposed to be a horror/mystery, but still.)
One of the things that really brought it down for me was the plot twist that was a complete 180. It changed everything and I will say that it was a clever little plot twist I didn't see coming. Despite that, I don't feel like it worked for this story because after that, might as well throw out the first half of the book and pretend it never happened and not to mention it was SO confusing, I had to re-read a couple of times and still don't understand why. It felt like such a cop-out.
Another big thing for me is the trigger warnings. Yes, I do agree that writers can write what they want, it's not terrible to have triggering content as long as it's done respectfully. But you have to challenge it. And in this case, it wasn't challenged. And I am talking about the statutory rape and pedophilia, and this is where the spoilers come in okay.
So if you don't wanna see spoilers, don't read.
-
-
-
So basically, the plot twist is that its a game, none of it's real and it's solely for peoples enjoyment and the "others" are the players who upload their consciousness into the game. In the book, the girls who might I add, are between the ages of 10-14/15 tops, report that men touch them at night, and what to the characters/npc's say? Oh okay how wrong let's see what's happening and honestly do nothing about it???? Also, the fact that people upload their consciousness into a game to touch little girls, CHILDREN (idec if it's a game) is just wrong.
And might I add, none of it was challenged. Not to mention one of the teachers 'Mr Lamm' was basically accused of touching the girls, the characters, specifically Mavi, we're like oh no he could never we need to investigate this more, if he did, it's terrible, but how could he? He's a sweet man. Like.... que...??? QUE??? If a little kid comes to you and says this person is touching them inappropriately, you don't look for all the reasons WHy it can't be them. I could honestly go on, but for my sanity, I can't. The pedophilia was not challenged in my eyes and the reasoning for even being IN this book is not okay.
catwhisperer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
readinginhouston's review against another edition
2.0
I was really excited about this one. The premise sounded so good!! The execution just did not do it for me. I love a good haunted house tale and haunted boarding schools are at the top of the list. Unfortunately, the story was not very cohesive or interesting. The alternating timelines were not explained until close to the end of the book, and the twist was just bizarre!! I found myself having to re-read whole chapters, thinking I had a missed some detail, only to find out that the missing details were either included at the end or not at all. I really wish this story had been told in a different way - I can see potential in it, but it sadly did not reach that potential for me.