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homosexualbats's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
slb80's review against another edition
mysterious
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? Yes
3.0
goodbye_alex's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.0
bookish_kirst's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Set in Australia, we follow heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete as they move out of the busy city to a small town in the mountains for a fresh start. Alice is plagued with anxiety over toxins, wildfires and the new disease Cutis that is quickly spreading and makes excess skin grow over people's orifices, effectively sealing them in their bodies and causing some gruesome deaths.
A very quick read, I managed to finish it in 2 sittings. Not much happens in the first 3 quarters, we basically just get to know Alice and Pete and watch how Alice's anxiety and obsessiveness over Cutis effects their daily lives. The last quarter is when things really start happening but at the same time it wasn't quite enough, I wanted more. More gruesomeness, more details on Cutis, just more.
I normally hate books that just end without any closure or anything, but for this book it kind of made sense. I would have loved to have read more about how Alice is going to deal with everything that happened.
A very quick read, I managed to finish it in 2 sittings. Not much happens in the first 3 quarters, we basically just get to know Alice and Pete and watch how Alice's anxiety and obsessiveness over Cutis effects their daily lives. The last quarter is when things really start happening but at the same time it wasn't quite enough, I wanted more. More gruesomeness, more details on Cutis, just more.
I normally hate books that just end without any closure or anything, but for this book it kind of made sense. I would have loved to have read more about how Alice is going to deal with everything that happened.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Pregnancy
allitsch's review against another edition
4.0
Very good read. Eco- horror I guess. Themes of motherhood and the toxins of the world.
stilljennifer's review against another edition
3.0
I'm admittedly torn on this one. I loved the concept, but the execution left so much to be desired at times that I found myself feeling more indifferent than anything else. Billed as a dystopian eco-horror, the only real exciting moments were kept to the final 20 pages. In a book that spans only 170, there needed to be more happening that was less obvious. I don't particularly feel like a book that's so short should go the route of being character- rather than plot-driven, but that is what Booth went with. Did she succeed? Perhaps; I felt Alice and Pete were well-rounded enough, I just... didn't really care about them enough. If the novel was longer, I may have become more invested, but for some reason I just don't think so.
The idea of a mysterious illness, known as cutis, resulting from how terribly we treat the earth was interesting - I'm all about how terrifying the future is if we don't get our acts together as a human race - but I also felt like the anvils abounded and instead of illustrating what got us to this point in a real, connectable way, there were just mentions of forest fires possibly causing the illness (???) and regular mentions of how shitty things had gotten since we messed up the planet. I don't necessarily have ideas as to how this could have been better handled, but again, it felt hard to really feel much of anything about.
The other main bugaboo, which another reviewer mentioned, was the inauthentic Australian setting. I don't believe you have to be from a place to write about it, but I do feel like if you're not 150% immersed and comfortable with something, it probably shouldn't be so central to your novel. I'm not Australian and even I was cringing at the try-hard constant usage of local Aussie slang. I'm shocked she didn't fit a few "bogan"s in there somewhere! This story could as easily have been set in North Yorkshire with the same effect and fewer uncomfortable moments that resulted from Booth's insistence on stereotyping her Australian characters.
All in all, this one left me feeling pretty blah, to be honest. Shame, but the idea was better than the execution.
The idea of a mysterious illness, known as cutis, resulting from how terribly we treat the earth was interesting - I'm all about how terrifying the future is if we don't get our acts together as a human race - but I also felt like the anvils abounded and instead of illustrating what got us to this point in a real, connectable way, there were just mentions of forest fires possibly causing the illness (???) and regular mentions of how shitty things had gotten since we messed up the planet. I don't necessarily have ideas as to how this could have been better handled, but again, it felt hard to really feel much of anything about.
The other main bugaboo, which another reviewer mentioned, was the inauthentic Australian setting. I don't believe you have to be from a place to write about it, but I do feel like if you're not 150% immersed and comfortable with something, it probably shouldn't be so central to your novel. I'm not Australian and even I was cringing at the try-hard constant usage of local Aussie slang. I'm shocked she didn't fit a few "bogan"s in there somewhere! This story could as easily have been set in North Yorkshire with the same effect and fewer uncomfortable moments that resulted from Booth's insistence on stereotyping her Australian characters.
All in all, this one left me feeling pretty blah, to be honest. Shame, but the idea was better than the execution.