Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Watchers by A.M. Shine

5 reviews

skillyillian's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

as i said in my review of The Creeper, A.M. Shine writes great descriptions of stuff and his view of Ireland's cultures and folklore is so interesting. i got through this in about four days, listening as often as i could. shine writes characters who are very individual, they don't feel like cardboard cut-outs and i like that a lot, but it feels like in both books of his i've read now, his characters are so focused on escaping The Horrors (tm) that they don't have room to really develop. They make sacrifices for each other, but it feels like stuff they'd be willing to do (for the people they care about) from the get-go anyway. 

the watchers themselves were really fun, i liked how spooky they were, and how the characters had no idea what the hell their deal was until the back half of the story. 

i felt like the two bigger twists weren't too difficult to spot, but there were still parts of it i hadn't expected, and i enjoyed getting more details once they happened.
madeline being a watcher was the thing i spotted first, although i hadn't figured she was one of them until someone mentioned "what if they could come out during the day?" and then it clicked. i knew she was on their side but i didn't predict her being one of the ones who was trained on the doctor's wife, so mina finding that picture at the college was really fun. the bunker made sense, but the thing that bothered me a little was that it was covered in cement with a heavy table that left the cement with an indent. if the concrete had already been dry, and filled from the door to the level of the floor, it shouldn't have budged into denting with a table on top of it. if the table had been put there while the concrete was wet, it should've been cemented into the space. it didn't feel like the logic was 100% there. why did the doctor cover the one safe space with cement? if he left a "hey you found it" video, expecting someone to end up down there, why would he have covered it with concrete at all? if it wasn't him, then who? madeline? why would she do that, and how, instead of showing it to the other people trapped there? idk. maybe it got explained and i forgot already. i'm writing this review a couple weeks after finishing the book.


anyway, a fun story, if you don't think about certain parts of it too much, lmao. i'm planning on watching the movie at some point, but i don't think i'll read the second book.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jmkendall0218's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tanukino's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Very fun and well-paced! I will say, the twist at the end was a bit predictable once the characters reached a certain checkpoint in the plot/introduced a new character, but overall a very fun read. Despite disliking some of the characters' weaknesses, I did find myself rooting for them in the end. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

killmoore_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

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? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting to, despite figuring out the big twist early on. It was well written, genuinely spooky at times (had me looking out my dark window multiple times, lol) and the characters were well flushed out. 

It read like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so I'm excited to see the film when it comes out. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

queergoth_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

I was very intrigued by the book. I am always looking for new horror authors and this sounded really interesting. Unfortunately I found it a bit meandering. Often the tension would build and build just to fizzle out. It was pretty frustrating. I wish the middle had been a bit longer and a bit more tense. The ending was pretty cool though. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings