Reviews with content warning for Murder - Beholder

Beholder is strange from the very beginning. We follow Athan, young, beautiful, trying to survive in NYC with his grandmother. Athan has managed to have connections with powerful and influential people who throw parties in penthouses and spend a lot of money on art. It is at one of these parties that everything goes wrong when he finds himself the only survivor in what seems to be a mass killing spree. Here's when he also meets Dom who seems to know more than he says but captivates Athan with his kindness. Athan and Dom now are trying to figure out how to stop these deaths and Athan also finds out more about himself and why his grandma warned him against looking into mirrors and getting lost in them...
All in all, a great horror story, very unique that will leave you wary of mirrors and wondering about what really goes on in the darker parts of rich people's lives and what they can get away with.

Content Warnings

joensign's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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sarrie's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

TL;DR: If you like Spiders or Existential Dread in your horrors this could be for you, but overall pretty bland for me.

Beholder by Ryan La Sala is an interesting horror read for me. I’ve been exploring the genre more and more in the past few years and this might be the first time I’ve found a book that seems to target two specific phobias that simply completely miss me. Spiders and a sense of existential dread.

This follows Athan, who is the bearer of a family curse that means he’s unable to really look in the mirror. After surviving a party turned massacre he gets caught up on the run from those who seem to be hunting his family and him. He ends up in the company of Dom, a young man of considerable artistic talent and an equal amounts of secrets.

The biggest part of this I enjoyed was the nod to The Yellow Wallpaper which is one of my favorite classical horror works. There are hints at a great exploration of art and horror and what art can do to the masses. The book was fast paced and the plot drove this forward, if you want a fast YA Horror this would definitely fit that bill.

Outside of that the story was actually a little bland for me. The characters didn’t hold much personality outside of what we’re told. Additionally the biggest horror elements, a large spider and the dread of something catching you or the end of things, both completely slid past me. I am not scared of spiders in the least, in fact I love them. And I don’t particularly struggle with any kind of dread of this style. And the story seemed to really hinge on those. If that’s something you’re into (or in this case scared of) you’ll probably enjoy getting the pants scared off of you.

Overall this wasn’t a bad read, there were some strengths I genuinely enjoyed. However it’s reliance on some (in my opinion) generic horror motifs caused it to fall flat. If you enjoy YA Horror or like those two elements in horror, this is probably going to be for you.

3 out of 5 creepy, crawling wallpapers.

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fictionaladventures's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

THIS BLEW MY MIND. We got the ARC into the Barnes and Noble where I worked, and I was in a horror mood, so I picked it up on a whim. From the very first chapter I was hooked—it was terrifying!! The entire book was stellar, even on the sentence level. Ryan La Sala is a genius and I need 80 more books just like this from him. By far the scariest YA horror I’ve ever read. I AM OBSESSED

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servemethesky's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I received an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting and compelling read. It was my first time reading Ryan La Sala's work, though I'd heard of him before via TikTok. The premise was fascinating, and you're thrown into a whirlwind from the get go. After the opening scene at the party, the first 15-20% of feel like a lot of trying to get the characters and the reader on board and started to drag. Okay, Dom is mysterious and has a plan but won't tell Athan. Athan wants to find his yiayia. Cool, we get it.

From there, it was a page turner. The whole thing feels very cinematic. I rarely cast characters in my head, but I did while reading this. Uhler is 100% Rainn Wilson. If you read this book, please picture Rainn Wilson in the Uhler role. 10/10 do recommend doing that. I haven't seen Inception in over a decade, but it also gave me Inception vibes. In the sense that you're like "woah... is this deep? This is SO deep. No, it's just unnecessarily confusing. Or is it deep?"

I really appreciated the author's note at the beginning discussing the pandemic, feeling trapped, and dealing with OCD. It was helpful for framing the story itself. At times the story felt a bit heavy handed in how it dwelled on those themes of can we trust ourselves, are we inherently good, look away from the void that's calling to you, etc. I almost wish it had engaged with those themes more deeply instead of repeating them and then focusing on plot so much.

One big issue I had with this book was the choice to write sections in the second person. It's SO rare to encounter a "you" voice in a novel, and for good reason. It's really difficult to pull off! Every time I got to the second person voice, I was like "huh???" I don't think it was effectively used here--I found it created more confusion instead of a powerful effect.

Similarly, while the spider-beauty-beast thing was a cool concept, it really did feel more like a concept than anything else. It was so vague and abstract that it was hard to picture it, especially in the climactic scene at the end. I felt more confusion trying to keep up with what was going on than horror or surprise at how things played out.

I loved the relationship between Dom and Athan and enjoyed watching them banter, get to know each other, and start to fall for each other. It was delightful. So of course

I loathed the ending. I hate when a main character sacrifices themself for seemingly no good reason. And the epilogue scene in the mirror of the bar bathroom was too cheesy for my taste.

I'm intrigued by La Sala's work and would be curious to read more in the future. Folks who love YA, cult-y stuff, art world things, fantasy/surrealism, and queer lit would likely love this one!

Content Warnings

arthur_ant18's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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