xabbeylongx's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Spoilers Ahead:
I’m not going to lie, I’m very disappointed by this book. All in all, the plot itself was very promising, but it didn’t live up to my expectations.
We follow Ashley and Judy, two childhood best friends, as they’re walking through the woods. They are chased by high school bullies, and that’s how they end up in a forbidden part of the woods, called Devil’s Ditch. They go exploring, and they find a woman down there, naked and chained up. They think that a man has taken her there, abused her, and left her there. Expectedly, they go to the police to get help, however, when they go back, the woman in chains has disappeared, and so are the markings that were with her.
Naturally, they go back the next day. Sure enough, the woman is there, and she screams at Jude, but feels safer with Ash. Jude goes off to find help, whilst Ash stays with the woman, who tells her that her name is Rose. Jude comes back when he’s confronted by their bullies, and then one of them, Lily, is torn apart by Rose, who turns manic. She chases after them, but they run away.
The police look for Rose and Lily, but they can’t find them. They search for the abandoned warehouse on the internet, and find the people who used to own it, before paying them a visit. It turns out, the woman who used to own it was a witch, and had trapped Rose there for killing her own children, and she was married to the woman’s brother. Lily had stepped in one of the markings, and set her free of the curse the woman had put on her.
The woman told them a specific way to defeat the locket and to get rid of the evil that is Rose. Rose got to her, and tried to get Lily to attack her, but Ashely’s rage escalated and eventually saved her. Rose disappeared, and she kept on wearing the locket. She grew more confident, and angrier, until she killed her TW abusive dad. Turns out the anger that lived in Ashley had just got worse, and Jude needed to get away from her.
I’ll be honest, this book was almost a Do Not Finish. It’s only the sheer interest in the plot that kept me going, because I wanted to see where it was taken. Unfortunately, everything was dish for me, and not what I expected from a horror, and it felt like a lot of the content had been recycled. I wasn’t happy with it at all.
One thing I hated was how he spoke about the women in his book. You can definitely tell this book is written by someone who isn’t female, because there was so much talk about her breasts. She’s 14? I felt very weird, especially when, as a woman myself, I definitely don’t notice them on myself as often as the author spoke about hers. It made it feel very uncomfortable, especially when it was almost made to sound that her breasts make up her character. The fact that she’s supposedly an underage girl makes it even weirder, in my opinion. Also, I think that in the beginning, there was some transphobic language? That also didn’t sit well with me, and also made me want to DNF.
Secondly, Ashley and Jude are presented like brother and sister throughout the whole book, and then they’re suddenly getting intimate in the end?and telling each other that they love them? I know that Ashley isn’t herself, and I’m still not 100% sure if that’s a permanent thing or just because of the locket, but it just was very rushed, and it was a little weird and definitely not expected at all. In my opinion, there was no chemistry between them at all, and definitely none from Ashely’s end.
Everything just seemed very rushed, especially the end. I think more could have been spoken about Ashley and Jude’s parents, especially when they made such an effort to talk about TW the alcoholism and abuse. I understand why it was added in, but it could have been expanded on a little more. Jude’s mother’s alcoholism brought almost nothing to the plot, as far as I’m concerned.
I was a little disappointed with this book. This is my first book of his, but I have a few, and I’m hoping they’re a little bit better than this one - and I hope that women are described as more than just having breasts in the next one!
I’m not going to lie, I’m very disappointed by this book. All in all, the plot itself was very promising, but it didn’t live up to my expectations.
We follow Ashley and Judy, two childhood best friends, as they’re walking through the woods. They are chased by high school bullies, and that’s how they end up in a forbidden part of the woods, called Devil’s Ditch. They go exploring, and they find a woman down there, naked and chained up. They think that a man has taken her there, abused her, and left her there. Expectedly, they go to the police to get help, however, when they go back, the woman in chains has disappeared, and so are the markings that were with her.
Naturally, they go back the next day. Sure enough, the woman is there, and she screams at Jude, but feels safer with Ash. Jude goes off to find help, whilst Ash stays with the woman, who tells her that her name is Rose. Jude comes back when he’s confronted by their bullies, and then one of them, Lily, is torn apart by Rose, who turns manic. She chases after them, but they run away.
The police look for Rose and Lily, but they can’t find them. They search for the abandoned warehouse on the internet, and find the people who used to own it, before paying them a visit. It turns out, the woman who used to own it was a witch, and had trapped Rose there for killing her own children, and she was married to the woman’s brother. Lily had stepped in one of the markings, and set her free of the curse the woman had put on her.
The woman told them a specific way to defeat the locket and to get rid of the evil that is Rose. Rose got to her, and tried to get Lily to attack her, but Ashely’s rage escalated and eventually saved her. Rose disappeared, and she kept on wearing the locket. She grew more confident, and angrier, until she killed her TW abusive dad. Turns out the anger that lived in Ashley had just got worse, and Jude needed to get away from her.
I’ll be honest, this book was almost a Do Not Finish. It’s only the sheer interest in the plot that kept me going, because I wanted to see where it was taken. Unfortunately, everything was dish for me, and not what I expected from a horror, and it felt like a lot of the content had been recycled. I wasn’t happy with it at all.
One thing I hated was how he spoke about the women in his book. You can definitely tell this book is written by someone who isn’t female, because there was so much talk about her breasts. She’s 14? I felt very weird, especially when, as a woman myself, I definitely don’t notice them on myself as often as the author spoke about hers. It made it feel very uncomfortable, especially when it was almost made to sound that her breasts make up her character. The fact that she’s supposedly an underage girl makes it even weirder, in my opinion. Also, I think that in the beginning, there was some transphobic language? That also didn’t sit well with me, and also made me want to DNF.
Secondly, Ashley and Jude are presented like brother and sister throughout the whole book, and then they’re suddenly getting intimate in the end?and telling each other that they love them? I know that Ashley isn’t herself, and I’m still not 100% sure if that’s a permanent thing or just because of the locket, but it just was very rushed, and it was a little weird and definitely not expected at all. In my opinion, there was no chemistry between them at all, and definitely none from Ashely’s end.
Everything just seemed very rushed, especially the end. I think more could have been spoken about Ashley and Jude’s parents, especially when they made such an effort to talk about TW the alcoholism and abuse. I understand why it was added in, but it could have been expanded on a little more. Jude’s mother’s alcoholism brought almost nothing to the plot, as far as I’m concerned.
I was a little disappointed with this book. This is my first book of his, but I have a few, and I’m hoping they’re a little bit better than this one - and I hope that women are described as more than just having breasts in the next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny
Minor: Transphobia
More...