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michelles_book_nook's review
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
⚠️ CW: death, murder, child abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism, cannibalism, suicide, brief mentions of school shootings and sexual abuse ⚠️ Well this book was definitely one that flipped my brain upside down and inside out. This book follows the Graves family and their return to Nate's rural childhood home in Pennsylvania upon the death of his father who left him the house in his will. Now married to his wife, Maddie, along with their son, Oliver, all they want is some peace from city living but as they return their dark pasts come back to haunt them as supernatural happenings start taking place and a sinister battle of good versus evil comes knocking at their door. This book was a good read that makes you question all of the little things that happen in your life as it takes you on a sci-fi/occult twisting journey throughout generations and timelines in a mind melting rollercoaster ride, but it is so hard to review without giving spoilers. While the plot of this book was really interesting I struggled to follow it at times because there was just so much going on. Also throughout I found the pacing was quite off and went from being fast and page turning to slow and drawn out and due to this I think it made the end feel really rushed. Overall, I enjoyed this read and if you're looking for a intensely deep, twisting and terrifying horror then I definitely recommend picking up this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Cannibalism, and Murder
Minor: Sexual assault and Mass/school shootings
spookshow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-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
3.5
When Nathan was a child, he lived in the country, in a house with an abusive father. To this day, he's never told his family exactly what happened to him in that house. Maddie also grew up in the same town, she used to make dolls as a child, until one day, she saw something that she wasn't meant to see. Ever since then she's been trying to remember the lost traumatic memories through making haunting sculptures. Nathan and Maddie are now married, and after the death of Nathan's father, end up moving back to that country town, into the very house that Nathan lived his nightmare. All is fine, until the thing that used to stalk the tunnels and mines, living in the darkness underneath the town that can be found in rural Pennsylvania, has set it's sights on their son Oliver. A sensitive boy with strong empathy for everything around him. A strange boy befriends him, a boy with dark magic, and soon, the Graves family find themselves in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil. A battle where they are battling for their very souls, and possibly even the world. Is the love that they have for each other, enough to help tip the scales in their favour?
I had been seeing this book across bookstagram a lot, so I guess you could say that it was a bookstagram-made-me-buy-it book. I was super keen to get into it as I've been on a huge horror kick the last twelve odd months, and this one stood out and sounded so different to anything else I'd read. While this wasn't the book that I had hoped that it would be, it didn't disappoint me as such, it just turned out so totally different to what I was expecting and I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it. This ended up being more of a slow build cosmic horror, which isn't a bad thing by any means, I was just expecting something totally different. So I think my feeling of being slightly let down, is definitely a case of - it was me, not the book. I try not to put expectations on books before I read them because I've learned over the years that this can tend to lead to disappointment or feeling slightly let down when something doesn't turn out the way that I had envisioned in my head from the cover and blurb. Let's be honest thought, it's hard to NOT have a preconceived notion on what a book is going to be.
The story is told through mostly three alternating POVs, there are a couple of other's thrown in there throughout the book, but the three main points of view that we read through are Nath, Maddie and Oliver. The book opened on a pretty electrifying scene (pardon the pun, it was totally intended), and I was pretty intrigued by the first character that we meet. I enjoyed the characters of Oliver and Nathan the most. Nathan who is trying his hardest to not turn into the man who terrorised him his whole life, and trying to deal with that ingrained trauma to the point that he probably overanalyses pretty much every action or word that he has with his son. You can see right from the start that he is a genuine guy who managed to break the cycle. Oliver, oh Oliver, this boy was like a sweet beacon of shining light. He feels things too much, he feels EVERYTHING too much. His empathic abilities are off the charts and I couldn't even imagine feeling what he does on the daily. He just wants quite and he wants peace and kindness and I loved seeing that in such a young character. As the story progresses, with everything that happens to him and that he goes through, he never once has malicious or nefarious thoughts towards those who hurt him, he's forever wondering if there's a way that he could fix THEIR pain so that they wouldn't choose to hurt others. He came across as such a selfless character and I loved that about him. Maddie, I liked her enough, but for a huge chunk of the book she just annoyed me mostly. Yes she has trauma and yes she's trying to remember things that she knows are connected to what they're experiencing in present day, but she came across as so self centered to me, until probably the last 150 odd pages, I ended up liking her more by the end, so she did have a lot of redeeming qualities. One thing that bugged me a bit, and still kinda bugs me, is we meet a character pretty early on in the story, I was expecting this character to have a pretty pivotal role in the plot as a whole, but...they just didn't? Not in my opinion anyway. They sort of disappeared and briefly would pop in, but we mostly didn't see them again until the last part of the book and I'm still not overly sure of the point of their existence in the story. Yeah I get the overall thing with the big bad and that it wasn't just going to one person, but this character still seemed rather pointless to me, they just helped drive a part of another plot device. That's probably another "it's me not the book" things though. One thing I absolutely loved was when we meet an alternate version of a character, and my heart just swelled with how this person interacted with another character. I'm trying to be as vague as possible because I don't want to give to much away, but I feel like I'm just speaking nonsense.
The story itself was a twist and sometimes confusing one. There were a lot of strings in this story, and while, yeah, they did all kind of intertwine and have a point, there was a LOT going on. So at times I felt like I was just sitting in a giant pile of strings that were all twisted up and I couldn't find the end or the beginning and it was just a giant mess. Things did straighten out as the story progressed, as they normally do, but for a while there, it felt like a whole lot of nothing was kind of happening. Everything made sense in the end, and yes, everything had a purpose, but there is a lot of set up that is happening in this story, so be prepared for that. The pacing did fall flat for me a fair bit, which is why it took me so long to finish it I think. That and life. I was interested in the characters and where they were heading, it was just a slower paced novel than what I had anticipated it being. Again, not inherently a bad thing, just not what I was after I guess.
All in all, this was a horror novel that really stands out because it IS different to pretty much everything else I've read. And when you read as much as I do, that is refreshing. Wendig is great at writing and creating characters that you can really get behind and that you really hope will make it through the story unscathed as much as possible. I couldn't even begin to imagine how this story came to fruition as it's so complex and there is so much happening in it that I have no idea how Wendig was able to keep everything straight and tie it all up at the end in a way that was satisfying. If you're looking for a horror novel that has more than just the stereotypical cookie cutter characters, characters with flaws and depth and trauma, and a story that is just so different to most others, give this one a go. Don't let the page count or the slow pace put you off, stick with it, it really is a rewarding novel and honestly, I'm still thinking about it a month after finishing it.
I had been seeing this book across bookstagram a lot, so I guess you could say that it was a bookstagram-made-me-buy-it book. I was super keen to get into it as I've been on a huge horror kick the last twelve odd months, and this one stood out and sounded so different to anything else I'd read. While this wasn't the book that I had hoped that it would be, it didn't disappoint me as such, it just turned out so totally different to what I was expecting and I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it. This ended up being more of a slow build cosmic horror, which isn't a bad thing by any means, I was just expecting something totally different. So I think my feeling of being slightly let down, is definitely a case of - it was me, not the book. I try not to put expectations on books before I read them because I've learned over the years that this can tend to lead to disappointment or feeling slightly let down when something doesn't turn out the way that I had envisioned in my head from the cover and blurb. Let's be honest thought, it's hard to NOT have a preconceived notion on what a book is going to be.
The story is told through mostly three alternating POVs, there are a couple of other's thrown in there throughout the book, but the three main points of view that we read through are Nath, Maddie and Oliver. The book opened on a pretty electrifying scene (pardon the pun, it was totally intended), and I was pretty intrigued by the first character that we meet. I enjoyed the characters of Oliver and Nathan the most. Nathan who is trying his hardest to not turn into the man who terrorised him his whole life, and trying to deal with that ingrained trauma to the point that he probably overanalyses pretty much every action or word that he has with his son. You can see right from the start that he is a genuine guy who managed to break the cycle. Oliver, oh Oliver, this boy was like a sweet beacon of shining light. He feels things too much, he feels EVERYTHING too much. His empathic abilities are off the charts and I couldn't even imagine feeling what he does on the daily. He just wants quite and he wants peace and kindness and I loved seeing that in such a young character. As the story progresses, with everything that happens to him and that he goes through, he never once has malicious or nefarious thoughts towards those who hurt him, he's forever wondering if there's a way that he could fix THEIR pain so that they wouldn't choose to hurt others. He came across as such a selfless character and I loved that about him. Maddie, I liked her enough, but for a huge chunk of the book she just annoyed me mostly. Yes she has trauma and yes she's trying to remember things that she knows are connected to what they're experiencing in present day, but she came across as so self centered to me, until probably the last 150 odd pages, I ended up liking her more by the end, so she did have a lot of redeeming qualities. One thing that bugged me a bit, and still kinda bugs me, is we meet a character pretty early on in the story, I was expecting this character to have a pretty pivotal role in the plot as a whole, but...they just didn't? Not in my opinion anyway. They sort of disappeared and briefly would pop in, but we mostly didn't see them again until the last part of the book and I'm still not overly sure of the point of their existence in the story. Yeah I get the overall thing with the big bad and that it wasn't just going to one person, but this character still seemed rather pointless to me, they just helped drive a part of another plot device. That's probably another "it's me not the book" things though. One thing I absolutely loved was when we meet an alternate version of a character, and my heart just swelled with how this person interacted with another character. I'm trying to be as vague as possible because I don't want to give to much away, but I feel like I'm just speaking nonsense.
The story itself was a twist and sometimes confusing one. There were a lot of strings in this story, and while, yeah, they did all kind of intertwine and have a point, there was a LOT going on. So at times I felt like I was just sitting in a giant pile of strings that were all twisted up and I couldn't find the end or the beginning and it was just a giant mess. Things did straighten out as the story progressed, as they normally do, but for a while there, it felt like a whole lot of nothing was kind of happening. Everything made sense in the end, and yes, everything had a purpose, but there is a lot of set up that is happening in this story, so be prepared for that. The pacing did fall flat for me a fair bit, which is why it took me so long to finish it I think. That and life. I was interested in the characters and where they were heading, it was just a slower paced novel than what I had anticipated it being. Again, not inherently a bad thing, just not what I was after I guess.
All in all, this was a horror novel that really stands out because it IS different to pretty much everything else I've read. And when you read as much as I do, that is refreshing. Wendig is great at writing and creating characters that you can really get behind and that you really hope will make it through the story unscathed as much as possible. I couldn't even begin to imagine how this story came to fruition as it's so complex and there is so much happening in it that I have no idea how Wendig was able to keep everything straight and tie it all up at the end in a way that was satisfying. If you're looking for a horror novel that has more than just the stereotypical cookie cutter characters, characters with flaws and depth and trauma, and a story that is just so different to most others, give this one a go. Don't let the page count or the slow pace put you off, stick with it, it really is a rewarding novel and honestly, I'm still thinking about it a month after finishing it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Alcohol
dandaloriian's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse
leahcatching's review against another edition
dark
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
caidyn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
An enjoyable read. I didn't know anything about it when I picked this up, so I didn't expect some of the things. But this is a twisty horror book that includes some fun sci-fi elements. Definitely will pick this author up again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death of parent
cait_reads_and_drinks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt
niicoleg's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Injury/Injury detail
wintelius's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
ten_telegrams's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Pregnancy
batcaves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail