Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Black River Orchard

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

7 reviews

whatzoreads's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Set in small town America, Black River Orchard, is a legacy gone rotten story, as twisted and gnarly as the ancient apple trees that transform the townsfolk with their dark magic.

Chuck Wendig uses the sinister slow burn playbook to perfection in this terrifying tale about a parasitic Apple cult.

With a beautifully layered ensemble cast that decomposes before your very eyes, at its rancid core is the creepiest and perhaps most insidious of monsters.

Black River Orchard is like the Ruby Slipper Apple it produces… it quickly becomes your home, your everything, you find yourself slipping between the dust jacket with a sense of relief and contentment. Just one more bite…

… and at 640 pages it’s a horror masterpiece. I rated this five stars, and it’s fair to say I will never eat another apple again.

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rachelpoteet's review

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slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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araebird's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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

It's been a long time since I read a horror, and I'm glad I got back into it with this one. While it's chunky (at 600+ pages), like a lot of Wendig's books, he spends time building up the characters and the setting before any of the actual plot takes place. There is a sense of unease throughout the book, and really amps up after half way. Most of the characters are absolutely detestable, but that makes the story all the more believable when things go wrong.
Honestly I would never have thought that a book about an evil apple orchard would be this compelling, but I couldn't put it down. Check trigger warnings (especially for body gore, there's a lot of it).

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uncreativeoops's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Nearly DNFed but then just skimmed the middle part because the plot was actually interesting. The characters just annoyed me. In theory, they sounded intriguing but in execution they were too one-dimensional, like each had one characteristic that described them (the author even does that at the end) and that's all they think about. It got better when they interacted with each other and not just the side characters of their backstories but that happened pretty late. This book is slow and I actually would have enjoyed that if I had connected with the characters more.
Ironically, I now want to go to a farmer's market and try new heirloom apples.

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