Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke

8 reviews

bashsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Sour Candy was a fun and eerie short story. I enjoyed the more mundane aspects - in initial interaction at the store, the car accident, the discussion with the detectives - the most. When it edged into more direct eldritch horror, I found that I liked it a little less - the writing style (which is inverted in a way I find hard to describe) is better suited to the mundane.
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franzys_whip's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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ilaxaria's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.75

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booking_along's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

That’s what you’re supposed to do with old toys. If they’re broken you get new ones.


This was something! 

i really understand why people keep saying this is extremely creepy and utterly strange but compellingly horrific. 

i give full props to the author for writing an entire horror story that leaves everything open gives no explanation but makes it work! 

he writes all kinds of horror tropes into this but gives them a bit of a spin, enough to makes this different enough to not tell the reader where it going. 

for a very simplistic and very short story the author really managed to pack everything you need to write a memorable horror.

also ending this as creepily as it began? Full marks for that!

if you want something quick but unforgettable and just the right amount of horror to be creeped out but enjoy yourself at the same time? 
go for it!
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winterdevil's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

5.0

A horror novella about a man named Phil who comes across a kid throwing a temper tantrum in a Walmart. The kid offers him a piece of sour candy, and he takes it to be polite, and next thing you know that kid is in his house, calling him daddy. His entire past and present have been rewritten so that everything points to him having a kid he KNOWS he doesn't have.

Also, the kid is creepy as hell, and Phil becomes a prisoner in his new life.

I suspected this book would be fire from the beginning, and I'm glad to say it exceeded expectations. It has a creepy child, eldritch beings, body horror (cw if you have a thing about teeth falling out), and such impressive, palpable tension packed into just 107 pages. Definitely will read more from this author. 
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babydog420's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-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? No

4.0

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shaziareads's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

unfortunately Sour Candy was just not totally for me. let me start off with the things I liked about this short novella: the concept - amazing, very spooky. not only does phil end up becoming the parent/haunted by a strange child, everything in his life changes to reflect that. photographs in his house feature the child, his neighbors, friends, coworkers, all know of this child. there seems to be some kind of lore--for lack of a better word--behind this phenomenon, and i would have loved if it was expanded and this was a full-fledged novel. 

what i didn't like: the casual first person narration. the unnecessary tasteless language (fortunately not overdone, but definitely could do without). the ending was also kind of ambiguous, not so much in an open-interpretation kind of way but more like there could have been more to it. 

i think i'll still give kealan patrick burke's other works a try, he is highly rated and i have a few of his other writings on my tbr list.
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keen's review against another edition

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3.5

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