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legs_n_chins's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
About 30 pages from the end I finally said aloud, “All these people are unbearable. Why am I bearing it?” I guess because it’s a novella, a pretty quick read, and I liked the prose enough to hope it would iron into something I liked a bit more by the end. It sort of did, but it mostly didn’t.
The prose was the highlight for me, the thing that kept me reading for sure. I love a good setting and attention to detail in creating an atmosphere and I think Khaw did that magnificently. Her word choice was absolutely fantastic and she really dug into building up this fantastical, gory mansion for the characters to inhabit. Her descriptions really worked for me. I’m not much for straight gore and viscera and all that, but I do like when that sort of language is used to convey sensations or atmospheres. The ones that really struck me where how she described the air itself in some places, giving it a taste and texture and conveying so much more than just “the air felt heavy and thick.” Sure, the latter is a practice in brevity, but I’m terrible at brevity in my own writing so this spoke to me in that way. I’m not saying my own writing is on a level with Khaw’s, but I definitely felt a sort of kinship in the way it’s clear that she thinks a lot about wording and phrasing and metaphor when she’s structuring her sentences. I think that’s why I liked her writing style so much.
While most of the novella just felt like a slog whenever we had to actually deal with the characters interacting, I’ll admit the other thing I liked was the very ending. The description of the final moments in the house, honing in on the contrast to the character, as well as the last chapter overall. I think that’s the place Khaw was most successful in making the characters and their interactions and choices feel real, just in that silent solidarity to hide their trauma and the way the experience just separated them inexorably. (To be more clear in a spoiler:I did actually feel a brief stirring of emotion when Khaw described Phillip’s last moments. Contrasting the loneliness of it. Saying, “He died alone while our backs were turned.” I think if I had given more of a shit about the characters that would’ve really just hit me in the stomach. As it is, I really tried to muster more emotion about that because I did want it to hurt like that. Couldn’t quite get there, though. )
Everything else about this kind of let me down, though. The book jacket seemed to bill this as a group of friends who would end up spilling some painful truths among themselves in a state of heightened anxiety and fear, but I thought that really fell short. The characters themselves felt very flat to me and, as I mentioned, I found them all pretty unlikeable. They were very obvious archetypes, but Khaw didn’t allow them space to grow beyond that. And I don’t think being self-referential by having characters compare themselves to horror movie tropes really helped. It more just shined an even brighter spotlight on how hollow each of them was and how little depth and personality they really had. I recognize fleshing out characters in a novella can be a challenge since it is a short medium, but I just couldn’t find anything really redeeming about any of them that made me want to give Khaw grace in that regard. I get that childhood friendships can be complicated, but I genuinely fail to see how any of these relationships lasted into adulthood.
The horror aspect, I think, both worked and didn’t work. While I am a complete and utter wimp about any even remotely scary movie, I have a decently high tolerance for supernatural horror in books. This novella gave me the strange sensation of knowing if I was watching it as a movie I would be scared to death, but as I read it I kind of felt empty. Usually, I at least really feel the tension and my heart rate might go up, but I didn’t find any part of this novella particularly terrifying. But, again, given how well Khaw wrote the atmosphere and knowing myself and my horror tolerance in general, I do think I would’ve been properly terrified if it was a short film or something. As it was, though, this just felt like another thing falling too short for me.
I also felt that neither the horror plot nor the interpersonal relationship drama had enough room to breathe. Anytime it seemed that we had some good tension between the characters, it was broken by a new piece of action and/or it sort of just fizzled out to move us along to the next scene. I didn’t feel very much like any secrets were decently dredged up, and if they were, there was no space to let those things breathe and give the characters the time to react and reorient around them. At the same time, the way the horror plot was laid out and progressed, the character drama felt like odd interruptions to the action when it cropped up. I didn’t really feel the depth of Faiz and Phillip’s buried animosity, for example, though Khaw laid the groundwork perfectly well. In the midst of an argument, though, she chose to focus on the other characters in the room and whatever build up was supposed to exist just felt immediately extinguished. I think it would’ve been difficult to extend this sorry into a full novel, but I also think this novella was far too short to really capture everything Khaw was attempting. The balance felt off and if there was more length and time for everything to play out, I think there could’ve been more depth and thought put into both the horror and character drama.
I’ve blown through all of Nghi Vo’s novellas since earlier this year and I loved all of them, so this might just be a symptom of me craving more of what I like about Vo’s writing. Which isn’t fair to Khaw, of course, but is a bias I feel like I should admit to myself. I picked up this novella because it was on the shelf next to The Salt Grows Heavy, which is the one I was aiming to pick up initially, and I wanted just one more short book to finish out September. Hopefully I’ll get more out of the one I felt drawn to and my disappointment here is more just due to having unfair expectations and slightly less interest in the story.
The prose was the highlight for me, the thing that kept me reading for sure. I love a good setting and attention to detail in creating an atmosphere and I think Khaw did that magnificently. Her word choice was absolutely fantastic and she really dug into building up this fantastical, gory mansion for the characters to inhabit. Her descriptions really worked for me. I’m not much for straight gore and viscera and all that, but I do like when that sort of language is used to convey sensations or atmospheres. The ones that really struck me where how she described the air itself in some places, giving it a taste and texture and conveying so much more than just “the air felt heavy and thick.” Sure, the latter is a practice in brevity, but I’m terrible at brevity in my own writing so this spoke to me in that way. I’m not saying my own writing is on a level with Khaw’s, but I definitely felt a sort of kinship in the way it’s clear that she thinks a lot about wording and phrasing and metaphor when she’s structuring her sentences. I think that’s why I liked her writing style so much.
While most of the novella just felt like a slog whenever we had to actually deal with the characters interacting, I’ll admit the other thing I liked was the very ending. The description of the final moments in the house, honing in on the contrast to the character, as well as the last chapter overall. I think that’s the place Khaw was most successful in making the characters and their interactions and choices feel real, just in that silent solidarity to hide their trauma and the way the experience just separated them inexorably. (To be more clear in a spoiler:
Everything else about this kind of let me down, though. The book jacket seemed to bill this as a group of friends who would end up spilling some painful truths among themselves in a state of heightened anxiety and fear, but I thought that really fell short. The characters themselves felt very flat to me and, as I mentioned, I found them all pretty unlikeable. They were very obvious archetypes, but Khaw didn’t allow them space to grow beyond that. And I don’t think being self-referential by having characters compare themselves to horror movie tropes really helped. It more just shined an even brighter spotlight on how hollow each of them was and how little depth and personality they really had. I recognize fleshing out characters in a novella can be a challenge since it is a short medium, but I just couldn’t find anything really redeeming about any of them that made me want to give Khaw grace in that regard. I get that childhood friendships can be complicated, but I genuinely fail to see how any of these relationships lasted into adulthood.
The horror aspect, I think, both worked and didn’t work. While I am a complete and utter wimp about any even remotely scary movie, I have a decently high tolerance for supernatural horror in books. This novella gave me the strange sensation of knowing if I was watching it as a movie I would be scared to death, but as I read it I kind of felt empty. Usually, I at least really feel the tension and my heart rate might go up, but I didn’t find any part of this novella particularly terrifying. But, again, given how well Khaw wrote the atmosphere and knowing myself and my horror tolerance in general, I do think I would’ve been properly terrified if it was a short film or something. As it was, though, this just felt like another thing falling too short for me.
I also felt that neither the horror plot nor the interpersonal relationship drama had enough room to breathe. Anytime it seemed that we had some good tension between the characters, it was broken by a new piece of action and/or it sort of just fizzled out to move us along to the next scene. I didn’t feel very much like any secrets were decently dredged up, and if they were, there was no space to let those things breathe and give the characters the time to react and reorient around them. At the same time, the way the horror plot was laid out and progressed, the character drama felt like odd interruptions to the action when it cropped up. I didn’t really feel the depth of Faiz and Phillip’s buried animosity, for example, though Khaw laid the groundwork perfectly well. In the midst of an argument, though, she chose to focus on the other characters in the room and whatever build up was supposed to exist just felt immediately extinguished. I think it would’ve been difficult to extend this sorry into a full novel, but I also think this novella was far too short to really capture everything Khaw was attempting. The balance felt off and if there was more length and time for everything to play out, I think there could’ve been more depth and thought put into both the horror and character drama.
I’ve blown through all of Nghi Vo’s novellas since earlier this year and I loved all of them, so this might just be a symptom of me craving more of what I like about Vo’s writing. Which isn’t fair to Khaw, of course, but is a bias I feel like I should admit to myself. I picked up this novella because it was on the shelf next to The Salt Grows Heavy, which is the one I was aiming to pick up initially, and I wanted just one more short book to finish out September. Hopefully I’ll get more out of the one I felt drawn to and my disappointment here is more just due to having unfair expectations and slightly less interest in the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
elysianbud's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Underwhelming. Feels like it should have been shorter or much longer. Some good spooky moments though. Quick read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
justacowboy's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Gore and Murder
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
rmnedder's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
3.25
I have mixed feelings about this one. Conceptually, this book is fantastic - the folklore is woven into the story so well, the atmosphere is well-crafted, and the ending is strong. Cassandra Khaw’s weird, elegiac prose is actually beautiful; her descriptions are so specific, but they feel very tonally at odds with the stakes of the story - lots of description at moments it’s not necessarily warranted. I feel like we were always kept at arms length from everyone except the narrator (which makes sense, all things considered, but it stripped us of chances to find connection).
This book is a great quick-and-dirty horror story - conceptually great, even if it left something to be desired in its execution.
This book is a great quick-and-dirty horror story - conceptually great, even if it left something to be desired in its execution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
vii67's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood
rnbhargava's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It’s brief, there’s messiness between the characters, once it really gets going it’s swift and horrific.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
It’s a horror book with messy histories between its characters. They go and mess with stuff they probably shouldn’t have messed with because they love going to haunted or supposedly haunted places. There is gruesome material as it plays out.gondorgirl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
uncreativeoops's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This was somehow too aware of its genre. I get that we're all annoyed by horror story protagonists making stupid decisions but these had a few comments too many about being in a haunted house story and what one has to do to not be the first kill. Being this meta is also kinda a different subgebre of horror than the atmospheric haunted castle Khaw created as a setting and they don't work together. And while I liked the visuals it wasn't particularly scary, especially the ghost didn't have the creeping effect she was supposed to. The characters were a bit thin (though with this length that's basically unavoidable) and the ending felt less ominous and more uninspired. And again one of those instances where the development from characters having regular relationships and conversations to... that climax came out of nowhere and wasn't really believeable. Really enjoyed the overflowy purple prose though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Infidelity, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
carlyoc's review
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
A very self-aware horror novella. A group of 20-somethings who used to explore haunted houses get together for one last hurrah at a crepy Japanese mansion.
Cat's friends don't quite know how to treat her after she spent some time in psychiatric care for depression but her best friend Faiz wanted her to be at his wedding. He is marrying Talia, who always dreamed of getting married in a haunted house. So their friend Philip rented out a Heian manor house and volunteered to be their priest. But trying to hold a nontraditional yet happy wedding is tempting fate in a building where a young bride was once buried alive to forever wait her husband who was never to arrive.
The writing was very poetic and i liked the imagery of all the mythic Japanese monsters, but I felt like there could have been more suspense in a longer-foem story.
Cat's friends don't quite know how to treat her after she spent some time in psychiatric care for depression but her best friend Faiz wanted her to be at his wedding. He is marrying Talia, who always dreamed of getting married in a haunted house. So their friend Philip rented out a Heian manor house and volunteered to be their priest. But trying to hold a nontraditional yet happy wedding is tempting fate in a building where a young bride was once buried alive to forever wait her husband who was never to arrive.
The writing was very poetic and i liked the imagery of all the mythic Japanese monsters, but I felt like there could have been more suspense in a longer-foem story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Murder