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3.12 AVERAGE
3.12 AVERAGE
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
One of my hard and fast rules in life is never play hide and seek in a haunted house. The characters in this book didn't have this rule and they got a nasty surprise.
This was fun, but it was like the first 3/4 of the book was a separate thing from the climax and the end.
This was fun, but it was like the first 3/4 of the book was a separate thing from the climax and the end.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book was written informally, as if having a conversation with the narrator. I'm usually ok with that, but something about the writing made it seem amateurish instead of an effective way to tell the story. There was a lot unnecessary background about the four college kids who eventually play hide and seek in an abandoned house. I think it could have worked better as a short story.
Guy falls for a crazy girl who has a girl and a guy friend and they hang out for the summer then decide to play hide and seek in a haunted house and there's an old couple and crazy dog and people get eaten
Way too much back story to get to the actual horror. I got bored.
dark
tense
medium-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:
No
The problem with this book is that it’s made of two focuses/parts/halves that in no way go together- the first half is this kinda plodding detective style almost, it’s all focused on Casey and her character- too much so. Like, spoilers, but- you think she’s gonna be a sadistic killer or something. Or the plot will continue on involving her personality as the focus- instead it feels wayyy out of the blue when she’s just a random victim, the big reveal being the creepy family never left the house and have lived in a tunnel/cave connecting the home to the cliffs/sea. So basically the narrator falls for Casey but she’s a bit crazy- this then leads to “hide and seek” in an abandoned house, and when Casey hides at the mouth of the tunnel a giant dog attacks her and drags her off down the tunnel. Which.. no. It’s just so random, so unbelievable. Whoever wrote this (jack Ketchum? Really?) went half Stephen King when he shoulda gone all or nothing- make the missing couple the thing, make rumors around town of dog attacks a thing- that’s the climax of the story, so the build up has to lead there. Instead it’s all crazy Casey until suddenly Cujo shows up and two grown men can’t fight it- like, seriously? It’s a dog, you have a pitchfork and a bat, come on. The last 40 pages or whatever are just so random and unbelievable and it feels like the first half of the story was just not necessary- this doesn’t feel like some tragic romance, it feels like some poor girl got cujo’d. I get it, she took risks and it led to this- seems a rather unlucky break, having tunnel dog attack you and all. Wtf. It’s a shame, because the writing wasn’t bad and were the ultimate focus of the story woven into the first half maybe it woulda worked- just add 50-100 pages involving mysterious disappearances and spotting and such- but as is it’s an awful book.
tense
fast-paced
Nowhere near as strong as Ketchum's debut novel, but Ketchum's prose is still something to behold, elevating an otherwise-middling sophomore slump of a novel(la - it's extremely short) to something with an improbably-alluring air of true menace. The conclusion really feels like he's reaching for something to top the inbred backwoods mutants from Off Season, but that doesn't necessarily make it any less compelling as it's happening.