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fandom4ever's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Supernatural: Night Terror released in 2011 and while I purchased it at that time I never read it until now. The previous five novels (of which this made number nine) were so bad that I was turned off continuing, they had really started pumping these books out in 2010/11. I also haven’t watched Supernatural in many years so the few mentions they made of what was going on in ‘show time’, in this case season 6, were foggy, but that made no difference here as it wasn’t about that. This is a completely fresh story, which was like watching an episode of Supernatural.
The book does a good job initially of switching between the people of Clayton Falls and the Winchester brothers as they try to figure out what is happening to this town. Though I enjoyed these back and forths I also felt this hindered the story early on, as it got into too much detail with the residents and their dreams, spoiling what the cause of all these wild attacks in town were. We knew what was happening before Sam and Dean which just took the mystery and ‘reveal’ out of the case. Also as the novel continues, these switches happened with more frequency, which I felt slowed down the pacing.
I don’t understand the reviews complaining that it took too long for the boys to figure out what was going on and that they should have called for Bobby’s help earlier. This book takes place over two days, the first night a ton of supernatural stuff happens that they react to and start developing a theory from. The next day they question people, do research, and figure out what’s really going on, including what’s causing the events (without Bobby’s help) before calling Bobby for any extra info he might be able to dig up. They are then prepared for this second night of attacks. How was that too slow??
My biggest complaint with this book is that Passarella spends far too much time describing all the gory details of these horrendous deaths. I don’t need to know exactly how the flesh is liquefying off a victim or how exactly bones broke. I literally skipped two chapters at the end: eight whole pages of rats eating people alive and another five with bugs doing the same. No thanks. Supernatural doesn’t go into these details and neither should the book. It’s enough to know they died in a supernatural fashion.
From what I remember of those previous five novels, this was far better. The creature was a new one not seen on the show and its power was really interesting, one that was impossible to halt without killing the creature. It would have made for a really cool episode. I don’t regret reading this book but I don’t feel there’s enough to make me want to revisit it down the road.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
cant_stop_reading's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
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