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raichoreads's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
I honestly didn’t know I could hate a book this much. The first few hours of this book are pretty engaging. And then things start to get really tense with the madness in the town rising and Christopher’s growing power - and then it just doesn’t end. This book goes on for waaaaaay too long and it just made me resentful of every aspect of it. I started to get annoyed with all of the pointless self referential diction. I got annoyed anytime there was an unnecessary sentence. I started listening at 2x speed and it still wasn’t over fast enough. Get an editor.
Rapid fire content complaints: The strange religious turn this book makes is bizarre and out of place. The female characters in this book spend much too much of their time being victimized by men or feeling pre-occupied by their relationships (whereas the men in this story do not). There are way too many side characters who are never mentioned again who speak in “broken English” and who the white voice actor puts on accents for. There’s just a lot of annoying white man story writing choices here. Also the “psychosis is a death sentence” mentality so supremely frustrating and demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of mental illness and what living with psychosis is like (doesn’t make people inherently violent or suicidal - shocker)
The .25 stars here are for Mary-Catherine’s arc. And while most of the female characters do feel very written by a man, the way Kate is written feels like a little boy’s love letter to his working class mom. There’s a few good emotional nuggets in here.
It takes Christopher WAY too long to realize he’s in hell and I’m so annoyed that the hissing lady is Eve. And okay so Eve tells God she’s sorry for what she did and he says “I know. I’m sorry too.” And honestly that pissed me off because it still insinuates that Eve did anything wrong (when it felt like Mary-Catherine’s tirade suggested she didn’t??) Also the book ends with a suggestion to the second coming of Christ???? Wild choice bro.
Rapid fire content complaints: The strange religious turn this book makes is bizarre and out of place. The female characters in this book spend much too much of their time being victimized by men or feeling pre-occupied by their relationships (whereas the men in this story do not). There are way too many side characters who are never mentioned again who speak in “broken English” and who the white voice actor puts on accents for. There’s just a lot of annoying white man story writing choices here. Also the “psychosis is a death sentence” mentality so supremely frustrating and demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of mental illness and what living with psychosis is like (doesn’t make people inherently violent or suicidal - shocker)
The .25 stars here are for Mary-Catherine’s arc. And while most of the female characters do feel very written by a man, the way Kate is written feels like a little boy’s love letter to his working class mom. There’s a few good emotional nuggets in here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Racism and Vomit
Racism is tagged cuz of the racist side characters.poisoned_icecream's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Misogyny
Moderate: Racism
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