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jivvygee's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
megandavis768's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-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
3.0
jluyendyk's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
andrewbellisch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ebgat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ctlibrarian06477's review against another edition
5.0
A story of 4 Blackfeet friends who are haunted and become possessed by an experience that happened years ago. Dark and well crafted. Stephen Graham Jones is an exceptional writer. His story pulls you in and his characters come alive on the pages. It is a horror novel, but if anyone is sensitive to blood and gore as I am, be forewarned there is some descriptive passages with people and animals that I was sensitive to but the story and the writing is so good, it's worth it to push on and read beyond it. Recommended for those who enjoy visceral horror and paranormal reads with a creative twist.
a_chickletz's review against another edition
2.0
Ah, another two star read in my 6 book purchase from Barnes and Noble.
After my last run in with horror, The Deep, I grabbed this one because it got a shit ton of accolades. Though this is not my first run-in with Stephen Graham Jones. I had read 'Night of the Manequins' by him and was not quite gellin' with the story he was telling there. Yet this one sounded interesting because, Native American protagonists and racial themes.
... I soon realized I came across the same problem I had with his writing in 'Night of the Manequins'. This choppy prose that comes off like someone trying to catch their breath. It's bizarre and I can't think anybody can gain a good visual from it. (I'm a visual person, when I read, what I read on the page flows in my head like a movie. So if you got someone who is writing crappy, it comes across like a DVD with skips or a film reel that has cuts.)
The story is a group of four men decide to do a little hunting in elder territory. They decide to slaughter some elk, and one of the elk in general was to give birth. They mutilated the elk, harvested the skin and meat and ditched the unborn calf. Well, elk returns 10 years later beyond the grave and declares, 'pay back is a bitch and so am I', and starts killing these men off.
I was all for this female elk going to town on these men. Just think if Bambi's mom decided to wake up and go off on the hunter who killed her. We'd be getting a different Bambi 2 than what we got. Anyway. I didn't get that exactly. The 'elk' became a female with an elk head at times, and other time some creepy Samara female. Sometimes the author starts writing in this prose that he is 'talking' to the elk female, like he is some strange sportscaster giving us and her some play by play.
The last fourth of the book, the author then decides to ditch all of that and focuses on the daughter of one of the four men (who has popped up here and there through the story). The prose actually becomes fluid and the imagery makes sense. Though the plot of the story gets weird. There is a touching moment at the end, where the daughter does something that her stupid father and his friends should had done a long time ago.
All in all, there was some interesting themes in this book, but this yippie-dippy prose that the author gives sometimes really takes me out of the book. Clearly if he could write the last bit of the book with sense, then, there was no need for it for 85% of the book.
After my last run in with horror, The Deep, I grabbed this one because it got a shit ton of accolades. Though this is not my first run-in with Stephen Graham Jones. I had read 'Night of the Manequins' by him and was not quite gellin' with the story he was telling there. Yet this one sounded interesting because, Native American protagonists and racial themes.
... I soon realized I came across the same problem I had with his writing in 'Night of the Manequins'. This choppy prose that comes off like someone trying to catch their breath. It's bizarre and I can't think anybody can gain a good visual from it. (I'm a visual person, when I read, what I read on the page flows in my head like a movie. So if you got someone who is writing crappy, it comes across like a DVD with skips or a film reel that has cuts.)
The story is a group of four men decide to do a little hunting in elder territory. They decide to slaughter some elk, and one of the elk in general was to give birth. They mutilated the elk, harvested the skin and meat and ditched the unborn calf. Well, elk returns 10 years later beyond the grave and declares, 'pay back is a bitch and so am I', and starts killing these men off.
I was all for this female elk going to town on these men. Just think if Bambi's mom decided to wake up and go off on the hunter who killed her. We'd be getting a different Bambi 2 than what we got. Anyway. I didn't get that exactly. The 'elk' became a female with an elk head at times, and other time some creepy Samara female. Sometimes the author starts writing in this prose that he is 'talking' to the elk female, like he is some strange sportscaster giving us and her some play by play.
The last fourth of the book, the author then decides to ditch all of that and focuses on the daughter of one of the four men (who has popped up here and there through the story). The prose actually becomes fluid and the imagery makes sense. Though the plot of the story gets weird.
Spoiler
The elk, since she has killed all the men, has decided to go after the girl because 'justice for calf', and has a basketball game with the girl. Yes. As basketball game. The girl whoops the elk's ass, and she vamps out into elk form. The elk then chases her, and the girl runs back to the scene of the crime (where her dad killed the elk and the baby).All in all, there was some interesting themes in this book, but this yippie-dippy prose that the author gives sometimes really takes me out of the book. Clearly if he could write the last bit of the book with sense, then, there was no need for it for 85% of the book.