shinararose's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
erikaretia's review
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
urbanaudreye's review
5.0
This was a good book. There was some great character development. The story was intriguing and kept me turning the pages. This book would appeal to anyone who enjoys supernatural thrillers.
*I received a copy of this book for free. The review is my own, honest and unsolicited.
*I received a copy of this book for free. The review is my own, honest and unsolicited.
jojoe72's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Such a good edge of your seat read. A must for horror fans
ksm's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death
bibliothekmaus's review
3.0
I recieved this book as part of a giveaway for the 6th book in the series. This book was slow to get going, but was expected as the first in a series. Overall enjoyable setup for the rest of the series. Marcus is easy to root for!
mayhappily's review
3.0
I listened to this as an audiobook and, unfortunately, the narrator was not for me. Even more unfortunately, the narrator was so not for me, that I'm not sure how much it effected my experience of Worthe's Village. I do, however, feel certain that it would've ended up being a middling book (for me, personally) no matter if I'd read it instead of listened to it.
My stumbling upon Worthe's Village happened while I was browsing for my next audiobook. It wasn't even this, the first in the series, that caught my initial attention - that was a sequel - but as a fan of order I chose to begin at the start.
The Haunted Village series is a tale of a mad (or at least very unconscionable) scientist carrying out an experiment - for as of yet unrevealed reasons, to my chagrin; I mean, I wouldn't condone his empirical methods even had I known his reasoning, but maybe I'd at least have an understanding of why he's doing it. I prefer even my zompoc books with a dash of logic!
Abel Worthe is, and I quote: "brilliant, wealthy, and utterly immoral." His field of expertise is the study of fear and death. He uses his wealth to buy up haunted houses and have them transported to his Haunted Village, to which he then introduces human tests subjects. Test subjects who werenot always never asked to participate and who will never be allowed to leave.
One of these test subjects is Marcus Holt. A VA of 62 years - he is throughout the book referred to as "old" and this really bothers me; he is continually described as if we should expect him to be on his death bed and I just don't find that feasible - who might just prove to be a wrench in Worthe's plan.
I didn't care overly much about any of the characters and part of that might be because of the way the narrator voiced them - it almost came across as mockingly. Another part of it, the bigger part of it, is because the lack of motivations. Say a character is cast to play the part of a villain, if done well that can be super interesting, but when you have no discernible motives for why the villain is a villain, it just creates confusion.
My stumbling upon Worthe's Village happened while I was browsing for my next audiobook. It wasn't even this, the first in the series, that caught my initial attention - that was a sequel - but as a fan of order I chose to begin at the start.
The Haunted Village series is a tale of a mad (or at least very unconscionable) scientist carrying out an experiment - for as of yet unrevealed reasons, to my chagrin; I mean, I wouldn't condone his empirical methods even had I known his reasoning, but maybe I'd at least have an understanding of why he's doing it. I prefer even my zompoc books with a dash of logic!
Abel Worthe is, and I quote: "brilliant, wealthy, and utterly immoral." His field of expertise is the study of fear and death. He uses his wealth to buy up haunted houses and have them transported to his Haunted Village, to which he then introduces human tests subjects. Test subjects who were
One of these test subjects is Marcus Holt. A VA of 62 years - he is throughout the book referred to as "old" and this really bothers me; he is continually described as if we should expect him to be on his death bed and I just don't find that feasible - who might just prove to be a wrench in Worthe's plan.
I didn't care overly much about any of the characters and part of that might be because of the way the narrator voiced them - it almost came across as mockingly. Another part of it, the bigger part of it, is because the lack of motivations. Say a character is cast to play the part of a villain, if done well that can be super interesting, but when you have no discernible motives for why the villain is a villain, it just creates confusion.
hdbblog's review
3.0
I won a copy of this in a giveaway, so I really wanted to read through it and leave an honest review! If you know me at all, you know that I love a good horror story. When haunted houses are involved? Well now, you have me rapt. There's something chilling about thinking about a place that is so rife with evil that it radiates out into the world. Now imagine a whole city of that same house, and you have the setup for Worthe's Village.
To put it simply, this book was a fence sitter for me. On the one hand, I absolutely adored Marcus and was cheering for him the whole time. It's nice to have a character to truly rally behind in a story like this, that is so bloody and violent. On the other hand, the story felt a little slow to me most of the way through and (I never thought I'd say this) too needlessly violent. Don't get wrong, you can't help but assume some that people are going to die in a village comprised entirely of viciously haunted homes. Still, I'm the kind of reader who really needs more time with the set up, and with my characters. I felt like this story somehow moved too quickly, in terms of character development, and too slowly, in terms of actual plot movement. There were some wonderfully dark scenes though, so it kept me reading on.
At the end I was a little frustrated by the lack of closure, but I also knew going in that this is the first book in a series. Since I had a pretty enjoyable experience with Worthe and his violent little village, I've decided I'll be moving on to the next book. Hopefully now they'll be more time to really hang with Marcus, because that man is one bad mother trucker. I'd hang with him in a zombie apocalypse any day.
To put it simply, this book was a fence sitter for me. On the one hand, I absolutely adored Marcus and was cheering for him the whole time. It's nice to have a character to truly rally behind in a story like this, that is so bloody and violent. On the other hand, the story felt a little slow to me most of the way through and (I never thought I'd say this) too needlessly violent. Don't get wrong, you can't help but assume some that people are going to die in a village comprised entirely of viciously haunted homes. Still, I'm the kind of reader who really needs more time with the set up, and with my characters. I felt like this story somehow moved too quickly, in terms of character development, and too slowly, in terms of actual plot movement. There were some wonderfully dark scenes though, so it kept me reading on.
At the end I was a little frustrated by the lack of closure, but I also knew going in that this is the first book in a series. Since I had a pretty enjoyable experience with Worthe and his violent little village, I've decided I'll be moving on to the next book. Hopefully now they'll be more time to really hang with Marcus, because that man is one bad mother trucker. I'd hang with him in a zombie apocalypse any day.
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