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A review by brokenlyrium
Abhorrent Siren by John Baltisberger
1.0
Off the bat: if you're going to buy this book, I suggest looking for a physical copy. The kindle version is formatted very badly; a lot of words have no spacing between them, some for the entire sentence, which made reading difficult for some parts. This, however, had no effect on my overall opinion of the book or the rating.
In all honesty this book reads like a short story that dragged on a little too long. We're introduced to way too many characters, who feel more like archetypes than actual people, that end up just taking a back seat to the gore and violence. The deaths don't hit as hard as they could because we're given no time to care about them beforehand. The constant introduction and then transformation and/or mutilation of so many characters makes the ending feel abrupt and unsatisfactory. I can appreciate an open ending to a book, or even an unhappy one where humanity loses, but this one felt more like the author wasn't sure what to do next, so he just stopped writing. I feel like there was so much more that could have been explored in this book.
In all honesty this book reads like a short story that dragged on a little too long. We're introduced to way too many characters, who feel more like archetypes than actual people, that end up just taking a back seat to the gore and violence. The deaths don't hit as hard as they could because we're given no time to care about them beforehand. The constant introduction and then transformation and/or mutilation of so many characters makes the ending feel abrupt and unsatisfactory. I can appreciate an open ending to a book, or even an unhappy one where humanity loses, but this one felt more like the author wasn't sure what to do next, so he just stopped writing. I feel like there was so much more that could have been explored in this book.