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A review by vonneguts
Oola by Brittany Newell
4.0
let this be a lesson for me about judging books on the yadda, yadda, yadda. I was told it was going to be a disturbing book. Comparable to Palahniuk's Haunted.
The thing is I did not find this novel very disturbing, at least not in the way I thought it would be. It's not simply the actions of the two leads that are disturbing it's the fact that you find yourself relating and sympathizing with them and their darkest behaviors. Where Haunted uses horror Oola uses love, and both are wonderfully disturbing. The pacing is slow and meticulous with only about 3 well placed scenes where I was horrified by the physical acts described but what truly upset me (and kept me reading!) was realizing I had developed such an attachment to both of the characters that even when I hated them, I loved them. That is why I will recomend this debut and look up anythong else Newell creates. Sometimes the path to our darkside is through love and this novel will take you there.
The thing is I did not find this novel very disturbing, at least not in the way I thought it would be. It's not simply the actions of the two leads that are disturbing it's the fact that you find yourself relating and sympathizing with them and their darkest behaviors. Where Haunted uses horror Oola uses love, and both are wonderfully disturbing. The pacing is slow and meticulous with only about 3 well placed scenes where I was horrified by the physical acts described but what truly upset me (and kept me reading!) was realizing I had developed such an attachment to both of the characters that even when I hated them, I loved them. That is why I will recomend this debut and look up anythong else Newell creates. Sometimes the path to our darkside is through love and this novel will take you there.