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A review by namelesssam_
Cirque des Freaks and Other Tales of Horror by Julian Lopez
2.0
I did enjoy this book but just partly.
I found the ideas behind each short story very unique and original, I found the atmosphere in each one very creepy and it made me feel doomed and trapped from the very beginning.
Unfortunately, what I found by the end of the story was just sappy tragic love story ending with one or more dead. I felt like the purpose of this book wasn't scaring the reader, nor making it feel lost and unsettled, but more like it's in a condition of deep despair.
I got to the point in which I started to feel sorry for the characters and their fate that was somehow predictable, and this somehow erased the fear that I was starting to feel at the beginning of each of them.
It did though bring some creepy elements like the wax statues (I admit I had to skim-read through that story mostly because I have a proper phobia and I was starting to feel a bit sick) and the scarecrow that was hella creepy and gruesome. It kind of scared me the story where a guy is serenading outside a house and I appreciated a lot the story that opens the whole collection as well as the one about Michael and Adam.
But unfortunately as solid as the stories were, I couldn't hold on to the creepy element of the collection. I just felt sorry for the characters at some point and just didn't really know what to make of that feeling until the very end.
Also, I expected a little more diversity rather than the same pattern regarding the relationships between each character in each story.
Kind of a let down, but still a solid starting point for the atmosphere. I think if the author had written short novellas and developed the plots a little more, then I would've felt a little different about this book.
I found the ideas behind each short story very unique and original, I found the atmosphere in each one very creepy and it made me feel doomed and trapped from the very beginning.
Unfortunately, what I found by the end of the story was just sappy tragic love story ending with one or more dead. I felt like the purpose of this book wasn't scaring the reader, nor making it feel lost and unsettled, but more like it's in a condition of deep despair.
I got to the point in which I started to feel sorry for the characters and their fate that was somehow predictable, and this somehow erased the fear that I was starting to feel at the beginning of each of them.
It did though bring some creepy elements like the wax statues (I admit I had to skim-read through that story mostly because I have a proper phobia and I was starting to feel a bit sick) and the scarecrow that was hella creepy and gruesome. It kind of scared me the story where a guy is serenading outside a house and I appreciated a lot the story that opens the whole collection as well as the one about Michael and Adam.
But unfortunately as solid as the stories were, I couldn't hold on to the creepy element of the collection. I just felt sorry for the characters at some point and just didn't really know what to make of that feeling until the very end.
Also, I expected a little more diversity rather than the same pattern regarding the relationships between each character in each story.
Kind of a let down, but still a solid starting point for the atmosphere. I think if the author had written short novellas and developed the plots a little more, then I would've felt a little different about this book.