A review by laurenbookwitchbitch
Smithy by Amanda Desiree
1.0
The idea seemed spooky my enough, a group of researchers set out to teach a baby chimp language in hopes he will communicate w them. They choose to raise him in a big old manor in New Port RI that the school has rented in order to conduct the study and raise the chimp, “Smithy,” as close to a human infant as possible. The book is set up as a series of diary entries, letters, recordings, video footage and interviews after the incident occurs. I was intrigued.
This book could have been should have been 300pgs shorter. My lord is thus pacing poor. I like a slow burn horror but this pace is molasses, reading pages and pages of the different characters backstories and the backstory of the study and the science, we don’t even get the backstory of the mansion until pg 350+ when it is randomly info dumped.
I did like the slowly growing creepiness at first w Smithy signing “woman,” and pointing and the researchers are all confused assuming he is messing up instead of trying to warn them from the true danger, but all of a sudden around the 400th page or so everyone just accepts that “Oh the house is haunted by the Dark Lady Ghost” and “Oh Smithy is either a medium…or possessed.” I straight up laughed. You mean to tell me I read through all this scientifically minded empirical data research stuff only to have the characters throw that to the wind? The book finally culminates w Smithy attacking the researchers one by one, the project is shut down and the animal is forcibly handed over to another lab.
I think it’s supposed to be a mystery about if the ghost was real and Smithy was protecting his caregivers or if Smithy just got older and more aggressive and attacked people outright. Honestly at that point I didn’t even care. A number of ploy lines went nowhere, (for example it’s hinted early on that the main Dr. In charge of the study hires pretty young woman in his undergrad classes to be researcher assistants and then hits on them. This is brought up in one character’s journal entry where he makes advances on her and then is never brought up again), none of the characters are likable, things are way too drawn out and if felt like a chore to read.
This book is also formatted so there are no separate lines for dialogue. It just all runs together in huge paragraphs that are single space. Found it hard to read and kept loosing my place on the page. Not sure why they chose that format.
Honestly just rewatch Planet of the Apes. You’ll have a much better time.
This book could have been should have been 300pgs shorter. My lord is thus pacing poor. I like a slow burn horror but this pace is molasses, reading pages and pages of the different characters backstories and the backstory of the study and the science, we don’t even get the backstory of the mansion until pg 350+ when it is randomly info dumped.
I did like the slowly growing creepiness at first w Smithy signing “woman,” and pointing and the researchers are all confused assuming he is messing up instead of trying to warn them from the true danger, but all of a sudden around the 400th page or so everyone just accepts that “Oh the house is haunted by the Dark Lady Ghost” and “Oh Smithy is either a medium…or possessed.” I straight up laughed. You mean to tell me I read through all this scientifically minded empirical data research stuff only to have the characters throw that to the wind? The book finally culminates w Smithy attacking the researchers one by one, the project is shut down and the animal is forcibly handed over to another lab.
I think it’s supposed to be a mystery about if the ghost was real and Smithy was protecting his caregivers or if Smithy just got older and more aggressive and attacked people outright. Honestly at that point I didn’t even care. A number of ploy lines went nowhere, (for example it’s hinted early on that the main Dr. In charge of the study hires pretty young woman in his undergrad classes to be researcher assistants and then hits on them. This is brought up in one character’s journal entry where he makes advances on her and then is never brought up again), none of the characters are likable, things are way too drawn out and if felt like a chore to read.
This book is also formatted so there are no separate lines for dialogue. It just all runs together in huge paragraphs that are single space. Found it hard to read and kept loosing my place on the page. Not sure why they chose that format.
Honestly just rewatch Planet of the Apes. You’ll have a much better time.