readthesparrow's reviews
198 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A delightfully scary book.

I was a scaredy-cat, so I probably would have been completely unable to read it as a middle schooler--especially since Henderson's illustrations are absolutely terrifying! Not gonna lie, I'd love a movie or TV series adaptation of it.

If you loved the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie or the books, then you'll love this book!

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This collection was such a treat. I not only got to read authors I already know and love (an amazing introduction by the author of My Heart is a Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones, and a fun werewolf story by author of Man Made Monsters, Andrea L. Rodgers) but also got introductions to a huge roster of new-to-me writers that I'm just dying to get to know better.

For folks who want a really meaty dark fiction collection to sink their teeth into, Never Whistle At Night is perfect. There are 26 stories, running the gamut from the extremely dark and extremely real ("Sundays" by David Heska Wanbli Weiden) to the darkly fantastical yet no less real ("Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected" by Carson Faust).

All of the stories were fantastic (see my personal ratings below, under the spoiler tag), but my personal stand out favorites were "Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth" by Conley Lyons, "Heart-Shaped Clock" by Kelli Jo Ford, "Sundays" by David Heska Wanbli Weiden, and "Collections" by Amber Blaeser-Wardzala.

Spoiler

"Kushtuka" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"White Hills" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Wingless" - ⭐⭐⭐
"Quantum" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Hunger" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Tick Talk" - ⭐⭐⭐
"The Ones Who Killed Us" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Snakes Are Born in the Dark" - ⭐⭐⭐
"Before I Go" - ⭐⭐⭐
"Night in the Chrysalis" - ⭐⭐⭐
"Behind Colin's Eyes" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Heart-Shaped Clock" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Scariest. Story. Ever." - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Human Eaters" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"The Longest Street in the World" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Dead Owls" - ⭐⭐⭐
"The Prepper" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Uncle Robert Rides the Lightning" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Sundays" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Eulogy for a Brother, Resurrected" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Night Moves" - ⭐⭐⭐
"Capgras" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"The Scientist's Horror Story" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Collections" - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Limbs" - ⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to the wonderful people behind Never Whistle at Night for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley!

Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass

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dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This review is based on a digital ARC provided by the publisher.

REVIEW

As you may know, I have taken it upon myself to create THE SLASHER LIST, a comprehensive list and review of slasher-inspired novels. I’ve been away from the project for a bit (work, life, personal demons, you know how it is), so I haven’t been able to dedicate much time to pursuing the project.

So when I started reading Your Lonely Nights Are Over, I wanted so much, despite knowing it would make the fall worse if I was disappointed.

I am so happy to say that Your Lonely Nights Are Over was everything I wanted and more. I devoured this book in two sittings.

We’ve got twists, we’ve got turns, we’ve got messy queer characters, and, of course, the most important element of every slasher: buckets of blood.

The death scenes and the tension is brutal. These kids die, man, and Sass doesn’t hold back. There’s a Saw-trap-esque strangulation by barbed wire in the first few chapters.

I will say that if you’re like me and you read and watch a lot of slashers and are familiar with the tropes, the twists might be a bit easy to predict. I knew who the killer was pretty quickly (and the twist about the killer, because I’m familiar with Saw and Scream).

That all said, while I caught the foreshadowing and know the genre a bit too well for my own good, it wasn’t frustrating to wait for the characters to catch up with my realizations. Twists don’t have to be unpredictable to be fun.

This is a YA book. I typically don't like YA (I'm just not the target demographic), but I think that this is one of those YA books that, while definitely for teens, is fun to read as an adult, too. (Especially if you were in a queer club in high school. Because, woof, this book captured that feeling of young queer drama well.)

This book has an important message about queer community that is vital for young queer folk to learn, especially in an era of the internet full of toxic queer spaces. Ultimately, Your Lonely Nights Are Over is a story about friendship, community, and recognizing the danger and toxicity of queer abusers, all wrapped up in a witty, barbed-wire slasher with a breakneck pace.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Your Lonely Nights Are Over is definitely going to be one of the crowning jewels of THE SLASHER LIST, sitting in pride of place beside My Heart is a Chainsaw.

If you loved the Scream movies and want a book with that same smart, meta horror vibe, then you’ll have one hell of a time with Your Lonely Nights are Over.

Thank you to Viking Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley! If you are interested in Your Lonely Nights Are Over, it is out now!

If possible, support indie bookshops by purchasing the novel from your local brick and mortar or from Bookshop.org.

User-defined content warnings are available via Storygraph.

Content Warnings

Grave Expectations by Alice Bell

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

SUMMARY

Burnt-out Millennial medium Claire is hired as entertainment for the Wellington-Forge family at the family matriarch’s 80th birthday. When Claire and her best-friend-slash-spirit-guide, Sophie, discover that someone was murdered at the previous year’s celebration, they join forces with Bash, a depressed skeptic ex-detective, and Alex, a bon vivant non-binary teenager, to figure out the who, what, when, and why.

REVIEW

I started reading this in line for coffee. It was painful to have to wait to read chapter two, and as soon as I got home, I lit a candle, cozied up in a blanket, and devoured Grave Expectations.

(By the by: Grave Expectations is perfect for the blanket + candle + rainstorm + book combo.)

For all my fellow Gen-Z out there who see a book about a Millennial that’s billed as humorous and go “oh no,” don’t worry. I was cautious too. But the book is genuinely hilarious, full of tongue-in-cheek humor poking fun at rich British people, à la Knives Out.

As an American, I did miss some of the cultural references, but never felt lost or confused.

The banter between the characters is excellent; the characters perfectly balance both slotting into their murder mystery character role places and being fully fleshed out individuals.

Claire is a deeply sympathetic but also kind of pathetic main character, whose messy, incompetent method of investigating is balanced well with Sophie’s ghostly ability to walk through walls and acerbic Y2K teenage personality. Not to mention I'm a total sucker for the of "person who can see ghosts but it kind of sucks because dead people are mostly boring;" I find it to be an interesting, often funny take on the whole I See Dead People thing.

The characters are what make this book so memorable, and what make me really hope for a second book. There are still a lot of open threads Bell could follow–for example, what happened to Sophie–that I’m desperate for answers for because I have gotten so attached to these two girls.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really needed a fun, quick-paced book to read. Grave Expectations hit the spot exactly. The best way I can describe the novel is like a cross between Knives Out and one of Eva Ibbotson’s ghost books (which I was obsessed with as a kid).

If you’re the kind of person who like a witty, sharp murder mystery and modern paranormal fantasy, I heavily suggest you give Grave Expectations a read.

Thank you to Vintage Anchor for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley.

If possible, support indie bookshops or your local library!!

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 14%.

one day I will return to you Harrow my love

New Millennium Boyz by Alex Kazemi

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

(This review is based on a physical ARC sent by the publicist.)

REVIEW

This week, a family member asked what I was reading. When I described New Millenium Boyz, he said “that’s depressing.”

Here’s the thing: yes, it is. This book is a super downer. New Millenium Boyz dives straight into the deep end of Y2K teenage boyhood, toxic masculinity, school shooter culture, and every kind of bigotry under the sun, and never comes up for air.

And I loved it.

New Millenium Boyz is set in 1999-2000, but it’s also a reflection of now. The specifics have changed–MTV isn’t what it once was, the internet is a whole different beast, and we’re twenty years further down the road of arts and culture.

However. MTV may be dead but the trend economy is alive and hungry on TikTok. An internet that is more and more video-based demands performance from its users. The ways that Lu and Brandon and Shane talk about women could come word for word from an Andrew Tate video. Liking things is a personality trait, and if you like the wrong things or don't like things the right way you are lesser than.

The cultural obsession with self-image and displaying ourselves for consumption have only festered since the days of Handicams and dial-up internet. Things intended to be private are demanded to be public; public image is everything; and gun violence has only gotten worse.

New Millenium Boyz is one of those novels that by virtue of its thematics and content must be compared to American Psycho. American Psycho a useful touchstone–if you’re interested in New Millenium Boyz, you’ve almost certainly read it–so I’ll use that comparison here.

In terms of prose, both New Millenium Boyz and American Psycho use dialogue-driven prose and heavy cultural references. Unlike American Psycho, though, New Millenium Boyz does not dedicate chapters entirely to music reviews. New Millenium Boyz also includes several letters between Brad and his girlfriend, Aurora, which serve both as breaks as well as sharp psychological examinations of Brad’s cognitive dissonance.

Unlike American Psycho, New Millenium Boyz’s characters–especially Brad and Shane–have moments of deep empathy. They’re far more human and far more emotionally driven than Patrick Bateman, whose cold, calculated, and empty monologues are a stark contrast to Brad’s edgey, yet desperate, attempts at philosophizing.

Additionally, while New Millenium Boyz is certainly violent, it does not reach the absurd intensity of American Psycho’s violence. New Millenium Boyz is primarily concerned with the violence of young white men’s words and sexuality. There are scenes of self-harm, hate crimes, animal abuse, and sexual assault, but not of serial murder or extreme bodily mutilation on the level of American Psycho.

In a way, though, the violence of New Millenium Boyz is far more real–Patrick Bateman is so intense as to reach unreality, whereas Brad and Lu’s violence is something that a teenage boy could do–have done–and gotten away with.

New Millenium Boyz is a book that portrays but does not glorify or endorse the horrible thoughts and actions of Brad and Lu and Shane.

While writing this review, I read an excerpt from a interview by Kazemi. He says it best: “... [the Y2K edgelord ethos] makes people uncomfortable with the reality and the freedoms that people had back then. With our current political climate, people romanticize this freedom. But what I argue in the book [is] this kind of edgelord dialogue is actually really myopic, and it just sounds like white noise; it doesn't really add anything into the culture. I'm sort of exposing [that] this false freedom we thought we had back then was actually a prison in itself.” (https://www.cbc.ca/arts/commotion/why-this-novel-about-y2k-nostalgia-is-being-called-dangerous-1.6965442)

New Millennium Boyz responds to a sanitized Y2K nostalgia by ripping open the underbelly of Y2K toxicity and augering the entrails. What it finds is this: the misogyny and cruelty and racism and homophobia that festered in Y2K is alive and hungry.

FINAL THOUGHTS

New Millenium Boyz is a sharp fever dream of a book. If you like the breathless, dialogue-driven prose of American Psycho or the fever-dream hell of a Brian Evenson novel then I suggest you take a look at New Millenium Boyz.

That said, like American Psycho and Brian Evenson, New Millenium Boyz isn’t something I would recommend freely. It’s very dark, very intense, and does not flinch in the face of absolutely vile toxic white masculinity (Y2K flavor).

I would only recommend New Millenium Boyz to those who know they can handle the content, are interested in extreme dark literary horror that satirizes toxic masculinity, and recommend that if needed, you check content warnings via Storygraph.

Thank you to the Void Collective and to the author for sending me a physical ARC! I’m very excited to see what Kazemi does next.

Content Warnings

Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil, George Williams

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

REVIEW

Let Me Out is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel perfect for an angry queer autumn read despite a fractured, unfulfilling ending.

I adored the main cast. They fit together and play off one another well, and the way that they navigate an unwelcoming world together, from the small things (giving a ride to Terri, a guitarist, to her show and cheering her on) to the big things (covering for each other against parents and cops, providing first aid, and being ride or die ‘til the end) is so quintessentially queer that, despite the grim context, it warms my heart.

I’m also head over heels for Lucifer. Like, can we appreciate their design? Hello???????

The main issue I have with Let Me Out is the ending. While there were some really interesting moments during that final scene, such as Lucifer possession-jumping from person to person during the chase scene, the storytelling became extremely fragmented and I had difficulty following the action in those last 10 or so pages.

Related to the ending, the pacing of the last half felt strange, too–I’m not a graphic novel expert, so maybe this is just the way things are done, but it felt like the main action of the book post what’s summarized on the back happened way too late. The spark that lights the kindling, Lupe punching her manager, doesn’t happen until about 60% of the way through, and the deal with the devil doesn’t happen until about 80% in. The part that interests me most–the deal with the devil–is rushed through. If I'm promised a deal with a devil, I want that to be narratively front and center, and it's just not in Let Me Out.

By the final page, there are several plot threads left dangling. I won’t list them here in the interest of avoiding spoilers, but there are several left unanswered, both ones introduced in the first ten pages and threads opened in that final 20%.

It is likely that cuts had to be made to meet page count, which is unfortunate. The ending’s potential fell flat.

I think the page count is why I am often left wanting more from graphic novels–the stories are often hampered by heavily restricted available space, requiring heavy story cuts be made, which negatively impact the story’s structure and pacing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While I enjoyed this graphic novel and loved the characters, I’m left wanting more from a fractured ending. I hope there’s a follow-up that picks up some of those dangling plot threads and features more Lucifer (my love).

If you’re looking for a spooky, tense autumn read that centers queer experiences and can be finished in an afternoon, then I definitely suggest picking up Let Me Out.

Thank you to Oni Press for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley. If you are interested in Let Me Out, it releases 3 October 2023. You can find more information from the publishers. If possible, support indie bookshops by purchasing the novel from your local brick and mortar or from Bookshop.org!

The Body Below by Daniel Hecht

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

REVIEW

The Body Below is, primarily, not interested in the mechanics of murder, but rather the effects of loss and violence on families and communities. It explores a complex web of questions: How do we fail each other? What is justice and what is right? Who and how do we decide that? Why can’t–or don’t–we just help each other? How do we mourn? What do we do with guilt?

As a result, the narrative is a slow-paced burn that focuses on building character and relationships. The two main characters, Conn and Celine, each have to grapple with their own past trauma as well as navigate the new, raw wound of loss torn into their lives and community.

That said, the book takes until the second half to really kick off. This isn’t a problem for me–I love a slow burn plot–but it means that if you’re looking for a snappy, breakneck mystery, The Body Below isn’t that.

There were, however, moments that struck me as strange or out of place. The first was the way that Celine talks about disability; she describes herself as “disfigured” after a car accident that caused her to lose two of her fingers. I am no expert, but it felt out of place for a psychologist, especially one that works with children, to use a word like “disfigured” to talk about her own body difference.

The second was that Selanski, a detective whose off-kilter, strange, somewhat acerbic personality made her my favorite character (what can I say, I love a mean woman <3) is, for some reason, referred to of the blue as “the Nazi lady detective” by several different characters. I’m really not sure if this was supposed to be a joke or what, but it didn’t make much sense in context. There’s nothing about her behavior that could be described as Nazi-like. It felt out of place and misogynistic.

Finally, the ending. Oof.

I am of two minds. On one hand, I loved the note that the book leaves off on. There’s a focus on healing and moving on and forgiveness that I found to be the perfect place to leave the characters I’d grown attached to. The way the narrative explores loss (both in mourning and betrayal) is intensely real, managing to capture the complexity of losing someone you thought you could trust. How do you heal from betrayal?

For example, my favorite quote comes from the final chapter:

Spoiler

“He wasn't just dead--he had retroactively excised himself from me, had redacted himself from my life, leaving a furrow going back decades.”

On the other hand, these final chapters pull a last minute twist that just doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t fit as well thematically, it’s not narratively satisfying, and it feels cheap. This is the main reason why this book sits at three stars, not four; that final twist makes the book stumble on what would otherwise be a flawless landing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed The Body Below as a piece of character work, but likely won’t be re-reading it. If you liked Tana French’s In the Woods and are looking for something to scratch a similar slow-burn character driven mystery itch, The Body Below might do it for you.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley. If you are interested in The Body Below, you can find more information from the publishers. If possible, support indie bookshops by purchasing the novel from your local brick and mortar or from Bookshop.org!

Content Warnings

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I have complex feelings about Silver Nitrate.

On one hand, I loved setting. There’s so much interesting real-life movie history woven into the fiction, such as the way that films were dubbed. I’m very sad that I can’t watch all the fictional films made up for the narrative. They sound weird and bizarre and exactly my type.

I also enjoyed the two main characters, Montserrat and Tristán. I love acerbic female characters, so Montserrat's tough, anti-social personality is right up my alley. While I found Tristán a little less interesting, he has his moments. They’re both deeply messy people–Montserrat is obsessive and brusque, while Tristán is self-centered and vain–whose flaws are on full display.

But they’re also two people who care deeply about one another and have since childhood. The thing is that while this is well established, there’s a particular device that is used to remind us of this trust that gets grating. The two jumped into a grain silo as kids, and this is meant to illustrate the dynamics of their relationship: Montserrat leading, Tristán following.

The thing is that this grain silo thing gets brought up a lot. (I counted: nine times at least.) At some point it’s like oh, my god, I get it. They jumped into grain and it was a pivotal moment in their childhood. I don’t need to be reminded about it every time they choose to trust each other.

So. Why is my opinion on this book a little complicated?

Silver Nitrate is marketed as a “dark thriller.”

Spoiler

And it is–for the first half.
Halfway through, there’s a few chapters that felt strangely detached from the characters, almost summarize-y, skipping over events that, in a thriller, I would normally expect to be in the forefront of the narrative.
For example, Montserrat is a suspect for the death of Abel, the director. She is arrested and detained for two days. These events are skipped over and summarized when Tristán picks her up from the station. He tells her that she could be in real danger–the cops, after all, might pin the murder on her because she likes horror movies and it’s convenient–but after this chapter, the fact she is a suspect for murder, her time at the police station, or the investigation into Abel’s death is never brought up again.
In a dark thriller, I would expect that extra layer of tension and those additional stakes to last longer than a single scene.
The 50 to 70 percent mark was a bit of a slog for similar reasons. It wasn’t all that dark and it wasn’t all that thrilling. It felt as though the narrative was just trying to get through these middle events to get to the next part.
Then, at 70%, we go abruptly from “dark occult thriller with ghosts and curses” to “full on urban fantasy street battles.”
Don’t get me wrong. I like urban fantasy. But it’s a huge, jarring leap to make from dark thriller into urban fantasy with magical duels and giant dogs made of goop. A leap I did not enjoy, especially as the sudden power jump came seemingly out of nowhere, only to be explained later in an exposition dump. One particular line felt like the narrative was breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to readers who, like me, were like “What the fuck is going on?”

I was also asking what the fuck was going on at the end. I literally rolled my eyes and said “Are you kidding me?” out loud.

Spoiler

Because, for some reason, the two decide to move in together and start dating in the final chapter.
In my humble opinion, while the two work well together as lead characters, they don’t have any romantic chemistry. Their platonic relationship, as messy, unhealthy, and dependent as it is, is fascinating to read on page. Their friendship challenges each of them to be better than they are in the interest of the other.
Suddenly changing that friendship into something romantic feels cheap, despite the narrative throwing in brief references to Montserrat’s schoolgirl crush on him. This ending is both predictable (he was a boy, she was a girl) and unearned (brief moments of passing attraction does not a romantic subplot establish).
This ending is part of a pattern in media I deeply dislike: two characters, a man and a woman, share a deep bond, love one another, and trust one another in a platonic relationship, only for the ending of the book to hastily smoosh the two together into a romantic relationship as a way to validate their closeness.
God forbid a man and a woman stay platonic, right?
(Plus, Montserrat deserves way better than him.)

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was my first Silvia Morena-Garcia book, and it’s gotten me interested in reading her novel Certain Dark Things, a neo-noir fantasy also set in Mexican City.

I’d recommend Silver Nitrate to urban fantasy readers looking to explore the horror genre, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone looking for a dark occult thriller.

Thank you to Del Rey for providing a digital ARC via Netgalley.

The Girls In The Cabin by Caleb Stephens

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Thank you to Caleb Stephens and Joffe Books for providing a review copy! I was also sent an advance copy of Stephen’s upcoming book Feeders, which I’m very much looking forward to reading, as well as a copy of his short story collection.

REVIEW

I didn’t want to put The Girls in the Cabin down.

I read it through the previews of a movie (I was the only one in the theater, don’t judge me), during dinner (studiously ignoring Master Chef in the background–which was a big sacrifice, considering the show is basically Alton Brown’s personal take on the Saw franchise), and snatching bits and pieces wherever else I could.

It’s not because the twists were necessarily surprising–I called the main reveal almost immediately–but because I wanted to know how it was going to happen. How far would Chris, Kayla, and Emma stretch before they broke? How far would Clara, Sydney, and Billy be willing to go?

Stephens does not hang back on the psychological or physical torture. There’s an eye scene near the end of the book that was so tense I was holding my breath.

I loved how tense this book is. The pacing is pulled taunt, with stakes that grow tighter and tighter. The prose snaps across the page.

It’s not the ideas, but rather the execution that Stephens does really well. I was a chronic watcher of Criminal Minds in high school, and the situation in this book felt a bit like something that might happen in that show (sans, of course, the BAU–Chris and his daughters have to get themselves out of this mess).

I will say that there are some reservations I have about The Girls in the Cabin, discussed below. Beware of spoilers!!!!

Spoiler

So. Okay.
The main plot twist in The Girls in the Cabin uses the Split Personality trope. Clara’s alternate personality, Sydney, formed due to severe childhood physical and sexual abuse. While not diagnosed as DID by a medical professional, Chris speculates it to be DID.
The trope is played pretty straight–The Girls in the Cabin is not a case where the trope is being critically examined or challenged.
Split Personality is a trope I really do not like in psychological thrillers for two reasons: its effect on the perception of DID and my personal opinions on the trope.
Broadly speaking, the use of the trope (especially in psychological horror) demonizes those with DID. Ever since the trope became popular due to movies like Psycho, it’s been part of the way that folks with DID are ostracized. The trope paints those with DID as violent. Because the Split Personality villain (again, see Psycho, or, more recently, Split) is one of the few ways people are first exposed to the concept, they then internalize that people with DID are inherently dangerous. Quite frankly, people with DID already have enough on their plate; they don't need this too.
To use a less human example to illustrate my point, I dislike the Killer Animal trope for the same reason: it spreads misinformation, and misinformation has a very real world impact (for example, see Jaws’ impact on real world shark populations).
Clara, the character with an alternate personality, does get point of view chapters that take pains to develop sympathy for her as her own character. In fact, the novel begins with her point of view, and returns to it throughout. The abuse and pain she went through are not merely used as a backstory, but are a central focus throughout the novel.
However, The Girls in the Cabin is a story about someone with DID kidnapping and torturing a family, both psychologically and physically. To that extent, even though Clara’s character has her own point of view that develops her as a sympathetic character, this is still an example of the Split Personality trope demonizing those with DID.
Is Clara/Sydney the most harmful example of the trope out there? No, probably not. But it still is what it is.
Additionally, even if we put aside the harmful elements of the trope, it’s my opinion that, in general, the DID/Split Personality twist is played out in psychological horror. Personally, I rarely find it interesting.
In terms of The Girls in the Cabin, the Split Personality twist was pretty obvious to me well before the reveal. Now, if it hadn’t been a Split Personality deal and Sydney was her own seperate character, that would have been a twist I didn’t see coming.

Am I saying that the trope needs to be banished forever from psychological horror? No, of course not. I don't want to dictate what people write about, what they choose to explore in their psychological horror, nor how they feel about certain tropes.

What I am saying is that it's a trope I personally dislike and don't find interesting (or psychologically horrifying, thrilling, etc) to the point where the trope's presence will almost certainly impact my enjoyment of any media that uses it.

I probably would have rated this book a four star read if that trope wasn't used, because I thoroughly enjoyed everything else about The Girls in the Cabin (the snappy prose, the tension, the quick pacing, the crushing sense of isolation and desperation).

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was a fast, tense read, which–besides my opinion regarding the previously discussed trope–I found to be snappily (and thrillingly!) written.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced psychological thriller and don’t have the same hang-ups I do about the use of that trope, then I’d definitely suggest picking this one up, especially if you’re a fan of Criminal Minds.

Content Warnings

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readthesparrow's reviews 198 reviews

readthesparrow's reviews
198 reviews