Ceraphina
I recall when my mother told me the story that during her first babysitting job a couple of weeks in, she watched the movie adaptation of this novel - it was very late at night and she had never encountered anything like it. She was terrified to the point of calling the parents and asked for them to come home early so she could leave. My mother was never scared of anything so I remember being baffled, and laughing. It just seem absurd from the perspective of her being that scared.
Not long ago as I was lazying about in my apartment I saw a huge flock of crows on top of a car parking garage located near my high rise. There was easily a few hundred of them. I hated it, it was awful seeing them all together like that. I've seen them like a power line but perspective shifts of looking down on a car garage full of birds instead of looking up at birds on a power line gave me chills. I did not understand why there was just hundreds of them in a group, not even spread out there. The top of the garage was so filled by them you couldn't even park a car there. Which reminded me of my mother and her story and I told myself I'd pick up this book when I could.
I listened to this via audio book read by Peter Capaldi, complete with eerie music intermissions. I have a habit of playing an audio book while getting ready for a nap, or for bed to help me relax and fall asleep. But as soon as I started this one I was the complete opposite of relaxed. All I knew was killer birds, on the surface sounds silly - as I became immersed I realized just how truly terrifying it would be. This is my first Daphne novel, and I can't wait to make my way across her others. Capaldi captures the fathers frustration and anxiety perfectly, a father who just wants to protect his wife and his two children. It all goes to absolute shit and I loved every moment of it. It is a proper scary story.
“Why shouldn't the death of a person you love bring you into lurid ruin? You don't know how to love the ones you love until they disappear abruptly. Then you understand how thinly distanced from their suffering, how sparing of self you often were, only rarely unguarded of heart, working your networks of give-and-take.”
Um okay,just destroy me.
Told my partner the other day “I don't fear being murdered. I fear being tortured first.” This book really summed up that fear for me.
Horror is subjective and it might not be your cup of subjective-ness, but I am astonished by this novel. It hit every one of my nerves and me being forever thankful that I was cozy in my home. I did not need to know why the vines did anything or the Mayans because when in your life have you experienced something truly terrible come to you in the end in a neatly wrapped explanation? - the amount of peril of realizing you'd never escape this sort of hell as the days rolled on and you and everyone you're friends with start to starve, dehydration and delirium, and succumbing to this truth, becoming the vines play thing, was enough for me to be properly terrified and in awe.
Highly HIGHLY recommend the audiobook. Listened to it over a few nights as I was getting ready for bed. Loved this and deserves a million rereads
If you enjoyed In the Dream House, you'll surely love this. The comparison is only a reference however for exploring/enduring volatility in a queer relationship - this book, based on real events by the authors life, is a gut wrenching read and is entirely in its own as a novel. It's dark, bleak, and will take blows at your kneecaps.
Contains spoilers
solid reread
Can't remember if they put the umbilical cord hanging in the movie though? The dramatics of the birthing scene is just top tier
OG review from 2017: I am so incredibly in love with this book. From the very beginning pages I felt in tune with all the characters, and was immersed in their lives. I finished this book in one day and the brief moments when I paused in between chapters I had to remind myself that my world is still normal and I am not indeed, tucked away in a house with blankets or cardboards covering up my windows. And for an author to make me feel like I'm in a different reality when I break away from the pages, is an author that I admire. I can't wait to share with all my friends of this amazing read. I would recommend to absolutely anybody even if a suspense based novel isn't your typical genre. If I could, I'd give it more than 5 stars.
