Kyra
Kept me guessing up until the last minute! I can now see why everyone speak so highly of his writing and this book. Jade is wonderfully complex character and telling her story through slashers is beautiful and chilling!
Merged review:
Kept me guessing up until the last minute! I can now see why everyone speak so highly of his writing and this book. Jade is wonderfully complex character and telling her story through slashers is beautiful and chilling!
so while this isn't perfect necessarily it is 5 star for the enjoyment I got out of it. Feels like you like typical sci-fi infection story but that's great as I love those stories. The characters were great and though maybe not the most complex due to the shortness of the book they felt real and flawed but still enjoyable to read about. Excited to read the rest of the series.
Though it got a little over the top in some places I found this pretty much as enjoyable as the last one, I love following a small group of survivors and I think the fungus is an interesting infection. Excited to see where it goes.
Okay, so the beginning of this books gets like 4 or a 5, but the end just kind dropped it, the finally reveal didn't really feel like it made sense with the character we follow. In the end I was confused about the main characters thoughts throughout the book once I got there. The writing is fine and the characters were enjoyable just seems like the main character is aware she is in a mystery and can't let the reader know stuff. Rounding down to a 3 but closer to a 3.5
This book was alright, I think if it was longer it would work better. Short stories can be really hard and this one didn't exactly hit the right notes. And the time we did have in some ways felt a little bit wasted with unneeded information.
This book was just meh, wasn't bad in a way and I'll probably read the second but I didn't find it particularly spectacular either. A good read if you're into body horror but wasn't particularly scary. Also a good read I think if you have watched or plan to watch the movies as it could be fun to compare the two.
What a fun and quick read, this book was amazing, it's wild from the start and never let up. There aren't any really real twists or many surprises it's just a good ol' free for all murder fest and it was great!
Once again pure magic from this author! Couldn't put it down all I wanted was to find out the truth at the end! A powerful story for anyone with past troubles with religion and talks about the dichotomy of love the church family atmosphere while hating what it can do. Even though the dial is like all the way up to 11 I found the characters to have relatable problems and flaws. Overall a wonderful experience , super creepy and atmospheric that keeps you guessing all the way through! Must must read!
One thing I love about Stephen's writing is that it really feels different reading his work, he makes his horror uniquely indigenous and I think that creates really compelling stories. This story is no different it tells a horror story that feels very unique to indigenous people and yet feels like it doesn't alienate non-indigenous readers. The characters weren't necessarily good people but they were interesting and complex, and were all in different stages of growing through trauma. The horror aspect was a little out there and a bit wild but was still enjoyable. And I found the pacing to slow in some places but the end was done very well. 4.5*
Love Josh Malerman's books! Was super excited after bored box to read more from him and wasn't disappointed. Very atmospheric and captures the feeling of falling in love at such a young age. As well as being super creepy in many parts. Very quick read, felt the last little bit need a little bit something more but overall and amazing read.
This one is very campy, and definitely had some moments where I was laughing at the silliness of it all but I did really enjoy reading this book. It was a lot of fun and one that I kept picking up wanting to finish. I like the overall idea and think it was done well, I think it has a little room to be a tad bit longer to help flesh out the main character and give her a little more emotion but still think if you love campy horror and final girls you will love this.
This book isn't complicated it's just a fun horror slasher style book felt like I was watching a horror movie and I loved every minute of it
Even though a lot of the plot is fairly obvious I still loved this book, the pacing was good, the sci-fi elements were very approachable yet interesting. Though the characters weren't really special in any way they still enjoyable to read about. Was super excited every time I picked it up to find out what happened next even when I had a good idea about what was going to happen. Definitely suggest this to horror fans especially those who love sci-fi.
Didn't enjoy the characters, and it managed to be both to short and not long enough to make for an enjoyable read. I also found it over descriptive for what type of book it was trying to be.
A fun little creature feature! Felt like watching one of those one off monster horror movies. It's not super dead, and has pretty average writing but overall is a fun creepy little read.
This book was good and that's about it. The writing was okay, nothing special for the most part it was alright, sometimes the dialogue was a bit too unbelievable. The characters were fine, the plot was alright and the pacing was good. I enjoyed the story but it wasn't especially good or interesting book even the plot twist was super unsurprising. I may end up pick up the second one but I am not in a hurry.
Was definitely an interesting story, and feels like it should have its own short series on Netflix. Only lost me as the some pieces felt a bit too unreal, and some of the writing felt a bit cheesy but very good overall.
This book was written so well, and I think it has some really good lines in there about the interest of true crime. The beginning was amazing and started like an episode of criminal minds or CSI, but gets a little stale and the moments in between when the main character is speaking with his father was rather boring and/or weird. None of the characters are likeable, and it made it hard to really enjoy reading from any pov. But in the end I did really enjoy the writing, and even though the end didn't really feel like anything and nothing feels figured out I did enjoy it for the most part.
Honestly I haven't been this excited to finish a book in a while, probably should have dnf'd it but I struggle to do that, and so struggled through this book.
First it could have been much shorter, it being so long allowed for it to get weirdly convoluted, this thing had way to much going on, the cosmic horror angle was way too much and I felt my eyes rolling into the back of my head by the 70% mark.
The characters are all the worst and not even in a fun way, and one of them it comes out of nowhere and was a terrible surprise. Even the main character is unlikable and annoying which is ironic considering how much she judges other people. I wish we had some people to root for even one, in the end I didn't care about who died giving their death little impact outside of the gore.
The gore was there but the atmosphere wasn't, and the stakes were none existent until maybe the very last page but I was so over it by then that I just didn't care.
Giving it a 2 because even though I didn't like it for the most part the beginning wasn't the worst and only one of the characters truly made me hate them at that point, it had promise then they got to the island. And I liked the way it was written even if what was written I didn't enjoy as much.
I think I'll give this author another shot and hope his other books make a bit more sense.
When I first looked at the size of this book I was like that's a lot of pages but I sat down and finished it in one sitting. It was gripping and I didn't want to put it down, any thrillers or mysteries I read after this will have big boots to fill.
The characters were all pretty typical of your classic CSI/ criminal minds show but more enjoyable as the length of it allowed for so much for detail.
I always enjoy reading books set in other parts of the world so I really loved it for that aspect.
And the mystery in my opinion really caught me off guard! I am normally pretty good at figuring out endings but this one was a complete surprise.
Definitely will be reading more from this author!
I love this book! It is one of the cutest things I have ever read, and I can't wait to read the rest!! The characters are adorable, and as a queer person it felt very real and accurate in how it depicts the complexities of learning your sexuality in your teenage years.
First a thank you to NetGalley and wicked house publishing for giving me an early copy of the book to read.
This book kept me guessing up until the end, not knowing what was going on, struggling to come up with theories and I love that in a book.
The relationship between the three men at the heart of story was really beautiful and not really something I've read about before, each character felt unique and yet I could feel the shared history.
The setting was wild and creepy from the beginning, all the side characters added to its very off atmosphere. And though certain aspect felt similar to other stories it's twists and turns made it very unique.
The writing was well done, the dialogue felt natural and the descriptions were great balancing between painting a picture and the other over done description I find in some other books.
A great book overall, with a compelling narrative and an exciting mystery, mixed with dread and terror in a perfect way. A book I didn't want to put down and couldn't wait to pick up.
This book isn't scary in a traditional sense but rather scary to contemplate going through what the characters of the book do. I found the story very enjoyable, however the writing style was a little bit weird, I had switch to the audiobook version to keep everything straight. I also found some of the philosophical musings to be a bit much but otherwise I thought this was a very interesting look at an apocalyptic story. Giving it a rating of 4.5/5
Please please look for trigger warning before you read this book.
These types of books are always hard to rate, it was written well, and is successful in what it sets out to do. It is gruesome, and disgusting, and is truely extreme horror in my opinion. I can't fully say I enjoyed it because I don't think the content is enjoyable but it is still a good book. I think this is def not for first time readers of extreme/more violent horror. However if you are someone who “enjoys” this genre then this is the perfect book for you.
Amazing writing ! Each story could be a full length book, I wanted to know more about so many of the characters and was sad when some of them were over. I am not normally a romance kinda girl but after this seriously considering picking up her other book!