Mariana

This book was not at all what I expected to be. It is not a spooky or mysterious story, as the synopsis paints it out to be. Instead, it is a reflection on life and death, told through beautiful, thought provoking tales. Even though it wasn't the fun ghost story I was expecting, I thoroughly enjoyed this read, and will probably be thinking about it for a while. 

What can I say. This was a magical experience, and spooky in just the perfect way. Neil Gaiman is slowly but surely becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved the mystery, the ghosts, the beautiful writing and characters. I more than anything had a lot of fun. Yes, there is a lot of tragedy at the heart of this story, but there is also so much love and sacrifice that comes from it. Neil Gaiman is the king of middle grade spookiness in my opinion, and I can't wait to read more from him.

This book is magical, terrifying, and heartbreaking. What the main character goes through is extremely dark in a way that I wasn't expecting. The idea of the book is very interesting, and I was intrigued by the world the author created, but it just wasn't as memorable as I wanted it to be. I can barely remember the plot to be honest, nor did I quite understand how the magic worked. I think the main things I did enjoy about the book were the emotions it managed to convey. I was truly disturbed, then terrified, then sad, disturbed again,  and terrified again for the rest of it. The writing is beautiful, which is expected of Neil Gaiman, and you can see his genius in it. It just wasn't my favorite of his works. Still good though.

This book was a lot of fun. I definitely didn't see the reveals coming, and I was at the edge of my sit for a lot of it. I am however very confused as to why the US edition is so different to the UK one. I tried to read my physical copy alongside the audiobook, only to find out my US copy was missing full lines that the UK audiobook had. I can (somewhat) understand changing a few names and words, but removing full sentences? These changes might not affect the plot, but they do make the writing seem dry and the characters flat. I can't understand why they would do this. Where they trying to make the book shorter so that it seemed more approachable? Was the editor to lazy to adapt what they saw as unnecessary lines? I don't get it and I wish they would stop. That's my rant, thanks for reading. 

This book is terrifying in a very unusual way. I was expecting to be bored, considering that most of the book happens inside a single room, and knowing that King can sometimes be overly descriptive, but I was somehow very invested throughout the whole thing. It also doesn't suffer from the problem that a lot of King's books do with the endings not making sense. Perhaps because this is not a supernatural book, he had to actually write a good ending instead of going for a deus ex machina or pulling something else out of his ass.
I listened to the audiobook for most of it, and the narrator was amazing. She put so much emotion and nuance into it. Her name is Lindsay Crouse. I was only slightly disappointed with her delivery of a certain line involving a cockadoodie car, but it's not the narrator's fault that Kathy Bates is so iconic. Overall, one of the best Stephen King books I've read.