Bats
I received a free ebook copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review.
Positives first: the plot itself is mostly fine, the characters are mostly fine. I really liked the subversion with the ravens. The book has content warnings listed at the back, which I appreciate.
But the pacing is just so painfully slow. You know how in like monster/slasher movies you have the opening bits that are a bit slower, when they're trying to investigate it like a normal crime and they don't really know what's going on yet? Then people figure things out and the pacing cranks up? This book is permanently locked into the pace of those opening bits. Any time action happens and you expect the book to finally ramp up, it pulls back. Even over thirty chapters in to this forty-chapter book, the pace is still throttled. It's agonizing.
There's also this constant question of “should we move here?” which I quite frankly do not understand. Like, by the characters own admission they have been having a terrible vacation. Drownings, near-drownings, assaulted by hostile locals, people going missing, but hey should we stay here forever? It's even more frustrating because it contributes to the pacing problems. Things will actually be happening but we have to stop and have the same conversation we keep having over and over again that goes nowhere and I don't even know why we're having this conversation in the first place.
If you like or don't mind slow books, sure, go for it. It just wasn't for me.
I received a free ebook copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review.
Positives first: the plot itself is mostly fine, the characters are mostly fine. I really liked the subversion with the ravens. The book has content warnings listed at the back, which I appreciate.
But the pacing is just so painfully slow. You know how in like monster/slasher movies you have the opening bits that are a bit slower, when they're trying to investigate it like a normal crime and they don't really know what's going on yet? Then people figure things out and the pacing cranks up? This book is permanently locked into the pace of those opening bits. Any time action happens and you expect the book to finally ramp up, it pulls back. Even over thirty chapters in to this forty-chapter book, the pace is still throttled. It's agonizing.
There's also this constant question of “should we move here?” which I quite frankly do not understand. Like, by the characters own admission they have been having a terrible vacation. Drownings, near-drownings, assaulted by hostile locals, people going missing, but hey should we stay here forever? It's even more frustrating because it contributes to the pacing problems. Things will actually be happening but we have to stop and have the same conversation we keep having over and over again that goes nowhere and I don't even know why we're having this conversation in the first place.
If you like or don't mind slow books, sure, go for it. It just wasn't for me.