Elias
I liked this a lot, but damn if that ending isn't depressing as all get out. I was really rooting for them, only for everyone but Jane to die, and for her to be picked up by people who are likely going up to the same cabin she had just spent the last two days trying to escape, almost guaranteeing certain death for herself and the new characters. I wish it had ended on a bit of a happier note, I think then I would've given it a higher rating.
Edit: Been reflecting a bit on this and I think I may have been too harsh in my initial review. Don't get me wrong, the ending is brutal, but overall this was a really fun read that had me on the edge of my seat, and so I think the book really set out what it was trying to do. I don't typically reread books, but I'll admit that I'm tempted to reread this one to have that “oh fuck” kind of experience again.
This book starts slow, but it was really hard to put down in the last half. The twists were good because they make you reflect on what you've read, and think “oh fuck” for missing certain things. There's enough hints that you can pick up on them, but they're subtle enough that it makes you second guess yourself.
Spoilers for the ending
I had a feeling earlier on in the book that Patrick and Lex may have had an incestuous relationship, but I had shrugged it off only for it to be revealed at the end as true... or was it? The book ends with the MC reminding you that he's a con artist and the last line is literally “Do you believe me?”, which makes you rethink everything you just read.
All in all, I just thought the book was really well executed and I'm still reeling from the ending.
The book was incredibly informative, and yet it remained humerus (haha, get it?) all the way through. Really enjoyed learning about the human body in relation to evolution and why certain defects developed (seriously, our knees suck, and the book explained why and how that happened!)
It was alright. Wrapped up the story well enough, though I did feel that the ending was pretty abrupt.
I was curious about this one for a while, and Ive found myself enjoying retellings of this story, so that tells me that the concept isn't the problem for me. I think the writing is just too dry, and I couldn't really engage with it past the halfway point.
This book really isn't what I was expecting it to be. Maybe that's partially on me. I was told about it's brutality, about the gore, and I'll admit that it was present. However, it wasn't present until you're well into the book, after Bateman has droned on about the people around him, the clothes they're wearing, the foods they're eating... god, it was fucking boring. I understand, and understood for a while after starting the book, that this is a social commentary and is satirical in nature. You're not supposed to like the characters, you're supposed to acknowledge how shallow they all are and how awful of people they are, but that doesn't make it more interesting to read. I found this book so boring, in fact, that the only way I could keep reading it was to make it a challenge to myself to see if I could finish it. Now I have, and I really don't think it was really worth the time.
If there was one thing I liked about this book, it was that there was a neat section near the end. Bateman kills a saxophonist, and then the cops pursue him, and during this time, the perspective shifts seamlessly. It shifts from first person to third person, switching from using “I” to “he”. I thought that was cool, and I appreciated the writing there for that.
I really liked this. A book by someone who is actually autistic who works in the social psychology field, he's knowledgeable about autism and how it affects autistic people in society (or, more accurately, how society impacts autistic people). He describes his own past experiences and provides other examples from people he's interviewed, including women and people of colour with autism, about how they discovered they were autistic and what that means for them. Very worthwhile read, and I found myself relating a lot to quite a few aspects of this book. Highly recommend.
This story was sold to me as a creature feature, and it very much is, but the creature is not the forefront of this story by any means and is more of a metaphorical device than something that is dived into in detail. The story centers a lot more on our main character and the abuse she suffers at her “husband”.
We learn later that this was actually her mother's boyfriend, and he kidnapped her when she was eight years old in order to groom her.
All in all, I feel like this was a beautifully done story. I've never suffered abuse myself, but it seemed like a liberating story to me about an abuse victim who finally manages to break free of her situation and find something better. I would hope that, if an abuse victim read this story, they would have the same hope for something better that I finished the story with. Fair warning that the emotional and physical abuse in this story is explicit, and I'd imagine that this would be an incredibly hard read for somebody who's been through abuse like this before. Take care if you intend on reading this story.
Ive gotten really bored of this series tbh. Think I might just look up a retrospective on youtube or find a synopsis of the series somewhere else
I didn't like how ableist this book was. I tried giving it a chance, but the way it talks about autism and other disabilities really made me feel uncomfortable.
Had this book read to me back in middle school when it first came out and thought it was a lot of fun. Wanted to reread it in preparation for reading the rest of the series and had as much fun as I did the first time.
I could tell it was going to be a bit of a slog, and the audiobook I had didnt match the text in front of me and was only making me more confused.
This book was definitely suspenseful and it definitely made me tense while reading. For that, I enjoyed it, but there are definitely some criticisms to be had.
I thought the beginning was pretty slow. Stevie was investigating his cousin's disappearance for a long time I felt, and I think some of that could've been cut for the sake of not boring the reader. Not that I would have DNF'd it personally - I've read another one of Ahlborn's books and enjoyed it, so I had a good impression going into it - but I could understand if someone else would.
Part two is when things start to pick up, and you start to realize the deepness of shit Stevie and his cousin got themselves into. That said, this is where one of my major gripes comes in. It's a spoiler though, so I'm going to censor it. Overall, I thought Rosie's story was really intriguing and I was really invested in her character throughout. The part that bugs me is how Otto, her son, is described throughout the book. He's presented as physically and mentally disabled, and the way the author describes him really rubs me the wrong way. Ahlborn describes him as malformed, disfigured, and generally using language that's supposed to invoke disgust with the way he looks. The author also infantilizes him, although I think this could be argued as Rosie attempting to give him excuses in the narrative. Additionally, a slight tangent but it is related, I felt weird about the way the characters in the book talked about Stevie like he was going to lose it and kill someone (which, granted, he did at the end, but he thought it was in self defense). While I understand that this is the popular outlook for those with mental disabilities, specifically the ones that are more “scary” to the general populous, I just think it perpetuates a myth that does more harm than good.
Part 3 was definitely the most tense to me. After you've realized that shits going to hit the fan, it's a bit of a slowburn, but Ania really knows how to build the suspense. Also related to my earlier spoiler, it's made to seem like Stevie is an unreliable narrator due to his psychosis and potentially undiagnosed schizophrenia. I do like how effective the author made this, because at the end of the book, you're really not sure what was real and what wasn't. Unfortunately, it does tie into the whole “scary disorder” thing I mentioned previously.
I also do feel like the ending falls apart a little bit if you start to think about it. Maybe Stevie just hallucinated the whole thing, or Ras magicked it away somehow, or some other third thing, but without any expansion on that, it's hard not to just call every witness to Jude assaulting his mom and Stevie defending them a plot hole.
I thought I would enjoy this book more than I did. I'm not sure if it was the way it was written or what, but it just wasn't vibing with me. The premise was super interesting, but it just didn't keep me captivated long enough for me to want to really stick with it until the end.
Thought it was a little boring at first. Ending was a little sad, but the plot twists were neat.
Wasn't amazing, but it was informative. I don't think it was incredibly detailed, but it gives you a basic rundown of the major myths and stories.