Tommy
I'm a big Adam Cesare fan, but this novella was unfortunately a swing and a miss. It takes too long to get to the action and when the good stuff does happen it doesn't happen for nearly long enough. The beginning feels padded and the ending feels strangely rushed. The characters also seem rushed; I liked them initially but nobody was given time to grow or develop. The ending could've been good if it had been built up properly, but as is it just... kinda happens?
It hurts to rate this so low because it has a great premise and I love Cesare's work. That said, I'd be lying to myself if I went even one star higher.
An excellent comic book companion to Joe Hill's NOS4A2. It's a prequel, fully fleshing out Charlie Manx's backstory and introducing us to a few of his victims. The writing is great and the artwork is excellent, with both conspiring to make you feel like you yourself have travelled the long and icy road to Christmasland. This was so good that I kind of wish I would've started here and then read the novel, because the whole thing feels like an excellent cold open.
This was such a good series! I can't believe Marvel ended it after a measly two volumes. Tom Taylor has such a great grasp of what makes Spider-Man tick; I'm super bummed that we won't get to see more of his take on the character. But regardless, this was a fun read that was just as excellent as the first volume. The final issue even made this Spidey fan tear up a little!
A slight improvement over the first book, though it still shares the same problems. The story is interesting but never actually scary, and there are just too many characters to ever really feel like you've gotten to know anyone. Still, I'm intrigued to find out where things go - and I think the final book might finally get down to the horror I was hoping for when I started this series.
It's not a bad book, but at the same time I'm a little let down. There were too many characters, too much exposition, and not nearly enough horror! I wanted something that would make my skin crawl and there was surprisingly little of that here. That said, the action picked up towards the end and left plenty of room for a more satisfying sequel. I think I'll probably end up reading on, even if I have some gripes about this first entry.
If you look at this as the work of fiction it so clearly is, it's not bad. It's actually pretty gripping in places, even if it starts to feel a little repetitive and padded out as the days of the Lutz family's stay at Amityville pile on. Overall, I'm torn - it was a solid read and I don't regret it, but I also feel like it's a cash grab that shouldn't exist in the first place. I'll go 3/5 because, as a story, the good mostly outweighs the bad. It's decent schlock.
This is the first Grady Hendrix book I didn't love. The characters just aren't as vibrant as they are in his other works, and the story feels like it takes forever to actually start. It's not a BAD book - it picks up in the second half - but it's the first of his titles that I could never see myself rereading.
144 pages of schlocky, self-aware, gratuitous gore for gore's sake. The whole book plays like a wild, wicked '80s horror film. I liked it, of course - this sort of thing is right up my horror loving alley. That said, the lack of a strong central character to root for brought things down a notch, making what could've easily been a great book only a good one.
Nevertheless, this was a solid read that I'd recommend to those who think they can handle it, but only ever to those who think they can handle it because it's pretty intense.
