The Paleontologist
Ratings15
Average rating3.4
USA TODAY BESTSELLER 2024 ITW Thriller Award Winner Esquire “Best Horror Books of 2023” Pick A haunted paleontologist returns to the museum where his sister was abducted years earlier and is faced with a terrifying and murderous spirit in this chilling novel. Curator of paleontology Dr. Simon Nealy never expected to return to his Pennsylvania hometown, let alone the Hawthorne Museum of Natural History. He was just a boy when his six-year-old sister, Morgan, was abducted from the museum under his watch, and the guilt has haunted Simon ever since. After a recent breakup and the death of the aunt who raised him, Simon feels drawn back to the place where Morgan vanished, in search of the bones they never found. But from the moment he arrives, things aren’t what he expected. The Hawthorne is a crumbling ruin, still closed amid the ongoing pandemic, and plummeting toward financial catastrophe. Worse, Simon begins seeing and hearing things he can’t explain. Strange animal sounds. Bloody footprints that no living creature could have left. A prehistoric killer looming in the shadows of the museum. Terrified he’s losing his grasp on reality, Simon turns to the handwritten research diaries of his predecessor and uncovers a blood-soaked mystery 150 million years in the making that could be the answer to everything.
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I should have read the description more carefully. I don't care for books where children are endangered and it's a main plot in this book.
I think it would have been just as good without that plot.
Rating: 2.30 leaves out of 5-Characters: 1.5/5 -Cover: 5/5-Story: 2/5-Writing: 2/5Genre: Dinosaurs, Thriller, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal-Dinosaurs: 5/5-Mystery: 2/5-Thriller: 0/5-Horror: 0/5-Paranormal: 3/5Type: BookWorth?: NoHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedNOTE: There will be spoilers written in the review that I won't be covering up.This book could have been considered a “weird” book, which isn't bad. I LOVE weird and odd books if done right. The writing was long and boring. There were things that didn't need to be in the book and reasons for bringing up race when it didn't need to be brought up? It felt so much like he was trying to include EVERYONE, which is fine if done right.This is the second fucking book I read where someone was writing this whack ass story and then trying to shove a “lesson” into it. I don't mind a book that talks about injustice and the things that go on in the world but for the love of all things good stop trying to do that in books like this and doing it so fucking poorly. It is a slap in the face. It is half assed and so minimally done. It is like saying I am not racist because I have a __ friend. BITCH SAY WHAT? Why are you using something so serious for your dino spirit mysteries? I wanted to scream at this book.Then the whole calling HUMAN BABIES a pet? Like bitch what? Luke is a joke. This book was ALL OVER THE PLACE. Simon was so... LACKING for something he shouldn't have been lacking in. He was written as if by an angsty teen. Luke was trying to make FETCH happen when in all honesty it wasn't going to.I will say the only thing good about this book was the Dino spirits and the kinda twist at the end. I won't lie, I was a bit confused. I like the idea of being haunted by dinos but this book isn't going to be the thing that puts them in their own sub genre.
THIS BOOK!!! I had chills the whole way through. When Simons sister disappears from the very museum he now works for, there is something there, Simon can feel it and after he finds the ramblings of his predecessor ... HOLY HECK!!
I loved the museum and all the hairs kept standing up on the back of my neck! The book was so atmospheric I was drawn in and shook hard!
I don't think I have read a book this good in a very long time from the horror genre, I am very critical of horrors when they don't meet my expectations for being terrorfied. I felt for Simon, I really did. I loved the balance the book had!
4 stars
thank you for my gifted copy
