SeanXavier

Wanted another oral history book after FantasticLand…

Revisado: 07-01-21

and while this book sort of scratched that itch, it was just all over the place but also felt like it did never really caught a good stride. Just when I’d get interested in a storyline or a character, it would jump to something else. Characters came and went almost arbitrarily, and sometimes it felt like they’d spend all this time building up a character or story hook, only to have it completely done away with without any significant send off. It just left a lot to be desired in my opinion.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Picked this up from the Audible free library on a whim…

Revisado: 06-30-21

So glad I did. This book was just pure and simple fun. The concept of the story is far-fetched to be sure and when I read the synopsis I thought to myself, “There’s no way this is gonna be good.”
Within the first few chapters I not only thought I was wrong, I couldn’t put the book down. I was so engrossed by trying to find out what happened next.

Sure, this book dives hard in to testing your suspension of disbelief, it’s people trapped in an amusement park who start killing each other, but the way it unfolds and the use of the oral history as the format with which it’s told is just so fun and works so well. This honestly made me want to track down more horror and horror adjacent stories written in the oral history vein, as this reminded me of World War Z I had read years ago and also thoroughly enjoyed.

I will mention though that there are some trigger warnings for mentions of assault, abuse, torture, and a couple scenes of graphic violence. So you may want to research the book a bit more if those are things you have trouble with.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Got this book as a gift from a book club I participate in…

Revisado: 06-30-21

And am grateful that I did, boy howdy. I really enjoyed The Elementals. The imagery in the book was haunting. And it did what good horror novels do in that it didn’t rely on scares or gore, but rather setting and tension. The story had a great narrative and I really enjoyed all the characters. Granted, there was some suspension of disbelief at times, but isn’t that why we read ghost stories in the first place?

Anyone looking to pick up a great story that has a lingering dread while you read, this one will check off that box.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I went in to the book sight unseen as per a fellow horror readers recommendation…

Revisado: 06-30-21

And this book just didn’t really do it for me. The central character was a fun read in his sarcastic, narcissistic, pessimistic steadfastness, but even that gets a little tired after a while. He just comes off as so snarky that every conversation feels like a boxing match where he’s looking for a knockout punch to claim victory.
As for the horror aspect, I found it to be lackluster at best and lazy writing at worst. I hope I’m not spoiling anything when I say that it felt like the entire payoff we’d been building toward culminated in this rushed, incredibly brief scene and then the narrative did a bit of a 180, but we weren’t given any more to go on.

Just my two cents, which ain’t worth a dime, but after finishing I just felt like a had read an entire novel just to showcase how witty and abrasively the author could write witty conversational jabs and insults.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Body horror galore.

Revisado: 05-19-21

So I was recommended this book when I asked on Reddit for suggestions of books that were truly scary to read. Well, this book wasn’t necessarily that for me. It might be for some. And don’t get me wrong, it was a good book, but for me I guess it was more gross and unnerving than it was actually scary. I felt sorry, I felt disgusted, my heart broke at times, but all of that was more out of just overall disgust than it was genuine terror. The book is really well written and the narration was done incredibly well, it really conveyed the evolution of each character and you could hear in the narrators voice the progression of events taking their respective toll on individual characters, but I just never felt fear. It was more like morbid curiosity that kept me reading rather than thrill seeking on account of being afraid. Overall it was a good read and I’d recommend it, just not exactly what I had been hoping for.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña