DP

Schlocky fun, but I hoped for a bit more

Reviewed: 03-28-25

I enjoyed this overall, but from the publisher's blurb I was hoping it would stay in the more serious mysterious area for longer. Instead, it feels like it starts early on with the crazy violence on both the human and monster sides and never really lets up. And that's fine, if you can turn your brain off and ignore everything unrealistic about such well developed creature societies living alongside people for so long and just enjoy the mayhem, it's a solidly fun time.

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Mostly solid creepiness

Reviewed: 03-19-25

I enjoyed this quite a bit overall. It's a moody story that has its disturbing moments and goes to some unexpected places, it kept me engaged and anxious to find out what was going on. It's basically the ending that holds it back a bit - it moves along a bit too fast towards the end, and feels like it doesn't wrap up every plot that in a way that feels more aggravating than intriguing. But it was still worthwhile on the whole, it gets a solid recommend.

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1 person found this helpful

Solid core, but flawed execution

Reviewed: 03-13-25

This story had a solid core, it kept me engaged and went to some disturbing areas along the way. But you can tell it's a relic of the 1970s in how it's very heavy-handed in how it treats some of the subject matter in dialogue between characters, in a way that feels tonally off today. It's also weirdly balanced between its two main sections, with the second one being too long for an epilogue, but way too short for the "part 2" it tries to be. Because of that, it wraps things up too quickly to be satisfying, even if the ending plot points themselves are fine.
So overall, an enjoyable but dark story that's held back a bit by aspects of its writing, but is still solid enough to be a decent recommend.

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Started strong but went downhill at the end

Reviewed: 03-07-25

I was enjoying this book through much of its length - it starts out feeling innocuous enough, but gradually becomes more and more disturbing. It sets up and sustains a gripping mood that held my interest and made it tough to put down. But then it hits a level of reveals and explanations in the last few hours that made it kind of fall apart for me. I feel bad for judging it so harshly in light of the epilogue, but it just didn't work for me, it felt too fictionalized to care about in a way that it had earlier avoided. So overall, not terrible and there's a lot to enjoy along the way, but in the end it left me feeling unsatisfied.

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Intriguing core story, but doesn't quite come together

Reviewed: 03-02-25

This was tough to rate. I wanted to appreciate the core story, following the main character truth any number of harrowing experiences while being stuck in a claustrophobic setting. But the whole thing is based in a surreal, somewhat fantastical environment with strange animal people, that feels underexplained in a way that takes away from the story. It feels weird for the sake of weird, in a way that pulls me away from the dark and serious things that are taking place. Overall I didn't dislike it, but I generally felt disconnected from the story it felt like it wanted me to engage with.

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Good ideas but mixed execution

Reviewed: 03-02-25

I felt like this book had good ideas at its core, but I was mixed in how I enjoyed their presentation. I enjoyed the story overall in its often dark and harrowing way, but at times there was just so much teenage angst going on that I wanted to yell at the characters to go see a therapist or a doctor or something. Plus, at a certain point the story tries to go in a twisty direction that just feels way too scripted for me to believe was anything other than fiction even when I'm trying my best to play along.

So overall, I enjoyed it reasonably well, it just didn't live up to what I was hoping based on the core story ideas.

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Very nice short story collection

Reviewed: 02-11-25

I randomly stumbled upon this book, and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. It does a nice job at sustaining evocative moods, and each story feels fresh without any of them feeling skippable. As a short story collection, it gets the biggest compliment/complaint that it really left me wanting more. Definitely worth checking out.

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Solid core idea, but not executed well

Reviewed: 01-19-25

This wasn't really what I was expecting, based on the plot summary and the opening sequence. It hits pretty hard right at the start, seeming like a typical crime thriller. But at a certain point, you realize it's the Christian fiction version of that.

I feel bad judging it based on that, but I think it's important to point out because it dragged things down from the book I thought I was getting. The book does go into some heavy topics, but it feels so neutered when you get things like it only alluding to a serial killer's swears. Plus, there's an overly patronizing feel when it really gets into the characters bringing up their faith and contrasting it with the main character's lack thereof. It also bites off more than it can chew (or is even interested in chewing, really) when it tries to get into the characters’ faith helping calm them and believe that God is helping work everything out for them. That's fine for the main characters, but it's just kind of left hanging for the couple dozen innocent people who were tortured and murdered along the way.

Maybe it'd have gone down better if I was coming at it from a religious perspective, but coming from my interest in crime thrillers it made for a toned down and aggravating experience. Overall, not really recommended for that reason.

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Mostly solid weird horror

Reviewed: 01-16-25

I actually enjoyed this book quite a lot. It's got some criticism for the writing, but the style worked for me. It helped sustain a particular mood, starting from a teenager dealing with small town life and then piling weirder and weirder happenings and revelations on them. It was a very different story than I expected, but it grabbed my interest early on and held it for most of the book. My only real complaint was (as is fairly common for horror) that it felt like the plot became too jumbled towards the end, where it kind of lost me. But I'm used to that, the story and the evocative mood up till then were enough for me to enjoy it overall, and give it a solid recommend.

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"What did you do, before the sky started to bleed?"

Reviewed: 01-10-25

I enjoyed this one a lot. The author's been on my radar since his first short story collection, and this book really shows why he's one of my favorite modern horror writers. He keeps the focus limited to the protagonist and just a few other characters for much of the book, and maintains a good level of eeriness with some occasional unsettling imagery along the way. I also appreciate that he shows just enough of the strange things happening in the world to keep you wanting more, but never overexplains it. And for a horror story, I appreciate that the ending is actually delivered well. I want to read more about what happens next, but the ending is also satisfying as-is. Overall, just a great experience, it gets my highest recommendation.

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