2/5 stars
Henry Holt and Company, 2013
262 pages
YA Horror
Scheduled to release November 5
Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not entirely sure why I decided to give this a read as I'm normally someone who assiduously avoids horror, being quite the scaredy cat. But I must have seen something intriguing to get it on my review calendar.
The book was very hard to get into and I found the plot a bit difficult to follow. Merciful and her brother Gospel Truth have just seen their mother die. As the world ends, they say goodbye to their two remaining neighbors, wrestle with the Minister, a preacher in animal form, and deal with the fact that their dead mother's body still seems to be moving around singing a haunting lullaby.
In fact the mother's body seems to be possessed by someone else and that is where my difficulty lies as I became confused about the rules of the possession. There also is a deadly fog and the disintegration and depopulation of earth so that only these four people are left alive (and not all of them even make it to the end.) So I would also classify this as a darker book, not just as in the horror genre but also for the themes it brings up and wrestles with. I think there were supposed to be some questions about faith and God especially in a Christian context but though I am Christian, I didn't really follow these conversations. I really did find the writing style confusing and distancing.
Well, what about the characters? They're okay-I don't see many unique personality traits to distinguish them among the sea of other characters I've read so don't go looking here for a character-driven narrative. I feel like this one is maybe a bit more philosophical, which may be another reason for my distaste.
Overall I respect what this book is doing and its very different writing style and subject matter; however it is very much not my kind of book and I did not enjoy reading it nor would I recommend it to people with similar reading taste.
Aw, I'm sorry you didn't like this book. But thank you for being honest. <3 I have a print ARC of it, but I'm worried about reading it. Thing is, I requested it because of it being horror. Then it arrived and I figured out it has a lot of God in it and that stuff. Which is not for me at all. Sigh. Still hoping to give it a try soon, though :) Thank you for sharing. <3
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely some horrifying moments-maybe it will work better for you!
DeleteOnly four people left alive? On Earth? Wow.
ReplyDelete(And Gospel Truth is the best name ever. That's hilarious.)
Isn't that crazy? I mean, there might be more than four but as far as they can tell, it's just four.
DeleteGood to hear that you respected different style but sorry that the characters were just okay
ReplyDeleteI always try to find something positive about a book and recognize that I have my own preferences that are going to not be represented in every book.
DeleteI like philosophical but I'm not Christian and I avoid most books that deal with religion. I also love horror, but I'm confused just reading your description of what's going on. Confusing indeed.
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
There's a good reason for the confusion: I was confused myself and that carries over. I hope more people will be reading this so I can check out their reviews and get things clarified.
DeleteI was approved for this title but didn't give me the option to send it to kindle. I had to download it, but my kindle doesn't read that format :-(
ReplyDeleteWell, looks like I'm not missing much :-)
Bummer-I'd hate that!
DeleteNever heard of this and I guess I will probably skip it...
ReplyDeleteBased on our pretty much shared reading interests, I don't think you'd like this one.
DeleteSounds somewhat confusing and a little unbelievable. Four people out of seven billion survive the end of the world, and they just happen to be in close enough proximity to interact with one another? How lucky is that?
ReplyDeleteThere might be more than four alive but they have no way of confirming that. Maybe there are loads more people some place else but communication is so sketchy that they cannot communicate.
DeleteNow I'm sad because I'm supposed to read this. I'm still going to be optimistic though.
ReplyDeleteI am going to be optimistic too-I hope you pick up on something I didn't and the book just works for you! I also wonder if a print copy would have been better for me...
DeleteOh no, that doesn't sound like my kind of read either. Confusing, philosophical, unclear horror rules, possession, nope not for me. I'm not sure why this one appealed to me either (maybe the cover? It reminds me of first The Dead and Buried cover). Thanks for the review! I'll steer clear now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think you'd like it either but maybe if you happened to see it at the library, you could page through and give the writing a shot? I feel bad that it may be dismissed just because I didn't have a great reading experience.
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