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natreviews 's review for:

Horrid by Katrina Leno
4.0
dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I have pretty complicated feelings with this book.

I went back and forth whether to give this book a 4/5 or a 4.5/5. I think I'm learning that I'm growing out of the writing style of YA. I found the family/friend relationships to be kind of cheesy at times, but the horror to be frozen in your seat terrifying. 

This book alludes to Agatha Christie's Poirot Mysteries a lot of the time. Like one of those novels, I found the ending to go to great lengths to explain itself, and fall flat a bit. It's a complicated ending. It makes sense when you sit with it, but you just aren't there for it. I found that similar to Junji Ito's Uzumaki (a.k.a. Spiral for English readers). That you didn't want it to end there, but it does. 

I think this book sets out what it's intended to do, and if I was younger I would really enjoy it, but as a 22 year old, it just doesn't hit the way it could've.

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