blewballoon's Reviews (763)

I wasn't sure how to feel about this book during most of my reading. I found it pretty funny at times, the constant gag of the main character reacting nonchalantly to horrific and bizarre sights never got old for me. The book isn't exactly subtle about the comparison between surviving a haunted house being sort of like surviving an abusive relationship, and

if you follow along with that comparison to the end of the story, it seems to suggest that rather than telling people in these relationships to "leave" we should approach it more like "forcing the abuser to leave"

I had a hard time connecting with the living characters at times though, the tone of the book kept them at arms length, even if we did get little tidbits about their histories. I really enjoyed the ending and how

it didn't go the more cliche twist route that it toyed with

. The ending honestly brought my opinion of the book up in general.

If you like the movie When Harry Met Sally, this is basically a modernized and expanded book version with more sex jokes. I was in the mood for an autumn slow-burn romance in New York, and this hit the spot, really. It was neat to see how the characters' relationships and views changed as time and events went by, and their mistakes were understandable, if painful to read at times. I did get a little tired of the reliance on sex jokes for humor, but I think that's my biggest critique. I listened to this on audiobook and would recommend it, I really like this narrator.

I read this via Dracula Daily. I highly recommend it! Dracula is an epistolary novel where everything has a date, and Dracula Daily is an email subscription that sends you the entries on the date they happen. So, the story is spread out across the months that it takes place and you get to experience it in chronological order. What I didn't expect was that Dracula is actually quite funny, I wonder if it at the time it was like the horror comedy movies we have today. I think part of the humor came from my modern sensibilities clashing with the language of the past, but I also think there were many aspects purposefully meant to be humorous when they were written. As with many older works, there are some dated aspects, like the use of slurs and other stereotypes/sexist views. I also found the "sailor speak" portions where the writing is written phonetically to convey a lower class accent a bit difficult to read and translate. Other than that though, I had a blast following along with this story, and I'm a little sad it's over for the year. 

It took me a while to get through this book, but I think ultimately I enjoyed it. The two leads with alternating perspectives are very different from each other and both have their own flaws and strengths.

I feel like turning their friendship into a romance in the very last chapter didn't quite work. I would have liked a little more development throughout to make it feel less sudden.

For a horror book, I would say the horror elements are fairly mild. I enjoyed learning about Mexican film and culture. The story is set in 1993, but the characters reflect on Mexico's past as well.

I got a little bored with the villain backstory and spending time with the older, somewhat underdeveloped characters that were there to provide threats, rescues, and exposition mostly.

I would recommend if you like the idea of niche horror movies,  but don't actually want a book with really disturbing or gruesome scenes, and don't mind a slower pace that's more character focused. 

This was quite good! The world-building and writing were creative, witty, and dense. There were many instances where something was described in such a clever and vivid way I took notice. It's refreshing to see a book led by a happy married couple that works seamlessly together, and yet the book manages plenty of drama and tension. The plot has the speed and whimsy of books like The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall or The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton, but is more grounded and human than both, despite being somewhere between the two in terms of fantasy level. I honestly feel bad because I didn't pay as close attention to this audiobook as I feel like I should have; there was a lot to enjoy, and this is a style of book I tend to love. I feel like the writing was so packed with info and flavor that I definitely missed things by not being 100% focused while listening. I will caution that this may not work well as a standalone if that's how you plan to read it, things aren't fully resolved by the end of this story.

This wasn't quite what I was expecting. Yes, it's a locked room mystery type story where a group of people are trapped somewhere and they start dying one by one. Like some others stories with that premise, the people are mostly bad and hard to sympathize with, which makes their deaths seem less tragic. In this case, we also get loads of backstory from Daisy's perspective that seems to want to round out the characters of the family members and give them a little more depth, but ultimately still remind you that they are terrible people. I kind of want to re-read the story after the big reveal at the end, because it frames things in a very different light, but I didn't like the book enough to go through it twice. If you are looking for a thriller, this might be a little too slow paced for you. If you are looking for a spooky Halloween read (the main plot is set at Halloween), this may be too focused on family drama for you. The dysfunctional family and episodes from their past are really the focus. I listened on audiobook and I think the narrator made it a lot more enjoyable than I would have found it otherwise.

This was a great follow up to the first book! I had said that the first book in the series felt like a TV pilot episode, and this feels like a nice expansion of the setup done there. The overarching mysteries get a little more information added to them, and we also have an interesting ghost-of-the-week plot to follow and resolve. The relationships between the characters have grown a little, and so has the main character's relationship to the town. I enjoyed this very much, I'm really looking forward to more from this series.

Yeah, this is about as good as the first book in the series, maybe a little more subdued and a little less "are you kidding me?" The cast of characters is smaller, but we're still stuck in Sophie's POV and her internal monologue is probably the worst part of both books? Things would be fine in the scene in terms of the tone and plot, and then Sophie will over-explain or just react to things in the utmost cliche way possible. I think the narrator I was listening to on audiobook made this a bit worse, since she used a more cloying and high pitched voice for the internal thoughts. This was a predictable story, if I told you the basic plot points you could fill in the blanks for yourself. Ultimately this series was fine and I didn't have a bad time, but I can't recommend it either.

Hmm, I think this is my least favorite Darcy Coates book so far. I will say that her writing is always fairly straightforward, and maybe a little cliche, but the simplistic writing style hadn't bothered me before. It feels lower quality here, maybe being in a historical setting makes the writing seem weaker because it sounds too modern? The story is a combo of Rebecca and Crimson Peak, but more rushed and with less nuance than either. It did shock me at one point though

when the completely evil aunt just point blank shoots the friendly maid and kills her.

The romance didn't work for me, either. I'm going to read the sequel anyway, because I have it and I didn't hate this, but if you asked me for a Darcy Coates recommendation, it would be another book for sure. 

I was really looking forward to this book, and it didn't disappoint! I enjoyed the spooky cursed town, the magic house, and the quirky cast of buried-heart-of-gold characters. Highly recommend it for a Halloween read, especially if you don't want a book with anything too gruesome or graphic happening on the page.