booking_along's Reviews (1.97k)

„thanks for coming to another dark place with me“ is the last line of Kings in his authors note of this book.

and i don’t think there is a much more fitting way to describe this book and its story. 

it’s a dark place with monster waiting. 

i personally love Kings books the most where it shows the horrors of humanity - don’t get me wrong he also has good stuff with supernatural elements (the rest of the Holly saga comes to mind especially with review this last book of that series) but i think that he twisted dark places King can take the reader to with his human monsters? those are just horrific in realistic real life ways that make the entire reading experience especially creepy or thrilling or horrific (pick your own emotion!) 


this book is a slower paced crime book that takes you along while characters try to solve a mystery the reader already knows the answer to because we as the readers also get the perspective of the bad guy. 

do it’s not a typical thriller where we have to wait with a racing heart what’s going to happen and flip pages until the jog reveal to learn who’s done it.


i personally didn’t mind that at all because especially the last 50-80 or so pages where enough of a heart racing moment for me with all the horrific small moments of the book that i didn’t need to also have the added layer of having to try and figure out who is doing it. 


i liked following along how Holly is trying to puzzle it out and work through the case while knowing where she had to end up to be right. 


BUT if you don’t like that? this book isn’t for you. 
if you don’t like Holly as a character (i understand she can be polarizing) don’t read a book that has her name as a title! it specifically tells you who the book will feature a lot! 
if you dislike slower pace and a bit of a ramble along? not the book for you. 
or if you dislike a real horror that some humans are capable of? pick something else. 


i enjoyed all those aspects! 
they made this book as good as it was for me. 


i found the parts where Barbara and Jerome were more in focus -Barbara had a bigger role in this story- a bit too long and could have lived with shorter sections from them. but overall they weren’t bad or boring, i just felt like the dragged the story out a bit and i didn’t really feel it needed that. 
but they are great characters and i am happy to have gotten more from them after having finished the book. 


now the horror aspect of the book: 
no spoilers but no supernatural elements. 
i don’t think that’s a spoiler because it makes a decision to read or not to read especially a book with horror elements easier for many.

i as already mentioned, find human and what they are capable of more horrific than a fictional monster. 

so if i want a real horror that will keep me up longer than i wanted to be up and actually feel uneasy? i need this books kind of horror - humanity and it’s horrific sides. 

but if you prefer monster? this book is more of a crime story for you and won’t give you want sour looking for. 
reread the others that feature Holly and get your fix there. 



all in all? 
i enjoyed it - a lot. 

i would have loved it a bit more if the pacing would have been a little faster, some sections cut a little shorter and maybe the book would have been 350 pages (so almost a hundred pages shorter) because it wouldn’t have been as slow and meandering in some sections.


as it it’s ist well done and i enjoyed it a lot and i especially love the last section where it picked up speed a bit. 

but i overall mostly enjoyed this because  Holly is a fantastic character to me. i just enjoy her and i do love that King himself can’t seem to really let her go either. 

If you try this book and the first few pages/chapters are not to you liking? don’t continue! 

the writing style, the way the characters behave and how the story is told -in all its whimsical strangeness with a honest if slight sarcastic fun tone- goes through the entire book. 


i personally enjoyed this book a lot. 

honestly the biggest struggle for me was around 150-200 pages into the book somewhere (my ebook copy didn’t show page numbers so i can’t be completely sure but around there) where it felt a bit like the story dragged a bit too long at the same space and could have been edited down a bit especially since the ending than happens very quickly with slight time jumps and rapid story telling and overall wrapping up of it all. 

the dragging part for me was when tress becomes part of the ship and it’s just this big bad captain for and her evil plans over and over again. i got stuck on that part for a while and put the book aside for months and just picked it back up because i didn’t want to have it linger on into a new year. 

and i am very happy that k made it through those around maybe 50-80 pages that just felt very repetitive in what was happening because the rest of the book was good! 


is this Sandersons best work? i don’t think so -neither was „the frugal wizard….“ the other if the projects i read so far- but they are fun. 

they have a bit lighter tone, a bit less drama and a bit more wit overall. at least to me.

they don’t work for everyone because of that specific style but they are fun books to read between other stuff. 


i haven’t read the entire Cosmere world yet so i can’t say if this book plays a huge important role in the overall world building and understanding of it - BUT to me it felt very much like a fun filler project (both i read of the secret books did) that are good and entertaining but overall fun. 

they feel lighter and easier and i am sure where fun to  write from the typically more heavy and bigger fantasy stuff Sanderson weaves and writes. 
they read that way to me at least -as if he wanted to have some fun, take a bit of a dramatic fantasy story break, and so this is what came from it. 

might be what happened or might not be the case it all, i don’t know! 


i would recommend this and i would also say you dont need any previous knowledge of the Cosmere to enjoy this. 

do with what i wrote here what you want! 

i went into this book expecting a bit of a strange read and while that certainly is part of this book, it was also an extremely honest an real look at women and their life’s and while it had this magical realism fantasy aspect of women turning into dragons- the actual overall topic was very much about women in general - at least for me.


it was almost a commentary about what women went through and how that could have gone if women would have been more physical powerfully - how men couldn’t have kept pushing women down as much and wouldn’t have gotten away with as much so easily as they did and still do.


now you don’t have to read too much into this book. 
you can also just read it as a story of a girl growing into a women and more or less sharing her life story and how the world was that she grew and old in with the ability of women to become dragons. 

it’s written in a bit of a slower sometimes almost meandering tone, so don’t go into this expecting a fast paced or action packed story. 


each book by this author -i read at least 3 of hers now- were completely different and had nothing to do with the other. they differentiated from tone to topic to amount of fantastic elements and plot completely. 
this author isn’t one that just because you liked one book means you enjoy an other or the other way around - or you can love them all because they are all so different and in ways uniquely done.

i really enjoyed this and while k did thing that the middle part dragged a little bit and i would have absolutely loved this if it would have verbs little bit shorter it was a fantastic read and such a different book that i know i want to come back and experience it all over again at some point. 

i had already read this story when it was just a short story but the graphic novel is beautifully done and adds a whole new layer to the story and is defiantly worth reading, both with having read or not having read the story before hand. 

also for very grisha fan clearly one that’s an added bonus and doesn’t need to be told to read it. 


i enjoyed this so much more than expected given it’s a format a normally don’t enjoy overly much - so clearly recommend! 

i had such high hopes for this book. 
it’s quoted on the book as being this funny festive adventure and while it’s certainly an adventure kind of book it’s also extremely over the top and repetitive in its comedy -if you want to call it that. 

i dislike being mostly negative but sadly this book just doesn’t have a large amount of positive things that i can rave about.

for me this book was trying to be something it didn’t end up becoming - magical fun christmas adventure maybe in the same tone as the movie „Arthur Christmas“. 
it never got there. 
this book tried to hard to be funny with jokes that didn’t land and writing that showed it tried to be the current trend but didn’t know exactly how to speak that way and willed with pretty mindless and running round without a real plan.

no character development, no christmas magic and beauty, joy or fun… this book sadly lacked all the things that could have made it a better story.

and in top of that the last 8-10 pages were incredibly rushed because it all of a sudden became clear that all the answered needed to be given that the last 300+ of running around and mindless, over the top jokes didn’t give! 


And okay, maybe it’s just not my type of humor.

 i never enjoyed fart jokes, i don’t enjoy dont find it funny when one of reindeer speaks „like i wouldn’t know, but like it’s sooo super cool, like speaking like this right? because that’s how everyone like talks now like right?“ (which thankfully was one of the ones that spoke the least!)

and look i get that this is a middle grade book and it’s clearly targeted towards a younger age range of that audience but while this is fast paced it’s mostly just stupid. 

having to reduce basically every since reindeer through this entire book for over 200 pages only for the last 4 to have the big reveal, come to a conclusion and finish up? it’s just not paced right.


this story and idea could have been fun but i think it would have been better as a picture book, 50-60 or so pages long, large beautiful illustrations and keeping all the repetitiveness out and utterly ridiculous moments (like a best being described as having „a huge tongue coated in s gooey white slop, two big yellowing teeth jutting up from the front corners of its bottom jaw, head low and lolling from side to side…“ for no reason or with any explanation at all) that i am unsure if they where supposed to be funny or not - i didn’t find them that way. 


also sadly while i found the cover art cute enough with color added, the black and white version inside the book wasn’t for me. 
art is personal and i am sure there are people that will find the illustrations quirky and fun, i found them too simple and sadly lacking the beauty and fit for what they were supposed to show - and again i am unsure if that was done purposefully to show the quirky funny side or not. clearly it didn’t work with me.


overall sadly i wouldn’t recommend this to a large audience.

 if you want a fast paced quirky adventure story? go for its

but if you want actual christmas wonder and fun? i think it’s better to look somewhere else. 

this book is very much focused on running around and trying to land a joke instead of focusing on making thinks cozy and fun in a way i find more fitting for christmas stories. 

this was a lot. 

and a lot more sexual focused than i expected and personally needed. 

one of the biggest struggles with reading autobiographies for me is always reviewing those books. 

because clearly for elliot what was written was important and was something that the author felt like it needed to be in the book. 

but as a reader i didn’t need to know so many sex details? 
also the constant jumping between different time lines and moments, memories and events was a lot as well.


it was good written and it’s fantastic that this book is out for everyone.