I am definitely being slightly generous with my rating here, but this was the first book in a while that had my attention and I had fun. It felt like I was watching a cheesy early 2000s horror movie and I think that the descriptions of deaths were well done. The chapters were short and I'm finding that when done well, short chapters really make a book. There was a slight drag in the middle where I was wondering just how much longer Mahoney was gonna drag out the story, but I think it paid off well in the end. There was one plot twist that happened towards the end that at first I thought I was a fan of, but upon further reflection just felt weak and took away from the overall story. The characters weren't necessarily memorable, but I had fun reading about them. 

I'm interested to see what else Mahoney has and will write. Sometimes you just need a fun little book to get you back on track. 

I won't rate this because it doesn't feel right to. I didn't connect with this book at all and I actually really found it a chore to get through despite it being so short. I don't know if this because it's one of those "right books, wrong time" deal-ios, but I think I would like to revisit again in a few years.

Overall, I think I have an understanding of the choices made throughout this book. Mainly the choose to write from the perspective of the people in the character's life instead of from the main character herself. I can see why many people love this book and why it has resonated with them. 

I felt like this book had an interesting concept and I liked the writing style. It jumps right into the story and the short chapters really help the pacing. That being said, for such a short book it manages to be slightly all over the place. I wish that Knútsdóttir had chosen to focus the story more on one singular problem in the character's life instead of trying to cast a large net over multiple issues. The end also left something to be desired, felt a little too "and then they woke up". 

(Which I admit I seem to have this problem with a lot of endings, I think I'm just too picky.)

I feel I don't really have much to say about this, it was unfortunately unmemorable in the end. 

After spending some time thinking about this book, or really lack of thinking about this book, I have come to some conclusions. 

I think that it's pretty great to see a story from an online forum get traditionally published. There are so many great writers who like to share their stories for free and any chances they get to explore their talents in more traditional ways is a win. I felt this story had some strong ideas and it manages to touch on interesting almost magical concepts. 

That being said, I was disappointed. I think I have just heard so many excited, raving reviews about this book for so long that my expectations were far too high. The beginning took a really long time to get going and instead of any tension or suspense I was just overall annoyed. There was one scene that gave me slight chills and then the story immediately slowed again. I really enjoyed the mixed media inserts after every chapter, but I found myself disappointed when I had to go back to the main story because it was just so dull. I really wish the Kliewer had explored the magical concepts more instead of focusing on the popular internet conspiracy theories concepts. The ending just felt ... weak? 

Overall, I can see why people liked this book, but it didn't do much for me. I heard it was getting adapted into a show (?) so I will definitely be tuning into that. I will also be keeping an eye out for anything new from this author, I would like to see what else he does.

Me waiting for the crazy, kinky sex: 🧍🏻

I don't exactly know what I was expecting with this book, but I was expecting more horror. This was fairly easy to read and get into and I did like some perspectives more than others (Joseph and M). After reading one book where they used zero quotations (Incidents Around the House) and here where M's chapter also uses zero quotations, I have concluded that there is a good way to go about this and it's this book.

I enjoyed exploring how grief affected these characters and the actions they took because of it. However, I wouldn't help but feel that they were too flat. I finished the book feeling like I didn't actually know them as well as I had hoped. I don't know if this is because we don't get to spend enough time with each of them or because of the time jump that happens 50% of the way through the story. I also have to say, Magos was just so annoying and made it hard to get through parts, but the other characters helped pull me through.

Anyone complaining about the "realism" of having so many queer characters in one family ... this is literally a book about a monster growing from a piece of lung like that's really what you focus on?

I was not expecting it to be this small! I was in awe of how I was quickly able to fall into the story and appreciate the characters in only like 20 pages. Keegan truly has a magical way with words and how she can convey such a deep, beautiful story without needing to say much. I can't help but wish it WAS slightly longer, but I understand why it ended where it did. I'm excited to see how they adapted this to film. 

This was a really fast read for me and although not actually scary the first story did make me feel slightly on edge. I don't think it's anything crazy new, but for what it is (some fun "spooky" stories regarding pictures) it does its job. I will pick up his next book simply because it was fun to see it all come together in the end. I would call this more of a "popcorn" read. 

I can't help but feel a lot of this would have been solved sooner had they simply googled "getting rid of demon REDDIT".

I was really disappointed with this and I think seeing all the hype around it played a big part. I liked the concept and that the narrator was going to be an 8 year old until I started reading it and I realized that Malerman doesn't know to write an 8 year old. For all the time we spend inside Bela's head I cannot tell you a single thing about her other than she's being haunted and has some of the crappiest parents ever. I will give it to Malerman, he can write some really hatable people. Other than that the story drags on far longer than it needed to and there was almost no suspense. The pacing was really off, felt like a bad roller coaster with no end in sight. Also there's a weird thing Malerman does where he has the parents spew a bunch of philosophical stuff about life and choices to Bela while she pretends to sleep. This felt like weak writing almost a like a copout to not write actual characters interacting and good plot. 

I'm currently in a mood where if I'm not vibing with something I'm gonna move on to something else. I have a lot of books from the library waiting and so back to the library with this. From the little I read, I didn't vibe with the main character and the style of stream of conscious. I was already confused at certain points and nothing had even happened. I might one day come back to this and give it another chance and for that I love the library. 

I was interested with the first match and then as I started reading the second one I realized I truly don’t care. This is already a short novel and I don’t know how it continues, but if it continues the same way I’d argue maybe these would have been better as a novella.