shidoburrito's Reviews (1.54k)

I got to about page 30 when I started wondering if the book was going to get better. I read the reviews on here that seemed to promise that it wouldn't really pick up. I gave it the ol' 100 page-try, but it wasn't spooky enough for me. Just...humdrum.
At least Penpal was really good!

I guess I shouldn't be so harsh in rating this book. I thought I had read it when I was younger but it must have been a different, haunted dollhouse book from my library's jfic shelves. Anyway, decided to read it. Very easy to read writing, good for around the 4th grade reading level, and a reader that wants something kind of spooky. Good representation of disabled siblings, though. You don't see that much in kids' lit, especially from the early 90's. I think that story and relationship between Amy and her sister is more interesting and in-depth than the whole haunted dollhouse plot (which it doesn't really get into any of that until halfway through the book)!

The author's voice in this is great. The greatest part of this book. It's like if Michael Crichton decided to try and season his writing style with a little humorous Terry Pratchett. We get a humorous 3rd person omniscient view of all the thoughts and history of the characters, even the fungus! Yes! And it keeps it light-hearted and gave me a chuckle while creatures are exploding and guts are flying and humans are being gruesomely infected. Good times.

Oh, TW for those who are not a fan of animal death. I take points off if it's the death of a pet, especially cats, and there is a gross description of cat death in this book. Luckily it was a good enough book to keep me reading, but still, -50 points for that. Humans? Meh, who needs em? Like Crichton, there's definitely the satisfaction of picking off the obviously lousy humans in delightfully gross ways.

Spoiler

The ending was very cute and sweet and a nice refreshing end to what was a quick, intense, and fun read.

*wipes sweat off head* Whew. That was a close one guys. Things get pretty dire near the end of this and I wasn't sure how it was going to wrap up within 12 pages. TW for suicide. Many instances. This was much darker than Dark Matter (ha!) but definitely a page turner!

A quick and intense read for anyone who enjoys sci fi about multiverses, worm holes, time travel and time paradoxes! A different take on the ol' time machine.

Hmmm, I can't quite put my finger on what keeps me from giving this book a better review. The characters were kind of blah. I guess that's good in the case of some characters

Spoiler

since many of the friends were murdered in gruesome ways, or turn out to be killers. Okay, no, typing this out I'm coming to realize that nothing really surprised me. I feel like the author was doing their darndest to create twists (like Cole and Rust's relationship or the betrayal of Matt and Ronnie)

, but honestly I wasn't drawn in enough into the story or the characters to feel surprise or emotion when these twists were revealed. Yeah, I think that was it. It's a great and gruesome (seriously, we got some bloody descriptions in here so I recommend older teens, even if the reading level is a bit easier than that) horror book, but there's not a lot of depth. I can't even say I had fun with it. *shrug*

Wait, there was one part, where the dad was at home worrying about his daughter at the party. It was nice to have a POV of the parent thinking normal parent things and not being written as a jerk from a teen's POV. The parent was written like a human being.

Spoiler

But on the note of parents, can we talk about the UNREALISTIC-ness of the rest of this town? Seriously. I've suspended my sense of belief when reading "Unwind" where parents are willing to sell their unruly children for body parts, but this is a normal, rural town in Idaho with one diner and a small high school where everyone knows everyone. Not a sci-fi. If you want me to believe this is a normal town with a dark secret and that a clown is going to chase me in a cornfield and kill me in gruesome ways, you gotta make the setting as believable as possible. A town full of Boomer adults that hate the youths so much they're willing to team together and mass murder a town's generation while dressed as clowns is so far fetched I cannot accept it, therefore I'm too busy being skeptical to be scared.

Yes!!! Amazing! My favorite kind of horror! I loved this book! Disturbing scenes that stick with you? Check. Isolated setting on the prarie or in the woods? Check. Trapped within your own guilty thoughts? Check. Is it madness or is it supernatural? Check. A fantastic ending? CHECK!

I can only hope to write a horror book like this someday.