Ceraphina
I've read a few T. Kingfisher books at this point and this one was just missing something for me. Missing some small magical piece that leaves me enthralled like the other works I've read so far have. Great atmosphere and concept with the mushrooms being tied in and the “adventuring” aspect.
I will however skip the rest of the books in this series.
Honestly, quite an isolating and haunting read. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down because it was like a car crash in slow motion. The writing was a miss for me though as I didn't connect in a way that is important for -me- as a reader to get the most out of a story and feel fully engaged.
You ever read a book that has unbelievably god tier book recommendations that you're like “why the fuck am I reading this, when I could be reading that instead?”
that's essentially the experience of Drifts. Such small inclusions of whatever the hell was going on vs just being told of excerpts and scenes in other better novels, which honestly probably took up half of the book if not more.
While I started to read this and got about 30pgs in I was tempted to put it down, mark it as a DNF and move onto a different one but I'm so happy I stayed along for the ride. Everything that I was starting to pick out that was were “quirks” I wasn't enjoying - became the best part of this novel and made it whole.
The smallest side note — I once had a boss named Keith, and he was truly, truly awful. I felt for Alison real hard on that one lol
If you like being in someone's mind for an entirety of a novel - this books does it superbly.
Mild spoilers incoming, and at the end major spoilers - read at your own risk. If you read the blurb, it sums up the novel so I'm not hiding this review. One last time though - read at your own risk.
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I'm absolutely blown away by the writing. I love this sense of dread I felt during reading, I was hoping beyond words our narrator could find reprieve in the end - but alas, this doesn't happen, and I don't believe thats the point of the novel anyways.
Our narrators husband disappears after going to get some bread at the store. First off, how eerie. I often ask my partner to go and get something at the store if I forgot an item (which is almost always, shout-out to fellow people with ADHD). I would be flabbergasted, distraught, mentally unwound if he just never came back. At what point do you start asking for help?
As our narrator grasps with this realization she of course comes undone. The initial part kicks in where you find her worried of society's bias if she announced her husband is gone - is he just out cheating? You drive him away? Which is gut wrenching, as if the gender roles reversed, a husband would not think of those things or be asked to. At least not initially. She keeps coming up with the scenarios that would make sense. His mother is ill - so did it get worse and he went to be by her bed side? Or - maybe some unavoidable task came up at work, and he needed to take care of it immediately. Over and over again she tries to ascertain what is the truth for him and genuinely struggles to find footings. The thing I appreciate about this book the most is that it's something I've always wanted from a mystery or thriller book. Gillian Flynn is the only one who I bow down to for getting to be in someone else's mind during tragic events but other than that I don't get that itch. I'm really happy I stumbled across this book, by accident all because I was trying to buy “My Phantoms” by Gwendolyn Riley, and this one popped up first. Peaked my interest - astounded by the motions this novel tackles without using cheap throw ins e.g. police, investigations, suspected people, etc.
As our narrators panic gets severe, the depression, the confusion and heart break of this man - a loyal, kind hearted person - is still not to be found as the novel progresses kicks in, her mental and emotional state goes down the rabbit hole. Possible hallucinations, hallucinations getting mixed with real events, consume her. We essentially end on that note and we are left to wonder if it'll ever be different for her, if he'll ever be found or on the completely side note of her friend Jacqueline suggested, taken from an alien invasion.
Beautifully tragic, I highly recommend.
Feels like the author just wanted to do a mash up of the FNAF inspired movie with Nicholas Cage & the reboot of the Goosebumps witch movies on Netflix. I sometimes really dislike authors already prevalent in the industry because who tf else would been able to get this published?
author makes a note about making this novel her glory against bigots/racism with putting absolutely zero effort in accomplishing this. She probably just thought it was the new fun thing to do according to Twitter. The novel has that, yeah, but the lack of writing skills makes it read less with the purpose of combating against racism, and more like the author wanted the world to know she's on some woke shit.
If I could pay to get my time back from reading this, I'd happily go broke to do so.
