Toast

I went into this book prepared to torture my thalassophobia and claustrophobia. Instead, I was just subjected to a guy dealing with major “my daddy didn't love me” daddy issues. I have enough of my own daddy issues to deal with, thank you very much. The only tension I felt was seeing how much oxygen the guy had left at the top of each chapter...I think if I want that thrill again, I'll just hold my breath next time I'm in a pool. The pacing was so weird. It took half the book to get into the whale and then everything after that felt so rushed. The best I can give this is meh.

Look, I get it. Addiction is a monster in and of itself. But good god, every single character was insufferable or just plain awful. I finished this book out of sheer force of will and only thanks to the audio version played at 2.5 times speed. Hallelujah, holy shit.

I heard such great things about this book and was excited to pick it up. And it started quite strong, had some neat and creepy moments. But like others have said, it became an absolute CHORE to read around the 65% mark. Much longer than it needed to be and so many repetitive moments that were annoying to have to reread. It kept feeling like I should've have made it to the end only to be reminded that there were still 200 more pages of story. And the ending was disappointingly predictable. Some books, you see where it's going and feel a sense of accomplishment when you are right. This was just a sigh of “Yeah...that's what I thought.”

This was a pretty interesting story. I would've like to have had a little more back story for the present day main character, Tara. Did her house burn down by accident? Or was it some creepy incident linked to the mines or Asa Curry? And I would've like to hear about her mother more.
The switching back and forth from past to present was cool. And the main characters, Tara (present day) and Josephine (past) were very likeable.

All in all, a good book. Middle of the pack of graphic novels I've read so far.

I wish I could erase my mind and read this again. I love a creepy winter scene. Add a dilapidated highland church? Immaculate. I did figure out the twist before the book told me, but it was a proud moment not a sigh of predictability. This is my first book by Feeney, but it definitely won't be my last.