Rhiannon
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This was kind of like reading a good old V.C. Andrews 80s melodrama. You know how we all read those back when we were teenagers and secretly felt thrilled at the guilty secret of them? Deep down we knew they were trashy but still had some fun with them? Well, that’s kind of the feeling I got from this novel. It’s sort of billed as a gothic horror but it barely grazes the horror aspect.
As an adult it doesn’t quite work for me as the characterizations were tragically typical and unoriginal. Absolutely none of them were likable for me, and some were excruciating in their over-wrought villainy. As a whole they seemed remarkably thick in their actions and reactions to events happening around them.
It’s got that whole southern gothic trope thing going for it: deep secrets, dysfunctional family that are all pretty much abhorrent. A stupid, naïve young woman who is a “psychic-witch” who gets swept up in the money and privilege of a wealthy Savannah family dynasty that’s laced with all the stereotypes and rather predictable.
The main character is Ingrid, our psychic, whose desperation to be a part of this wealthy family is cringy and cloying. She’s stunningly dense when it comes to the motivations of the family she so desperately wants to join and honestly, I didn’t give a fig whether she wound up a victim of their machinations or not.
It wasn’t absolutely horrible, and as long as I pretended I was still a fourteen-year-old, it was just entertaining enough – mostly because I had a mild curiosity to see what other silliness could be added to the rather chaotic plot.
My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.amazon.ca.
This was kind of like reading a good old V.C. Andrews 80s melodrama. You know how we all read those back when we were teenagers and secretly felt thrilled at the guilty secret of them? Deep down we knew they were trashy but still had some fun with them? Well, that’s kind of the feeling I got from this novel. It’s sort of billed as a gothic horror but it barely grazes the horror aspect.
As an adult it doesn’t quite work for me as the characterizations were tragically typical and unoriginal. Absolutely none of them were likable for me, and some were excruciating in their over-wrought villainy. As a whole they seemed remarkably thick in their actions and reactions to events happening around them.
It’s got that whole southern gothic trope thing going for it: deep secrets, dysfunctional family that are all pretty much abhorrent. A stupid, naïve young woman who is a “psychic-witch” who gets swept up in the money and privilege of a wealthy Savannah family dynasty that’s laced with all the stereotypes and rather predictable.
The main character is Ingrid, our psychic, whose desperation to be a part of this wealthy family is cringy and cloying. She’s stunningly dense when it comes to the motivations of the family she so desperately wants to join and honestly, I didn’t give a fig whether she wound up a victim of their machinations or not.
It wasn’t absolutely horrible, and as long as I pretended I was still a fourteen-year-old, it was just entertaining enough – mostly because I had a mild curiosity to see what other silliness could be added to the rather chaotic plot.
My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily; all opinions are my own.
Originally posted at www.amazon.ca.
A most Unreliable Narrator who may be haunted or may be losing his mind, or both. Paranoia, guilt, and a desperate need to keep everyone at arms length have developed into unhealthy obsessions, OCD and avoidant behaviour for Mike O’Brien as he’s drawn back to Seattle after some 15 years by a former close friend who has a can’t miss opportunity to direct a play that he has written.
Ghosts, hauntings, nightmares and tragic accidents plague the small troupe of actors that has gathered for this production. Mike isn’t sure if he’s the culprit of the incidents, if he’s hallucinating everything, or if he has acquired a malevolent ghost who is trying to sabotage his mind and his very life.
Somehow it all relates back to a horrific secret that he has kept well and truly hidden for some time, and as his life falls apart, he may not survive the final act. Cohn effectively and creepily conveys the unstable state of mind of the narrator while building a haunting mystery, but there's a lot going on here for this little novel and I wanted more from the ending which ended a little too abruptly and messily for me.
Originally posted at www.amazon.ca.
A most Unreliable Narrator who may be haunted or may be losing his mind, or both. Paranoia, guilt, and a desperate need to keep everyone at arms length have developed into unhealthy obsessions, OCD and avoidant behaviour for Mike O’Brien as he’s drawn back to Seattle after some 15 years by a former close friend who has a can’t miss opportunity to direct a play that he has written.
Ghosts, hauntings, nightmares and tragic accidents plague the small troupe of actors that has gathered for this production. Mike isn’t sure if he’s the culprit of the incidents, if he’s hallucinating everything, or if he has acquired a malevolent ghost who is trying to sabotage his mind and his very life.
Somehow it all relates back to a horrific secret that he has kept well and truly hidden for some time, and as his life falls apart, he may not survive the final act. Cohn effectively and creepily conveys the unstable state of mind of the narrator while building a haunting mystery, but there's a lot going on here for this little novel and I wanted more from the ending which ended a little too abruptly and messily for me.
Originally posted at www.amazon.ca.
Added to listLgbtqia2swith 174 books.
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