Josh

This isn't a book I'd say I enjoyed, because the subject matter makes that impossible for me. It's a book you definitely want to know the trigger warnings for, before picking it up. At any rate, reading it was at times disturbing, uncomfortable, frustrating, and disgusting. That discomfort though is also what gives the book impact. It immerses you in the perspective of someone being groomed, showing how deeply that experience shapes her understanding of herself well into adulthood.

Watching Vanessa wrestle with the realisation that what she thought was agency was actually manipulation and watching her struggle to stop blaming herself was unsettling, but also compelling. I think overall it offers an interesting perspective on the psychological aftermath of grooming. I do think it would have worked much better as a novella as during the College years it starts to feel a bit bogged down and repetitive.

Miller's writing is beautiful as expected and while I said this in the Song of Achilles review it bears repeating. It takes a special type of talent to take a story we know and tell it in a way that captivates. She has that talent in spades.

She takes some liberties of course, but in doing so Circe is given agency and becomes a multi-faceted character who questions, rages, sinks into despair, and builds herself anew across her immortal life. I daresay I even enjoyed it a bit more than Song of Achilles, though I hold both in high regard for different reasons.

King's talent for writing everyday life of a small town and populating it with interesting characters is on full display here. Granted there are times he goes into the small details that may not appeal to everyone, but for me as a non-visual reader he paints a picture that even I can see.

The atmosphere he builds while slowly increasing the tension is a great journey, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some elements I didn't think were particularly strong such as the romance Ben has and I thought there were a tad too many ‘random' characters. Overall though it's a great “modern” take on the vampire mythos.

 Not a scary book in the traditional sense, but definitely one that I found very unsettling and the tension runs high reading it. I don't think anyone writes crazy, quite like King does. He's written a lot of nasty bad guys, supernatural boogeymen and antagonists of other sorts in his time, but Annie is definitely up there as one of the most memorable and compelling to me. A bit over the top at times mind you, but overall she's what makes the book work.

If you love psychological horror then this is one I'd definitely recommend. 

I would say is if you are a person who prefer descriptive prose over dialogue heavy then you might find this one a bit more challenging, as it's almost entirely plot driven prose but even then I would still recommend giving it a try.

This is a story about a modern black woman is teleported back in time to the 1800's through a connection with a white ancestor who lives on a plantation. This creates an interesting dynamic with their relationship as she obviously has a vested interest in his survival, given that her own relies on it, but at the same time having to balance that with the horrific events that unfolded during this time period. A period that said ancestor is very much a part and product of. That's the premise of the book without spoilers mind you and it sets up very complex interracial relationships with themes centered around power dynamics, guilt, bigotry, racism, trauma, comparing modern sensibilities to past beliefs etc.

Trigger Warning: If animal cruelty/abuse makes you squeamish then I highly recommend finding a summary of chapter 16 that just hits the key points if you decide to read it. Even as someone who is not a highly visual reader I found this chapter grotesque.

I immensely enjoyed this novel, but having said that there are parts of it that I loathed. I loved the magical realism and how seamlessly it was woven into the story. There's something about the writing and how surreal things are that sucked me in and kept me turning page after page. I enjoyed the abstraction of reality and surprisingly enjoyed that the puzzle is left up to one's own interpretation for the most part.

But on the other end of the spectrum there are parts of this novel where I rolled my eyes, visibly cringed and wondered if I was even reading the same author. There are scene's that go into an absurd level of detail, often very awkward or crude, detail. Some of the characters feel more like vessels to spit out philosophy than they do actual people or are simply tools for the plot and feel paper thin. The biggest thing though is definitely the way sexuality and the commentary around it is written. The writing of this book is damn near lyrical, until it comes to sexuality and women and the jarring crudeness of that contrast sticks out like a sore thumb.

I hate the notion of "Its great if you just ignore x, y, and z", but that's legitimately how I felt about this. It is what it is. 4 Nakata's out of 5.