Amanda
Married couple Avery and Carlos travel to the Philippines to help Carlos's parents try to sell what turns out to be a haunted house.
Michelle Tang draws on the rich folklore of the Philippines for the horror aspects of this novel. Reading about the different traditions of witchcraft, monsters, and protection rituals was fascinating, and could have made this a compelling horror novel if Tang hadn't buried it all beneath the soap opera of an unhappy marriage.
So much time is spent Avery and Carlos blaming each other for their misery that I often forgot this is supposed to be a horror story. The most horrific thing about the majority of the book is that the two leads have been married for years and apparently never had a frank conversation with each other.
The bulk of the supernatural aspects are dealt with at the end of the book in a way that is deeply unsatisfying; it's rushed through and very much a case of telling rather than showing.
Received via NetGalley.
Married couple Avery and Carlos travel to the Philippines to help Carlos's parents try to sell what turns out to be a haunted house.
Michelle Tang draws on the rich folklore of the Philippines for the horror aspects of this novel. Reading about the different traditions of witchcraft, monsters, and protection rituals was fascinating, and could have made this a compelling horror novel if Tang hadn't buried it all beneath the soap opera of an unhappy marriage.
So much time is spent Avery and Carlos blaming each other for their misery that I often forgot this is supposed to be a horror story. The most horrific thing about the majority of the book is that the two leads have been married for years and apparently never had a frank conversation with each other.
The bulk of the supernatural aspects are dealt with at the end of the book in a way that is deeply unsatisfying; it's rushed through and very much a case of telling rather than showing.
Received via NetGalley.