Syndrie
Fast-paced, gory, and surprisingly a bit relatable, "Morsel" is a nice little novella perfect for readers looking to get a quick horror fix.
With this being a short read it's mainly all plot driven, but our main character, Lou, does have some very well-defined motivations behind her actions. Basically she's willing to make a lot of sacrifices, and some very questionable choices that are not in the interest of self-preservation, in order to seek financial success to provide a better life for her mother who did her best to raise Lou as a single mother living in near poverty.
At its core, this is a fairly straightforward horror story—although not without a few twists and turns—about a girl that's just doing her best to not get murdered in the middle of the woods. But sprinkled through the novella are little critiques about society and corporate greed that provide a little extra food for thought. You can really feel Lou's desperation in how she's just doing her best to take all the right steps in life, but is still finding herself struggling to achieve success.
As far at the writing goes, the prose was smooth and flowed well making for an easy read—Keane definitely did a good job with the imagery here, although those who are weak to gore might not agree with me there! I also enjoyed how we had little aside sections between some of the chapters that provided extra context via text conversations between the characters and transcription snippets from a podcast about a missing hiker in the woods. They might have just been very short additions, but I think they were timed very well and give the reader a good point to pause and reflect over what they just finished reading in the previous chapters.
Overall I would recommend this one to any horror readers who are looking for a quick story they can get through in one or two sittings!
(Thank you to Tor Publishing Group for providing an advance review copy via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)
Fast-paced, gory, and surprisingly a bit relatable, "Morsel" is a nice little novella perfect for readers looking to get a quick horror fix.
With this being a short read it's mainly all plot driven, but our main character, Lou, does have some very well-defined motivations behind her actions. Basically she's willing to make a lot of sacrifices, and some very questionable choices that are not in the interest of self-preservation, in order to seek financial success to provide a better life for her mother who did her best to raise Lou as a single mother living in near poverty.
At its core, this is a fairly straightforward horror story—although not without a few twists and turns—about a girl that's just doing her best to not get murdered in the middle of the woods. But sprinkled through the novella are little critiques about society and corporate greed that provide a little extra food for thought. You can really feel Lou's desperation in how she's just doing her best to take all the right steps in life, but is still finding herself struggling to achieve success.
As far at the writing goes, the prose was smooth and flowed well making for an easy read—Keane definitely did a good job with the imagery here, although those who are weak to gore might not agree with me there! I also enjoyed how we had little aside sections between some of the chapters that provided extra context via text conversations between the characters and transcription snippets from a podcast about a missing hiker in the woods. They might have just been very short additions, but I think they were timed very well and give the reader a good point to pause and reflect over what they just finished reading in the previous chapters.
Overall I would recommend this one to any horror readers who are looking for a quick story they can get through in one or two sittings!
(Thank you to Tor Publishing Group for providing an advance review copy via NetGalley! I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.)