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Average rating3
Reviews with the most likes.
Oh man. I wanted SO BADLY to love this book, but it ended up striking out right at the end.
You are immediately aware that our protag is a jerk (if that bothers you, you may want to avoid this read), but I really enjoyed learning about the intricacies of his life and how the relationships between the characters developed in Part I.
Things got weird with the “hands had a mind of their own” bit ... wasn't sure if I was supposed to take it literally until the very end (I started to wonder if the “horror” aspect was possession with ... hands? Mouths?) and both Billy and Timothy's deaths seemed poorly justified given the “morality tale” categorization of the work. Not only does Todd realize/acknowledge the deaths well after they have occurred, but they have little bearing on the plot yet somehow squeak their way into the end. They had to die because they ... knew about the book? That Timothy liked the book? If this was really a cautionary tale against writers exploiting women to become successful, how did their deaths make sense and why did Quantick turn Helen into a ruthless and senseless killer with Todd's “friends”?
And ... if her killing criteria included male writers who killed women in the pursuit of or as an effect of potential success, how did it make sense for Todd to die for killing Brehm..? I feel like that greatly sullied the point.
Super open to theories/anything I may have missed in the book.
I did enjoy the body horror descriptions in the book and the character development itself, but the horror plot was kind of a miss, and that was surely disappointing. 3 stars for being a fun read and keeping my interest, wish the horror plot was a little more realized in the end.