The curse of the Wendigo

4,5 stars Holy shit, Rick Yancey is one messed up individual and I can't help loving him for that. (Especially funny that I am not interested in his 5th Wave series at all.) This book was absolute nasty stuff, with things that are so dark that you will probably not feel like having a light snack afterwards if you are in any way sensitive. I personally don't care like that, I am always open to a snack, less so to horror novels. I find they often cross the line of what's truly exciting and spooky and go into ridiculously cheesy and over the top laughable territories. This seemed to have a surprising amount of actual value. It was written well, it had enough action, events seemed to happen in a logical way that I could follow and not feel like the author is just trolling me to laugh at me being weirded out. The other guy from an old love triangle from Dr. Warthrop's life disappeared on a trip to look for some monster and the lady showed up begging the help of our doctor (and Will Henry by proxy) to find him in a remote Canadian place. Just to prove everyone wrong, they go on a hunt for a creature Warthrop refuses to believe even exists. Things go weird as always, the yearly monstrumologist convention happens (no cosplays, I'm sorry, just stuffy weirdos getting drunk as shit, beating each other up and solving nasty murders). One thing I really loved was the fact that we met more monstrumologists now. Apparently it's an international community of science bros who are borderline suicidal in their obsessions with ll creatures that can kill you. They are all different, all insane. I love them. Also, nobody parties like monster hunters, apparently. Nobody also has angsty stories where everyone gets emotionally damaged like that either, which... usually isn't really my cup of tea, but here it worked. The whole atmosphere and the writing managed to support the angst in a way that actually made it pretty... nice? I don't mean nice nice, but very readable. Which this was. Readable, I mean. The language is old-fashioned and ornate, very fitting for the settings, but it doesn't seem to suffocate the flow of the book. Kate Griffin (yeah, the [b:A Madness of Angels 6186355 A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1) Kate Griffin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910s/6186355.jpg 6366640] lady) should take some lessons from Mr. Yancey. While she kills the action, he manages to just support it even more and make me want to read more more more. I also like how the characters are not really fluffy. Sure, Warthrop does some not entirely horrible things once in a while, but we didn't have any big moments of the cold scientist turning out to be a real sweetheart with a heart of gold. No. He is truly obsessed with what he is doing and it takes away a lot of his possibilities and willingness to be cuddly. Will is an enjoyable child character. He is not a little idiot without any idea of the world, but he isn't some super hero who schools grownass scientists with his amazing kiddo wit. He is flawed, he is not some magical prodigy and I can't help feeling for him. So much is happening to this poor baby, he needs some hugs. The only character who irritated me was Lilly, this annoying little brat who endangers everyone because she is just so infuriatingly smartass. If I had a child like her, I would slap here so hard. I was probably supposed to find her endearing, but I wanted the monsters to take her. About the monster. It was absolutely horrifyingly nasty ass. It was something between a person and a creature, vile as they can be. I kind of liked that. It was disgusting and somehow managed to still keep things from being caricatures. Fantastic balance. Still, I find the first book better. Maybe it was the surprise of finding something so brilliant, I don't know. Both are brilliant, the first book a tiny bit better in my opinion. I am definitely picking up the next book, nothing can stop me. Good night and don't let the cannibalistic crazy monster people bite!