So after a night where this book sat in my subconscious probably doing things to me, I’m upping my rating to five stars. I can’t stop thinking about it, and the ending did what I want more horror endings to to do for me. There are quite a few people who experience a sort of literary catharsis with the presence of violence and gore, but I am not one of those people (and maybe they don’t even care about catharsis! who knows!). This book has the perfect kind of tonal mish-mash and utter WEIRDNESS that I can really get behind, and that hooks my emotions without me even being aware of it at first.
I could probably write a 10,000 word review talking about my feelings and all the various techniques this book used to elicit them, but if I talk about basically any of it past the first twenty-five pages, I’ll be spoiling important things, and trust me I have evidence on this one. I often spoil myself for books when I’m feeling anxious or stressed out by the plot, and I can count on one hand the number of times it has negatively affected my reading experience. Normally it just makes me excited to get further in the book. But here, spoilers really do change your experience of the book. In a status update, I talked about how I ruined the illusion of the book for myself, and it felt like I was seeing the show from behind the curtain, and that’s really the best way I can explain it.
Before the spoilers, my brain was having a brand new reading experience, being delighted by the UTTER BIZARRENESS that was happening, and trying to figure out what was going on, and what everyone’s actions were saying about them, etc. But it was like a switch flipped after the spoilers, and that delight went away. Luckily, the ending was so emotionally cathartic and satisfying, I still loved the book, but I can only imagine that parallel universe Ashley who didn’t spoil herself, and how much fun she had with this the first time through.
All I can really say about the book is that there are three POVs to start: Ted, a human who lives in a house with his cat and (sometimes) his daughter Lauren, and who you immediately know something is OFF with; Olivia, who is Ted’s cat, and who has just as many POV chapters as Ted, and they are a gd delight; and Dee (short for Delilah), the sister of a little girl who went missing eleven years before, and who is determined to find the man who took her sister and ruined her life.
That’s literally all I can talk about in this review except for my experience. I was so moved by this book. That’s such a cheesy thing to say but I will embrace the cheesiness. By the end, I was so full of love for so many of the characters, and it was so smart and carefully (and compassionately) plotted. And I don’t know if I can emphasize this strongly enough, CAT POV.
The only thing that didn’t work for me perfectly was the resolution of Dee’s arc. I’m still trying to puzzle out just what the author is going for with that. The rest of it is A+. I finished the book and immediately got on to the internet to buy myself a hard copy. (I did the audio, which was great.)
Highly recommend, even if you aren’t normally a horror reader. I would say this book leans more towards the thriller/mystery side than the scary horror side of things (while also being, you know, super frickin’ weird). I think this one might be going on my favorites of the year.
