This is a tough one to rate because half of my strange reaction to it is I’m sure just bumping up a little against the writing style, but the other half is that it genuinely could have been written better in parts. There was A LOT of telling not showing, and the third-act conflict made the MC come across as pretty stupid. A lot of the elements here were interesting individually but didn’t seem to come together at the end?
Our main character is Kari James, who’s had a tough life so far, and has responded to it by closing in on her own small circle (which basically consists of three people: her disabled father (who she is caretaker for), her cousin Debby, and her boss. When Debby unearths a bracelet that belonged to her dead and/or missing mother (sore subject), Debby starts being haunted by a presence that is almost certainly her mother’s ghost, and a monstrous creature begins to haunt her dreams. It seems ignoring what happened to her mother is no longer an option.
This was fine, but it could have been so much better. Some strange choices were made that didn’t quite pay off. Some weird character decisions (what was the point of the terrible husband the author gave Debby? He sucked so much!). A lot of awkward writing. But I might read from this author again, if the premise sounds good enough. I will say that it’s been over a month between finishing the book and writing this review and I’m having a hard time remembering my complaints, and the good stuff is floating more to the surface of my memories. So that’s good, I guess! Still a three star book.
Worth noting: This was marketed as horror, but I would say it’s much more of a supernatural mystery/thriller.
Read Harder Challenge 2023: Pick a challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat—From the 2022 list, “Read a horror novel by a BIPOC author.”
