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Sean Farrell (9 KP) rated 20th Century Ghosts in Books

Mar 15, 2018

This turned out to be an ideal read for the Halloween season. While many of the short stories here have a pretty "literary" feel, and some don't necessarily qualify as horror, they each have a haunting quality about them. The characters are always engaging, and I found myself caring for most of them, which is quite a feat given how few pages some were given in which to develop. And don't mistake my earlier comments to mean there is nothing scary in this book. There are quite a few tales here that left me creeped out enough that I will likely remember them for some time to come. This collection isn't perfect, but it really shows the promise of just how great a storyteller Mr. Hill would ultimately evolve into.

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Gisell Middleton (189 KP) rated The Expansion in Books

Jul 12, 2018

This book reminded me very much of Ann Patchtett's State of Wonder. Unfortunately, I didn't like that one very much either. I found The Expansion to be very slow and had to trudge through it in many spots. I had a hard time really caring for or about any of the characters who seemed very one dimensional and not fleshed out enough. I did like that there wasn't much technical talk regarding the Panama Canal even though a large part of the book centers around its blueprints, plans, budget and expansion project. Many events were left as dangling loose ends, never to be tied up or severed and, even worse, some events had nothing to really do with any of the storylines and did not bring anything substantial to the narrative.