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Hazel (1853 KP) rated You Were Here in Books
Dec 7, 2018
<i>This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review </i>
On the five-year anniversary of Jaycee Strangelove’s brother’s death, she goes to visit one of his favourite haunts – an abandoned Victorian mansion that used to be an insane asylum. However, this year she is joined by four other people who, although they do not show it, feel as broken as Jaycee does.
<i>You Were Here</i> by Cori McCarthy is primarily about Jaycee’s dangerous attempts to feel closer to her daredevil brother. Using his old diary as a guide, she is determined to find evidence that her brother had been at the various decrepit places that he wrote about breaking in to. Her behaviour seriously worries others, which is why Jaycee ends up with four unlikely characters tagging along: Natalie, her ex-best friend; Zach, Natalie’s immature boyfriend; Bishop, a guy suffering after a break up; and the selectively mute Mikivikious, her brother’s childhood friend.
Each character is struggling with their own problems, yet they take the time to make Jaycee realize that her brother is gone and she needs to move on. However there is a lot of fighting and sabotage of relationships along the way.
Each character progressively tells the story by alternating chapters. Whilst this is fairly common in fiction – both young adult and adult – McCarthy’s method stands out amongst the others. Bishop likes to express his feelings through art and therefore does not have any written chapters to his name. Instead a few photographs of his artwork are included. Similarly, Mikivikious, a character who barely talks, shows his point of view through a short graphic novel sequence (drawn by the illustrator Sonia Liao). It is really interesting to read(?) parts of the story this way, and it also makes the reader connect to Mik’s struggle to express himself verbally.
It is difficult to like any of the characters to begin with – mostly because their flaws are revealed but their history is yet to be disclosed. Jaycee, the main character, is particularly hard to like. She is depressed and lonely with a serious self-destructive streak. This causes her to be rude, hurtful and sarcastic to everyone around her. It is actually surprising that anyone cares about her at all.
Due to not connecting with any of the characters, I was not all that impressed with this book. I understand the point of portraying certain people, especially Jaycee, in such a negative way, however it made me not really care about the outcome. Future readers need to be aware that the storyline can be very dark and morbid at times. There are also sexual references and foul language.
On the five-year anniversary of Jaycee Strangelove’s brother’s death, she goes to visit one of his favourite haunts – an abandoned Victorian mansion that used to be an insane asylum. However, this year she is joined by four other people who, although they do not show it, feel as broken as Jaycee does.
<i>You Were Here</i> by Cori McCarthy is primarily about Jaycee’s dangerous attempts to feel closer to her daredevil brother. Using his old diary as a guide, she is determined to find evidence that her brother had been at the various decrepit places that he wrote about breaking in to. Her behaviour seriously worries others, which is why Jaycee ends up with four unlikely characters tagging along: Natalie, her ex-best friend; Zach, Natalie’s immature boyfriend; Bishop, a guy suffering after a break up; and the selectively mute Mikivikious, her brother’s childhood friend.
Each character is struggling with their own problems, yet they take the time to make Jaycee realize that her brother is gone and she needs to move on. However there is a lot of fighting and sabotage of relationships along the way.
Each character progressively tells the story by alternating chapters. Whilst this is fairly common in fiction – both young adult and adult – McCarthy’s method stands out amongst the others. Bishop likes to express his feelings through art and therefore does not have any written chapters to his name. Instead a few photographs of his artwork are included. Similarly, Mikivikious, a character who barely talks, shows his point of view through a short graphic novel sequence (drawn by the illustrator Sonia Liao). It is really interesting to read(?) parts of the story this way, and it also makes the reader connect to Mik’s struggle to express himself verbally.
It is difficult to like any of the characters to begin with – mostly because their flaws are revealed but their history is yet to be disclosed. Jaycee, the main character, is particularly hard to like. She is depressed and lonely with a serious self-destructive streak. This causes her to be rude, hurtful and sarcastic to everyone around her. It is actually surprising that anyone cares about her at all.
Due to not connecting with any of the characters, I was not all that impressed with this book. I understand the point of portraying certain people, especially Jaycee, in such a negative way, however it made me not really care about the outcome. Future readers need to be aware that the storyline can be very dark and morbid at times. There are also sexual references and foul language.
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated Ghosts of Manor House in Books
Jan 31, 2019
Ghosts of Manor House by Matt Powers is a book with a lot of unmet potential, to put things nicely. It’s clear the author spent a lot of time planning his story out, but beyond that… well, it’s lacking. It also doesn’t help that the majority of the book is written in passive voice–a pet peeve of mine. Passive voice really disrupts my flow and, despite having read the most recent edition sent to me by the author, I feel the book could use another go-over from an editor.
The characters of Ghosts of Manor House exist, in so much as the fact that they are present in the book. If you’re looking for a reason to get attached to any of them though, you won’t find it. There’s a strange sort of distance between the reader and the main characters, Edmund and Charlie. There’s also no depth to either of them. In fact, there’s more of a connection to minor characters. I absolutely hate it when I can’t feel any sort of emotion for a fictional character; it makes whatever happens to them less severe. When it comes to horror, this is a huge letdown. I want to feel fear for the protagonist in a story, I want to be on the edge of my seat with excitement. In this book… there was none of that.
When it comes to plot, Ghosts of Manor House is a mixed bag of tricks and treats. There’s several continuity issues and the whole use of some wacky sort of time travel is a huge turn off. It took me a little while to realize what was going on because Powers doesn’t explain or note the presence of this science-fiction element. Additionally, the locale changes from Hope County to Salem County, though after that change, Powers sticks with the latter. On the good side of things, Powers certainly excels at detailing a haunted location. If you’ve read Kill Creek, you might remember the main character, Sam McGarver, lecturing about the importance of this in horror novels. A well-thought out history for these spooky places is paramount to maintaining interest and in Ghosts of Manor House, Manor House’s past is most definitely intriguing.
Overall, I feel like there’s a lot that went to waste with this book. While it is deliciously short, I would have preferred reading something longer, where I could actually develop feelings and connections to the characters, as opposed to feeling like I watched a dull movie. I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
The characters of Ghosts of Manor House exist, in so much as the fact that they are present in the book. If you’re looking for a reason to get attached to any of them though, you won’t find it. There’s a strange sort of distance between the reader and the main characters, Edmund and Charlie. There’s also no depth to either of them. In fact, there’s more of a connection to minor characters. I absolutely hate it when I can’t feel any sort of emotion for a fictional character; it makes whatever happens to them less severe. When it comes to horror, this is a huge letdown. I want to feel fear for the protagonist in a story, I want to be on the edge of my seat with excitement. In this book… there was none of that.
When it comes to plot, Ghosts of Manor House is a mixed bag of tricks and treats. There’s several continuity issues and the whole use of some wacky sort of time travel is a huge turn off. It took me a little while to realize what was going on because Powers doesn’t explain or note the presence of this science-fiction element. Additionally, the locale changes from Hope County to Salem County, though after that change, Powers sticks with the latter. On the good side of things, Powers certainly excels at detailing a haunted location. If you’ve read Kill Creek, you might remember the main character, Sam McGarver, lecturing about the importance of this in horror novels. A well-thought out history for these spooky places is paramount to maintaining interest and in Ghosts of Manor House, Manor House’s past is most definitely intriguing.
Overall, I feel like there’s a lot that went to waste with this book. While it is deliciously short, I would have preferred reading something longer, where I could actually develop feelings and connections to the characters, as opposed to feeling like I watched a dull movie. I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Autonomous: A Novel in Books
Dec 22, 2018
Autonomous is an interesting story that poses a lot of moral questions. It doesn't really take sides; both the pharmaceutical pirate and the agents tracking her down are painted in sympathetic ways, as if we're meant to like them all. We see why Jack is a pharmaceutical pirate; medicine is only available to those rich enough to pay for it, so the poor stay poor and sick and short-lived. She wants to change that. She reverse-engineers drugs, manufactures them, and distributes them to the needy through her associates.
Meanwhile, Eliasz is a conflicted military agent who is sexually attracted to robots. Or at least to his partner, Paladin, though a flashback shows what might have been the start of his attraction to robots. Paladin is probably the single most interesting character in the entire book, as she muses on the nature of being indentured, and searches through her memories and the internet for information about her situation.
The book does have LGBT content - Jack is bisexual, and Eliasz is - robosexual? Is that a thing? Paladin could be called nonbinary or trans; she repeatedly mentions that gender isn't a thing to robots, but because she's a military robot, most people call her a he at the beginning of the book. She learns the brain inside her is female, and to make Eliasz more comfortable with his attraction, she decides to use female pronouns. Eliasz does use the F word to refer to himself being attracted to the robot at the beginning, when they were using male pronouns. This puzzles Paladin for a while, causing her to search the term and figure out what Eliasz meant by its use.
There's a lot of complex world-building in this book that is barely brushed past. From the corporations who own patents covering everything, to the system of indenture that covers humans as well as robots, to the bio-domes that cover cities (but it's livable outside the biodomes, so why are they needed?), to the new federations that cover continents that used to be divided into several countries - there's a LOT going on. And there's not just robots, but also some pretty advanced cybernetics implanted in humans as well as an everpresent network of data that can be tapped into with implants that everyone has.
Ultimately, for as complex as the world is, and cohesive as the plot is, I'm left wondering who, if anyone, was in the right in this story. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be happy with the ending or not. I've seen other reviews saying Neuromancer was a way better book in a similar vein, and I actually have copy of that waiting to be read. So we'll see.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Meanwhile, Eliasz is a conflicted military agent who is sexually attracted to robots. Or at least to his partner, Paladin, though a flashback shows what might have been the start of his attraction to robots. Paladin is probably the single most interesting character in the entire book, as she muses on the nature of being indentured, and searches through her memories and the internet for information about her situation.
The book does have LGBT content - Jack is bisexual, and Eliasz is - robosexual? Is that a thing? Paladin could be called nonbinary or trans; she repeatedly mentions that gender isn't a thing to robots, but because she's a military robot, most people call her a he at the beginning of the book. She learns the brain inside her is female, and to make Eliasz more comfortable with his attraction, she decides to use female pronouns. Eliasz does use the F word to refer to himself being attracted to the robot at the beginning, when they were using male pronouns. This puzzles Paladin for a while, causing her to search the term and figure out what Eliasz meant by its use.
There's a lot of complex world-building in this book that is barely brushed past. From the corporations who own patents covering everything, to the system of indenture that covers humans as well as robots, to the bio-domes that cover cities (but it's livable outside the biodomes, so why are they needed?), to the new federations that cover continents that used to be divided into several countries - there's a LOT going on. And there's not just robots, but also some pretty advanced cybernetics implanted in humans as well as an everpresent network of data that can be tapped into with implants that everyone has.
Ultimately, for as complex as the world is, and cohesive as the plot is, I'm left wondering who, if anyone, was in the right in this story. I'm not sure if we're supposed to be happy with the ending or not. I've seen other reviews saying Neuromancer was a way better book in a similar vein, and I actually have copy of that waiting to be read. So we'll see.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Paycheck (2003) in Movies
Aug 14, 2019
In the year 2007, memories can be erased almost as easily as they can be created. With corporate security being of top concern, this technology is in high demand for corporations who hire people to work on sensitive projects.
Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), is a master of technology, and as such, is in high demand for his ability to reverse engineer technology. Companies hire him to work in private to unlock technological secrets of their competition and upon completion of his work; Jennings has his memories of his work and time at the company removed. This arrangement protects the companies, as they do not have to disclose how they came about the new technologies and the only person who can attest to the source of the work has no memory of it making the claim valid, and keeping him from being able to recoup long-term profits from the company.
Jennings is well paid for his work, and has recently completed a two-month job when his friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), asks Michael to come work on a secret thee-year project for his company. Michael is told only that it deals with optics and that he will be paid with stock options worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
After thinking about the deal, Michael agrees to the job and sets out to complete the task ahead of him.
In what seems like a few minutes to him, Michael comes to in the office of Rethrick and is stunned to learn that he has completed his work and that it was a huge success.
Pleased, Michael sets out to collect his payment but is surprised to learn that he forfeited his stocks four days earlier and sent himself an envelope containing various mundane items such as paperclips, ball bearings, matches, and keys.
Before long, Michael is running for his life and attempting to unravel the mystery of the missing three years in his memory.
Based on the short story by renowned Sci-Fi author Phillip K. Dick, and directed by famed action helmer John Woo, “Paycheck” is a pleasant and entertaining surprise. The previews do not do this film justice, as it is an entertaining and engrossing film with good supporting work by Uma Thurman and Paul Giamatti.
There are a number of twists and turns to the story and some good action and humor along the way. Affleck does solid work as a man desperate to solve the mystery and struggling to cope with his life spun out of control.
While the ending was a bit to Hollywood for me, “Paycheck” is a solid and entertaining film and worth seeing.
Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), is a master of technology, and as such, is in high demand for his ability to reverse engineer technology. Companies hire him to work in private to unlock technological secrets of their competition and upon completion of his work; Jennings has his memories of his work and time at the company removed. This arrangement protects the companies, as they do not have to disclose how they came about the new technologies and the only person who can attest to the source of the work has no memory of it making the claim valid, and keeping him from being able to recoup long-term profits from the company.
Jennings is well paid for his work, and has recently completed a two-month job when his friend Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), asks Michael to come work on a secret thee-year project for his company. Michael is told only that it deals with optics and that he will be paid with stock options worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
After thinking about the deal, Michael agrees to the job and sets out to complete the task ahead of him.
In what seems like a few minutes to him, Michael comes to in the office of Rethrick and is stunned to learn that he has completed his work and that it was a huge success.
Pleased, Michael sets out to collect his payment but is surprised to learn that he forfeited his stocks four days earlier and sent himself an envelope containing various mundane items such as paperclips, ball bearings, matches, and keys.
Before long, Michael is running for his life and attempting to unravel the mystery of the missing three years in his memory.
Based on the short story by renowned Sci-Fi author Phillip K. Dick, and directed by famed action helmer John Woo, “Paycheck” is a pleasant and entertaining surprise. The previews do not do this film justice, as it is an entertaining and engrossing film with good supporting work by Uma Thurman and Paul Giamatti.
There are a number of twists and turns to the story and some good action and humor along the way. Affleck does solid work as a man desperate to solve the mystery and struggling to cope with his life spun out of control.
While the ending was a bit to Hollywood for me, “Paycheck” is a solid and entertaining film and worth seeing.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Color Out of Space (2019) in Movies
Feb 8, 2020
You had me at Nicolas Cage.
The Gardners are settling into the secluded family home nicely, no city hustle and bustle to bother them. That peaceful life is shattered when a curious meteorite crashes into their garden. Far from a normal bit of space debris, the rock seems to be changing everything around it. It's taking over, the plants, pace and time, even the family themselves.
Briefly hearing Richard Stanley before this screening made me feel this adaptation of Lovecraft's work of the same name was in good hands, he clearly has an appreciation for what he's was working on and the imagery he creates makes for incredible viewing.
So, straight to Nic Cage... he doesn't quite go full Cage, but he's pretty close. It's the usual insanity we've all come to love.
This film is a little crazy on many levels, the family as a whole are very off before we even get to the magical meteorite. Each member seemingly has their own little corner of crazy town mapped out, and yet when you look at them as a whole you'd wouldn't put them in the same family.
As the film progresses and things get even more bizarre the family feel even less connected than at the beginning. The alien influence is pushing them further apart, but on top of that the script falls away in the middle and chaotic devolving of sanity replaces it. Each member of the family has their own experience with the meteorite, apart from chaos and the underlying cause none of it feels connected.
To say it plainly, there's some really messed up stuff. I would love to see how some of it was achieved because if Richardson is doing half the things it appears she is then she deserves some kind of award. I've got the short story to read so I can compare the two because honestly I can't visualise the written version of this story.
The creatures that evolve are made to be terrifying, and they do scare, but the comedy moments that come through from the performances (mostly unintentionally I guess) detract from it being all that shocking.
Our meteorite has a great influence over the sets for most of the movie, the colours and the growth are used to good effect. The progression is clear and well balanced, it might not always look realistic but the fact that that's the point helps.
When you look at Color Out Of Space as a whole it's all over the place, interesting but ambling, understandable and confusing. Despite that, it's an experience that I enjoyed having.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/02/color-out-of-space-movie-review.html
The Gardners are settling into the secluded family home nicely, no city hustle and bustle to bother them. That peaceful life is shattered when a curious meteorite crashes into their garden. Far from a normal bit of space debris, the rock seems to be changing everything around it. It's taking over, the plants, pace and time, even the family themselves.
Briefly hearing Richard Stanley before this screening made me feel this adaptation of Lovecraft's work of the same name was in good hands, he clearly has an appreciation for what he's was working on and the imagery he creates makes for incredible viewing.
So, straight to Nic Cage... he doesn't quite go full Cage, but he's pretty close. It's the usual insanity we've all come to love.
This film is a little crazy on many levels, the family as a whole are very off before we even get to the magical meteorite. Each member seemingly has their own little corner of crazy town mapped out, and yet when you look at them as a whole you'd wouldn't put them in the same family.
As the film progresses and things get even more bizarre the family feel even less connected than at the beginning. The alien influence is pushing them further apart, but on top of that the script falls away in the middle and chaotic devolving of sanity replaces it. Each member of the family has their own experience with the meteorite, apart from chaos and the underlying cause none of it feels connected.
To say it plainly, there's some really messed up stuff. I would love to see how some of it was achieved because if Richardson is doing half the things it appears she is then she deserves some kind of award. I've got the short story to read so I can compare the two because honestly I can't visualise the written version of this story.
The creatures that evolve are made to be terrifying, and they do scare, but the comedy moments that come through from the performances (mostly unintentionally I guess) detract from it being all that shocking.
Our meteorite has a great influence over the sets for most of the movie, the colours and the growth are used to good effect. The progression is clear and well balanced, it might not always look realistic but the fact that that's the point helps.
When you look at Color Out Of Space as a whole it's all over the place, interesting but ambling, understandable and confusing. Despite that, it's an experience that I enjoyed having.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/02/color-out-of-space-movie-review.html
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Ross (3284 KP) rated Doors: Twilight in Books
Mar 24, 2021
Great idea, poorly executed
The idea behind the Doors books is that of three different versions of a story with a shared beginning, but the stories diverge when the characters go through one of three (actually five but two are ignored as far as I'm aware!) doors. A team of people, each hired for their own area of expertise, are tasked with rescuing a rich German man's daughter who has wandered down into the mysterious cellar of their former family home, where a series of doors are believed to lead to strange new places.
The first quarter of these books is identical, with the damsel in distress being introduced and the team coming together and being given their tasks. At this stage, there is next to no organisation around their approach, it really is simply a bunch of people heading into the unknown and being drastically under-prepared. When the team quickly find the missing and take her back to the surface, the reader is left somewhat taken aback at the speed with which it was resolved. This is nothing compared to how the reader feels when the team go back looking for the real missing woman, simply based on their employer's assistant's momentary mistake that the woman's eyes were the wrong colour. This is not challenged by anyone in the team, who head back downstairs. It's a bigger WTF moment than the Batman vs Superman 'Martha' fiasco.
As with some of Heitz's Dwarves books, I think this suffered from fairly poor translation, as a number of phrases and words just are not clear. At no point did i really know where the team were heading, forwards or backwards, which door they went through etc.
And the promise of heading into the future was very much an empty one. Some members of the team briefly find themselves in near-future Frankfurt and there is a short section of the book which adds no value and has no connection to the rest of the book whatsoever. Thereafter, there is just some cliched mysterious dark maze adventures, with some unexplained conspiracy around the use and beginnings of the doors and their purpose. (I am currently around 80% of the way through the 'Colony' book, having mercifully skipped the first, repeated, quarter, and am starting to realise that there is likely to be an overall story arch that only becomes clear once the reader has read all three books).
This book, and the series as a whole, offered so much potential and teased so much, but this one at least completely failed to deliver for me.
Advance copy received from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
The first quarter of these books is identical, with the damsel in distress being introduced and the team coming together and being given their tasks. At this stage, there is next to no organisation around their approach, it really is simply a bunch of people heading into the unknown and being drastically under-prepared. When the team quickly find the missing and take her back to the surface, the reader is left somewhat taken aback at the speed with which it was resolved. This is nothing compared to how the reader feels when the team go back looking for the real missing woman, simply based on their employer's assistant's momentary mistake that the woman's eyes were the wrong colour. This is not challenged by anyone in the team, who head back downstairs. It's a bigger WTF moment than the Batman vs Superman 'Martha' fiasco.
As with some of Heitz's Dwarves books, I think this suffered from fairly poor translation, as a number of phrases and words just are not clear. At no point did i really know where the team were heading, forwards or backwards, which door they went through etc.
And the promise of heading into the future was very much an empty one. Some members of the team briefly find themselves in near-future Frankfurt and there is a short section of the book which adds no value and has no connection to the rest of the book whatsoever. Thereafter, there is just some cliched mysterious dark maze adventures, with some unexplained conspiracy around the use and beginnings of the doors and their purpose. (I am currently around 80% of the way through the 'Colony' book, having mercifully skipped the first, repeated, quarter, and am starting to realise that there is likely to be an overall story arch that only becomes clear once the reader has read all three books).
This book, and the series as a whole, offered so much potential and teased so much, but this one at least completely failed to deliver for me.
Advance copy received from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
BookInspector (124 KP) rated The Split in Books
Sep 24, 2020
This story is told from multiple perspectives, but the main characters would be Felicity and Joe. Felicity is a scientist, who specialises in ice. She is an amazingly written character in my opinion. All the parts from this character’s life are filled with mystery, intrigue and mindblowing twists. Joe is a very important character in this book as well, he is a psychologist, who together with his detective mother, try to figure out Felicity and her connection to very strange events. I loved how different the characters are in this book, the police officer is an older, overweight woman who loves a pint, but great at what she does nevertheless. I am normally met with these young detectives that are so fit and superhero kind at what they do, that it is kind of refreshing to see a different type of woman that is absolutely amazing at what she does. There are many different characters coming in and out of the picture, and they all have a story to tell.
The book is set in two completely different places, it begins in the remote island of South Georgia, that is absolutely incredible! I loved the research that the author done for this book, the description of South Georgia is unbelievable, it felt like I was there with the characters, running alongside them. The other part of the book was set in Cambridge, where Felicity lives, and all the creepy and unexplained events took place. The narrative is absolutely beautifully developed and delivered. It has everything the reader might want from a thriller and more. It is full of layers, very well placed twists and turns, the suspense was overwhelming, and I was left gobsmacked on many occasions. There are some pretty important topics that the author discussed in this novel, such as homelessness and a lack of psychological help for them, obsession, stalking, child abuse, psychological trauma and many more. The mood and the atmosphere was constantly changing throughout the pages, and it was a true page-turner for me.
I love Sharon Bolton’s writing style since her first book, she knows how to lure the reader with brilliant characters and a superb plot. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Katie Scarfe, and she did an amazing job with her voice intonations, she brought this book to life. The chapters are quite short, so I believe the pages are just going to fly by too many readers. The ending was very well written, and I was left satisfied with the outcome. I have to tell that this book has plenty of gory and disturbing things related to small children, so please approach this read with caution.
The book is set in two completely different places, it begins in the remote island of South Georgia, that is absolutely incredible! I loved the research that the author done for this book, the description of South Georgia is unbelievable, it felt like I was there with the characters, running alongside them. The other part of the book was set in Cambridge, where Felicity lives, and all the creepy and unexplained events took place. The narrative is absolutely beautifully developed and delivered. It has everything the reader might want from a thriller and more. It is full of layers, very well placed twists and turns, the suspense was overwhelming, and I was left gobsmacked on many occasions. There are some pretty important topics that the author discussed in this novel, such as homelessness and a lack of psychological help for them, obsession, stalking, child abuse, psychological trauma and many more. The mood and the atmosphere was constantly changing throughout the pages, and it was a true page-turner for me.
I love Sharon Bolton’s writing style since her first book, she knows how to lure the reader with brilliant characters and a superb plot. The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Katie Scarfe, and she did an amazing job with her voice intonations, she brought this book to life. The chapters are quite short, so I believe the pages are just going to fly by too many readers. The ending was very well written, and I was left satisfied with the outcome. I have to tell that this book has plenty of gory and disturbing things related to small children, so please approach this read with caution.