2/5 — IT’S OKAY TO USE COMMAS. PARTICIPLE PHRASES NEED COMMAS.

i wanted to like this book so bad, but i was soooo disappointed. the writing made me insanely irritated—it was just trying way too hard to be deep that it ended up feeling extremely shallow. every grammar-obsessed fibre of my being cringed when the author used incomplete phrases as full sentences (e.g., “I looked at her in her blue dragon kimono. Reclining in the red velvet chair. Her red-painted toes poking out of the holes in her fishnet tights”).

i would rate this 1 star if it weren’t for the immense creativity. i love the concept, but i think it could’ve been executed better. i think i just wanted a better ending and also a longer amount of samantha-in-cult chapters. the writing switch from first person “i” to third person “we” was spooky!

i wouldn’t say i was scared at any time during this book. it was missing some of the core aspects of horror for me. a lot of the time, i was just confused.