graveyardpansy's reviews
556 reviews

this was good, the characters were compelling even though the book was short. but i think a solid 50 more pages would’ve been able to really round out the plot in a more natural-feeling way? the conclusion felt like it came on real quickly. i also think some of the real-life references were really heavy-handed.

whew. let me collect my thoughts; review coming soonish

3.5 stars — the setting is really strong, which is one of my favourite aspects of a lot of horror, so that was nice. the characters were mid-tier personally but there were a lot that i thought got really solid development. the horror itself had a really slow buildup but there was a lot of bang, which tracks with Jones’ other book i read, and wasn’t really a plus or minus for me. the biggest negative aspect personally was the slightly unreliable narrator — Jade wasn’t the narrator but it was still more or less from her perspective. while i didn’t love that aspect, it culminated REALLY strongly and tied together a lot of things.

this is a heavy one too though, needs a hefty dose of content warnings if it’s something you want to read.

fun and relatively quick, but it's stronger in some areas than others. I felt like all the characters were pretty one-dimensional, but the plot was really fun, even if I predicted some amount of it. The time switches are clear and well-done, which I definitely appreciate, and the parasitic-upper-class trope is definitely up my alley. I enjoyed the book overall and thought it was a fun thriller/horror mix, I just wish it maybe allowed for a little bit more rising action and more solidly built characters.

2.5? the horror was fun sometimes and I love the

Spoiler

ambiguous ending

but there was SO much that never got tied up and a lot of things that felt thematically out of place. also, using fatphobia as a horror element is lazy at best and bigoted at worst.

short and relatively enjoyable for philosophical fiction, brings up interesting ideas about sociability and torture and selfhood and the afterlife!

it’s good! my main critiques are just the neoliberalism of the politics, but that’s about what i expected. this is, after we get through the childhood/early life section, written more like a history book than a memoir, but i don’t particularly mind that.