Bingo Square: O
I don’t really consider myself a huge horror reader – I know I definitely read more horror than I watch and yet, when I finished this book, thinking, “this isn’t the horror I normally read,” I also couldn’t think of what I would consider “normal for me” horror. I have read a decent amount of ghost stories and vampire novels but my brain classifies those as supernatural or ghost and vampire stories vs. categories them under the horror label. I’ve read a ton of Stephen King but he also goes beyond labels for me. T. Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones fits pretty well into a semi-recent read that I consider horror – with its sense of foreboding and creepiness. Devolution is another novel that left me creeped out by the atmosphere and setting. It’s a good thing I don’t enjoy camping because I would never go again after that novel.
I have been meaning to read this book for ages but kept delaying because I didn’t want to start reading a horror novel at night but between one of the Goodreads challenges this month/quarter (the date ranges are a bit weird on these) and my need for an O square, I finally remembered to start this one during daylight.
I’m pretty late to the party on this one so not sure I have much to add. Overall impressions – I thought it was a very interesting set up, and the structure worked well but I also wasn’t overly scared/creeped out or too emotionally invested in the main characters. Basically, I’m not in a rush to read another novel by the author but also would read him again. It was a bit more on the grim side than I think I normally choose.
Ten years ago, four friends went on an elk hunt. Lewis has been haunted by that day, and as the ten years anniversary approaches, he starts seeing things, harping back to the hunt over and over again. Something seems to be coming for them, a reckoning of what they did.
While I mentioned I wasn’t too emotionally invested in the main characters, I definitely had preferences within the group, and more so than anything related to them, the collateral damage as well the initial event that leads to the story are rather impactful.