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Preta's Realm: The Haunting (2000)

by J. Thorn(Favorite Author)

2.92 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Horror

series

The Hidden Evil Trilogy

review 1: Oh man, what a big disappointment. Huge disappointment, especially because this was my pick for our book club selection this month. I believed in you! TL;DRThe horror was fantastic, I just wish the characters weren't such blatant vehicles for the supernatural mechanic.The only reasons it gets more than one star:- Word crafting and world building around the supernatural element was beautiful. It's an unfiltered reflection of the horrors of war, greed and the frailty of the human psyche, which is one of my favorite subjects- Violence and ugliness was well handled and unapologetic as it should be. There was nothing gratuitous, but enough to get an understanding of the horrifying nature of the subjectHELLO SWEETIE, THE REST OF THE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERSDETAILS:No respect for... more the characters. There was little development and it felt as if they were just props to deliver an interesting supernatural mechanic.- Family seemed like an inconvenience to the MC, yet at the end I'm supposed to believe he's being selfless for them? Not believable. - He absolutely flips his shit on his family but there's no fallout, no confrontation? Kid stares him down once, feels like there's going to be some drama then... nothing! - Wife seems freaked out at MC behavior, then it's back to normal with no confrontation? - Too much left unsaid regarding those interactions created complete loss of drama and purpose for those relationships (and hence those characters)Seems like a thread was left loose- Early in the story there is allusion to MC going through something similar before; hints at some past drama, then nothing(When he's sitting in the car in the driveway... wife comes out, asks if he's ok, says she can't go through it again.... does he need to speak with Dr again, then no explanation. W.T.F?)- One last mention... "I'm coming apart again"... just left me screaming "what happened?" AND furthers the fact there ought to have been more confrontation or at least some thought-sharing from the wife and what her motivation is for being there- I love subtlety, but that wasn't subtle. It was clumsy and confusing. Don't introduce something if you're not going to bring me into it. It's reminiscent of an inside joke; I can infer a lot, but I don't really know what's going on and I feel like I either need an explanation or for you to stop wasting my time referencing something you don't want to go intoThe explanation of the supernatural force lacked drama and intrigue. - characters involved in investigating the gaki come out of nowhere - their interest in the gaki, and their acceptance of its existence seems so matter-of-fact it's awkward and not compelling- feels as if I'm dumped into another story. Actually, felt as if it was *their* story and MC and his issues should have come in after I met the investigators first- Couldn't form connection to MC, investigators were more interesting and sympathetic. Why wasn't Ravna the perspective we followed from the beginning? Then I could at least have had some sympathy for Drew as a victim of a horrific thing they are trying to huntEnd felt... contrived. - people are dead and others have moved on, THE END. - it isn't emotionally convincing or satisfying. - obvious setup for next book just furthers the impression that I was following the wrong person's perspective all along. After the end I kept going back to murder #2- seemed like strange target. - the motivation for what's done to the females is explicitly clear, so if there's a male target there ought to be a convincing reason, but victim #2 doesn't make sense. He wasn't much of a threat or a complete jerk, so what was the trigger? Also, author used his own name in the book. -It was only once, but it pulled me right out of the story and *really* irritated me. - Had a hard time getting back into it, and that felt really disrespectful to the world the author created and the time I put into it TRYING to immerse myself in it. - You and your uber coolness are not the subject here dude, love your characters more than yourself eh? Gave me no interest in reading the next book *whatsoever*.That said, the author has a lot of promise and I can imagine he'll be a really good writer if he got a really good editor. I would need to forget this travesty before then if I were to ever read another of his books.
review 2: Let me start by saying I liked this book. My review may be a bit jaded, but bear with me. This book is a dark book and it is intended to be a dark, gory, kind of raunchy book. The book turned me off when Drew was talking to Brian and has a chauvinistic dialogue. Actually, Drew is a chauvinistic pig and he is the narrator for most of the book. I'm thinking that this author has an intended audience, and that audience is male. It didn't stop me from reading to the climax (no pun intended), and I enjoyed the story. The characters were pretty fleshed out, and the story had some good twists and turns. I would not recommend this book for a school library, but certainly for a public library. I'd promote it like crazy to the male patron that needs a good book. less

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