Interessantes Setting für eine Vampirgeschichte

Die Bürgerlichkeit (und Borniertheit) des Settings ist so gut beschrieben, dass ich die Geschichte an manchen Stellen schwer erträglich fand. Das Ende entschädigt.

Mir hat es gefallen, werde aber kein zweites Buch dieses Autors lesen.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

ausgezeichnete Sprecherin

die Sprecherin hat das Buch so richtig zum Leben erweckt - ich würde das Hörbuch also definitv dem physischem Buch vorziehen 😊

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

Smart, bloody fun

A wild ride of a novel with vivid characters. The writing is very tongue-in-cheek and endearing but the plot also gets super dark featuring some pretty disturbing scenes. The voice actress is great too.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

This Made My Skin Crawl. As It Should.

This book did a fine job of making me very, very uncomfortable, a lot. The villain is profoundly evil, ruthless, and clever. It was, all in all, a far scarier book than the title and blurb led me to believe. Make no mistake, this isn't a fun story with elements of horror; it's proper horror with a good side of gore, abject despair, and fraught observations presented in a light-hearted tone.

Speaking about tone, I feel that the author captured the setting well. While the story unfolds in the 1990s, the way everyone behaves is reminiscent of the 1950s, and I have it on good authority (as in, people who had to grow up like that) that that's a pretty accurate scenario in a small town/suburb in the South. And that behavior is aggravating, but it is meant to be. It is the general way of life of these white Southerners that makes the villain's scheme so successful.

I was shocked to read a review that accuses the author of being both racist and misogynist, as if his depiction of the problem meant that he was a problem. The setting is plenty misogynist and racist, and, again, that is the point. The villain thrives, because:

1) Women are not taken seriously.
And men will always come together to defend another man, even a stranger, over women they know intimately. You would have to live under a rock to be unaware of how much women are not believed by men, be they law enforcement, medical professionals, or Joe Shmoe next door, who cannot tell his butt from a hole in the ground. Men will not believe that a man they've had a beer with could possibly do that, whether "that" is beating his wife (and if he did, she probably deserved it), being a drug dealer, or sexually assaulting a woman (again, she probably asked for it).
The men in this story are the absolute worst, and before you hashtag notallmen me, it should be clear from criminal statistics alone, that maybe not all, but really plenty. Writing these men as the more or less casual misogynists they are does not make the author one. Quite the contrary, I might argue.
I would also like to point to several reviews where women who grew up like this comment how seen they feel. Maybe take their word for it? Unless you... have trouble believing women?

2) What happens to black people doesn't count.
Yes, the black characters are marginalized in this story, and again, that's the bloody point. Law enforcement is absolutely notorious for not caring about communities of color. Black children that go missing don't make the news. White people in the US have polled many times as severely deficient in empathy when it comes to non-white people. Ursula Green, whom the white women know because she "the help", lets them have it in the end, when they come back to her because the monster has now turned to their own children. They didn't care when it was black children, because black people are expendable to white society in the south of the United States.
I feel like a broken record, but yet again, pointing out the problem doesn't make the author the problem. If anything, the author drives "the moral of the story" home in an extremely obvious, even heavy-handed way.

This was a heavy read, and I felt real despair at times. I had to see it through to the end, though, and once a plan comes together, it is actually glorious. In a very gory way, of course. I enjoyed this book, but maybe not 100% of the time. But horror is not my core genre, to be fair.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Genius Voice Actor

I agree with a lot of reviews that this thrilling yet horrifying story is a bit slow in the middle, but the voice acting made up for it!! I could not stop listening to it! Hendrix creates haunting images and grotesque atmospheres, while Turpin brings it all to live. I might have some nightmares in the future, but I will recommend this audiobook to anyone who will listen.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Empfehlung

Ich bin so froh dass ich dran geblieben bin. Hatte es ein Jahr liegen gelassen wegen einem vermeintlich langsamen Start, jedoch konnte ich es die letzten 6 Stunden nicht mehr weglegen weil es so spannend war.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Title somewhat misleading

This is the second Grady Hendrix book I've listened to and I am mildly disappointed yet again.
This book sounds like it might be a campy pulp horror, but in actuality it's more of a social drama with one or two gory scenes.
All in all just disappointing from a horror standpoint.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.

1 Person fand das hilfreich

Superficial, a lust for sensation and violence - foreseeable

The performance was great, the story not so much. It was foreseeable, too many implausible plot changes, sensation seaking - not for me.

Sie haben diese Rezension bewertet.

Wir haben Ihre Meldung erhalten und werden die Rezension prüfen.