Near the Bone

3.5 rounded up to 4

Loved the atmosphere and the internal monologue of the MC. Felt the paranormal aspects of the book could've been fleshed out (pardon the pun) a bit more or even left out completely since the psychological nature and the creepy atmosphere was well enough. Still applaud the author for intertwining both aspects seamlessly. If anything, the dialogue, especially from one of the characters, could have been better. Had my eyes rolling a couple of times. Overall a quick read, may not be the best book out there but an entertaining one nonetheless.

3.5 Stars

It was kind of slow in the beginning, but picked up at about 40%. The first 40% was a lot of abuse and what Mattie/Samantha has been going through.

Mattie/Samantha doesn't know how long she has been living with William in the woods in a small cabin but she is starting to remember some of her past. While all the abuse is going on inside the cabin, something is outside with sharp claws and teeth.

A good winter read filled with blood, ice cold snow, creepy noises, domestic abuse, and survivalist adventure. I wish there would of been an epilogue or more to the ending.

This book was so hyped, and my favourite horror trope ever is isolation horror, especially if it's cold/wintery vibes. It ticked isolation, cold, abduction, survival, slasher, creature feature.

So how did it have so many awesome elements and still ended up just being a little meh to me? I'm really not sure. The audiobook was good, so I don't think that's at fault, I can't exactly pinpoint it. It was still good, but I feel like I was really disappointed that the creature felt really one note and wasn't as involved as I thought it would be. I was REALLY hoping that there would be some metaphor about her being the monster and she needed to turn into it to get away from her husband or something, but nope, it was just a big furry thing in the woods :p

If you're a thriller fan looking to get into horror, this is a great book to get you started, since it kind of read like horror disguised as a thriller. There was nothing I disliked about the book other than the monster never being described/explained (sometimes that works really well, but it worked against it in this case, it just felt kinda like a cop out), but it's still an interesting combo of tropes.

I really love the commentary and comparison of the monstrous actions of the man abusing the main character to those of the actual creature. The overall story was great but just like Marcy Reads I also for some reason feel slightly disappointed and I'm not sure why exactly. I just don't love it like how I thought I would and there's nothing wrong with the book, I just wanted more.