Maybe 3.5 stars?
This book's premise is pretty creepy but I also kinda feel like it was just that little bit shy of hitting the true creepy-spot for me. Maybe it was in finding out too much about the antagonist too quickly? Maybe it was that there was no particular enigma or mystery to find out here, so it really kinda felt like a horror-thriller but there wasn't really any kind of suspense.
I felt like the pacing of this book was a little slow too, weirdly enough because there is quite a lot of action happening. There were so many parts where I just felt like skimming or skipping ahead already - but maybe it was also because I already could tell how the plot was going to develop miles ahead and just wanted to skip through all that and just find out the ending already. I had a strong suspicion Maggie Leigh would eventually become one of Manx's victims, I knew that we'd see Manx turn on Bing at some point, and that Vic would obviously kill him, and then find a way to destroy Christmasland because Manx would've kidnapped her kid. I wasn't sure if Vic would survive the book or not, so I wasn't that surprised or impacted when she did in fact die in the end.
I kept dragging my feet coming back to this book, which is probably why I finished it so quickly because I kinda wanted to get it over and done with. There was a lot of things depressing and unpleasant about it, but I guess that's also kinda the point of a horror novel, so I don't know whether that's really a negative point in this case. At the same time, it didn't quite cross a line and become too triggering where I would've just DNFed, so I guess that's why I eventually pushed myself to finish it.
It did have some elements that were pretty thought-provoking, although I don't know how intentional this was. For example, it painted a pretty visceral picture of how frustrating it is to be in a situation that is not aligned with what the institution would like to pigeonhole you in. In this case, it's Vic having one side of the story but the institution choosing to believe another story about her and twisting all the facts to align with their side of the story, and how powerless it made her feel. This is unfortunately all too real. It reminded me of the Netflix documentary, Take Care of Maya, where the institution also forcibly removed a daughter from her mother because it made a judgement and believed the daughter to be suffering from abuse from the mother, though both daughter and mother deny this. So the bit where the police kept repeating, “Your son's well-being is paramount.” while disregarding and even risking the safety and well-being of both parents while also completely dismissing the accounts of both parents as false reminded me strongly of that documentary and how real a situation this can be in America.
Anyway, so... 3.5 stars because I did occasionally find my thoughts wandering back to Manx and Christmasland even after I had put the book down so at least there's something in that.