Reprieve

this book was ... something? i don't really know how i feel about it, even still a few weeks later. it was very well written and engaging, but also weirdly boring. i think i just wanted a lot more from it honestly. the penultimate scene was good but overall the payoff felt a bit deflating. i really loved the ending-ending though?? man idk

tbh i had really high expectations for this book and maybe that's what fucked me over. not in any kind of specific sense, but it's tagged as horror, and a lot of the content/reviews around it lead me to believe it would be a “smart” horror, touching on social topics, and i was kind of expecting a lot from it to be honest. as i started reading i was really into the setup and where it was going, and i thought all the characters we were introduced to were interesting, but it just really didn't follow through for me.

i think there were some really interesting things this book did and tried to do, i just don't think it executed them properly or fully. i think the big thing that was interesting that this book was doing was mirroring the idea of these social horrors and the psychological and traumatizing nature of things like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc, with the physical “fun house” trope horror experiences, and how we put ourselves through that for the promise of something like money or power. i think the concept is FASCINATING. and i think it was set up really well, but i don't think this book followed through completely.

reading the actual scenes with racism, sexism, homophobia etc was horrifying and disgusting to read. very well written. but i think the mirroring part of it ... missed me. and it was almost kind of tiring to read at a certain point because it was like wow yeah people do suck and it's horrifying ........ but by the time it finally got to the actual showdown at the horror house, it was. oddly boring. it took way too long to get to that part and by the time we did get to it, i kind of didn't really care anymore. the reveal and the way it played out ............. it had no bite.

i would recommend this if you like a slow burn character driven story, it's nearly literary fiction in that sense. i wouldn't necessarily say this is a horror novel though. it had so much potential but i guess i just really wanted more.