The Ritual

I can't recommend this book, but it does get a second star for a few beautifully creepy scenes.

In fact, a smart and merciless editor could probably make this into a very memorable and well-crafted novella. Unfortunately, these germs of a good, short story are drowning in two whole additional books' worth of boring garbage. TWO!

There are far too many cycles of “The group makes a bad decision, we read in painful detail about them slogging through the woods, Luke has internal monologue about how he is or isn't an emotionally arrested loser, Luke thinks derisively about how fat his companions are and/or how awful their wives are, the group confronts the reality that they are in much greater danger than they realized, but they have to keep going and stay together.” And most of the time, the danger in question is from them being lost, injured, and running out of supplies, not from the monster. It's extremely tedious. A.'s review does a great job of calling out the sexism and fat-phobia, but mostly it failed to make an impression on me because I was just so bored.

And then suddenly the book shifts to a kind of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Swedish Death Metal Edition. Which quickly becomes an endless, dull cycle of its own, with pointless, repetitive conversations between Luke and his captors. Why are we even here, never mind going over the same ground again and again?

The good stuff here was good enough that I almost want to try more of Nevill's work, but I'm really worried that it'll be more bloated text and too peppered with faux-philosophical musings that are really just wrappers for prejudice and justification of violent sociopathy. Hopefully he was just trying to paint Luke's character with all that, but you do get the sense that Nevill himself is either a financially unsuccessful loner who's trying to justify that to himself with this book, or a traditionally successful suburban doughy guy who fantasizes about being a superfit single guy without a family tying him down, who can win fistfights and sleep with many ladies.

Listen.

The movie is better.

This book could have been incredible if, similar to his other works, Nevill didn't focus so heavily on the weight of other characters. This is, of course, almost always in a negative view, and while it can be argued it fits the narrative of MC Luke, if you've read his other work— you know it's just him.

My opinion? Hop on Netflix. You're not missing anything.

I was disappointed with this book. The only thing that made me finish it was curiosity but you know what they say about that! The author was out to shock and nothing more. I didn't feel any tension or fear whilst reading it and I certainly won't be in a hurry to read it again, or buy any more books of his. I read The Ritual a while back and enjoyed it which made this one that much more disappointing. Pity.

Loved this for the most part, the end was definitely a bit out of blue but still interesting and enjoyable to read. I could have done without endless amount of fatphobia but otherwise a really great read. I found the characters flawed in a very real feeling way and it talks about growing up and what happens to friendships when life's expectations catch up to you.

Really excited to read this after seeing the movie, but this is the rare case where the movie was better. It was such a slow burn that had I not been waiting for the creature I would've dnf. The last 50 pages were almost worth the long beginning though. Just really wanted more of Moder — my reason for reading the book in the first place.

Having watched the film a while ago I decided to give this a read. I found the characters were well developed and the story was pretty captivating.

For those like me who wondered if there are any big differences between the film and the book, without giving too much away, the book plot splits off from the film just over halfway through reading, there are of course differences throughout so I am really talking about the overall general tone and plot in comparison to the film. Although it is similar in its context the book expands more on the events that happen at the end of the film and I personally felt that the story had a much more desperate feel to it and found myself much more connected to the characters sense of hopelessness.

Really enjoyed this and will read more from the author in the future.