2.5*
This one sounded quite exciting from the synopsis. And definitely perfect to read for the Halloween season! And while it was creepy, there were certain aspects that fell short for me. Let's first discuss the things I enjoyed though!
- The plot itself was really quite interesting. This house clearly had a lot of secrets, and weird shenanigans happening at every turn. Really, there was not really a dull moment in the book. It was on the shorter side, but the pages were used well and the story moved quickly.
- The characters definitely act like typical teens. It's quite refreshing, really. They were all unique personalities for sure, and sometimes it was pretty clear that they weren't thinking things through. They all also had secrets that I think they were more worried about than the scary ass dolls that were trying to kill them. Which let's be real, is exactly something we'd feel in our teen years.
- I was definitely invested in the outcome. I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen to the characters, and what the secrets of the house were. The character development also kept me quite interested.
Of course, there were also some things I didn't really care for, so here we go:
- Some of the language choices and thought processes were... weird. Look, I know I am not a teen, but I have literally never heard a human being of any age say "fuck-a-doodle-doo". Ever. And I really never hope to again. This gem, along with many others, was delivered by Dylan. Over and over and over. He was probably the most frustrating character, and not just linguistically. A lot of his whiny behavior I could kind of excuse as teenage angst, but then there were times that I just couldn't anymore with his nonsense. And Paul spends half the time thinking about marrying Violet, a girl he's spoken to literally once before this. Insta-love is rude enough when the characters aren't physically fighting for their lives.
- I feel like I didn't get as many answers as I'd have liked. Not about the house, not about the characters. I just wanted a bit... more from the ending, really. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't enough.
- Even though there were a lot of creepy aspects to the story, I never fully felt them. Of course I understood on a logical level, but it never fully segued into anything that actually made me feel creeped out. And even though the stakes were, again, logically high, I didn't feel them as such.
Bottom Line: While the plot and characters were quite intriguing, it just missed the mark in a few ways.
*Copy provided for review