File this under: “Bruh, WTF Did I Just Read?”

Listen, I don’t pick up on like metaphor and symbolism very easily, so I’m not the best at attempting literary analysis, but what I CAN say I definitely absorbed from this, was a sense of the monstrous damage that grief and trauma can do to a family—how consuming it can be (pun absolutely intended).

I found the writing well-paced for the most part (I wasn’t forcing myself to push through; I was genuinely interested in finding out what happens next), although at times it felt a little repetitive.

I saw in other reviews that people said the twist was too predictable, but to be entirely honest, I’m still not even really sure what the twist WAS. Are we to believe the “vermin” weren’t real and the entire time it was just people? But then… I mean, Mara is still missing an arm at the end. What did they do with it? Were they actually cannibals? Why did her mother invite them in? I’m just so confused.

Overall it certainly made an impression, but I don’t think I’m smart enough for this high-brow sort of horror. Like it’s good! But I’m clearly not literate enough to dissect it the way it deserves to be, lol.