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A review by drkbloodfntsies
The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
2.0
⠀⠀✧ • ° . ◦ *⠀┊ two and a half stars.
⠀i don't even know where to begin. this book had all of the right elements for me to like it. i feel like i should have enjoyed this a whole lot more than i did. unfortunately, the only thing i could think about is if i was going to put this back on my shelf and take it off later to unhaul or just make a new unhaul pile. all i can muster up is 2 stars and a half and the half is being generous for this.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀and here’s why. . .
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ to start off with something good, i absolutely adored the format of this. the narrative was told via diary entries, post-it notes, messages, and transcriptions. i was a fan of [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443433956l/23395680._SY75_.jpg|26653661] by [a:Amie Kaufman|5360335|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1478659853p2/5360335.jpg] and [a:Jay Kristoff|4735144|Jay Kristoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1310187120p2/4735144.jpg] because it was written in a similar way. if i'm being entirely honest, this is the main reason i bought the book.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ unfortunately, i found myself bored and skimming quite frequently. most of the diary entries, especially within the first 100 pages, bored me to tears. i really skimmed then. i also found myself skimming a lot of the video transcriptions simply because i had little interest.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ going back to something relatively good, i enjoyed the main character. when it comes to thrillers / scarier books, i really like the idea of an unreliable narrator and there is no question that is what she was. she's the only reason i continued to read. i just had to know what happened with her.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ inception is my favorite movie and, yes, i was that person who cursed christopher nolan for not giving me a clear ending. well, dawn kurtagich, it's your turn to be cursed at for an unclear ending. some people may enjoy being kept in suspense even after they've closed the book. i am not. mainly because i don't like dissociative identity disorder being used as the punch line. ( * it is important to note that the author, dawn kurtagich, has experience with DID and other undisclosed mental(?) illnesses. as someone who has no experience with personality disorders, i do not feel right to speak for or against this topic.)
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ to bounce off the previous point, the plot was all over the place. yes, it made sense (kind of). yes, it was streamlined. could i tell you what happened? probably not. we were lead to believe mental illness incited these events, but magic (?) came into play. i liked how this walked on the line of supernatural vs. natural, but i feel like it could have been executed a little better. i understand that the things i do not understand are due to the unreliable narrator (which, again, i enjoy), but it would be nice to have some sense of certainty, lmao.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ the pacing was weird and this was not scary. this is marketed to be a scary novel but i believe the pacing kind of threw this off. yeah, i got a sense of creepiness throughout 90% of this book but that was it. i wanted to be scared, or at least thrilled. as stated, the first 100 pages were incredibly slow and the next 200 pages were slightly less than slow. everything seemed to happen all at once at the end. because of this, i feel like i lost most of the scare factor.
↠ paperback
↠ 03.29.20 — 03.31.20
↠ annotated? no
↠ readathon? n/a
⠀i don't even know where to begin. this book had all of the right elements for me to like it. i feel like i should have enjoyed this a whole lot more than i did. unfortunately, the only thing i could think about is if i was going to put this back on my shelf and take it off later to unhaul or just make a new unhaul pile. all i can muster up is 2 stars and a half and the half is being generous for this.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀and here’s why. . .
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ to start off with something good, i absolutely adored the format of this. the narrative was told via diary entries, post-it notes, messages, and transcriptions. i was a fan of [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443433956l/23395680._SY75_.jpg|26653661] by [a:Amie Kaufman|5360335|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1478659853p2/5360335.jpg] and [a:Jay Kristoff|4735144|Jay Kristoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1310187120p2/4735144.jpg] because it was written in a similar way. if i'm being entirely honest, this is the main reason i bought the book.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ unfortunately, i found myself bored and skimming quite frequently. most of the diary entries, especially within the first 100 pages, bored me to tears. i really skimmed then. i also found myself skimming a lot of the video transcriptions simply because i had little interest.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ going back to something relatively good, i enjoyed the main character. when it comes to thrillers / scarier books, i really like the idea of an unreliable narrator and there is no question that is what she was. she's the only reason i continued to read. i just had to know what happened with her.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ inception is my favorite movie and, yes, i was that person who cursed christopher nolan for not giving me a clear ending. well, dawn kurtagich, it's your turn to be cursed at for an unclear ending. some people may enjoy being kept in suspense even after they've closed the book. i am not. mainly because i don't like dissociative identity disorder being used as the punch line. ( * it is important to note that the author, dawn kurtagich, has experience with DID and other undisclosed mental(?) illnesses. as someone who has no experience with personality disorders, i do not feel right to speak for or against this topic.)
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ to bounce off the previous point, the plot was all over the place. yes, it made sense (kind of). yes, it was streamlined. could i tell you what happened? probably not. we were lead to believe mental illness incited these events, but magic (?) came into play. i liked how this walked on the line of supernatural vs. natural, but i feel like it could have been executed a little better. i understand that the things i do not understand are due to the unreliable narrator (which, again, i enjoy), but it would be nice to have some sense of certainty, lmao.
⠀⠀⠀⠀❥ ┊ the pacing was weird and this was not scary. this is marketed to be a scary novel but i believe the pacing kind of threw this off. yeah, i got a sense of creepiness throughout 90% of this book but that was it. i wanted to be scared, or at least thrilled. as stated, the first 100 pages were incredibly slow and the next 200 pages were slightly less than slow. everything seemed to happen all at once at the end. because of this, i feel like i lost most of the scare factor.
↠ paperback
↠ 03.29.20 — 03.31.20
↠ annotated? no
↠ readathon? n/a