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A review by mcgbreads
The Sleeping Land by Ella Alexander
slow-paced
2.5
ARC review; thanks to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Mar 4, 2025.
Boy do I hate when a debut novel just doesn't work for me and this really, really didn't work for me. I was excited about it because the premise is very intriguing and the cover is beautiful. However, what I got just wasn't it. Not in my opinion, anyway. 2.5 stars.
This is about a small group of archeologists who are going to a remote cave in the Siberian wilderness to do an extensive dig in a place that's said to be "occupied." Doesn't that sound great?! So, you see, I was expecting tension, eeriness, creepiness, atmosphere, or thrills of some kind. Even a little horror! But I didn't get any of that.
My biggest issue is the pacing. It was so bad and so not what I expected, it threw me off right away. It takes them 35% (!!!!) to even get to the cave and that 35% was incredibly boring, with the exception of maybe the first 5 or so chapters, where we get introduced to the characters and get a feel of the kind of people they are. They're not very interesting people, by the way, and they don't really like each other, a fact that's shoved down our throats throughout the book for no reason.
After every chapter, I kept thinking, "Okay, surely they won't be on this train for much longer, right?"
When they finally do get to the cave, things get a little more interesting and I started having hope again. There's a claustrophobic scene inside the cave that was really good and they actually dig up something unexpected, but they don't spend much time there before going back to a town or whatever, and I was shocked by that. It made no sense to interrupt their time at the cave, what the fuck?
Then, they return to the cave and it's already, like, 70 or 80%, so of course things start picking up. Weird things happen, things escalate a little, and we finally learn what's "occupying" the cave. The thing is, and this is my second biggest issue with the book, the discovery is incredibly unbelievable and zero attempt was made at making it believable within the reality of this novel, so it falls flat on its face. It just doesn't work, in my opinion. Not at all.
And it could have worked, that's the thing!!! It could've worked and it could've been such an impactful and creepy story, but it wasn't cause it wasn't established well. And the characters' reaction to this amazing discovery was sooo... flat. You'd think they discovered something completely ordinary. None of them were in awe or terrified by some of the things that happened. I have no words for how underwhelming everything was in the end.
One thing this does have going for it is the writing. Ella Alexander can write and I will keep an eye out for any future books, but this one is a no for me and I feel sorry about that.
Boy do I hate when a debut novel just doesn't work for me and this really, really didn't work for me. I was excited about it because the premise is very intriguing and the cover is beautiful. However, what I got just wasn't it. Not in my opinion, anyway. 2.5 stars.
This is about a small group of archeologists who are going to a remote cave in the Siberian wilderness to do an extensive dig in a place that's said to be "occupied." Doesn't that sound great?! So, you see, I was expecting tension, eeriness, creepiness, atmosphere, or thrills of some kind. Even a little horror! But I didn't get any of that.
My biggest issue is the pacing. It was so bad and so not what I expected, it threw me off right away. It takes them 35% (!!!!) to even get to the cave and that 35% was incredibly boring, with the exception of maybe the first 5 or so chapters, where we get introduced to the characters and get a feel of the kind of people they are. They're not very interesting people, by the way, and they don't really like each other, a fact that's shoved down our throats throughout the book for no reason.
After every chapter, I kept thinking, "Okay, surely they won't be on this train for much longer, right?"
When they finally do get to the cave, things get a little more interesting and I started having hope again. There's a claustrophobic scene inside the cave that was really good and they actually dig up something unexpected, but they don't spend much time there before going back to a town or whatever, and I was shocked by that. It made no sense to interrupt their time at the cave, what the fuck?
Then, they return to the cave and it's already, like, 70 or 80%, so of course things start picking up. Weird things happen, things escalate a little, and we finally learn what's "occupying" the cave. The thing is, and this is my second biggest issue with the book, the discovery is incredibly unbelievable and zero attempt was made at making it believable within the reality of this novel, so it falls flat on its face. It just doesn't work, in my opinion. Not at all.
And it could have worked, that's the thing!!! It could've worked and it could've been such an impactful and creepy story, but it wasn't cause it wasn't established well. And the characters' reaction to this amazing discovery was sooo... flat. You'd think they discovered something completely ordinary. None of them were in awe or terrified by some of the things that happened. I have no words for how underwhelming everything was in the end.
One thing this does have going for it is the writing. Ella Alexander can write and I will keep an eye out for any future books, but this one is a no for me and I feel sorry about that.