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faerngrey's reviews
57 reviews
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
2.0
I'm not sure where to even start with reviewing this book. My thoughts on it are as all-over-the-place as the book itself.
When I initially read the description of this book, I was intrigued, mildly hopeful, and a bit eager to get started. This remained up until roughly a quarter of the way in. It felt as if there was little of any import happening and, whilst I enjoyed the narrative style of the book, I was left wanting more to happen.
This book has some very nice aspects- a wonderful narrative style, a good eye for detail, and enough humor to keep the story feeling hopeful. Some of the details paint a gritty picture with a cast of monsters that make your skin crawl, but those alone can't save a flawed story. Of the issues, poor timing was one of the key aspects that got under my skin, as well as a lack of progression.
There is an entire chunk of the book that could have been condensed down to a page or two that would have knocked out most of my issues with it. The Manuscript. You spend most of the beginning of the story wondering what this important, secret, tide-turning piece of information could hold that would change the course of our protagonist's life, and then you get to it. It is incredibly long, repetitive, and mind-numbingly boring. It offers little to the narrative. I went from keeping myself awake into the wee hours of the morning to read "just one more page" to putting off finishing it for nearly a week. And that is all thanks to The Manuscript.
What followed that incident was poorly timed and I rushed through most of it to see if the story picked back up in a way that didn't feel as jumbled together and cramped. It did, thankfully.
The end of the book feels much more like the beginning, without the tedium and lack of interest. I'm still not certain if I enjoyed the ending itself, or if the tone simply made it more of a pleasure to read than the previous sections.
Overall, if you've nothing else to read and want to kill some time, this isn't a total waste of effort. It has a few genuinely creepy moments and some good imagery, but if you are a seasoned horror fan and are looking to be honestly scared by a book, look elsewhere.
When I initially read the description of this book, I was intrigued, mildly hopeful, and a bit eager to get started. This remained up until roughly a quarter of the way in. It felt as if there was little of any import happening and, whilst I enjoyed the narrative style of the book, I was left wanting more to happen.
This book has some very nice aspects- a wonderful narrative style, a good eye for detail, and enough humor to keep the story feeling hopeful. Some of the details paint a gritty picture with a cast of monsters that make your skin crawl, but those alone can't save a flawed story. Of the issues, poor timing was one of the key aspects that got under my skin, as well as a lack of progression.
There is an entire chunk of the book that could have been condensed down to a page or two that would have knocked out most of my issues with it. The Manuscript. You spend most of the beginning of the story wondering what this important, secret, tide-turning piece of information could hold that would change the course of our protagonist's life, and then you get to it. It is incredibly long, repetitive, and mind-numbingly boring. It offers little to the narrative. I went from keeping myself awake into the wee hours of the morning to read "just one more page" to putting off finishing it for nearly a week. And that is all thanks to The Manuscript.
What followed that incident was poorly timed and I rushed through most of it to see if the story picked back up in a way that didn't feel as jumbled together and cramped. It did, thankfully.
The end of the book feels much more like the beginning, without the tedium and lack of interest. I'm still not certain if I enjoyed the ending itself, or if the tone simply made it more of a pleasure to read than the previous sections.
Overall, if you've nothing else to read and want to kill some time, this isn't a total waste of effort. It has a few genuinely creepy moments and some good imagery, but if you are a seasoned horror fan and are looking to be honestly scared by a book, look elsewhere.