leandrathetbrzero's reviews
361 reviews

Upon arriving at Tranquil Falls, a secluded artists’ colony, Sarah Carpenter hopes for a fresh start. She recently escaped an abusive partner and hopes to retake control over her own life by returning to her love of pottery. The longer she stays at the colony, however, she discovers disturbing truths about the property's history. Strange, paranormal events begin to happen to her and the other artists...and someone dies under mysterious circumstances.

I entered this book having loved a previous experience with Dawson's writing. Her horror novella, Bloom, was one of my favorite reads of 2023, so I was ecstatic when I was approved for a Netgalley ARC of her most recent publication. Unfortunately, this novel missed the mark. That isn't to say that I don't respect and appreciate Dawson's motivations for writing this narrative. I recommend that if you do read It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, make sureyou pause and read her author's note at the end. Dawson opens up about a terrifying experience—a reality that so many women can relate to—and how it gave her the groundwork for Sarah's story.

The first half of the book is far stronger than the second half. I enjoyed the narrative pacing, the eclectic group of characters, and the direct way Dawson addressed issues like misogyny and not believing women when they seek help/support. The latter half is where the narrative action felt too hurried, and there was an awkward imbalance once in a while when the author tries to infuse humor and banter during a serious situation. Moreover, I found the random rivalry between Sarah and another woman at the colony to be odd and distracting from the social commentary at hand. It also seemed that the backstory of Sarah's alcoholic mother went nowhere and had no influence on the plot, so I wonder why it's so heavily included in the first couple chapters.

CW:

animal death, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, domestic abuse, SA, some body horror, an alcoholic parent

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars
Original Pub Date: 22 October 2024
Reading Format: audio

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review! 

At this point, it's a 5-star series! Already exciting for when I eventually rereading these books! 

For about the first 3/4th of the story, I had accepted my fate that this book simply wasn't for me. However, as I could (at the time) see myself recommending this to others, I would settle with a 3-star rating.

My reasons for not vibing with the book:
- First-person POV narrator is our amateur sleuth; and he was way too impressed with himself
- The fun GAD nuggets would be spoiled a bit by overexplaining/the references being overdone
- I love a narrative that can pull off breaking the fourth wall and being meta, but this one was way too distracting as every. single. chapter. we would have the pacing stunted with a reminder our narrator is writing this all down.

And then what got me to drop my rating from 3 stars to 1.5 stars...

I will always hate when an author

reveals that the killer's motivation relates to sociopathic/psychopathic tendencies. The LAZIEST plotting. And THIS explains his crazy killing spree of his adoptive parents, the police officer, his brother, etc...

😒

I also found a certain PIVOTAL plot point to make absolutely no sense:

The bad cop let's Jeremy go free rather than killing him after the kidnapping. Okay, I'm with you. The bad cop has been keeping tabs on Jeremy even after the kid is adopted. Okay, sure. Even though Jeremy would obviously know NOTHING about his previous life and family, the bad cop approaches him because "hey you're a Cunningham, so you know how to do this stuff..." OBVIOUSLY HE WOULD HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. ARE YOU DUMB?? And that is what sparks Jeremy's search for the Cunninghams and his killing spree...

WHAAAAT. 

- Inappropriate explicit sexual scene between minors
- Lazy world-building: A bunch of French people running around historical Europe (but instead Kristoff makes up a bunch of empire names rather than just placing them in our world); Christians vs Vampires
- Language is reminiscent of teenage boys who think crass dialogue and sexism is what masculinity is...