Literally Dead Book Club discussion

Since we have 3 reads of the month, and they are all short- I didn't think we needed discussion posts throughout the reading process- so just share all of your thoughts on This is Where We Talk Things Out here!

Read this one a while ago, and I found a lot of it to be relatable and I enjoyed the read. However, it was super predictable and I didn’t really like the ending. Mom also read more like a caricature of a narcissist versus an actual narcissist. A fun and quick novella, though… I’d rate this somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars. This would make a really good movie! I’ll definitely check out more work by this author.

I read this a few months ago and enjoyed it a lot! I gave it 4 stars ⭐️

Purely objectively this is a 4 for me, but like... the amount of anxiety... It was a great novella, very nicely executed, I was on edge the entire time but this type of horror just isn't my cup of tea. It was like watching a really uncomfortable movie and I kind of loved it, kind of hated it.

It was engaging and entertaining, but I was also extremely uncomfortable and anxious the entire time. This is of course a success in terms of what the author wanted to accomplish, but usually doesn't work for me. To compare, Whispers Down the Lane gave me the same emotional experience and I gave that a very very subjective 2 stars because it was so hard to read. I think the fact that it was written as a novella was the decisive point for me. Predictable, but great execution. 4 stars.

Haven't really figured out how I feel about this story yet. I like the suspense of it all and how the tension between Miller and Sylvie escalated pretty quickly. However, I would have liked more horror elements to have been included within the story.
Also, Miller kept saying that things seemed off, like the furniture in her room seeming wrong, but the author never addressed this.

i'm giving it 2.5 stars but rounded it up. ngl i was bored at times and felt that the story dragged on which is not good for a short story haha. it was only during the last few chapters i really started to enjoy the book.

I read this earlier this year and gave it a 3. I don't remember much of it which explains my rating. I might re-read it later this month if I have time after reading my existing TBR.

3. I found it to be fairly predictable.

I was just wondering if anyone else has heard anything about the controversy at Dark Lit press and this author?

As another contributor stated, the mother felt like a caricature of a narcissistic mother, not an actual narcissist. Having grown up with an abusive mother who has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder, this novella over egged the pudding and because of that, it was juvenile and predictable. I felt like I was reading my students entries for an episode of Criminal Minds. There wasn’t enough depth to make it scary or even uncomfortable. I knew immediately that the mother had the dead father in the bedroom.
However, it did bring up some things to keep in mind when dealing with narcissistic parents (or anyone):
1) NEVER go alone. Always have a witness to every conversation, whether in person, on the phone, or over text. Always.
2) Don’t allow access to your social media - ever. Once you cut them off, keep that boundary solid.
3)Allow your SO to be that buffer between you and the narcissist. My husband needed to be the buffer for me for about 12 years until I felt strong enough to deal with her again. This means that I contacted my parents and told them how and when they could contact me in the future. I still hold a very strict boundary.
4)Accept that no matter how much you want to have a normal origin family, you don’t and you never will. Life becomes much better when you finally accept that, cut them off, and enforce that boundary. We are given two chances at having a family - as a child and as an adult. If our parents screw up our childhood, don’t allow them to screw up our adulthood as well.

I also read this awhile ago. I really liked it and that mother was a piece of work! It felt very Misery by Stephen King to me but it still really hit home. When you found out the Dad was dead upstairs? HORRIFIC!

I felt very uncomfortable reading this. I had thought I would finish this in one session, but twice had to put it down. I gave it 2 * as I understand that was the point of the author, however, I didn’t enjoy reading it.

The whole book was a wild ride. I would not have trusted Sylvie at all. Nor would I have gone to stay with her at without giving out the info to Florence first. I knew the dad was dead in the house from the get go but I did enjoy the twist to the end. Feel bad Miller got stuck in the house.

2⭐️

This book made me uncomfortable, but i knew the outcome from the moment i started reading and i wanted there to be something more or different to happen within this story.

2⭐️
I agree with a lot of the opinions above. I thought the mother felt like a caricature of a narcissist and the entirety of the plot was very predictable, including her trapped fate at the end (seeing as it's a pretty loyal retelling of Stephen King's Misery, and by the time she figures out her father's corpse is upstairs, there isn't enough story left in terms of page count for her to get free and get help and have the story end satisfactorily). I really wish this had done a different twist - it's really clear from the first whiff of decay that the dad is upstairs, and Miller is so clueless as to be annoying.

Que the parent trauma :P

I liked it! I thought the concept was fun and original enough but it wasn't anything mind blowing for me. Out of all three novels we read this month, this was the least memorable.

If I’m generous, this is 2 stars. Its fun but lacks any emotional nuance, complexity, or subtlety. It would impressive if a high-school senior wrote it for their school newspaper after getting a B- in Psych 101.

If Miller had killed her mother, like I was screaming at the book she would have made it out!! That is all.

I thought this was fine, it was predictable and some of the writing felt a little shallow to me but it was alright. It did do a good job of creating an oppressive and anxiety inducing atmosphere, and for a first novella I think there’s potential. It was short so it did have to progress rather quickly through the storyline, but it made for a quick and easy read.

I appreciated how quick of a read this was, and I thought the author did a great job making the interactions between Miller and Sylvie super uncomfortable and tense. I also think familial relationships are an excellent landscape to explore in horror. However, I feel like this novella also missed in a lot of places, especially the characterization. I don't really know anything about Miller besides the fact that she's engaged to Florence and has tried to cut off her mom for obvious reasons. While you certainly don't need to know somebody (or a character) to sympathize with their situation and hope for them to get out of it, especially in the case of abuse, there is still an expectation of character development in any work of fiction. I think this is where a lot of short fiction tends to fall flat in general.
I also thought the predictability of the reveal—I knew where this was going the moment the smell was first commented on—made for an overall unsatisfying ending.
2 stars for me.

This one got a 1⭐️. Part of it is my own fault for not looking at triggers which hit a little close to home before the horror even started but I also found it very predictable and kind of boring.

I honestly was going to give this novella 4 stars because I did assume she would get away. I also did predict the smell being the dead father. I ended up giving this novella 5 stars because of her ending up being stuck with her mother forever. It truly did make my stomach drop, thinking of how she would have to live the rest of her life like that. Glad I sat down and read this in one sitting!

This was a quick read and I grew more disgusted with Sylvie at every page. While I did feel horrified at points it was very predictable and Miller made an endless series of dumb decisions. I have a close friend whose dad is very likely narcissistic and Sylvie was very much a caricature of a narcissistic parent. She was over-the-top and unhinged and lacked even a modicum of pretend rationality. Miller should’ve killed her when she strangled her. The ending was predictably boring and would’ve been more interesting if Miller had killed Sylvie, escaped, or they’d both died. It was also annoying how Florence was relegated to set dressing and wasn’t a character in her own right. I was engrossed while reading but now I’m just mad I read it. 2 stars because the prose was fine and the tension did work for the most part.

Lisa brought up a recent controversy surrounding DarkLit and Caitlin Marceau, which I hadn’t heard about, so I looked it up. If anyone else is curious this is a blog post by one of the affected authors.

https://stevestredauthor.ca/2024/09/2...

Quite predictable, but I hoped that the ending would bring something unexpected and/or shocking. Like: dad’s not dead, or he is, but so is the mom, or something. But no, and I hated the ending. 2/5 ⭐️

this was a no for me.... how do you compare yourself to misery with a book like this :-/ i wish there was more ambiguity with the characters from the start so that we could get a slow descension to madness or sometthinggggg

This is why I always take my own vehicle on trips, I hate feeling trapped or not in control. Sylvie is a piece of work. She def has the Annie Wilkes/Norman Bates thing going on.