Horror Aficionados discussion

The winner of our May Poll is The Changeling. Reading begins on May 1st and last all month. Read at your own pace. Please use spoiler tags if discussing anything that could ruin the story for others. Happy reading!

I am excited for this one! Have it on my tbr for a while now. I am glad we are reading it. My last group read here was.. many moons ago 😅 but I am really looking forward to this 🙃

This is a great read! I will definitely be encouraging all of you with this one!

There a short wait at the library for this one. If it doesn’t come in soon, I will just get it.

ugh a 22 week wait on libby. 10 person wait at library. looks like im buying!!!

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did - I gave it 5 stars.

Not my favorite book, but I hope others get more out of it than I did. Interested in reading others' opinions of this!

I'm excited to read this. It'll be my second Victor LaValle read and was supposed to read this years ago for Uni but hadn't gotten to it.

I'm 3/4 through this, I thought it started out good and then got a bit boring but now it's ramped back up again and I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends. So far for me I'd rate it 4/5

I’m excited to start this book! I’m just waiting to get it through the library.

I got it, started listening to it today.

This is a mostly interesting and intriguing book but it most definitely has it's issues.

A large section of the plot remains unexplained, particularly the role of the witches. The middle section set on North Brother Island seems very out of place with the rest of the book. The final showdown is a disappointment, it's over far too quick and is easily resolved making you wonder what all the fuss was about.

However the central plot is interesting, the characters are well written and the book is largely entertaining. I can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity though.

3/5 for me.

Just received and started reading today. Only on Page 21, but Lavelle's storytelling style hooked me right away.
Have you ever been to a public library during children's reading hour and seen youngsters with their full attention on the adult reading to them? If the reader is animated and not monotone, the children are captivated and immersed. That's how I feel about the beginning of this book.

Now up to page 82. There's just enough foreshadowing of a supernatural nature to cause me to anticipate what's coming later. For now, I'm really enjoying the slice-of-life story of used and rare book seller Apollo and his family. The birth scene was intense and well-done.

I'm several chapters into Part 4 now. Up to the end of Part 3 this could just as easily served as a romance novel about a couple falling apart after becoming parents and not everyone handling it well. The funny thing is that I didn't object to it taking this long to get to the twist in the plot. I feel the set-up was worth it. I really know these characters and that makes me worry about them even more.
Now that the twist has occurred and upset everything, I'm anticipating a mesmerizing story with unexpected outcomes.

Page 222:
"We have to be careful. There are no secrets anymore. Vampires can't come into your house unless you invite them. Posting online is like leaving your from door open and telling any creature of the night it can enter."

Page 269:
"No matter the circumstances children are always listening. It can be easy for adults to forget this. . . . Children sniff out secrets better than the NSA."

I’ve been listening to this and just now realized I haven’t came here to comment. The narrator is great. He has this kind of sleepy voice.
I’m enjoying the story. I have (I think ) 40ish minutes left. I hope there’s a happy ending.

Finished. I liked it. The narrator was the author. Probably gonna go with 4 stars.

I just realized that I never commented on here about my reading. I finished listening to the audiobook a couple days ago. It was interesting hearing VL read their own work, kinda wish he changed tone or cadence once in a while. When he did, it was very subtle, I personally wouldn't classify this as horror but more like Dark Fantasy. I'm not sure if my not being a parent affects my viewpoint on that but yeah, while there were seriously horrific elements to it, I wouldn't call it a horror story.

Immediately as soon as I finished the story I was pretty much like the proverbial child at bedtime whatshisface talked about. What happens next? How do they explain that Brian is still alive? Wouldn't Emma be treated as a social pariah given that their story made the news how she did such a horrible act? Do they just assume new identities? Or was there an insinuation that everything would be ignored/waved away because they're a Black family and it was "old news"? What's he going to do about missing his check-ins with his PO? He gets sent back to jail for that, right? Does the glamour of the world fix all of these problems? The "They lived happily" ending does not suffice as an answer--for me at least. I enjoyed the atmosphere of it all. There was a certain fairytale quality to it. I'm not sure how I feel about the rant/attack on "new dads"... The wise ones side-quest felt... random. All in all I rated it a solid 4 stars. I have no serious critiques but it wasn't necessarily a favourite enough to be 5 for me.

May 28
He felt so groggy, it seemed like he'd been dosed. The last two days had been an uncut drug, an overdose of the improbable." p. 322.
May 30
Page 370:
Apollo's actions here surprised me, and seemed out of character. Until I read further into the story and understood his decisions better. Later in the novel, Emma's actions also surprise me. In hindsight, both decisions seem realistic for this troubled couple.

I finished yesterday. Great book. A Five-Star read for me.
Here's my review . . . . .

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...