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Victorian Silliness in Dickens' first novel will be an excellent palette cleanser after getting thoroughly *spooked* by the last book I read.

I have it on good authority this book is "cold af" and "sick as fuck"
So I must listen to it, despite a premonition that it may be YA dystopian slop

I am beginning to think the book might be *too* horrific.

Oh man, this is what I wanted. It's setting up all the dominos perfectly. There is a sense of grisly inevitably to the book. The author knows what we're here for, and wastes no time introducing the characters intimately, establishing the stakes, and does not mince words nor shy away from just how horrible things are. I'm having a great time so far, and only hope it holds out at this level of quality.

My hunger to be spooked continues. This one seems highly rated, and weird stuff happening in the woods to people camping is always an excellent recipe for ghouls, ghosts, and ghastly gremlins to do scary stuff. As a reputable reviewer, I vow only to rate 4 stars or more if I shit my pants, or discover great literary merit in the work.

I have been brought to this book by my unresolved urge to be spooked, an itch my previous read failed to scratch. I saw the movie, enjoyed it thoroughly, and am curious if the book also holds up.

Man this book is dog shit. It had a good premise and had a few spooky moments, but it's been lost in a soup of exposition and moralising on what could have been a good point if delivered more subtly. The ending will have to be a banger to make this more than like, two starts.

Halfway through. On a second reading, the intricacies of the scheming underway and the characterisation of the Count revealed through seemingly unrelated conversation is exceptional. Good stufffffff

Read this one before years ago, and enjoyed it. Upon reading the Wikipedia page for the actual island, it inspired me to return to the book. Suffering, vengeance, redemption, and all the wreckage and hypocrisy of the wake of the french revolution playing out on the page. What a treat!

So far there is more wizards, and sea, but a similar about of earth, compared to Tombs. This is an improvement.

It feels like nothing happens for 80% of the book, now towards the end things are happening, and they are quite enthralling.

There have been like three interesting sentences in the entire book so far. A schizophrenic has been introduced. Hopefully this will spice things up.

A fascinating romp through a formative portion of modern history. It shows how shortsighted political opportunism, great power squabbling, and local agency and interpersonal acrimony laid groundwork for the modern conflicts which have swallowed the region. Rich with well sourced anecdotes, it has moments of hilarity, tragedy, sickening atrocity, and staggering arrogance which makes the book a joy to read.