This is a hard book to rate. If I follow the GR rating system, it talks about how much I "liked" a book. However just because I didn't particularly liThis is a hard book to rate. If I follow the GR rating system, it talks about how much I "liked" a book. However just because I didn't particularly like a book, does not necessarily mean it isn't well written. I think purely objectively this book might rate four stars and for myself maybe only two/two and a half. So in a compromise, I ended up with three.
The book is well written, I don't have much to complain about the writing, characters, descriptions, dialogue, all good. Plot wise it was really good, Hill had me guessing right till the very end. Great build up and reveal. There are, in my opinion, only three things wrong with this novel:
The first one is that it doesn't quite seem to know what it wants to be. On one hand we have the Horns and their effect and on the other the events that led up to our MC getting the aforementioned appendages. On one part the book is a dark humoured the revenge story on the other a tragic murder investigation. It didn't always mesh well.
The second problem is closely related to the first, it's the pacing. The story starts off fast and intriguing, but it makes frequent use of long flash backs and whenever those hit it slows the story waaaay down. I don't actually think every single one of them was that necessary.
The third and final problem is plausibility. I know this novel is paranormal, but usually there is some in story explanation as to where someone's powers come from or why things are happening. This was left mostly unresolved by the end of the novel and consequently quite a few things didn't really make sense in the end.
The reason why I didn't "like" this novel however, is that it just isn't the type of book I enjoy, even if it's well written. It's just so dark and depressing that I often had to push myself to read it, as is evidenced by the length it took me to get through this. I only ever read it along with other, lighter books. I read often to escape the harsh realities of life, so to actually read a book that throws them in your face, didn't make sense to me. So much time is spent going over the horrid rape and murder of a young innocent girl and the unfairness of her life and that of her loved ones. It got really sad and depressing and I don't get why people want to read about that? Worst of all, the psychopath responsible didn't even suffer much in the end, he got off real easy and the best thing of this book was the power of the horns but that was used far too sparingly to give comeuppance to those that deserved it.
Just not for me, but it was well written, so if you're into this genre I would recommend giving it a go....more
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