Let's Talk About Books

Oh. My god. This book is amazing and heartbreaking and horrifying all at once. I love it. I really do.

So, to start, I read most of this at work and I feel it's important to say that I don't make a habit out of reading at work. It's been an oddly slow week though and so the book is a good option of keeping myself entertained. I definitely chose a good book for that.

Tremblay has a way with words that is just incredible. Like, this is one of the few books I read and really consider art, an example of why good writing is a craft. Everything was so well formulated and put together it's insane. I wish this book was out when I was in college because I could spend HOURS dissecting every little detail, exploring every little theory. 

The greatest triumph to this book is the emotional investment it gets from me as a reader. I had the heebie jeebies at the end of chapter one, just from the way he describes the approach of the strangers. I felt that uncomfortable horror all throughout the book, and in many ways, this is a scary book. It preys on the kind of horror that really keeps me awake at night. 

But it has its humor and lighter moments and all the characters are incredible. Wen, of course, is amazing but I think Sabrina was my favorite after I read the chapter from her perspective. That chapter was chilling and I have goosebumps just thinking about it. 

Really, much like Bird Box, my only complaint about the book is that it had to end and that it ended without much explanation. Was the group right or were they manipulated? Is the world really going to end? What was the figure of light and what was controlling the strangers? That's part of what makes this book scary, the lack of answers at the end, but that's also what makes this book specifically a horror novel. I still wish it was more definitive, but at the same time I wouldn't change a thing.

Final rating: 5 out of 5 stars. I'm emotionally spent and gonna go cry in a corner for a few minutes. All good things, of course.