Sections
Dark Matter is a by-the-books horror novel by Michelle Paver that could have used many more pages to develop its characters and themes.
The protagonist is Jack Miller, a middle-class young man who hates his job as a clerk and is in desperate need of purpose. So, when the opportunity of becoming a wireless operator in an expedition to the Arctic presents itself, he immediately jumps on board and travels with four other men to Gruhuken, a desolate place on the coast of a Norwegian Archipelago.
The novel is written in first-person, using Jack’s journal as the basis of the narrative. Early on, he writes about how he feels to be drifting through life, without a goal or [...]
The Luminous Dead is a horror story about two women having to both confront and help each other under terrible circumstances. The novel excels at building tension and maintaining a suffocating atmosphere, immersing the reader in the protagonist’s paranoia while establishing a very troubled relationship between its two main characters.
The protagonist, a young caver called Gyre Price, is tasked to explore a dangerous cave system deep underground in an alien planet, but things eventually go awry, and her only means of escape is through her handler, the inscrutable Em, who is far from a forthcoming individual.
The novel’s first sentence is already an ominous warning that [...]
The latest supernatural crime thriller by Stephen King, The Outsider, has a great start, pushing its characters to their limits, making them face questions regarding the limits of reason and, paradoxically, the terrible consequences of acting based on emotions alone. Its second half, however, brings the pacing to a halt, with the introduction of an uninteresting supernatural creature that does more harm than good to the story.
The novel begins with a boy, Frank Peterson, being found dead in the woods of a small town, where everyone knows everyone, with his throat shredded to pieces, his body violated by a dead branch and covered in semen. An eyewitness confirms that she saw [...]
Written by Ada Hoffman, The Outside, is a good sci-fi novel that taps into Lovecraftian cosmic horror to tell a story about perception, religion, and compliance. Despite its compelling worldbuilding and strong protagonist, the novel is ultimately marred by an unnecessary point of view, which adds nothing but exposition and repetition to the narrative.
The protagonist is Yasira, an autistic scientist that is on board a space station working on a new reactor. When the day comes to turn it on, Yashira is in the middle of a nervous breakdown, thinking something horrible is going to happen. She warns her superiors, but there is no evidence to support her alarm. They don’t [...]
In true Stephen King fashion, Christine is much more interested in how its horror elements affect the character and impact their relationships than in how they scare the reader. However, if the novel is successful in this regard, it’s also unfortunately marred by an inconsistent handle of points of view.
The plot focuses on the friendship between two young adolescents: the football player Dennis Guilder and his childhood friend, the feeble Arnie Cunningham. One day, when Arnie decides to buy his first car, a dilapidated red 1958 Plymouth Fury, Dennis starts to notice something is wrong – a feeling that only grows stronger as Arnie becomes increasingly obsessed with his [...]
Bird Box, written by Josh Malerman, is a post-apocalyptic horror novel about a world where people are haunted by unfathomable creatures that drive everyone who lays eyes on them mad. The book, however, fails to take advantage of this great premise, unable to present captivating characters and scenes packed with tension.
The protagonist is called Malorie, a woman who finds herself pregnant precisely on the day humanity is attacked by mysterious monsters on the streets: every person who looks at them kills themselves, so there’s no one alive who knows what they look like. With her eyes closed, Malorie leaves desperately for a house that is being advertised as a refuge, [...]