Oct 14, 2024
read in 2024: horrid by katrina leno
Would a house like this ever be fully settled? Or would it ache and moan until the end of time, until all the newer, shoddier houses had fallen to ruins around it?
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read in 2024: horrid by katrina leno
Would a house like this ever be fully settled? Or would it ache and moan until the end of time, until all the newer, shoddier houses had fallen to ruins around it?
“Because there was nothing in a girl’s history that might negate her right to choose what happens to her body.”
Katrina Leno, Summer of Salt
Favorite Standalone Books
Round 1
Horrid (Katrina Leno) VS The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
Horrid
The Princess Bride
Show results
Propaganda for Horrid :
"cozy little horror gothic book to curl up with ^-^ i too eat books when im stressed "
JOMP BPC - June 12th - Floral
feat. Horrid by Katrina Leno
Read of Horrid by Katrina Leno (2022) (322pgs)
Horrid by Katrina Leno
"She imagined the paper re-forming in her belly. She imagined the words dissolving off the paper and sinking into her bloodstream. She imagined her body filled with words. Made up of them. Words instead of blood, words instead of organs."
Year Read: 2023
Rating: 2/5
About: After her father's death, Jane and her mother move across the country to her mother's childhood home, an abandoned old manor in Maine. Jane dislikes the house immediately, from the flickering lights to the creepy roses growing in the back. When she discovers that the locked storage room is actually a child's bedroom, she wonders if there's more to her mother's history than she ever guessed. Then she starts losing time, sending texts she doesn't remember sending, and struggling to suppress the rage she's been harboring all her life. Is there something happening at North Manor, or is it all in her head? Trigger warnings: parent/child death, suffocation, abuse, violence/fighting, blood, bullying, gaslighting, grief.
Thoughts: While interesting in concept, Horrid failed to ever really take off for me. I essentially waited 300 pages for nothing to happen. The ambiguity over whether or not something supernatural is happening lasts for too long, so that when we finally do get an answer to that question, I wasn't able to buy into it. There just isn't enough development over those aspects to make them believable. Unfortunately, as a mystery, it's also pretty poor. Jane's total lack of interest in investigating her mom's previous life doesn't drive the suspense at all, and most of the plot twists can be easily guessed from a long way off.
The novel does fine on character and atmosphere. Jane's only character traits are suppressed rage and eating books (apparently), but I found her relationship with her mom interesting and well-developed. The big, spooky house and the roses growing out of season provide plenty of atmosphere. There just wasn't enough there on any level to keep my interest, and the ending was a major letdown. Zero in the way of character development or coherence. Thanks to Lore @cementeriodelibrosolvidads for buddy reading this with me! We'll get a hit one of these days. 🖤🌹
