book review for The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan 3/5 light spoilers ahead
For some reason it took me perhaps twice or even thrice as long to read this book. It read very, very slow, even though technically the pacing was not that slow.
Writing is okay, but can be weird. In ch 3, there was a very strange way to tell the audience (and Carillon) that Eladora is her cousin, I wish I quoted it, you'll just have to trust me that it was not a normal way in which people are introduced to each other. In ch5, Jere orders food/drink at a coffee shop and never gets it before they leave. Aleena's dialogue is actual dogshit, annoying and terribly unfunny, but thankfully nobody else talks like her.
I did not understand Carillon and another character. There was a very strange "relationship" that is later revealed to have been a sort of interference from the iron gods. In spoilery terms: Every time Carillon and Miren teleport away (he saves her life two or three times by doing this), they immediately just need to fuck.. and apparently it was, by Carillon's words later, the work of the gods to bring their saints together. But it was just really fucking weird lol. It's even funnier, because while reading reviews I found plenty of people who agree with me, but none of us can explain why the hell it's so damn weird
The ghouls, the rat-like humanoid creatures, were so confusing to visualise lol. They have muzzles like rats but they have .. hooves??? What a strange combination, but then again, there's a lot of abominations, straight up violence against nature in this book, and the ghouls are one of them.
I do love the worldbuilding. This is the type of world that's dark and sad, Dark Souls like (in darkness that is) and I fuck heavy with that type of world. The kind where it's like man.. it's not even worth living here lol
I was pleasantly surprised by all the deaths. I love an author who doesn't shy away from killing their darlings. So many I never would've expected to die, dies. Beautiful. Need more.
Villain monologues are so boring. We need more sudden backstabbers to just backstab with no elaboration. He talks so long it's amazing he didn't die of old age during it.
That's all I got. Little bit all over the place, I'm out of practise in writing reviews.. All in all, I really like the world, (or at least the city), but I don't think I'll continue the series
