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Book Review: And the River Drags Her Down

Rating: 3.5 stars

She has always known the rules – never resurrect anything larger than the palm of her hand, but that was before her sister died. A chilling, compulsive exploration of sisterhood, loss, and revenge.

When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the world. She becomes restless and hungry . . .

Driven by an insatiable desire to finish what she started in life, to unravel the truth that crushed her family so many years ago, Mirae is out for revenge.

When their town is engulfed by increasingly destructive rain and a series of harrowing, unusual deaths, Soojin is forced to reckon with the fact that perhaps the sister she brought back isn’t the one she knew.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

And the River Drags Her Down is one of those books that slowly hooks you into the story. Because it took me a while to get into this book. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this book. It becomes very clear from the beginning how much Soojin and her father haven’t moved on since Mirae’s passing. How much her death has impacted their lives. This book does a wonderful job of showing characters still grappling with grief, not being able to move on many months after it’s passed, and how it impacts everyone in one household.     

However, for me, I feel that this book moved slowly at the beginning to get to the most interesting aspects of the story. I get the point of it, too, though, because as a reader, it gave me insight into what their lives are like without Mirae. And I feel like that was needed to see once she’s brought back how her being here impacts their lives. I also feel like once she returns is when the story actually starts to pick up, because even though Soojin is the one who brought her back, Mirae’s character was more enjoyable to read to me than Soojin. She was just a more enjoyable person to me overall, out of the two sisters, as I feel like Soojin was just there in the story. Yes, she’s the one who brought Mirae back, but a lot of the plot in the story that occurred was due to Mirae’s actions once she returned. And I found her character more interesting because of all that she’d been through before her death, as well as after.

What I also feel like, And the River Drags Her Down does well, is show the relationships between all of the characters. You see this through Soojin’s friendship with Mark and through the friendship Mirae had with Bentley. I feel like all of the friendships in this book, you could see how they all changed throughout because of the events that had transpired as a result. You could see how Soojin and Mark lost touch because of what was going on with Soojin’s family, and you could see the complicated friendship between Mirae and Bentley due to the nature of their parent’s dynamic in the town. It was all an interesting dynamic that I was intrigued to read more about.

I also found that I enjoyed reading about all of Mirae’s abilities and how she went about finding out the truth about what happened to their mother. It was cool getting an insight into the past to get an understanding of why things transpired the way they did. I also found myself feeling really empathetic towards Mirae, too, though as I continued reading, because of how she had to become the parent in the family once their mother was no longer around. I think that’s also why I found her character more enjoyable as well, because she was the one who had to shoulder the burden of being responsible for everyone in their home.

I also wasn’t fond of how And The River Drags Her Down ends either. Granted, I had a feeling the way this book ended was how it ended up going. Because the best way for them to truly move on from what happened is to start over. But I was hoping there would be more with it than what gets shown, like seeing them after they’ve started over. I also was expecting more to happen because of her friendship with Mark, but she waited to tell him last. Which continues to prove why out of the two siblings, she wasn’t my favorite one to read from, because she continues to wait to put off difficult things for later. Will say, though, that the end of this book definitely wasn’t as bad for me as the beginning.

Overall, though, enjoyed reading And the River Drags Her Down, even if I initially had a difficult time getting into it when I started it. I felt like once her sister was brought back, the story started to pick up and get more interesting. I recommend this book as a good read for anyone interested in reading a story about a family dealing with grief, and who wants to read a horror story that primarily focuses on water horror. I will say, though, that if you are someone who doesn’t want to see any animals harmed in the books you read, you should probably stay clear of this book because there’s definitely some animal death in this one. And the River Drags Her Down was published on October 7, 2025, for those interested in giving this book a read.           

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Book Review: Don’t Let the Forest In

Rating: 3.5 stars

Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality―Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork―whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster―Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator…

From beginning to end, Don’t Let the Forest In is a book that had me hooked, eager to know what would happen next. In particular, what drew me to reading this book was the horror that was unfolding, combined with its setting at an academy for wealthy students. I also enjoyed it due to the monsters coming to life were from fairytales that Andrew came up with that Thomas drew. While I feel like there’s never any real explanation given as to why these events unfold, I enjoyed reading about it all to find out what would happen next. There’s just something about monsters coming to life from stories people have written that always draws me in. And this book was no different.

What Don’t Let the Forest In also did well was incorporate themes into the book that connected to what was going on in the story. These themes can be seen throughout the story through Andrew’s character as he struggles to fit in at school and deal with his mental and physical health issues, along with everything that has changed upon his return to school. Even though Andrew wasn’t my favorite character in this book (I’ll discuss that later), I found myself still hoping for the best for him, as he went through a lot in this book.

I also enjoyed the little snippets of the fairy tales Andrew had written that were incorporated at the beginning of chapters, and the pictures of the monsters Thomas and Andrew encountered. I felt like seeing these in this book allowed me to imagine what Andrew and Thomas were dealing with at Wickwood Academy. But it also helped me relate to these characters, as I found I was able to relate to Andrew through his telling of dark fairytales. If anything from reading those little blurbs, I found myself wanting to read the stories Andrew writes to find out what happened in them.

With Don’t Let the Forest In, what I didn’t particularly like was the lack of character development and details in the story. When reading this book, I felt like there was no character development for Andrew at all. Yes, he eventually gets to a point where he’s able to deal with the monsters on his own. But when it comes to everything else that happens in this book, he acts like he can’t deal with anything. And there’s never any discussion around why his character acts this way or anything in the story that explains it. It makes it hard for me to like his character because there’s no growth for him in this book. What also bothered me was the lack of details regarding why these monsters existed to begin with. I figured that as the story went on, there would be an explanation here for why these monsters exist. But if there is one, I didn’t see it because it felt like they just suddenly were at their school. Both these things bothered me as I felt like I was reading a story with missing information that I would’ve liked to have to get more insight into the story.

What I also didn’t like with this story was the sudden twist added to the story and the ending. I felt like the sudden twist that was added to the story didn’t do much other than add shock for the reader and cause Andrew pain. It was also something I felt like was easy to tell had happened, considering how little the character involved was actually in the story. While it did make me feel sorry for Andrew, I felt like it didn’t add anything to the story here for me, other than explain why this character wasn’t as heavily involved in this book as I was expecting her to be. As for the ending, like several of the books I’ve read this year, it was an open ending. And like I said before with previous reads, I don’t mind open endings, but with the way this story was written, I felt like the way it was left made me feel like this story didn’t have a happy ending for these characters. With this book, all I can truly imagine is a grim ending for these characters, which wasn’t at all what I was hoping for.   

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Don’t Let the Forest In because of the horror in the story and getting to see these monsters brought to life. Also, incorporating a little of the fairy tales Andrew writes and having pictures of the monsters was a nice touch that I enjoyed and wanted to see more of. I just wish there had been more with regard to character development, the twist in the story, and the end of the book, as those were the things in this book that I didn’t particularly care for when  I was reading this. But I still enjoyed it and recommend Don’t Let the Forest In to anyone who enjoys horror stories that take place at an academy.     

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Book Review: The Resurrectionist

Rating: 4 stars

In the tradition of The Alienist and A Love Story, a decadently macabre, dark, and twisty gothic debut set in 19th century Scotland – when real-life serial killers Burke and Hare terrorized the streets of Edinburgh – as a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching. Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly origins of modern medicine for readers of Lydia Kang, ML Rio, Sarah Perry, and C.E. McGill.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to work on a human cadaver.

For that, he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he cannot afford. In desperation, he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help him gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain . . .  Nye is a body snatcher. And James has unwittingly become his accomplice.

Intoxicated by Nye and his noble mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the body snatchers infamous for stealing fresh corpses from churchyards to be used as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it, James is caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power and prestige.

James and Nye soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a shady pair of unscrupulous opportunists known as Burke and Hare, who are dead set on cornering the market, no matter the cost. These unsavory characters will do anything to beat the competition for bodies. Even if it’s cold-blooded murder . . .

Exquisitely macabre and delightfully entertaining, The Resurrectionist combines fact and fiction in a rollicking tale of the risks and rewards of scientific pursuit, the passions of its boldest pioneers, and the anatomy of human desire.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

This book was an intriguingly interesting read to me. From beginning to end, I was captivated by the story told within this book’s pages, wanting to find out what was going to happen next to James and Nye. While I felt like I didn’t really know too much about either of them as I feel like this book’s focus is more on the events that transpire than character development, the story within The Resurrectionist was an enjoyable one for me.

What also helped draw me into the story here is the setting of this book. It takes place during a different time in Edinburgh when the world didn’t have the advancements in medicine and science that we have today. Back when there weren’t enough dead bodies to study in medical schools, they had to rely on body snatchers to bring fresh corpses to be used for scientific study. I felt like with The Resurrectionist, I was very easily swept into this time period with James as he talked about his experiences at his college and the private school he ended up attending. I felt like I was right along with James as he discovered the underbelly of life as a body snatcher and as the stakes in his life kept getting more and more dangerous. This book essentially drew me in through its descriptive storytelling when it comes to the world around James and his mates.

What I also enjoyed about The Resurrectionist along with the setting of the book is the story itself. The plot was fast-moving, with conflicts occurring every so often with James and his companion Nye. The story of James being in debt when he finally found somewhere he belonged and doing things most people would find morally questionable, to his life as a body snatcher, to the discovery of a group of people who are a threat to what James and Nye do, to their lives being in immediate danger when they become involved with Burke and Hare. It kept me on the edge, continuing to read to see what would happen next to James and Nye and how this story would conclude. Especially knowing what I do now that some of the characters in this historical fiction novel are based on real people and real killings that have taken place. Knowing that now intrigues me enough to want to learn more and see how events in this book connect with the true crimes committed by Burke and Hare.

Another piece of The Resurrectionist I enjoyed was seeing the relationship between James and Nye. Since there isn’t a lot of character development in this book, I was interested in their relationship because I wanted to see how it would develop. And while the direction it takes doesn’t surprise me, I wanted to see more of it unfold than what as a reader I get.

As a whole, I did enjoy reading this book. However, if there was anything with it I didn’t particularly like it would be lack of character development and information. I feel like this book does a marvelous job of describing the events that happened from James’ point of view. As a reader, I get a good sense of what the world he lives in is like and what his life is like as a body snatcher. But that’s it. I feel like there’s a lot that happens in the story with these characters but there’s a minimal amount of character development with them. I also feel like this book does a wonderful job of giving us the events that happen but feel like at times I wanted more information when something happened as a lot of the conflicts that occurred were resolved pretty quickly. I felt like there could’ve been more here in this story than what was given, but enjoyed what I read, nonetheless.The Resurrectionist is an enjoyable read that I highly recommend. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, true crime, medical crime, and anyone who likes a story that takes place near an academic institution. The Resurrectionist was published on December 24, 2024 for those interested in reading this book.

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Book Review: A Place for Vanishing

Rating: 4 stars

A teen girl and her family return to her mother’s childhood home, only to discover that the house’s strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.

The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That’s what Libby’s mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.

But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.

Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.

We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.

This book was an interesting read to me as I wasn’t expecting this story to get as dark as it does. A Place for Vanishing has a lot of unique aspects to its story. There’s the house, which has a very dark history with the mystery of why people who live in the home never come out. The story behind these disappearances is very grim, not for the faint of heart and Ann Fraistat does a wonderful job painting a picture in intricate detail behind the history of the house. There’s also the characters in the story, from Libby with her bipolar III diagnosis, her younger sister Vivi and a neighbor a few houses down named Flynn who has a surprising connection to the house in more ways than one. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the characters in the story. But as I kept reading, I found I enjoyed learning more about them as they explored the house and investigated the mystery behind the masks.  

When I initially started reading this book, I struggled as the beginning is very slow moving with building the plot and story. But as the story continues, it goes from slow moving to the plot picking up in ways I didn’t expect. I found this slow build in A Place for Vanishing I actually didn’t mind as the many twists and turns that occurred made up for the slow start. I think what helped was the horror elements throughout. Even though I don’t get scared easily, I found myself at times horrified by the turn of events in this book and continued reading to find out if things would get better. I’m not scared of bugs in the least but believe that if I had the experiences the characters had in this book, I definitely would become scared of them. And the house itself had enough intrigue that made me continue reading to find out what secrets this house had to hide.

Another aspect of A Place for Vanishing I enjoyed was seeing Libby’s character development. She goes from being the character in the story where her mother and sister Vivi had to be careful around because of her condition and the events that lead to them moving into the house to being the person who saves them all from a terrible fate. She goes through so much development in this book, and I enjoyed the way her personal struggles with her health were portrayed. While I don’t personally know anyone with bipolar III, it was great to see mental health representation in this book while everyone in the story is going through a terribly traumatic ordeal. And I love that she’s the one who ends up saving everyone in the story. I also enjoyed seeing the beginning of her relationship with Flynn and that this book didn’t heavily focus on as much as what was going on in the house.

Overall I enjoyed reading A Place for Vanishing as the author did a wonderful job setting the scene for the horrific events to come. While the story started off with a really slow start, once it picked up I had a hard time putting this one down. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys reading horror as this book will give you some chills. However, anyone who doesn’t enjoy reading about characters dealing with mental health issues and books that mention suicide, doesn’t like horror, and is very easily creeped out by bugs, I would highly steer clear of this book as you more than likely won’t enjoy it quite as much.

Thank you so much for reading my review of A Place for Vanishing! If you liked this post, please check out other posts on my blog and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Book Review: Cujo

Cujo Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

“Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine.”

Cujo used to be a big friendly dog, lovable and loyal to his trinity (THE MAN, THE WOMAN, and THE BOY) and everyone around him, and always did his best to not be a BAD DOG. But that all ends on the day this nearly two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard makes the mistake of chasing a rabbit into a hidden underground cave, setting off a tragic chain of events. Now Cujo is no longer himself as he is slowly overcome by a growing sickness, one that consumes his mind even as his once affable thoughts turn uncontrollably and inexorably to hatred and murder. Cujo is about to become the center of a horrifying vortex that will inescapably draw in everyone around him—a relentless reign of terror, fury, and madness from which no one in Castle Rock will truly be safe… 

As an avid reader who doesn’t mind horror novels, this book didn’t meet my expectations. I didn’t mind the premise of the story because I love dogs and a dog turning rabid with rabies sounded right up my alley. Instead, Cujo made me feel more sad than horrified, which wasn’t something I was expecting.

However, I did have some enjoyment with this story. What I liked about this book was the premise. A dog who’s very loyal to his family one day goes chasing after a rabbit only to get rabies and tries to kill any human that gets close to him. I found this plot to be interesting because as someone who loves animals, I was invested in finding out how Stephen King was going to make this story more horrifying for his readers.

I also enjoyed how Cujo became associated as the monster Tad was starting to see in his closet in the beginning of the story. When Tad, Vic and Donna first meet the Camber’s dog Cujo, both Vic and Donna are weary of their son interacting with him. Both of them already saw him as a monster before he became infected with rabies. So it made sense later on in the story that he was the monster Tad saw in his closet. It was a nice parallel for these characters who already began seeing Cujo for the creature he became.

While this story wasn’t all that frightening, I did enjoy the horror elements King incorporated into the book. From monsters in the closet to somnambulism and a dog that turns wild, I thought these elements in the story made it a much more interesting read. You see all of these elements of horror in this book via the characters in the story. For example, you find out from Charity that her son Brett used to have a serious case of somnambulism that seems to return in the book while they are away from home. He’s seen walking around the house in a trance feeding their dog Cujo. This scene foreshadows that something bad is about to happen even though none of the characters have any clue what that’s going to be. It’s horrifying because you as the reader already know that Cujo is infected with rabies.

I think what I enjoyed the most about Cujo is that I felt sympathy for him. He never had a clue that his whole life was going to change all just because he chased after a rabbit. In this story, I felt sympathy for him because he was just so care free up until the point he got bitten. He was just a normal dog who suddenly turned into a monster. And I felt for him once that happened. He was in pain from that moment until he died, which to me was more sad than terrifying. In essence, this book made me sympathetic to Cujo because it made me more aware of how rabies impacts animals. It gave me a better understanding of rabies as a disease so I feel like I learned something new while feeling for Cujo.

However, there are a lot of things with this book I didn’t particularly enjoy. For one, I hated how the story switched back and forth between characters. While I normally don’t mind books that have multiple points of view, I felt like in this story it just dragged the plot along. Once Cujo was infected with rabies and started his killing, I felt like there were certain moments that didn’t need to be in the story. You as the reader know already that certain characters aren’t going to be in town when everything really begins, but I didn’t feel like we needed to see exactly what they were doing. This bothered me because the plot of the story didn’t pick up or interest me until close to the middle of the story. So the rest of what I was reading just felt like filler up until Cujo’s rabies took over.

I also didn’t like most of the characters in the story besides Cujo and the two children in the story Tad and Brett. None of the adults in the story had much in the way of character development and I just didn’t particularly care about anyone in the story. I liked the children in the story because they still had their childhood innocence, but none of the adults were people I really wanted to get to know. I think it had to do with the adults having no idea what was going on around them while the children seemed to have more of a sense that something bad was coming. Either way, I wasn’t fond of too many of the characters so I didn’t really care what happened to them.

I especially didn’t care for how it all ended. I was hoping that the ending would be seriously grim with Cujo killing all of the characters in the story, minus Tad and Brett. Instead, it was sad because Cujo deserved a lot more than what he was given and I felt a little terrible for Vic and Donna. I think this is why I had a hard time seeing this book as horror because all the moments I wanted to feel scared I felt sad instead. I felt sad for Cujo who went from a friendly dog to a monster in the blink of an eye. And I felt bad for Tad and Brett, both for different reasons I can’t reveal without spoiling the story.

Overall, I did enjoy reading Cujo because the premise is interesting and the horror elements King did incorporate into the story made it a more fascinating read. But the plot was bogged down with too much information , characters I wasn’t particularly invested in, and an ending that made me more sad than scared that I did have a hard time continuing to read the story to find out what happened next. The idea behind this book made me fascinated to read it, but its execution didn’t meet my expectations at all so I came away from this book disappointed that it didn’t meet its full potential. However, I haven’t read too many of Stephen King’s books so the way I feel about this one isn’t going to stop me from reading more of his work.

 

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Book Review: The Creeping

The Creeping Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

Eleven years ago, Stella and Jeanie disappeared. Only Stella came back.

Now all she wants is a summer full of cove days, friends, and her gorgeous crush – until a fresh corpse leads Stella down a path of ancient evil and secrets.

Stella believes remembering what happened to Jeanie will save her. It won’t.

She used to know better than to believe in what slinks through the shadows. Not anymore.

This book wasn’t at all what I was expecting, which was both a good and bad thing for me. I overall enjoyed the story, but there was a whole lot of things with it too that made me enjoy it a lot less.

For starters, the book cover for The Creeping is absolutely gorgeous. It’s gorgeous in the sense that it’s creepy in all of the right ways, making it where the reader wants to dive within the pages to see what the story is going to be about. I know it was one of the things I saw on Goodreads that made me want to read the story, to find out what happened to the characters. To see if the cover matched the overall tone in the book. Whether it does or not depends on the individual reader.

I also enjoyed all of the horror elements in the story, starting from hearing the story about what happened to Stella when she was a child to her looking to uncover the truth of what happened on that day. There was just so much interesting information about the town she lived in and the other girls who went missing that I was interested to see where it’d lead. It made The Creeping a much more interesting read for me because without it, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed this book quite as much. I like that Stella decided to take the matter into her own hands because we learn so much more about the town she lives in and what she’s like as a person that we would’ve never known. It added to the overall tone of the book, which made me want to continue reading to see what happened next.

Related image
Via Giphy.

However, there is just so much with this book that I can’t look past that made me enjoy it less. For starters, I wasn’t fond of most if not all of the characters. Because of what happened in her childhood, Stella ends up becoming one of the popular girls at her school and her best friend Zoey makes her choose between staying friends with her or Sam, the first boy Stella kisses. So despite Stella choosing Zoey over him, Sam still cares about her and tries to be a part of her life. He lets Stella treat him like crap over the years in the hopes that one day she’ll realize how much he cares about her.

While she does eventually realize how much he cares and starts to feel the same way, I felt like their whole relationship was completely unrealistic. Especially since she was still friends with Zoey at the time who cares nothing more than about being popular at their school. I also just feel like Alexandra Sirowy added their romance in the story to add some unneeded drama into the book. Because while Stella and Sam grew up together and had been friends for a really long time, I just didn’t really see their relationship develop well in the story. I pretty much felt bad for Sam, despite not liking him that much either because he seemed desperate to win Stella over. I felt like he deserved a much better person in his life and just didn’t understand why he still cared so much about her when she didn’t take his feelings into account at all.

I also hate her relationship with her best friend Zoey. It feels like it’s extremely toxic because all Zoey wants is to be the most popular girl at their school. It’s to the point where I think she’d be willing to end her friendship with Stella in order to stay at the top. While I get there all in high school and haven’t reached maturity yet, their friendship just didn’t sit well with me at all. Even during the moments when Zoey backed Stella up and supported her, I still didn’t like her because there were a lot of moments when she wasn’t there for Stella too.

I also hated the ending of The Creeping. As someone who believes in the supernatural, I felt like there was so much potential to make the mystery of Jeanie’s disappearance so much more than what Sirowy decided to do. We were given all this information about the town and other lore that I was expecting something more to come out at the end of it. I was deeply invested in the book because of the horror in the story and we are given a predictable ending for the story instead. The ending was predictable because it felt like an obvious choice to make this person responsible for what happened to Jeanie. And for me, that was extremely disappointing because I saw so much potential for something extraordinary to happen instead. It made this book that much more of a disappointment to me because I felt like there was so much more that could’ve been explored.

I overall liked reading this book because the horror in the story made me invested to find out what happened next. However, I wasn’t quite keen on the YA elements in the story, like the romance between Stella and Sam and Stella’s friendship with Zoey was too toxic for me to enjoy. I also didn’t like the ending because it felt too predictable and obvious to me when I felt like there was potential for something more. But the horror in The Creeping was exactly what I needed because it kept me reading to find out more.

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First Impressions: Alice Mare

Alice Mare Title

Alice Mare is an adventure, horror and puzzle game created by Miwashiba in Wolf RPG Editor.

Alice Mare centers around a boy named Allen. After losing his memory, Allen is placed in a home where four other children live. While at this facility, Allen discovers there to be a World of Dreams. He also learns more about the other children he lives with through storybook telling.

Through exploration, the player will find out what’s going on but can also unlock a total of seven different endings.

Alice Mare is a game that I’m still struggling to figure out how I feel about it. When I first started playing, I was confused and trying to figure out what’s going on. This occurred because the game has the player jump right into the game without any detail. I like that the game did this because it made playing Alice Mare that much more interesting for me. However, I also felt confused when I was playing because I didn’t begin to realize what was going on until later.

Alice Mare 5

What I do like about Alice Mare is the music. I feel that a lot of the music you hear while you play is really beautiful and makes the gameplay enjoyable for the player. Some of the songs that I really enjoyed from Alice Mare include Miracle of the Stars, Playing with Dolls, Murdered, and El Paradiso. It really helped set the tone of the game and gave the player an idea of how things were going.

Another aspect of Alice Mare I enjoy is the character’s stories. I love that Miwashiba gave each of the characters fairytale stories. I really love fairytales and it was easy to see how each of these fairytales was uniquely incorporated into the game. It also made the game enjoyable to me because while I was playing, I was trying to figure out which fairytale each of the children were a part of. I also found that I loved all of these different characters because the player could connect and feel sympathy for them.

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Another aspect of Alice Mare I really enjoyed was the horror that was incorporated into the game. It wasn’t a whole lot, but enough to make the player see that there is horror in the game. The player could see a lot of these aspects not only through the music, but through the graphics as well. While the music in the game set the tone for each scene, the graphics themselves helped the player figure out what was going to happen to the characters next. This intrigued me while playing because I didn’t know what to expect from scene to scene.

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What I didn’t enjoy while playing Alice Mare was the lack of plot explanation. The player knows that Allen is a young boy, new to the facility he has been placed in. However, the player doesn’t get a vivid explanation of these dream worlds and doesn’t know a whole lot about the characters other than what’s relayed in the game. The player never finds out who Alice is (though the game implies it’s you, though you don’t know for sure).

Alice Mare 8

I also didn’t enjoy any of the puzzles and riddles you had to do to progress in the game. I found them to be confusing and the answers for a lot of them didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The only way I progressed at all was from looking at the Alice Mare Wiki to get the answers to the puzzles and riddles.

So while I did enjoy playing Alice Mare, I’m still conflicted on how I feel about it.

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