Rating – *
To read or not to read – Skip it.
Synopsis –
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company.
It’s the perfect wedding venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends.
But a night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare. For lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.
And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
Review –
I rarely dislike books. Rarer still, is a book I absolutely abhor. This novel had the dubious distinction of being THAT BOOK. The best thing I can say about this novel is that at least it was short!
To begin with, the premise revolves around a group of friends spending time in a haunted mansion in JAPAN – a setup that seemed so exciting. So where did the book devolve into such a mess? Here are all the things I hated, in the order of how frustrating they were –
1. The language was flowery and detracted substantially from the story. At some points, it was not clear exactly WHAT was happening, which was extremely annoying.
2. Since the setting is Japan, there is a lot of reference to Japanese folklore. Terms like yokai, tengu, ohaguro, kitsune are thrown about WITHOUT explanation. I had to sit with my phone on standby to Google every term I didn’t get.
3. The characters were not properly fleshed out. It is mentioned over and over that so and so has a problem with so and so – but the background is not delved into, which leaves you feeling nothing for them.
4. Most importantly, their actions in the scenes seem out of place. For example, the ghost makes her appearance in front of them, and one character is laughing – why? I kept thinking that this was so not realistic!
All in all, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it – after all one should support writers of colour, but purely on basis of the writing, I would not recommend it at all.
What about you? Have you read this one? Any book you’d like me to review next? Let me know in the comments section below –
This Girl is Somewhere Else 