I want to preface my review by saying—no, the point of the book didn’t fly over my head. The point of the book beat me over the head. That was the reasoning for my low rating. I also am someone who likes horror/thrillers, like dark books, and have my own wolf of a father. So I was very sure this would be up my alley.

I truly believe this book could’ve been a few short poems. While the concept wasn’t a bad one, the execution truly felt abysmal.

A few chief complaints: This book falls into the category I refer to as “fakedeep”. It tries way too hard to sell an exact interpretation of the story and leaves nothing up to the reader. It has random prose built in to give it a more iNtElLiGeNt effect. So much telling without showing. So much over explaining. I felt like I was reading one big proposal that was trying to market the story to me instead of actually sharing the story with me.

I hated every character. “That was the point!!” Well for a book that was supposed to be gripping, I needed to either like a character, or find the story gripping. I kept waiting to care if something happened to any of them and never did.

It was like, really pointlessly sad. Like all the sadness didn’t feel intentional or like it added anything to the story, it just felt akin to someone randomly crying during an action movie, like a poorly mixed music single.

The leading woman was basically a bumbling idiot. I was 0% surprised she was written by a man.

The writing just really needed more workshopping. The kid calls injuries “ouchies” the whole book then calls them “hurts” later. Where’s the consistent character building? I couldn’t visualize any of these characters and not in a oooo they’re so fluid way but in a huh who am I reading about way.

Truly a waste of my time. 2 stars because the concept really had potential.