I have finished my 5th book in the reading challenge: horror. This is a genre I am familiar with as I have spent many an hour over the years perusing the books in the horror section of many book stores. I used to exclusively read thriller/horror books when I was younger. I had heard that this book was creepy:
I was not sure what to expect. If you do not want to know about what happens, I would stop reading now.
When the first stranger came into the story, I was wondering what would be wrong with him. I was a little uneasy, but nothing stood out too much. When the other 3 joined and they were harassing the family from outside of the cabin and coming in forcefully while saying they weren't going to hurt anyone, I was uneasy because of the contradictory actions. The first death was graphic, but it was the description of the white mask over the face that for some reason was the part that bothered me most. The visual was something that was hard for me to shake. As the situation continued to spiral out of control and more and more violence and contradictory words and actions took place, it was the religious zealot feeling that just felt off and left me unbalanced. Any story of any kind of compound with religious zealots in the news has always been unsettling to me because I cannot understand following anything blindly - that's not who I am. Even as a young adult I remember being on a retreat and having questions for the priest who was speaking with us and he said that he applauded my strong faith. When I asked him if all my questions bothered him, he said that the fact that I was willing to ask questions and form my own opinions was a blessing because I was thinking, not blindly following. We had a great conversation that weekend. But I digress...
The seemingly senseless deaths in this book just keep piling up and the one really heartbreaking one is the one that just does not make any sense because it did not help either side of the situation. There were some underlying stories that almost emerged, but then went nowhere. I was left feeling off-kilter and not sure what to think of this book. I was drawn to read it because I wanted to know where it would go, but in the end am not really sure I liked it. I rated it 3 stars on Goodreads, but I think I would lean more towards 2.5 stars as it left a sour taste in my mouth. In the end it was not my cup of tea. Maybe it was the fact that a family had to decide which of them should be a willing sacrifice and being at a point in my life where I am a mother, this did not sit well with me. I wonder if my younger self would have thought differently. Although the religious zealot side of it would probably still have left me feeling that this was not the book for me back then as well. And so another book is done...
Now I am starting a book that I just purchased and am already a third of the way in. Let's see where this one takes me...
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