johnny dangerously. reviewed House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
Review of 'House of Hunger' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book absolutely shines with promise, but its parts are greater than their sum. I genuinely loved large portions of this book, but they often felt stitched together and oddly out of place. The prose quality would go from sublime to sub-par between chapters. Plot developments were shocking and intriguing, but also frequently rushed and jolting. The characters are likeable and memorable, but often their most memorable moments are rushed, without enough foreshadowing or internal characterization to justify a change of heart. The novel expects us to know the tropes inherent in the genre and expect them in kind; it often fails to put in the elbow grease to explain, for example, sudden changes of heart beyond the fact that this is the part in the gothic novel where the heroine changes her heart.
None of this makes the book not worth reading. In fact, I recommend it! I'll be …
This book absolutely shines with promise, but its parts are greater than their sum. I genuinely loved large portions of this book, but they often felt stitched together and oddly out of place. The prose quality would go from sublime to sub-par between chapters. Plot developments were shocking and intriguing, but also frequently rushed and jolting. The characters are likeable and memorable, but often their most memorable moments are rushed, without enough foreshadowing or internal characterization to justify a change of heart. The novel expects us to know the tropes inherent in the genre and expect them in kind; it often fails to put in the elbow grease to explain, for example, sudden changes of heart beyond the fact that this is the part in the gothic novel where the heroine changes her heart.
None of this makes the book not worth reading. In fact, I recommend it! I'll be keeping an eye out for this author in the future. House of Hunger is a wonderful, energetic gothic horror novel with sparkling prose, an excellent plot, and tons of memorable moments. The incredibly lush descriptions, the world the characters inhabit, all of it easily makes a story and world you could get lost in. It just needs a little more polish before it can be truly great.
Also, to those reviews saying the twists were 'obvious', I strongly disagree.