Quote:
Originally Posted by ucfgrad93
That is great advice. I try and read the 1 star reviews the most so I can see what they are complaining about.
|
true. all the 5 star reviews in the world don't matter if they all consist of "it was a good book. i liked it." wow, that's completely unhelpful. i'll post an example of a review i did. i'll cross out references to the author/book so i'm not promoting anything.
this is a review i did last month, i gave the book 5 stars because it genuinely deserved it-
"I've been reading horror fiction for many years and I don't believe I've ever read a novel involving mummies. I think most peoples exposure to these creatures has come in 2 varieties: the "meh" via Brendan Frasier and the good via classic Universal or Hammer horror films.
XXXX falls firmly in the latter category. In fact as I was reading this I couldn't help but picture it as a novelization of a long lost Universal film, I was even imagining the story in black&white.
I've followed XXX through XXX and XXX. I've even read many of his short stories in various anthologies. But by far, XXX is his most mature and expansive work to date. He absolutely nails the atmosphere, I had no trouble picturing London under attack or the battlefields of Egypt. Each character is ocean deep and each has their secrets, much like in real life. Even the mummies themselves sometimes make sympathetic characters. There are heroes but they're not the flawless "white knight" one might expect. XXX truly lets you into these characters heads and by the end I felt like I knew them personally.
The book is a slow burner but ratchets up the intensity to 11 by the end of the book. Personally I loved the change of pace, usually XXX hits the ground running but this novel is more about the characters than the action. If you're looking for non-stop gory action ala your typical zombie or survival horror novel, this book might be slow going for you until the climax. But if you want to immerse yourself in atmosphere, characters you come to love despite their flaws and a novel of classic horror I can't recommend XXX highly enough. I'm usually not a fan of slow, creeping horror but this book absolutely gripped me and I was nearly breathless by the end.
I can tell that XXX truly enjoyed writing this book. His love of the subject matter is obvious and it translates into a very enjoyable read. XXX absolutely cements XXX status as a writer to watch. XXX were mere appetizers of XXX talent, XXX is the main course. It's easily the best piece of serious horror fiction I've read so far this year.
This book is an absolute must read for fans of classic, character driven horror and I'd even recommend it to fans of pulp/adventure stories. There's a little something for everybody.
PS-Kudos to the cover artists, I absolutely love the cover.
Note for Kindle users: The book is very well formatted and except for one example of a missing space between words, I didn't see any glaring errors. I'm including this addendum because from reading other reviews around Amazon, poor formatting is the bane of many Kindle users existence (mine included)."
i try to be a little helpful in my reviews lol.