I scare pretty easily, so I don't read a lot of spooky books. Growing up, I couldn't enjoy Goosebumps because those were too scary for me. One time I made the mistake of reading a random page and that was enough to keep me from falling asleep that night.
But I've been an adult for many years now (in age, if not in feeling), and I thought it's time I give spooky books another try. After all, they seem so fun. Unfortunately, The Widow of Pale Harbor was a poor choice, mostly because this book isn't scary or fun at all, but a big load of boring.
The first half of this book is mostly insta-love between Mrs. Carver and Gabriel Stone, the two main characters. What do they see in each other? Well, your guess is as good as mine. Whenever they meet, they're struck by how gorgeous the other person is, stare intensely at each other, blush a lot, and get tongue-tied. Then, over the smallest perceived insult, they'll feel terribly hurt and rebuff the other, only to meet again the next day and go through it all again. This happened over and over, for the entire first half of the book. It was so cringey and dull, like some sort of bad YA romance.
Then, past the halfway point, the pace picks up and things finally start to happen. But it quickly becomes evident to me what's going on, who's responsible, and even the reasons why. Except the characters in here are all very clueless and incompetent. They just bungle from place to place, making big messes while putting themselves and others in danger. It was all very tiring and frustrating.
In the end, this book just wasn't what I was expecting. I wanted something spooky and exciting. But what I got instead was a bad domestic thriller with grossly incompetent characters who spent the majority of time making googly eyes at each other. Sigh. My quest for a gently spooky book continues.
Readaroo Rating: 2 stars
0 comments:
Post a Comment