Review: The Blackening by Sean O'Connor
Publisher: Uafás Press
Publish Date: November 13, 2020
Paperback
210 Pages
Standalone
Genre: Horror
My Review:
As a fan of nordic noir, police procedurals and horror I'm a HELL YES to The Blackening, which is a combo of all three. Unfortunately, it didn't *quite* work for me.
An Iceland setting, people disappearing and a monster! It's a short 210 pages and pretty easy to breeze through. The issues I had are fairly small. I read a ton of thrillers/police procedurals but typically not combined with a cosmic horror element so I don't want to judge harshly from what I'm used to in reading those (which is easier said than done sometimes). So baring back any expectations, I tried to just enjoy it from an entertainment perspective. And you know what, the monster is my favorite character and I don't know what it means that I felt more in tune with it than any of the characters. Honestly, I would have loved some character build of any of them. And I'll never forget Ally's name because Ben said it ... all... the... time. This may just be a personal preference - I side eye people who say people's names over and over in conversation. It makes me think they're trying too hard to be human... but that's a whole other story so let's get back to this one.
Perhaps I would've liked this story if there was just a little more meat in the sandwich. The concept, however familiar, is a fun one and one I think I would've liked better had we actually had seamless scenes. Some parts felt a bit choppy or forced and while I am one to suspend all kinds of reality ALL the time with no issue, I had issues with these characters and denounce instalove in horror... or any book please. Haha - mostly joking there. 😉
Overall, come for the cover, stay for the monster. While this was a little bit of a miss for me, I did enjoy the atmosphere the author gave us. The Nordic scene is gorgeously perfect for crime and horror.
★★
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