Una novela corta que le da una buena vuelta a los tópicos de las historias de terror, un viaje por la psique de “los que sobreviven” y reconstruye el viaje del héroe clásico quitándole todas las capas de misticismo para hacerlo real y cercano.

Aunque quizá hay historias mejor definidas, los personajes cumplen mucho y el ritmo de la novela permite leerlo casi del tirón sin notarlo aburrido. ( )

This book had so much potential, and while it achieved some of it, I felt quite let down by the writing. The idea, of a support group for people who have survived some kind of horror movie experience, is great. Maybe if I had a good knowledge of the relevant movies, I'd have spent the whole book going 'ooh, that's clever', but as it was the characters all felt thin, unrealised. There was nothing to distinguish the character voices, and with each chapter being from a different perspective, there'd be a section where I didn't know who was speaking, and I found that disorienting.

In addition, there is some uncomfortable use of language, some not so hidden bigotry that would just kind of happen. The example I can remember was describing a young woman, wearing long sleeves and long trousers, all in black, as dressed in 'goth burka', which seemed such an unnecessary and unpleasant description. Similarly, the introduction of the singular black character is off, and if it were not that it was repeated as a description, I would not necessarily remembered that point of difference, because there really wasn't much to distinguish the characters.

And I was annoyed that the two characters sacrificed to the narrative were the two women who had survived their respective experiences.

in sum: I loved the idea, but I want to read someone else's version. ( )

What would you get if you held a group of people who were victims of extraordinary circumstances and violent traumatic events? That’s what Gregory explores here with the addition of supernatural elements. ( )

Much like [b: The Fold|23164927|The Fold|Peter Clines|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1416182070s/23164927.jpg|42710963] and [b: 14 |15062217|14|Peter Clines|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1338999953s/15062217.jpg|20716929] this starts pretty firmly in Normal-but-Weird and ends in Where-Is-This-Get-Me-Out-Of-Here. I thought I was reading about regular horrible things happening to regular people, but this takes a turn into paranormal horrible things happening to regular, but not really people. There were definitely foreshadowings about the paranormal stuff, but I was lulled by the well-maybe-they-are-just-crazy.

I definitely enjoyed the ride and would love to read more about these folks, especially about what happened to Harrison Squared. ( )

A group of strangers convene at The Elms for their first group therapy session. Unlike most people however, this group are all survivors of traumatic supernatural activity. Harrison was a monster hunter in his youth, Stan is a victim of a cannibalistic family, Martin can see otherworldly creatures that came out of his augmented reality game, Barbara has messages carved on her bones from the Scrimshander, Greta is the last member of a cult that went up in flames. Dr. Jan Sayer believes them all. The group makes headway with their issues, but not before their monsters catch up with them.
A complex and fast-paced horror novella about confronting your demons both internal and external. Each of the characters has been through something horrific, gruesome and unique, something they think no one else would understand. I was very interested in all of the characters and what they went through. I was engaged by how they all dealt with their past trauma differently as well as how they were dealing with what was in front of them at the moment. The connections between the characters was unexpected, especially since they all were dealing with different monsters. Greta's character seemed to take front and center as her monster caused the most trouble and led to the danger that forced the group to work together. I feel like there is more to the story for these characters, but they were left in a place that is good for now.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. ( )