The cover is so beautiful and the premise sounded really good (a creepy father-in-law with powers of hypnosis, a dreadful secret and a mysterious boy). I started reading and then the negative reviews started to flow in.

I try not to get influenced by reviews while I'm reading a book, but since I was having trouble to stay focussed on the book, I was glad to read I was not the only one. I felt there was a lot of potential to really make this a creepy read, or at least one with more of a mystery to it. Now, it bottled down to one of clumsiest murder attempts ever, together with -surprise, surprise- revenge.

About halfway the novel, there is a 12 year jump in time, and we meet young Alastair. At first it looked like it was getting better at this point, like maybe this was the real beginning of the story, but there is a lot that remains unexplained, or is not explained enough. In the end, I just couldn't connect with any of the characters, who acted stiff throughout the whole story, and I felt a lot of potential for the story was lost somewhere. I didn't like it, it certainly wasn't for me, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

David John Griffin’s novel, The Unusual Possession of Alastair Stubb, is a curiously constructed tale of revenge. For the first several chapters, I wasn’t sure where the story was going to take me. Characters are introduced rapidly, so rapidly it’s hard to tell who the protagonist is at first. Then the plot picks up its pace. The setting is deeply sinister and there’s more than a hint that something supernatural and dangerous is at work. Even though I’ve finished, I’m still not quite sure what I think of this book...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, I had such high hopes for this.

Even starting it I was intrigued. It felt a little Alice in Wonderland (or, okay, maybe just a little Splintered), and I do love gothic books set in weird places. Asylums? Crazy people? Icing on the cake!

Then things got weird.

Now, weird can be good. There is lots of good weird in fiction, and there's a place for it. That place is even often on my bookshelf. This took things to a new a different weird place, and I was not enjoying the trip. Do you know that moment when you are reading along, and you have to stop for something, and then the entirety of what you have been reading hits you like a freight train and you are vaguely horrified at yourself? That was this book for me. I set it down for ten minutes for something and then picked it back up and looked at the words in complete confusion. The spell was broken and I realized nothing made sense.

The second part of the book does manage to at least maintain a moderately coherent plot thread, but even then it is not anywhere near as enjoyable as I would hope. The first part just sort of stumbles through character interactions and situations like a drunk at a party, knocking things down without picking them back up and often turning around and going the wrong way for a time.

The characters are all pretty awful. Their motives for any of their actions are paper-thin at best (we're talking newsprint and not watercolor paper, here), and honestly, they were all insane. Or sociopathic. Or perhaps both--I'm not a psychiatrist, and I'm not sure I'm comfortable diagnosing (or being in the same room) as these people. They went from happiness to anger to happiness to murder to not murder to murder but by a different way to happiness to fear. In one chapter. Without a great rationale behind pretty much any of it.

I hate not liking gothic and quirky books, but I'm not sure I should have even finished this. I think I was hoping it would get better at some point, but unfortunately it never managed.

This book was provided to me for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book sounded so promising: Theodore Stubbs, an entomologist who is also a master hypnotist who is lusting after his daughter-in-law who has just returned from a sanatorium where she spend two months after losing her son. 

I just couldn't get into the story. I found no flow in the writing and it was a constant struggle for me to focus on the story. The idea of the book was so interesting and I love the cover. But I just couldn't find myself enjoying the story. I spent most of the time reading fighting to stay focused on the story, but the dialog and the descriptions just didn't appeal to me. It got a little better when the story moved 13 years forward in time. But, I felt that towards the end the book slipped back to being uninteresting for me. 

It was just not for me. Apparently I'm part of the minority that just didn't like the book. But if you like a quirky story is this perhaps something for you. I probably just wasn't the right reader for this kind of book. 

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review.