Tuesday 20 December 2022

Golem by P.D. Alleva

 


Ebook provided by author for review. Thank you.

3/5 stars

I really enjoyed the concept for this novel, a demon or the devil (wasn't totally clear which) coming to life through a statue who likes to possess children. Also the way the story initially came together with a detective being given a case about a missing child and then being told the story by Alena, the key figure and initial suspect in the original case, his initial disbelief and gradual realisation that it is all true were all great.

The writing itself however could use a bit of tightening up I feel. We got told Alena's backstory twice with very little difference between the versions, just a touch more detail when she was telling the story herself but it's not details that particularly mattered to the story as a whole. There were some instances that felt unnecessarily descriptive, a paragraph about a storm for example. There were also some odd wording choices, a section where Alena, a cisgender woman, was basically described as having an erection. Also this same scene which generally reads quite sexually seems to involve, or at least have present, children which I find concerning, devil possession or not.

The pacing was also a little off for me as well. Some sections felt very slow whilst others felt rushed. The ending felt very abrupt as well. Also I didn't really understand Annette's chapters and how she connected to the larger story.

On the whole a great concept but the execution was slightly lacking for me personally.

Stef Out x

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