Just finished The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn and I hated it

I was really disappointed with it because it seemed so promising and like something that I really would have enjoyed but it just sucked and I feel like it was badly written.

The build up was so crazy long and boring, and the entire thing was really predictable. >!I predicted the exact order the characters would die in, starting with April, based on the romance plot that was building up and how the character deaths would help that.!<The first half was nothing but romance and drama with the occasional build up to the horror, and it wasn’t even well written romance and drama. It was like if someone put the creatures from stranger things into a hallmark movie, all it was really missing was a christmas tree. The book felt like it was written by someone who realizes halfway through writing a romance book that they actually wanted to do a horror one instead, but instead of starting over from the beginning they just added some horror to the end.

The characters sucked and were unlikable. They were all 30ish year olds with the same maturity of a highschooler, and none of them were well rounded. >!Ryan’s entire personality is that he likes snowboarding and doesn’t have any successful long-term relationships. Lauren, April, and Sawyer don’t really have personalities or any depth, they were just put there for the romance plot. And Jane’s entire personality is her regret for the highschool break up between her and Sawyer. !<Why did a horror book need a highschool-sweethearts-reunited-love-triangle AND a best friend’s brother trope? It spent half the book (literally) focusing on nothing but building these relationships and I STILL spent the entire book hoping the characters would just die already cause they were so annoying. I love a good best friend’s brother trope too, its my favorite romance trope, so it was extra disappointing that this one sucked.

My least favorite part is that for the like 4 chapters that are actually horror, they’re really well written and compelling. So it’s not like Ania is a bad writer or just can’t write horror, she just decided for some reason to combine a horror and romance book in the worst way possible and ruin both stories. I love creature-horror, and as someone living in the Appalachia, I love mountain based horror creatures even more, so it was especially disappointing cause I was really looking forward to so good creature horror.

Did any of yall like it? I felt like it was way too much drama and romance to actually be able to get invested in the horror part.

by caydendov