Don't Fear the Reaper (The Indian Lake Trilogy, #2)
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Read between January 23 - February 8, 2024
18%
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Banner stops a few feet in front of the huddled, stumbling form of Cinnamon Baker. She’s in a blanket, at least, but it’s pretty much exactly the blanket Jennifer would expect to find on a cot in the back room of the sheriff’s office. And Cinnamon’s tall enough that it doesn’t even cover her head to toe. Her blond hair is stiff, frozen in tangles, and the snot on her face is icy, her red-rimmed eyes the kind of blank that means she’s just been putting one foot in front of the other, that she’s already given up on actually getting anywhere. It’s the kind of walk that’s really just a long, slow ...more
Daniel C
The gaps in action, unclear descriptions, and "insider" dialogue that feels like it's 80% inside jokes makes this a frustrating read.
18%
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The high school boy working the front desk brings Jennifer a disposable cup of the most bitter, wonderful coffee. “Thank you,” Jennifer says, then raises a boot, realizes all the snow she’s wearing is melting into a puddle around her. “Um,” she says, by way of apology. “Oh,” the high schooler says, seemingly impressed, and not much of a problem solver. “Maybe a towel?” Jennifer prompts, obviously. “You could stand on the mat back there,” he says. They both inspect this industrial doormat together. The fake plant by it is waving in the wind slipping in around the doors Jennifer just came ...more
Daniel C
What is this? This better be important later. This author skips over vital details like they're obvious and then dumps a whole page of pointlessness onto the reader.
19%
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Jennifer takes a sip of her coffee and sets it back down roughly, jarring a second sip out. “Four-twenty-eight,” the kid mutters, no lips involved. “Don’t tell them I sent you.”
Daniel C
All of this was dumb and unnecessary. This kid's priorities make no sense.
19%
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“This isn’t happening,” Jennifer says to the kid from reception. “Wish in one hand…” the kid says with a shrug.
Daniel C
Huh? This kid isn't freaking out about the double homicide of his coworkers?
19%
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They’re standing on the opposite side of the hall now, out of the way. Jennifer still has her cup of coffee, somehow. Cinn’s being wheelchaired away again. “I—I thought she was going to see her sister,” the kid says. Jennifer hears this, plays it back again, and then steps away so she can look this kid right in the face, give him every last bit of her attention. “Sister?” she says.
Daniel C
Booooo. Hey. SHOW US THE AFTERMATH OF THESE MURDERS. The writing makes it sound like everyone's just taking these recent killings in stride. Dafuq?
25%
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After probably an hour and a half of every nurse and administrator pinballing around, pulling their hair out, trying to find a manual for what to do in case of two teenage volunteers being slaughtered.
Daniel C
90 minutes of dithering over a double murder is crazy contrived
25%
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Jennifer retrieves her mostly empty coffee from the top of the water fountain, fake drinks it to mosey across the lobby, then sets it onto the front desk’s high counter, having to really jostle it to get any of it to slosh up and out. “Oops.”
Daniel C
This again? Seriously?
25%
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nobody’s even watching her little charade.
Daniel C
Setting is nonexistent as are any minor characters readers are meant to worry about appearing. Author is acting like he's demonstrated a danger to J when he's done the opposite.
26%
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“Can you?” she says to a passing nurse.
Daniel C
Ah. Background cast shows up precisely when needed.
26%
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But right now, right now she has to get down the hall without anybody else stopping her.
Daniel C
Jeez. The stakes are so high. What tension!
28%
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“So who are you talking about, then?” Jennifer asks back. “Who antecedes that pronoun?” “Big word.” “Important stuff.”
Daniel C
This "banter" is tedious.
30%
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“It’s good you’re locked up,” Jennifer says back to her. “Better get to class,” Ginger says, speaking into her reflection again. “Don’t want to miss first bell.”
Daniel C
Yikes. This scene was terrible top to bottom. Author loves his own voice so much he put it in the mouths of two 20ish female victims of SUPERNATURAL TRAUMA.
30%
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As if Jensen can possibly focus on making Abs’s impossible shot? But he’s got to try.
Daniel C
Wait. She made the shot? This is a perfect instance of the author leaving a narrative gap that only needed ONE SENTENCE to keep the action coherent.
36%
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before she can talk herself out of it, and without blinking, she lets go.
Daniel C
Insane and unsupported by the story or Letha's personality. She fires at a random stranger not even headed in her direction? Author needed to make her path to this decision WAY clearer and more believable.
36%
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“Shit,” Letha says, letting the gun fall away, into the snow. It’s Rexall.
Daniel C
What a shock. This book is a HUGE disappointment so far.
37%
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that damn phone will not stop. Pissed, she turns, pulls the doorhandle. It comes away in her hand, so she just steps through the remains of the door, trying to avoid the jagged edges. Aren’t all the phones down? How can whoever this is be calling so much?
Daniel C
Right. This survivor of a massacre who is worried about a loose serial killer doesn't see a police phone that won't stop ringing as highly important.
37%
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Because she’s protecting Adrienne, Banner tells himself. There’s nothing she won’t do to keep that little girl safe. Just—all those horror movies she watches, right? They’ve taught her to shoot first, ask questions never, because there’s no on-ramp to danger, there’s not any slow and boring escalation. It’s always immediately life and death, with Letha Mondragon-Tompkins.
Daniel C
This after-the-fact explanation is weak sauce.
38%
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“Can we lock him up?” Jennifer says to Banner, without breaking eye contact with Rexall. “Seconded,” Letha says flatly. “Thi-thi-thi—” Lonnie says. “It’s unanimous,” Jennifer says, saving Lonnie the trouble. “I’m the victim here?” Rexall says, holding his parka out to show all the little fountains of singed white puff. “For your own safety,” Banner tells him, and knows for sure, now, that his contract won’t be getting renewed. But maybe he can still save Abby Grandlin.
Daniel C
Lock him up? Just because he's gross?
40%
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But there’s no Mr. Holmes leaned back against his desk, spinning them what feels like another bullshit story about people in Henderson-Golding looking up from their oil lanterns, up into the tall blackness of what would become Caribou-Targhee, and seeing the distant sparks from mining picks chipping into rock.
Daniel C
More contrivance. This isn't an emergency SHE insisted they hurry to?
40%
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Not sure where the action is, or was, she drifts down the halls. There should be wet footprints, but it’s dark, and she’ll get there eventually.
Daniel C
Yeah sure no hurry. The hell?
41%
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Not because she trusts him with an unconscious human with breasts, but because she can tell he’s in triage mode, not grope-and-caress mode.
Daniel C
Jesus. Did that really need to be said right now? She's missing half her face!
42%
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Almost definitely, it’s some bullshit concoction Ginger made up in her fevered brain, through a cloud of narcotics and wishful thinking.
Daniel C
Why? You saw and killed a literal ghost.
53%
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“Speaking of sequels,” Letha says. “It could have been Roman in that bathroom, standing on that toilet. Sidney’s brother—half-brother. He wears those kinds of boots in 3, doesn’t he?” “But the sheriff’s wearing them in the first,” Jennifer says right back. “So, who, then, Ms. Stalls-a-Lot? Who is it for you?” “Stu,” Letha pronounces, all holy and reverential. “When he catches up with Sidney and Tatum on the sidewalk, he’s out of breath and sweaty, and just a little too happy.” “He’s Stu.” “Even for him, I mean.” “Quick shoe change?”
Daniel C
I love the Scream films but this is overboard.
55%
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Next, Letha’s pushing Jennifer through that doorway, taking her place just as another knife comes in at high speed. It’s thrown hard enough when it hits Letha’s shoulder that it splashes out at her collarbone. “No, no!” Jennifer says, reaching back to hold Letha up. “You’ve—you’ve got a daughter! A husband! A life! It should be me!” She pushes Letha back into the kitchen, steps into the doorway to… she has no fucking idea: to stall Dark Mill South for two seconds? Letha pulls Jennifer back, though.
Daniel C
This would be a great scene if the blocking were at all coherent.
61%
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A board falls from the ceiling, into the new hole in the living room floor.
Daniel C
I'm confused. Why all of a sudden is the ceiling caving in?
61%
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She can feel the wood of the porch she’s on starting to tilt, to take her with, and she looks up to Jennifer.
Daniel C
Hold up. Now she's on the porch? Two pages ago all of this was happening in the living room.
61%
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Per Rex Allen’s orders, Banner hadn’t answered any of the questions Gal—on her delivery run—had more or less been asking with her eyes. Or maybe what she’d really been saying was that Banner was only five years older than Cinn, and that her giving official statements in just her bra and panties and boots wasn’t quite proper, wasn’t helping Cinn any in the reputation department, her already having had some difficulties along those lines at the high school. But Cinnamon Baker would never hook up with a teacher. And a teacher would never hook up with a student. Still, Rex Allen had sent Francie ...more
Daniel C
What is our author talking about? None of this makes a lick of sense.
62%
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Rex Allen doesn’t necessarily have to know about this, does he? “Don’t open it,” Rexall says, about the door.
Daniel C
Real bad call to have two characters with such similar names.
65%
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Like Brad Pitt says in Se7en, it’s all about sitting around reading Guns & Ammo, masturbating in your own feces—or is it “with”?
Daniel C
Does he have a reference quota because 90% of these horror film asides contribute nothing to the story but a crippled pace.
71%
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All the best slashers are simple. This one, for example: Rob Zombie–ish killer escapes, turns up in town, carves through as many kids as he can until some plucky girl finally puts him down. All in twenty-four, thirty-six hours, under cover of a storm, with the sheriff out of town, cellphones down, power unreliable. Claude couldn’t have designed it any better himself.
Daniel C
I'd say it's inadvisable for a writer to acknowledge that his story's plot is basic and derivative.
79%
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Was she ever that annoying, only able to see the world through slasher goggles?
Daniel C
Yes. And the author currently kinda is as well.
79%
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No, keeping the final girl in motion won’t work. But if Armitage can get Cinnamon back to the station, and Jade can get Doc Wilson back there to work on Letha, then… maybe they can wait this out. It’s not brave, it’s not cinematic, but the fact of the matter is that, between Banner and Hardy and all those guns on the wall… something good can happen, right? Haven’t they earned that, finally? At what point does something have to go their way?
Daniel C
Boo to this aimless dithering about horror movies applying to real life.
80%
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she’s coated in sweat, meaning she also doesn’t smell like a final girl.
Daniel C
I'm sorry. In what world does anyone know what a final girl smells like? And wouldn't it be more likely that a final girl DOES smell gross and sweaty?
80%
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something dull but massive surges at the base of Jade’s consciousness,
Daniel C
Writing like this feels so cheap and chintzy. What does this even mean?
80%
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And now she’s breathing faster, having to blink faster too, because her eyes are being stupid. Her hand stealthily drops to the loop at her right leg, that still doesn’t have that wonderful-perfect long-handled blue hammer. In lieu, she dials back to slow-motion swinging it into the back of Dark Mill South’s head, the hammer’s weight bringing her up onto her toes, even, because she wasn’t just swinging for the fences, she was swinging for Idaho Falls.
Daniel C
ARGH. GET ON WITH IT. QUIT DEFLATING THE TENSION WITH THESE LUDICROUS ASIDES.
80%
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like it’s painted on canvas that’s only tied in two places at the top,
Daniel C
Huh? What is THAT supposed to mean?
81%
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Jade’s thinking too deep into this, has her slasher goggles from high school on too tight.
Daniel C
No kidding.
81%
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And the only one who could have stopped him, the only one empowered by the genre to stop him, the final girl to his slasher, is lying dead in the snow.
Daniel C
This "final girl" talk has officially become tedious in the extreme.
82%
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She backs up again, is to that glorious front door now, only—no, no, please. It’s locked.
Daniel C
You mean the one that's shattered open and that she used to enter this store? Or are we meant to believe it was the BACK door that was shattered open and which faces Main St? Smh at the blocking in this book.
84%
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“Go, go, run!” Jade stands up to scream to Jace, and any other idiots back there, lined up to sacrifice themselves. Dark Mill South turns back to her. “Everybody’s a hero,” he says, and his voice is so deep, so bass, and the inflection, the accent, whatever, it’s Fargo, pretty much. Which Jade only watched because she’d heard about the woodchipper bit—very Tucker & Dale. Or, the other way around. And: You’re doing it again, she tells herself. Hiding in stupid movie shit. When she should already be running. Dark Mill South shrugs like letting Jade make the first move here, and Jade takes it, ...more
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Daniel C
It is supremely frustrating how terrible this author is at crafting action sequences.
86%
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before, with his hook, and the snow, it would take him a few bad seconds to get to her. Banner’s pistol changes that for the worse. Now he can reach her at hundreds of feet per second.
Daniel C
These are exactly the kind of pointless and obvious details that hamstring the pacing.
88%
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Jade guesses what just happened to the pier must have been loud, probably has all of Proofrock opening their front doors.
Daniel C
And not the gun that knocked the snow off every awning or the plow snow-bashing every window along the street?
89%
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It’s the best thing ever and also the worst.
Daniel C
Author really loves this line. Is this the dozenth time he's used it?