January 2023 Group Read #1 - The Shuddering

[Julie]

I love a good wintery horror setting! It reminds me of the video game Until Dawn, which is also top tier!

[Shannon]

I'm super late to the game, but I'm going to try and jump in on this one. Based on everyone's comments, it looks like I'll either love it or hate it, lol. Excited to join you all! :)

[Katie]

I started this yesterday and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one joining in late. I'm about halfway through and I'm enjoying the gore and how the author describes the monsters. It allowed me to paint a very vivid and gruesome picture in my head. Unfortunately, I don't really care too much for any of the characters except for Oona and I will be heartbroken if anything happens to her. I'm hoping there's going to be a twist, or a new character introduced or some element to this that will make it more than just your typical cabin in the woods story.

[Megan]

3.5 from me. Loved the monsters, the setting was cool, but I found the characters to be annoying, with Jane being the worst. She was totally useless aside from being in the kitchen lol

[Lisa]

I’ve also been a slow start on this one. About 40% in, looking forward to reading all these spoiler comments and discussing.

[LTJ]

So far I'm enjoying it, it's a 3, almost a 4 at this point. I plan to finish this one on Monday, at the latest!

[Rachel]

finally gonna be jumping in with this one! i'm so excited to read it with y'all. :)

[Rachel]

i'm 20% in rn + i'mma be upset if something happens to the dog. that's all i have to say, lmao.

[LTJ]

@Rachel: Awesome! LoL yeah, I got slammed with work today but plan to shoot and finish this now by Wednesday. LoL I'm hoping Tuesday isn't as crazy so I can get some good reading time in :-)

[Shannon]

I'm at 17% and really enjoying it so far. I love the setting and the way the monsters are described! Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Yes, Rachel! Oona better survive this! :)

Hope your Tuesday isn't crazy so you can get more reading in, LTJ! :)

[LTJ]

@Shannon: Nice and yeah, same here about the atmosphere involved so far! LOL ZOMG this was one insanely busy week for me. It should be easier on Thursday and I'm off Friday/Saturday to rest my mind, body, and soul. I'm excited to finish this and even thought I've been a bit delayed in my reading, I shall bounce back :-D

[Aaron]

I enjoyed the novel, but then I'm a sucker for ironic endings.

[Lisa]

Evie wrote: "Please don't hate me but I gave this one a GENEROUS 3 stars. I forced myself to read through it in about 24 hours just so I could be done with it because I was actually bored. Ryan has a savior com..."

Perfect analysis of these characters!

[Lisa]

Finished last night. Like many have said, the monsters were cool, and I kept wishing that I could see one. Well, from a distance. I also liked the setting.

Wayyyy too much time spent on the teen-style drama. I also don't understand why April was villainized; her reactions to the rest of the group were understandable. Also, who calls someone named April "Ape"? Lauren was also called "Ren" a few times. In addition to being immature and annoying, this group doesn't know how to bestow nicknames.

I was also annoyed by the repeated assertion that Ryan had now found love, Lauren was unbelievable, amazing, the girl he'd been waiting for. This career bachelor had been snagged. Yeah, he knew Lauren like a day and a half. It just felt silly and forced upon us to generate sympathy.

Also, odd that they didn't try to stay indoors. Who would go outside so quickly in a situation like this? And why did it seem to make a difference that the creature destroyed all their food in the fridge, when the power was out, and they'd deemed their food supply ruined already.

This had such a different feel than the other Ahlborn that I read, The Devil Crept In. That was a great book. This one was OK, with some solid bits, in my humble opinion.

[LTJ]

I hit 50% last night and am wondering why so much time is spent on these friends, their relationships, issues with each other from the past, etc. LoL I'm like... WHEN DO THE MONSTERS COME BACK TO SAY HI?!!?!? :-P

[Marinka]

After checking out all your guys reviews, I think I’ll skip this one…
Plus my library doesn’t have it.
There are more books to read 😊

[Rachel]

finished this one up last night~

(view spoiler)[this was a 3 star read for me. it started out strong, but just kept declining the longer it went on. i really liked the creatures + the scenes involving them, but i found all of the interpersonal drama to be really boring. plus the ending just felt too contrived for me. ryan just deciding to walk into the midst of the creatures? and sacrifice the dog too!? didn't make any sense to me for him to leave jane to fend for herself after all the trouble they went to.

also, was wondering if you guys had any thoughts as to what the creatures were? i got some strong wendigo vibes so i wondered if that might've been some of the inspiration for them. (hide spoiler)]

[Aaron]

It sort of seemed like an R-rated Lifetime Movie; lots of high school romantic antics followed by evisceration, etc. If only "Ape" had swung back on the scene...

[Shannon]

I'm at 42% and in the minority, lol, because I'm really loving it. I love snow and I love monsters, so snow and monsters??? Awesome!

The only character that's annoying me so far is April. It's so funny to read everyone's different takes on this one. I love how books affect everyone differently. It's great to read all the different views! I may end up not liking the last half, who knows, but so far I'm enjoying it. :)

@LTJ, enjoy your rest!! :)

[LTJ]

@Shannon: Thank you, my friend :-)

[LTJ]

I just finished this late last night and enjoyed it to a degree. The events with the creatures were great but like others have said here, there were too many pages dedicated to all the relationship drama that I didn't really care for.

I don't mind romance but the dialogue of past relationships/issues going on in the present took me out of the reading experience when I wished more of that was spent with the horror aspect of this novel!

Here's my review below :-)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Tea]

Finished as well! Overall I enjoyed this novel, but I feel like something was missing. I liked the characters relationships and drama but I wish there was more of the monsters/survival aspect. The setting was perfect for the winter times. Btw I enjoyed the narration of the audiobook.
All in all, I'm glad I read this and I want to read more from the author.
(view spoiler)[Can some one please tell me what happened to April? Did we ever find out?(view spoiler)[

I listened as audiobook and wondering if I missed/forgot that. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Wednesday]

Just finished, I actually liked the characters. Kind of reminded me of my friends, and my relationship with my brother to a certain extent, the music, the smoking, the stupid little drama. The end was crazy and totally worth it.

[Rikki]

I just finished The Shuddering a day or two ago and I thought it was a fun read. The snowy setting is really appropriate for this time of year, even though it's currently almost 80 degrees where I live. The characters came off as a little immature, I felt, but it didn't really bother me too much. Overall, it felt it was pretty exciting and I liked it well enough.

[Victoria]

I finished this book over the weekend.

Overall, I enjoyed the read but it did take me awhile to get into. I thought the ending was excellent. The only other Ania Ahlborn book I've read is 'Brother' and I've learned that she sure knows how to write an ending.

I agree with some of the others here that this book could have done without a lot of the Lifetime movie style drama between the characters lol

I also had a hard time with the description of the creatures. Did anyone else imagine Slenderman with fur and sharp teeth? XD
This book could benefit from illustrations of the creatures.

And lastly I thought it was pretty cool that this book mentions several bands that I enjoy. Depeche Mode, Stabbing Westward, Sisters of Mercy.

[Lisa]

Victoria | orangenightmaresicle wrote: "I finished this book over the weekend.

Overall, I enjoyed the read but it did take me awhile to get into. I thought the ending was excellent. The only other Ania Ahlborn book I've read is 'Brothe..."

Victoria, I found myself wishing for drawings of the creatures too! They sounded really cool. I kept picturing sort of the Xenomorph from Alien, but sleeker and with a different head.

[Victoria]

Lisa wrote: "Victoria | orangenightmaresicle wrote: "I finished this book over the weekend.

Overall, I enjoyed the read but it did take me awhile to get into. I thought the ending was excellent. The only othe..."

Ahh yes I can definitely see how you would picture a Xenomorph from the description!

[Netanella]

I'm about 70% into the book and am anticipating finishing it tonight. The friend group at the cabin are being attacked (finally). I'll have to add once I've gotten to the end, as I haven't collected all of my thoughts yet. So I'm not sure how I feel about the dramatic friend circle yet, and if it adds to the horror element or not.

[Jason]

I don't think I ever got around to posting my final thoughts on this one... migraines kind of derailed my last couple weeks.

Overall, I grudgingly settled on 3/5. The monster scenes were great, and the ending was decent. Otherwise, it was a DNF worthy romance.

I do have a hard time wrapping my head around all the love for April. I get that she was in a crappy spot for the trip, but she came off as the most whiny, judging, childish one of the group, IMO. I feel a bit robbed that she didn't get an on page ending, lol.

[Brenna]

I agree with you Jason about April! I would normally feel bad for someone in that situation, but she really didn't have any redeeming qualities for me. That screaming tantrum in the car? Yikes!

As for the monsters, I was Team Xenomorph too 😂

[Jason]

Brenna wrote: "That screaming tantrum in the car? Yikes!"

Seriously! That was something my 11-year-old would do! :D

[Rikki]

Lisa wrote: "Victoria | orangenightmaresicle wrote: "I finished this book over the weekend.

Overall, I enjoyed the read but it did take me awhile to get into. I thought the ending was excellent. The only othe..."

Yes! The creature from Aliens is exactly what I pictured in my mind's eye as well!

[Shannon]

Just finished this one today, and I really loved it!

I didn't mind all the drama, and April was the only one that annoyed me. I loved the creatures! I thought this was a nice creepy read, and I'll definitely be checking out the author's other stuff.

About the ending (view spoiler)[When the car pulls up, all I could think was that he should've stayed with his sister just a little bit longer, then the two of them and Oona would've survived! I did like the ending, though, especially since you know the same thing is going to start happening to this new group. It's more of a realistic ending this way. (hide spoiler)]

[Netanella]

I finished the book last night and enjoyed the frozen winter setting in the luxe cabin in the woods. I viewed the dysfunctional group as one of those melodramatic teen slasher movies - people are doing stupid stuff, drama for your mama, and not paying attention to what they should be paying attention to.

I found it interesting that the monsters seemed to go for pairs of humans to attack. (view spoiler)[The first pair killed was the old woodsman and his wife, the second pair was the young sledders, and then the two hungover guys. (hide spoiler)]

I liked the circular ending. Appropriate.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!)]

I am tempted to start this one now (a few months late lol) because it’s cold and keep snowing here! I feel inspired ❄️ plus I am really intrigued by this author, keep hearing great things ! ☺️

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!)]

Finished it and here are my thoughts! ☺️ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for those of you who may be interested.
I feel like even though I’ve praised it, there is a small critique somewhere that I can’t quite put my finger on… 🤔 I was torn whether to give it 3.5 or 4 stars, but went for 4 in the end because it was fast-paced and easily readable.

[Kirsten]

Hi, I know I'm a little late. I finished May 11. I'm probably giving it 4 stars. I really liked the build-up in the first 3/4. But it seemed to lose its way once the crowd left the building.

Thanks for the choice I will definitely read another book by this author.