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Christina Bergling

Autore di Savages

5+ opere 28 membri 7 recensioni

Opere di Christina Bergling

Savages (2014) 8 copie
Followers (2021) 8 copie
The Rest Will Come (2017) 6 copie
The Waning (2015) 5 copie
Screechers 1 copia

Opere correlate

The Horror Collection: Purple Edition: THC Book 3 (2019) — Collaboratore — 5 copie

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Recensioni

I’m very picky when it comes to horror—I’m very picky when it comes to anything, but that’s neither here nor there—for one reason: horror doesn’t just mean blood and gore thrown around, at least on paper. It needs a subtler element too in order to creep readers out. Followers has that element.

[Keep reading @ Bookshelves & Teacups]
 
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TissieL | 5 altre recensioni | May 3, 2023 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
First off i would love to thank the publisher for giving me this copy in exchange for an honest review. i definitely rate this book 4.5 stars. The author did an amazing job. When it's about life on the internet or becoming an influencer to be honest i have no idea about it. i really don't consider me like to be hyped up with celebrities in real life or the internet. But this book is simply wow. i love books that have horror in them it gives me the chills, but it also drains all my attention. This book is absolutely terrifically amazingly written with A DARK Inside look at stalkers. I'd also say that this copy is definitely visual and creepy i admit i stayed up all night reading this and i really enjoyed it i would definitely recommend this read for those who love horror just as much as i do… (altro)
 
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lianara | 5 altre recensioni | Oct 21, 2022 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

FOLLOWERS by Christina Bergling

Published by: Crystal Lake Publishing
Publication date: September 24, 2021
Pages: 446
Genres: Literary & Fiction; Horror (classified by publisher); (and from me:) Psychological Thriller (for a portion)
POV: third person, past tense; single POV; a few points of omniscient
Narrator: True and authentic, not too close
Opening setting: assumed to be present day, unnamed generic suburban location
Other significant locations: Telluride, Colorado
Number of named, identified or described characters: about 40

Publisher's Summary:

Sidney, a single mother with a dull day job, has big dreams of becoming a full-time horror reviewer and risqué gore model. She’s determined to make her website a success, and if her growing pool of online followers is any indication, things are looking good for her Elvira-esque aspirations. In fact, Sidney has so many followers that chatting with them is getting to be a job in itself. More than a job, it might be getting a little risky….

When Sidney is attacked on a dark trail late one night, it becomes clear that the horror she loves is bleeding into her real life. She learns that real-life horror is not a game, and being stalked isn’t flattering—it’s terrifying, and it could get her killed.

Sidney—and her loved ones—are now in serious danger. This follower isn’t just another online fan: he knows her movements, and he knows her routine. In fact, he’s right behind her… and when he gets close enough, he won’t take no for an answer.

My Review:

You should read this book that opens with a salacious naked photoshoot with fake blood and continues with nearly mindless social media scrolling and arms-length online relationships. But before we dive into the book, I'm unclear on the genre: I don't read a lot of horror (genre named by the publisher), so I might not understand horror genre requirements or its sub-genres. While the protagonist and many other characters blog, tweet, and exist in the horror film industry, this book doesn't contain much gore or speculative aspects. Three quarters of the way through, I saw no evidence of a serial killer or psychopath, and even the violence seems more like a thriller (without the swift pacing) or a mystery (without the early murder or crime). I'm not sure how to classify this book.

The book raises fabulous questions. Does a person's behavior ever invite trouble into their lives when other sentient beings are responsible for their own horrific actions? Can a person draw intense attention to themselves online yet maintain a segregated, private personal life? What if the online world collides into the real world?

In the second chapter, Sidney's (the protagonist) roommate Kendra warns her that her online chatting with Oliver and Adam, which has gone on for months or even a year, is not harmless and warns her to be careful. They have a few drinks and commiserate about their exes, non-custodial children and lack of sex. For me, all this backstory up front meandered for too long. I couldn't relate to Sidney, especially as I learned that Sidney doesn't like her ex or her son, nor does she really like close relationships with other men (although she's got a boy toy), and she's willing to ignore a school crossing guard and endanger others. She puts up with a dead-end job she hates (in a cell phone store) with a co-worker she sees as worthless waiting for disgruntled customers. She runs a less-than-productive side-hustle social media blog while not being present in her own life and counts the minutes until she can drink again. And she spends her mornings and evenings half-heartedly cultivating a few online chat relationships with men (maybe?) held at a cold distance. It's a challenging task to write about such a protagonist.

Be warned: there is a ton of alcohol in this book. Many of the characters drink a lot, at many times of the day, to various states of drunkenness. Very few days go bye when they're not draining a ton of drinks to the point of intoxication.

[Spoiler Alert] At a hotel-like setting, the protagonist is attacked, but even after repeated discussions of horror film characters screaming, she failed to scream which might have attracted attention and foiled the attack. Each time bad things befell Sidney, her reactions felt off to me--beyond the lack of screaming, she did not contact the police, and that distanced me from her. While I understand not wanting to play the part of the victim, not wanting that kind of attention, everyone in her life told her to call the cops. But she continued with no agency.

Late in the book, Sidney goes through a change that seemed surprising, unexplainable and irresponsible. For me, I lost her motivational thread and didn't believe she would do such a thing that might impact her loved ones. Then she went off the rails.

I could not believe Sidney's reaction in the penultimate confrontation scene, which seemed disconnected from her knowledge and experience. And I won't spoil the technical glitch that prevented her success, but I didn't buy that either. Many elements of the tension seemed contrived.

There was one element to the antagonist that I will not disclose so you can experience what I did, but I had pieces of it figured out. If you can spot the clues, you will find a great reward for astute readers making the implausible seem inevitable. Great mystery-level construct.

One interesting element to Sidney, the protagonist, is that she seems to use her social media followers as a form of therapy and escape, even going so far as to lie to some of them for her own psychological well-being. Perhaps that's true of all of us, but this was a stark contrast to her shocking openness and transparency for much of the book. This work examined all ends of this spectrum.

The reading is easy although many times, I felt like some of the prose could be cut to eliminate duplication or reinforcement of earlier statements. In general, much of this book could be cut, including many of the beginning chapters--it did not start in medias res and included too much backstory for my taste, but yours may vary. This book's very long 110,000+ words could probably be cut to 90,000, turning it into a fire-storming, page-turning barn-burner, which it is not now. With that said, after such a journey, in the end, I felt close to these characters, especially Sidney, and while I could understand much about her often, at times I wanted more--to see deeper into her psyche.

Another fun characteristic of the prose was how inanimate objects or thoughts often morphed into participants or creatures in the plot. Paranoia reached its tendrils up... Fear devoured the... Eyes crawled around the edge... This writing style was omnipresent, using action verbs in innovative ways.

Seven exclamation points in the opening chapter! Stephen James once told me that a good writer should have between zero and one exclamation point(s) in a manuscript (and of course he was talking about thrillers). By the end of chapter five, I think I found more than a dozen exclamation points!

One final comment, Sidney's character arc included an interesting evolution in the end, which was subtle yet clear, and we know her answers to the questions that appeared to me in this book, and that alone provides a satisfying ending.

This book was devoid of typos. I cannot remember the last advanced reader copy with fewer than a dozen typos. Kudos to the team.

But you should read about these followers and decide what you think.
… (altro)
 
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SteveBookNerd | 5 altre recensioni | Apr 15, 2022 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
I just could not get through this book. The story did not keep my attention and the book was not very well written. There were many faults to this one. I will not be reading other books by this author.
 
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twnklestr15 | 5 altre recensioni | Apr 5, 2022 |

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Opere
5
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
28
Popolarità
#471,397
Voto
½ 2.7
Recensioni
7
ISBN
5