Tried reading Radio Tower by Boris Bacic. Dnf at 25%.
It just felt so basic and was taking too long to introduce any tension or dread. And when it finally came it was hamfisted and played upon the main character being just THAT stupid. Like, "I move to a new town and everyone keeps smiling at me in a very creepy and unsettling way, like, oh my god, something might be wrong with these people mentally but oh well, I'm gonna ignore the red flags because this makes me feel welcome and everything seems so perfect." Just over and over again, the protagonist noticing off stuff for our benefit as the reader but ignoring it because the story has to happen.
And it didn't feel like that was really going anywhere or very deep at all. That whole, "The people in town were friendly... Too friendly...." horror trope that you thought was a clever subversion in high school because you were edgey and goth and scared of making human connections. Fake people and smiling when you don't mean it is a big part of polite society and human community behavior. We all lie a little bit to everyone every day. It's not unsettling just by itself, especially with a main character who's too stupid to live.
It just felt so basic and was taking too long to introduce any tension or dread. And when it finally came it was hamfisted and played upon the main character being just THAT stupid. Like, "I move to a new town and everyone keeps smiling at me in a very creepy and unsettling way, like, oh my god, something might be wrong with these people mentally but oh well, I'm gonna ignore the red flags because this makes me feel welcome and everything seems so perfect." Just over and over again, the protagonist noticing off stuff for our benefit as the reader but ignoring it because the story has to happen.
And it didn't feel like that was really going anywhere or very deep at all. That whole, "The people in town were friendly... Too friendly...." horror trope that you thought was a clever subversion in high school because you were edgey and goth and scared of making human connections. Fake people and smiling when you don't mean it is a big part of polite society and human community behavior. We all lie a little bit to everyone every day. It's not unsettling just by itself, especially with a main character who's too stupid to live.
