| Author: | J.P. Behrens |
| Genre(s): | ➡️Psychological Thriller ➡️Horror |
| Series? | ❎ No |
| Goodreads Rating: | ⭐ 4.04 (276 ratings; 103 reviews) |
| Personal Rating: | ⭐ 3.5 / 5 Overall |
🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑
I might be recounting events, characters, and themes so THIS MIGHT BE FULL OF SPOILERS.
If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free review or head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂
SPOILER-FREE Description
Taken from Goodreads:
Wanda has uncovered a dark secret that could shatter the image of her perfect family. Attempting to force the situation back into the societal framework she’d strived for years to present, events spiral out of control. Secrets threaten to emerge from a carefully suppressed past and become public. To save her family’s reputation, Wanda succumbs to a madness no one could have expected.
🌟Review (3.5/5) 🌟
It was really good at the beginning. The writing style was pretty solid at setting the scene, giving the characters depth, and never failing to set this unsettling feeling all throughout. In fact, this is one of the few books that hooked me with the very first sentence.
“Wanda could not tear her gaze from the illustrated horrors in the small journals found in Nathan’s room.”
PART I
I didn’t expect the tension to start right away so that was cool. It intrigued me. As the chapter went on Nathan continued to bug me but Wanda and her husband’s actions also didn’t sit well but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I wanted to keep reading to figure out what was going on.
Unfortunately, about halfway through, almost the entire family died and I started to get bored. The second half is Wanda’s descent into further madness and taxidermy. Yes, it is creepy when it’s being iterated that Wanda intends to apply her new-found skill to preserve her family but, I don’t know, it just got really boring for me. I get that the horror aspect of it was supposed to be the being-in-the-mind-of-a-killer type of horror, but it just didn’t do it for me. I think I would’ve preferred the struggle to keep the family dynamics and family reputation with all these psychopaths under one roof with one normal child.
The characters are well-written though. Wanda’s and Nathan’s psychopathic tendencies were excellently unfolded through their relationship with the grandparents. This is probably why I lost interest about halfway through. I got so invested in the characters that them being gone so early just dropped my motivation altogether.
Anyway, if you’re into the type of psychological horror where you’re deep into the killer’s mind and his/her evolution, then I would suggest this for you. Bonus incentive if you’re into taxidermy. Check it out on Amazon!
The Stray Reader 
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