Reviews
Thank you to Silver Shamrock Publishing for providing me with a copy of Ride or Die in exchange for an honest review! 3.5 rounded up! To begin with, I was really excited when I received a copy of Ride or Die because I read The Wicked by James Newman and really loved it. Content Warnings: Racial Slur, Homophobic Slur For the most part, Ride or Die checks off some things that I really love in horror. We have a revenge element, we have blood & gore & an author that really does go to unexpected places. At the mid-point (this novella is only ~85 pages, so it happens fairly quick), Ride or Die goes off the rails & we get a nice little twist when the girls discover what's really going on at 47 Callaghan Drive. Oh! And the ending? Chef's kiss. Could there have been more of a fight? Yes. & I would have loved it. But, this is a novella -- I breezed through it pretty quickly, so I was quite satisfied with how it went down. And throughout the book, Newman includes little text messages between the characters along with a few tidbits at the end & we love to see the extras in this house. Now, I do have a couple of things that I didn't necessarily jive with. One is probably a just me situation, but I thought I'd bring it up in case another reader feels the same. I'm really weird about certain sex scenes being incorporated into horror films & books. A lot of times, I feel it's unnecessary. Ride or Die, without giving anything way, focuses around sex. Which is fine -- I actually found that the villains' schtick was pretty interesting. It was a certain scene that occurs (which if you read Ride or Die you will know the one) in which I'm like, "really? Did ya need this?" & to be honest, I can argue my own point & say that I completely get why it was included. But, whatever. I'm a Mess. Another thing that I didn't necessarily care for was the amount of slang being used. I mean, I guess I don't talk to a lot of teenagers these days -- but I feel like the amount of slang was pushing it in terms of creating realistic teenaged girls. My minor gripes for Ride or Die do not take away from the fact that I did thoroughly enjoy my time with it. It was a pretty fucked-up story, in the best way possible & I know that the villainous characters are going to stick with me for a while, along with a certain scene with a certain dog. I hope to read more from James Newman soon!