u/Alterception

I picked this as my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book and liked it a lot. The beginning and end were uninteresting, but I really liked the middle section where the humans were traversing the planet. It's was like being on a rail ride through the 2005 Alien Planet mockumentary and I loved those shows. It was cool how detailed the biosphere was from how the environment worked to how the animals uniquely evolved to navigate it.

I liked how the humans and sentient alien were utterly baffled by the other. It wasn't a usual us vs them alien book since they couldn't directly interact and communicate. A bit like Flatland. They were both like, what is this strange beast? What is it doing now? Why is it so weird and dumb?

Spoiler thoughts: >!I'd like a sequel where the humans and aliens come to benefit from each other or evolve together. The ending cut off abruptly and didn't resolve anything other than leaving a sense of dread, so I doubt my wish will come true.!<

>!It seemed more a 'capitalism bad, so now humans die from being greedy little capitalists' ending which is kind of boring and uninteresting. I thought it was moving in a direction where the Shrouded would become like an AI and completely replace all of the systems on the spaceship. It would have been interesting if humans and the Shrouded formed some type of interstellar symbiotic relationship of man and alien AI thing.!<

I was curious from all the discourse around this book so I picked it up and was taken for one of those jerky dark disney car rides. I haven't read a book quite like this one but I haven't read much gothic horror. Innamorata was inspired by Boiardo's innamorato and Gormenghast. I've read neither of these. It's a grimdark gothic horror with a side of tragic forbidden love. All the characters are nuts and have issues. The ending was crazzzy unhinged Spoiler: >!surprise graphic necrophilia then ending on a magic baby now growing in her dumped dead body that no one knows about!<.

I have a few thoughts:

1. The overzealous use of metaphors really bogged down the story. They often didn't make sense, weren't clear that they were a metaphor at first and not current action, and at times it was like the author couldn't pick which metaphor to use so she just used all of them.

2. It took way too long to realize 'leeches' was the title of a doctor, not actual leeches. It needed to be capitalized or better explained. This was super confusing for a while.

3. The romance was insta-love and I don't know why the FMC and MMC loved each other so much. I'm guessing it was due to woo woo soulmate stuff that was briefly mentioned.

4. It's supposed to be fantasy with necromancy magic, but there's none of that in the book. Just talk of magic.

5. The brief selective mutism was funny because Agnes would just stare at people like my dogs when they want something and are convinced I'll be able to telepathically read their mind.

6. The different houses weren't explained. Do they each have their own magic abilities? What kind? Do they have their own rituals? What is their history?

7. The crazy cannibal guy plucked off the street late into the book seemed to serve no purpose other than to be weird and force the final scene into motion. Kinda the same with the maid. The cousin just found her sexy, I guess?

8. The original premise of the plot with the grandmother and trying to reclaim her family's fallen honor seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth shortly into the book. There was no revenge in this book despite the summary.

9. It had a lot of typical romantasy elements haunting the background of the story, while not being a romantasy. It was weird.

I hope book 2 is some silent hill-like spooky revenge nonsense with way more magic involved. And the author brutally edits the metaphors and repetitive verbiage. Did anyone else read this and like it, or not like it?

I don't know if it's due to layoffs or what but I am in a terrible slump. I DNFed 6 books last month, returned several unread library books. I haven't been liking my last 3 reads that were a mix of horror thriller, space opera, and a historical fantasy.

The last books that I liked were The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan and Long Live Evil by Sarah Brennan. I want to tackle my pictured physical tbr. Which one of these is a good anti slump book? I like character driven stories that show over tell.

Have you read any of these and loved them? Or something similar?