In the coils of the Labyrinth - Book review
Book review
Star rating: 4,5/5 stars
Book title: In the Coils of the Labyrinth
Author: David Annendale
Page count: 352 pages
Publishing date: September 27th 2022
Another book immersed in the 1920's Arkham Horror universe. In this story, you follow Professor Miranda Ventham who unfortunately becomes sick with tuberculosis. She then gets herself into the Stroud Institute in which the treatments sound promising. Her nightmares becoming more frequent and confusing, she gets help from her parapsychologist friend, Agatha Crane. Together, they will try to solve the mystery of the strange things happening in the walls of the Stroud Institute.
I really enjoyed my read. I have not ready any of the other books from this serie and I hadn't heard about the Arkham Horror universe before receiving this arc. I did do a little bit of research on the board game before diving into the book which I'm glad I did.
I think the author really set the tone in this unique universe. With the introduction of the main charactar, Miranda, I was quickly invested in the story. I enjoyed how the author took the time to develop the characters and they were really fun to read. I have to admit that I was expecting a bit more horror from the beginning of the book. I don't feel like the first half was very scray, but the second half definitely made up for it. It kind of reminded me of a "Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer-End-of-the-World" type of vibe which I really enjoyed. It just took a little while to go into it. The staff and other patients in the Institute were definitely creepy and helped set the thriller tone fo the book. I think the pacing was a bit slow in the first half but it definitely picked up as it went.
I also really enjoyed Agatha's journey and research she did overseas. I think it brought some interesting elements and was really fun to see her character grow and evolve as her journey went on. I was weary at first of how the "healing" part of the tuberculosis was dealt with in the book but it was eventually dealt with. I loved the metephor of the labyrinth that was thouroughly thought of in the book and all the life reflexions it brought up. I thiknk it was a very interesting aspect to add to the book and it brought a little bit more depth to the story.
Overall I really enjoyed the read. It was creepy, it was fun and I was invested in the characters. I would highly recommend this book to fans of historical fiction horror/thriller as well as fans of supernatural phenomenons. This ARC definitely got me interested in reading more books from the Arkham Horror serie.
Thank you to NetGalley and Aconyte for the digital ARC in exchange of an honest review.
