Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: June 28th, 2016
Synopsis: Convinced that evil spirits have overtaken his daughter, a desperate father introduces her to Nat Thayer, a young psychiatrist in their sleepy blue-blooded Massachusetts college town. Thayer quickly diagnoses the girl with Cotard Delusion, an obscure condition sometimes described as “walking corpse syndrome”. But Thayer soon realizes his patient–and many of the local families–are actually being targeted by a malignant force resurrected by the town’s wicked history. Thayer must discover the source of the spreading plague…before there is no one left to save.
As soon as I read the premise for this book I knew I had to read it. A horror tale set in the state where I live, and what sounded like a neat twist on zombies. What could possibly could go wrong? Sadly plenty. In fact, so much so that I struggled to finish this. The first problem are the characters, in particular Nat who I found not only unlikable but creepy as well. He’s in his mid-thirties yet lusts after one of his patients who’s nineteen. Yes she’s of legal age, but barely. Plus he’s her doctor for goodness sake! She’s either mentally ill or possessed by an evil spirit. Either way, his romantic feelings toward her leave much to be desired. His best friend John, who’s a police officer comes off marginally better, but as a whole is flat and uninspiring. His six-year-old son Charlie was my favorite character in the story, but in my opinion Wolff didn’t do nearly enough with him. What really almost made me stop reading though was this scene in a morgue of an attendant fondling a dead co-worker he had just found. If this had any meaning behind it, or some kind of connection to the rest of the story, I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. Instead, it seemed as though it was written for pure shock value, which annoyed and disgusted me. I settled on the 2 star rating because I did like the part of the book which takes us back to Haiti in the early 1900s (through the reading of a journal), where the actions of certain Northam natives, who are soldiers there, set into play the evil which is taking so many lives. I thought the author did a good job capturing the time period, but it just wasn’t enough for me. When I finally dragged myself to the end, the outcome was both predictable and unsatisfying. While The Binding wasn’t my cup of tea, it has received some positive reviews on Goodreads. So, if you’re a fan of horror that features unique twists on zombies and voodoo, I encourage you to try this. Hopefully you’ll have a better reading experience than I did.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy this one any more than I did. 😦 I didn’t mention too much specific due to the synopsis being a bit vague but I definitely agree with the whole doctor/patient thing being a bit over the top. It’s almost like romance sells well so let’s try to toss in some sort of a relationship which didn’t work for me and didn’t need to happen in my opinion, he could have been concerned just by what was happening.
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That’s exactly how I felt Carrie. And what the heck was up with that morgue scene? It never even went anywhere! Ugh! I did like the journal part though.
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I read another not too long ago that seemed the same way, do things just to be doing them for more of shock than any story enhancement and it didn’t score very high either… and now I’m having trouble remembering the title…..I can either blame getting older or just stick with the 1s and 2s really didn’t impress me enough to remember them later. LOL
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I’d go with the latter!
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Those are definitely some of my pet peeves as well do I will definitely be skipping this one. Thank you for the very informative review!
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I’m glad I could help Ana!😊
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Thanks for the warning 😉
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Just doing my job!🙋🏻
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Oh no, those romantic feelings ay yi yi. And I can’t even comment on the other part *shudders and tries to scrub brain of the memory of those words*. I’m so sorry you had to read that but thank you for letting the rest of us know so we can avoid. I hope your next book is a billion times better Kim!
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Sorry Jen. I hope I haven’t given you nightmares!😕 And thanks you. I am reading a couple of much, much better books.😊
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I’m pretty good about scrubbing things from my brain and I have the world of Angelfall to distract me and give me nightmares LOL! YAY, I’m so happy to hear that!
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Phew! I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I traumatized you Jen!
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It’s okay, I’d just go back and hide in my bubble for a while and think happy thoughts lol! Either that or watch the Fuzzy Fuzzy Cute Cute video on youtube, that can make anything better ha!
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Oh. My. God! I just looked that up on YouTube! It’s sooooooo cute!
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Aw, I’m glad you thought it was so cute! I get a smile on my face just thinking about it lol. Annnnnddd now I have the song stuck in my head. 😂 It is so catchy!
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