Book Review: Shockadelica by Jon O’Bergh
Shockadelica
Jon O’Bergh
I was really excited to check out this book by Jon O’Bergh. For starters, the cover is striking. Secondly, the two characters in it are horror loving podcasters, and as a huge podcast fan, I was instantly drawn in by this premise. When they discover the apartment building they live in might be haunted, drag artist Kendall Akande and his best friend Jenna Chen decide to investigate. I also liked the idea of the apartment building being haunted, as it opens the scope to introduce more characters than if, say, it was a single-family home.
Unfortunately, some of the things I was drawn to the most about this book were also where it kind of fell a little flat for me. The writing itself is good, but a lot of what Kendall and Jenna get up to becomes repetitive, and it feels like there are large stretches where nothing really happens.
The pair approach each neighbour to ask about the strange goings on, and while at first this was enjoyable as we got to find out a bit more about each one, it dragged on just a touch too much and ultimately introduced a fairly large cast which proved, at times, difficult to follow.
**SPOILER WARNING**
Purely from a personal taste perspective, I felt kind of let down by the ending. Throughout, we’re led to believe there’s a supernatural presence haunting this building, but in the end it turns out to be a very human threat. I’m not too fussed on this kind of fake out, especially when other supernatural elements come into play that are left uncertain and unclear.
**END SPOILERS**
The book isn’t bad, it just felt like it could have been that bit stronger. For me personally, it was too much on the slow-burn side, with too much ambiguity, and wasn’t to my taste, especially as we don’t see anything of the main characters outside the plot. The podcast sections also felt a bit off – they have a horror podcast, but they jump all over the genre, and we never actually get indications of when, in the story, they record, edit, etc. The only times they seem to meet up are to talk to the other residents!
It would have been good to see a bit more of the ‘normal’ life of these characters, to a point, outside of the plot, and maybe with less back and forth where they’re going to visit character a then character b then character c. It was a touch too slow for me, but I have no doubt there are other readers this will be the exact right pace for.
Grade: C
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter & Instagram: @elleturpitt
I received this paperback from author Jon O’Bergh for review consideration.