Book Review: Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell

The eerie vibes are real and you won't want to be caught alone reading this book, well mostly.

First off this is not a review for Fae Farm - however, I did enjoy having this game to lighten the mood when I got too spooked reading this book! Also, it's fun and if you're into cozy games, and have a Nintendo Switch or PC, I recommend you check this game out.

The real reason we're all here is to talk about Stolen Tongues. Wow. Set in the mountains of Colorado, I had the pleasure of starting this one while visiting Estes Park, and glad I waited to return home to really get into it. I probably would have lost more sleep than I could afford while staying at The Stanley Hotel (really going all out for the spooky vibes this year).

The one thing I knew about this book going into it was damn it gets creeeepy, and the cover kinda says a lot. A couple is gifted a weekend stay at the family cabin after their engagement and starts experiencing some wild stuff. Hearing noises, and finding things in the woods, they brush it off. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't stop and the weather takes a bad turn - so now they're stuck with whatever is out there.

The descriptions of the 'encounters' are terrifying and very atmospheric, throughout the entire book this was true and just the thought of being in the shoes of Fae or Felix, our main characters, gave me goosebumps.

The plot is very drawn out and toward 75% I was very ready for this book to be over with. Felix and Fae find themselves to be continuously haunted by whatever is in the woods at the cabin and the cycle is very repetitive and almost infuriating. The cabin belongs to Fae's family and I absolutely hated every single one of them. They were written well if the angle was ignorant and annoying.

Finally - the plot twist... somewhat underwhelming and not what I expected. So yes it surprised the hell out of me but mostly because I was like - really, this is where we're going with this?! I'm still confused by some of the author's choices and the direction he took in this book. When it was good it was really good.

Rating this one 2.5 stars out of 5 because I really appreciate how much the author succeeded at spooking me, but started to lose it just over halfway. I do say it's worth a read to see if you can read this alone at night and don't expect a promising good twist.

A little bonus tidbit I only discovered after finishing the book - this author originally developed this story for a contest on reddit and won - that's pretty cool and all the more reason to check it out.