veronica reads.

Half-Filipino & half-Saudi Arabian who is sort of obsessed with binge-watching historical dramas & high fantasy. Currently creeping the local bookshelves.

So I read this book a while back in December 2018 (it's June 2019 now) and while I was updating my write.as, I realized that I never finished writing the review. However, my opinion still stands. Still, since it has been a while and I only got so far in my original review, I'm going to try to keep this nice and short.

A/A- | This book is solid. It maintains that Fatal Frame-esque feel that I love but also brings more meat that I had been looking for from the first book.

I tend to read books I love really fast because I just engulf them. I can't help it. I would stay up all night to finish a good book. The Suffering is that book. I could not put this book down. Rin's writing has a way of gripping onto you and never letting you go.

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So I read this book a while back in December 2018 (it's June 2019 now) and while I was updating my write.as, I realized that I never finished writing the review. However, my opinion still stands. Still, since it has been a while and I only got so far in my original review, I'm going to try to keep this nice and short.

A/A- | This book is solid. It maintains that Fatal Frame-esque feel that I love but also brings more meat that I had been looking for from the first book.

I tend to read books I love really fast because I just engulf them. I can't help it. I would stay up all night to finish a good book. The Suffering is that book. I could not put this book down. Rin's writing has a way of gripping onto you and never letting you go.

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B+/B | Japanese ghosts and folklore? Fatal Frame-esque atmosphere? I'M SOLD SIGN ME UP.

I adored the Fatal Frame games. I never had the chance to actually play the main games myself (I did play the spin-off Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the 3DS which was eh but oh well), but I did watch a ton of YouTubers play it. I always have looked for other media – but especially books – that capture that very same feel and atmosphere: Japanese ghosts and rituals gone wrong.

Rin Chupeco sort of did that with this book. She was able to sort of capture the atmosphere of the Fatal Frame games, except without the soul or the weight or the scares of the games.

But this book isn’t a Fatal Frame book. It’s a Rin Chupeco book and it has its own soul, weight, and flavor. Despite the fact that it didn’t bring the same level of scares, Rin’s writing, world building, and characterizations counterbalanced the lack of scares.

I admit that I had some whiplash when the POVs kept changing and from the third person to first person. Still, Okiku’s voice and Tark’s voices and emotions were wildly different from each others’ which I really appreciated. Rin’s writing certainly has a way of gripping you and refusing to let you go, even after the book is finished (thus at least forcing me to start the next book as soon as I finished this one). She was able to write two very compelling characters, both of whom I can identify with in a way. She did a lot of showing which helped me feel all the emotions the characters were feeling.

Now, this book has a cool premise — a vengeful ghost, who goes after monstrous humans (who honestly deserve to get murdered by a ghost), meeting up and befriending this kid who happens to have an even worse spirit attached to him. I thought it was well-executed, although I do wish it was scarier.

In terms of the world building, it has the atmosphere that I was looking for in books. Rin does a good job of setting up this world. Is it something to throw a party over? No, but I certainly commend her for doing a good job bringing this world alive.

In general I thought that the characters were well-written and their development was well done. The Okiku of chapter 1 isn’t the same as the one at the end of the book and same with Tark. I love that. I love being able to witness/being shown characters developing and changing as the story goes on. I love that Okiku seemed to become more “human” the longer she was around Tark.

But, while this book shines, it's also just missing something to achieve magnificence.

It’s not scary. Yeah, sure there are the attempts to have the scares, but it’s like my baby cousin trying to scare me when she should be napping instead. You can get me once or twice if I’m not expecting it, but other than that it’s meh. I wanted to be terrified.

Okiku is interesting and so Tark. Like I said, I adore the premise of this spirit lingering for years and murdering despicable human beings. I love it, okay?

However, I honestly wished that there was MORE. I needed more meat. I would have rather had a 300+ page book that had MORE than a book that sometimes felt like I was reading summaries. It needed more. Maybe I'm just greedy, but I needed more. Give me more scares, please!

Do I recommend? Honestly, yes. I think you should give this book a shot.

F | I still can't believe I wasted my time on this crap.

Allison Pataki's Sisi books are atrocities. Her portrayal of Sisi and company is horrendous. I get it. It's historical fiction and creative license is a thing. But Pataki essentially ran over history, pooped over the corpse, and then burned it before running over the ashes. You don't get points for tossing in sprinkles of research while making a mess of the story. Listing your sources doesn't suddenly make the book better, nor does it mean the information suddenly and magically translate into the writing. I had this problem back with the first one and Pataki never bothered to improve.

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F | Don't even bother.

Alright, full disclosure. I read this book back in 2015 & I actually reviewed it on Amazon, so this is pretty much a copy & paste of that old review that I wrote back then. However, my opinion still stands. This book it an atrocity. It is horrifically terrible. I am ashamed that I actually spent a few days reading this book.

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(this is a longer version than the one on GR because of character limits)

C-/D+ | A waste of time.

Haseki Hürrem Sultan (or Roxelana, as Peirce annoyingly refers to her throughout the book) was catapulted into the history books after she became Sultan Süleyman’s concubine. Her true name is lost to history; however, she was renamed Hürrem — a name that she used to refer to herself for the rest of her life. Captured and enslaved as a young woman, Hürrem was ultimately brought to the imperial harem, an institution Peirce thoroughly examined in her 1993 book of the same name. In this previous scholarly work, Peirce explains that “the term “harem” did not connote a space defined exclusively by sexuality […] A harem is by definition a sanctuary or a sacred precinct. By implication, it is a space to which general access is forbidden or controlled and in which the presence of certain individuals or certain modes of behaviour are forbidden.” The harem was a political institution in which reproduction was strictly controlled. For women of the harem, political power and wealth came in the postsexual years: after they had given birth to a son, left the sultan’s bed, and established their own households.

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I'm going to attempt to keep this review short and sweet for now. Why? Because I read this back in January 2018 (it's December 4th 2018 right now) so until I get a chance to find and review the notes I had made back then to give more in-depth reasons why I am giving this book the grade I'm giving it, this is the review.

B+ | Recommend only if you've read The Imperial Harem by Leslie Peirce AND Ottoman Women Builders: The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan by Lucienne Thys-Şenocak. This book definitely not a book for someone who hasn't read either one of these books (especially the latter – which I previously reviewed).

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