A horror fest with emotional depth, I went into The Haar expecting pure kitsch, a story existing primarily as a delivering device for gore and violence. While it definitely checked off that aspect in spades, I was not anticipating the empathy I felt towards its elderly protagonist—her open-mindedness towards the end of life, mixed in with her melancholic longing regarding her younger years, made her a very engaging character to follow from (I had a similar experience while reading We Spread by Iain Reid, even though the overall tone was not at all similar!).

In comparison to the nuanced depiction of its protagonist, the rest of The Haar was a little more straightforward and garish, particularly regarding all the 'Bad with a capital B' villainous characters—which could be argued was intentional, as we relished their otherworldly, violent demise in gory detail.

Overall, I think The Haar contained the best of both worlds: delivering on the horrific, but with a human core preventing it from becoming a mindless excess. With it being a Kindle Unlimited title, this has to be one of the must-reads from that particular library!