User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I'm out. I just can't get into this book. Some are really enjoying it, but I have decided to pass on this one. I'm not giving this book a rating as I did not finish.
Rating: really liked it
This book is an exquisite rarity: a faerie book that is at the same time marvellously visual and imaginative, but works equally well as a study of human trauma; a love story (of sorts); a family drama; a wholly engaging mystery. I found it in my ARCS-to-read pile (which this year has been sadly neglected) and started it with no great expectation, although by the end of the third page I was not only hooked, but beginning to think that this might be the best book I'd read all year. Anyone who knows me knows how often I find myself disappointed by the payoff of a novel. This one maintained the tension right till the end - another rarity -never veering into over-exposition or self-indulgence. And the faeries are both nicely original and authentically folkloric: creepy, pagan, detailed, entrancing. I loved it, and I sense that I'll be following this author's future work with excitement and admiration. She's been places. She knows things. Follow her; you'll know them, too.
Rating: really liked it
If you're into scary fairies, mental health drama, and murder mysteries, this book is for you. I read it for the super scary fairies, and I was not disappointed. They are very scary.
From the very start, we're given a puzzle that I didn't especially find interesting. "are fairies real? did the fairies do it or did Cassie do it?" I think it's a more interesting book if the fairies are real, but then again, I read a lot of fantasy. Hopefully those lingering questions will give the book some crossover appeal.
Even though I live in Denmark, I always forget the extreme family focus of a lot of Scandinavian lit. That's also the case here, but I found the family focus to be a little stifling for the story, even in places where it IS the story. Related, I always wanted the scary fairies to be a little more up to no good on their own and to have more machinations beyond Cassie and her family drama.
But overall, what I loved of how this book really nails the horror show of what it might be like if you see fairies but nobody believes you. Horrific to imagine, but fun to read.
Rating: really liked it
Recipe for
You Let Me In: take the dark, folkloric themes of
Pine or
Lanny; mix with the lyrical, romantic style of
The Summer That Melted Everything; add a relationship with the same disturbing overtones as those of
My Dark Vanessa; combine with the weird atmosphere of two or three short stories by Kelly Link and Elizabeth Hand; and you have something unnerving, strange, yet rich and rather beautiful.
It opens with an article describing the disappearance of Cassandra Tipp, a 74-year-old romance novelist. Cassie was reclusive, but somewhat notorious: she was accused (and cleared) of her husband Tommy's murder 40 years earlier; her therapist wrote a famous book about the case; her father and brother died in a suspected murder-suicide some years later. The narrative continues as a lengthy document Cassie has written for her named heirs, her niece and nephew Penelope and Janus. They must read this manuscript in order to obtain the password that will allow them to claim her estate.
In the manuscript, Cassie spins a fantastic story – a literal fairytale. She claims that, since the age of five, she has been acquainted with a faerie community, and in particular a close companion whom she calls Pepper-Man. This creature has been a constant throughout her life, and according to Cassie, his influence explains her difficult childhood, Tommy's murder, the deaths in her family – everything. It's up to Penelope and Janus (and the reader) to decide whether this outlandish story could possibly be true, or whether Cassie has constructed an elaborate lie. Cassie's therapist believed the latter; that she invented these characters to make sense of childhood abuse, and was so deeply traumatised she was never able to let go of the fantasy. But, then, there are things about Tommy's death that make no logical sense. And Cassie certainly makes a persuasive case.
You Let Me In weaves a brilliant, bewitching spell. At the very beginning, I found the style a little sugary; I wasn't convinced by the tone of the opening article; basically, I wasn't instantly sold. It was when Cassie began talking about the faeries that I found myself transfixed, and from then on, I didn't want to put the book down. The slightly florid prose really comes into its own when applied to tales of wood spirits flying through the night, enchanted stories delivered in jars, a man made from twigs and honey.
Cassie's account of Pepper-Man is horrible and gorgeous, sickening and seductive. Theirs is a symbiotic relationship, yet one formed so early in Cassie's life that she has no hope of escaping. Here, again, it reminded me very much of
My Dark Vanessa, its strength lying in how easy it is to be convinced by the narrator's version of the story. Do you hope Pepper-Man is real because you believe in their otherworldly bond, or because you desperately want Cassie not to have been abused? Or both; again, they are inextricable.
This book is, I think, being undersold by its title (makes sense once you've read it, but at first glance seems more suited to a domestic thriller) and blurb (doesn't quite capture the richness of the story). The pre-release reviews on Goodreads are also a mess for the most part, which makes me think it's being promoted to the wrong audience. I hope it finds its perfect readers, as it found its way to me. It was thanks to Kirsty Logan's review that I did, and I have to echo her sentiment: when I'd finished it, I wanted to read it again.
I received an advance review copy of You Let Me In
from the publisher through NetGalley.TinyLetter
Rating: really liked it
Not enjoying this one ... so I'm abandoning at 15%
Bye bye Mr. Pepper-Man...
Rating: really liked it
The title and cover for his novel didn't prepare me at all for what was inside and I'm still not sure exactly what I read. It's written as a letter from Cassandra Tipp, a 74 year old successful romance writer who has disappeared, addressed to her niece and nephew. She had a tumultuous life to say the least, accused of murdering her husband and later losing her father and brother in a murder-suicide. She also suffered from trauma as a child and underwent therapy for years, becoming the subject of a bestselling book written by her therapist which resulted in estrangement from her family. In her letter to her niece and nephew she tells them about the influence of the faerie world on her life and the reader is left to decide if this is this real or if she has created an alternative history to explain her childhood trauma and subsequent mental illness.
Norwegian author Camilla Bruce takes us into a dark and creepy fantasy world. The faerie world is fully realised and the relationship between Cassandra and her faerie lover is entrancing but disturbing. It took me a little while to engage with the book but the further I read, the more I wanted to know about Cassandra and her world. Many will love this tale and many won't, but however you feel it will keep you on the edge wondering what really happened to Cassandra Tipp.
With thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for a digital copy to read
Rating: really liked it
What a crazy and weird novel! I don't really know what to make of this, but I enjoyed every minute of this book. This book is about evil fairies and family drama. I dare you to try reading YOU LET ME IN; I hope you get sucked in as I did! Happy reading!
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars
Review to come.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
Rating: really liked it
the fuck did i just read
for real
wtf
if you're a fan of traditionally written fairies, you might enjoy this more than i did
it was just... so weird
i feel confused and uncomfortable
idk man
Rating: really liked it
‘Fiction is sometimes better than reality, don’t you think?’
Romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has been missing for a year and as per her Last Will and Testament, her considerable estate is to be shared by her niece and nephew. The only catch is, in order to make the claim, they need to go to Cassandra’s home and find the password hidden somewhere in the manuscript she left for them.
You’re standing in my study, holding this story in your hands - the last one I’ll ever tell.
In doing so they will learn about Cassandra’s life, from her early childhood onwards, and the versions of the truth that continue to haunt their family.
‘Maybe the past came back to haunt her. She has a history here’
The feedback on this book seems fairly divisive so far. You’ve got the ‘I loved this book!’ people on one side and the ‘What the hell did I just read?!’ people on the other. As I’ve come to expect, I’m a bit of an anomaly. My initial response to this book was ‘What the hell did I just read?! That was so good!’
It’s been over three weeks since I finished reading and I’ve spent plenty of time since then trying to figure out a way of talking about it without wandering into spoiler territory. I also haven’t been able to get Cassandra’s story out of my head.
And things weren’t quite as they seemed.
I’ve gone back and forth countless times, trying to decide one way or another what I truly believe and while that would usually frustrate me, here it has only added to my appreciation of the story. You could see it purely as the ramblings of an elderly woman with a history of unresolved trauma and inadequately treated mental illness. That’s what Dr. Martin, Cassandra’s psychiatrist, would say. And he did. In fact, he wrote an entire book about her.
Or you could believe in Pepper-Man’s existence and know in your heart that what Cassandra says is true.
I’m still not entirely sure exactly which parts of the story I attribute to mental illness and/or trauma and which I believe Pepper-Man is responsible for, but because this is a story I think I can get away with what I still consider cheating. I believe both to be true. How on earth can I hold that position?
I think there were certain traumatic events in Cassandra’s childhood that contributed to genuine mental illness. Whether she would have been mentally ill without these experiences, I cannot say for sure but I suspect she would have been, to a certain extent. I believe that these traumatic experiences caused her to need coping mechanisms and one of these was the creation of Pepper-Man. Now, this is where reality and book world diverge a little: in my heart I want to believe that Pepper-Man truly existed, that somehow this young girl’s trauma physically manifested a protector. An unconventional protector, sure, but a protector nonetheless.
‘Can’t both stories be true?’ I asked. ‘Why is it that only because one thing is true, the other thing is not? Why do we always have to decide?’
I’m definitely interested in learning what other readers believe and if the author ever answers this question in an interview and you don’t think I know of its existence, please,
please send me the link.
I wanted someone to know, you see. To know my truth, now that I am gone.
How everything and none of it happened.
I’m not usually a ‘Have you considered adding more pink?’ kind of person but definitely feel like an opportunity was missed when the covers were designed for this book. Cassandra, the main character, is an author whose books all feature pink covers so it would have been perfect if this book’s cover had been a creepy Pepper-Man design in various shades of pink. Usually when I buy a book I make sure I choose my favourite cover image, even if it costs more. Unfortunately I don’t have a favourite here.
‘She would have us believe she’s off with the faeries’
While you probably need to know upfront that this is a strange story and it may not be for you, I don’t want you to not attempt it at all. If you’re intrigued and want a sneak peek, you can currently download a digital preview of the first 34 pages here.
Content warnings include mention of (view spoiler)
[abortion, alcoholism, bullying, child abuse, death by suicide, mental illness, murder, self harm and sexual assault (hide spoiler)].
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers, Penguin Random House UK, for the opportunity to read this book.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 Stars, rounded down..
What an original, peculiar, creepy debut! Going into this novel I had very low expectations, based off of some of my very reliable Goodreads friends' reviews. Despite my reservations when I saw this at my local bookstore I had to grab it and give it a shot. The first bit was a little rough and didn't catch me automatically, but the further I got into the story that was sucked into the wonderful, yet dark and sometimes even sinister world the fairies. I loved it. I expect this book is going to be very polarizing, people are either going to love it or hate it, but you can definitely count me In with the group that loved it! The only thing keeping this from a strong five star rating was perhaps the ending. I felt like there wasn't an answer I was so desperately craving, at least not a very clear-cut one. I've made my own conclusions as to what happened, as I imagined was Bruce's intent! This book is going to stick with me for a while, hopefully until Bruce's next release because I can't wait!!!
Rating: really liked it
I have been procrastinating writing this review because I'm uncertain how to articulate the experience of reading this strange book. Reading it felt somewhat like wading through a humid, foggy forest; there was beauty and a sense of timelessness, and yet the story weighed heavily on me too, as I constantly questioned whether I was reading about a supernatural experience or trauma-induced mental instability.
Ever since she was a young girl, Cassandra could see fairies; one in particular, whom she has christened "Pepper-Man" due to his distinctive pepper smell, has been with Cassandra for as long as she can remember, and he has been feeding off her. Literally, mind you; this is not some metaphorical life energy situation; Pepper-Man literally sinks his teeth into Cassandra's flesh and consumes her blood. As he does so, he slowly grows more human, as fairies in this world take on the characteristics of whatever it is they're feeding off of, whether that be humans, trees, or animals. The adults in Cassandra's life believe she has a particularly badly behaved imaginary friend, but this gets harder to reconcile as Cassandra gets older and continues to see Pepper-Man. Most choose to believe that Cassandra is mentally ill, and in fact the psychologist her parents send her to strongly believes that Cassandra is having delusions as a reaction to severe childhood trauma and abuse.
What is the truth? Is Cassandra mentally ill or are fairies real? Well, the story posits that perhaps both options are true, or that one truth does not necessarily negate the other. Perhaps Cassandra
was abused, but that doesn't mean fairies aren't real. The narrative constantly teases the reader with hints of what the truth may be, but stops just short of confirming one way or another, leading you to inhabit a nebulous, liminal space in which perhaps both truths are somehow a reality. It makes you question the meaning of reality itself; if Cassandra truly believes fairies are real, if they have continued to affect her life in such a significant way, what does it matter that others can't see them? What does it even mean for them to be "real"? They are real to her, and whether they are a manifestation of mental illness or not doesn't really matter anymore. This sense of being unmoored is greatly increased by the ambiguous setting; there are so few clues that indicate when or where this story is taking place.
Cassandra never seems to concerned with digging into her past to look for potential trauma that may be causing her to have delusions; she is perfectly content with her fairy friends, her only friends, who have also gifted her with the stories she publishes, brewed in fairy "tea." Incidentally, this is my favorite depiction of fairies that I've ever read. They are
incredibly sinister. They are also not necessarily otherworldly creatures; here, they are humans who have died and come back to life in weird, twisted ways, and they long for a taste of humanity. Not to trivialize the toxic nature of Cassandra's parasitic (symbiotic?) relationship with Pepper-Man, but if you like villain romances, this is
it. Pepper-Man is such an intriguingly ambiguous character; he needs Cassandra to exist, he feeds off her to the point where she is constantly sickly and deficient in vitamins, and even the book argues that he has groomed her since she was a child, but he...loves her? Maybe? Things become even stranger and more compelling when their relationship turns sexual, and it is never quite clear precisely
when that happens, though the book hints that it starts when Cassandra is fourteen. Though Pepper-Man is seductive, he's also very bizarre and creepy, and the book
knows this, even as it refrains from taking a clear side.
The book's lovely prose complements the bewitching tale of sinister fairies and amorphous realities. When I first started reading I was a bit hesitant at the second-person perspective, since Cassandra is speaking directly to her niece and nephew, but as she began to weave her tale of fairies, I was hooked, and from there I couldn't put the book down. I was drawn in to this strange, morbid fairy tale with its languid prose; there were so many scenes where I had to pause and re-read just to take in the scene and the words. There is so much
richness in the way this book is written; it makes for a heady, captivating experience; by the end one feels almost like a mosquito gorged on blood: satisfied yet slightly nauseated.
Rating: really liked it
Cassandra Tipp has disappeared. Did she just pick up and leave? Is she dead? Has she been murdered? Did she commit suicide?
From the time of her childhood, she has always been different. She has a friend .. no one else can see him. He's old, ragged, she calls him Pepper-Man because that's what he smells like. He brings her gifts of rotten flowers, dead twigs .. maybe something worse.
She has a family history of death. Her husband was found disemboweled years ago. Cassandra was though to have killed him ... but she mounted a insanity defense with the help of her psychiatrist, who is now also dead.
A few years later there is a murder-suicide ... her father and her brother. Was she responsible?
Cassandra has left a note and a manuscript. She has a niece and nephew and it is written that they inherit her entire estate ... but first they need to read her story.
Mental Illness? Imaginary Friends? Supernatural Lovers? You will need to read her side of what happened all those years. Is Cassandra an abused child the result of a traumatic childhood, the victim of her cold mother and distant father? The spurned wife of a womanizing adulterer?
When all is said and done, you will need to make a choice. Believe ... and be safe. Don't believe ... and be damned.
This debut novel is something is something like I've never read before. Told in Cassandra's voice, there are enough twists and turns that made my skin crawl. After awhile, I began to doubt what I was thinking. Are all her memories true .. or are they representative of something else ... something deeper, darker?
Many thanks to the author / Macmillan-Tor/Forge / Netgalley for the digital copy of this fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Rating: really liked it
Super weird, definitely meant to disturb, and
not afraid of killing any expectations you had about faeries. Welcome to
You Let Me In.
Concept: ★★★★ 1/2
Writing style: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★★★
Content warnings: Yes, a lot of them, please see end of review.
You Let Me In comes out on April 21.First off,
I'd like to make a disclaimer that I'm about to praise this novel, but it in no way means that I am praising the subject matter. There are dark themes in this, and if you are concerned about warnings please see the end of this review.
You Let Me In follows the story (or stories?) of Cassandra Tipp's life. Tipp was a reclusive writer with a troubled upbringing and a tragic life, and it's time for her to tell her story.
She's ready to share her truth...but you might not be able to believe it. It's literally so hard to decide what to share and what not to share about this novel. I went in with very little—just what's in the description.
I think in order to enjoy this for what it is, you should go in with little information.
One of the main themes at play in
You Let Me In is the concept of
memory and trauma. Did these events happen as Cassandra said they did?
Is it possible for two conflicting stories to both exist? What is the "real" story? Is there a "real" story?
Now, you might be wondering, this was published by TOR...the fantasy publisher. Memory and trauma don't sound fantastical. What's up with that?
According to Cassandra, the "Pepper Man" is her closest companion.
A "faerie," the Pepper Man lives next to Cassandra, lives off of Cassandra, and ultimately entwines her life with his and takes her on adventures under the mound. Faeries in this are not handsome, not romantic, and NOT something mysterious in the woods.
These faeries are the undead/unmade. I don't know if I agree with the designation of "faerie" in this, but it IS very otherworldly. (In a way, I think readers who enjoyed Never Contented Things will like this too. Similar executions on unsettling faeries meant to horrify.)
My favorite aspect of this novel was its extremely masterful pacing and sense of truth. Novels often claim that they "leave the truth up to the reader." In my experience, they rarely deliver. There's always a more fleshed out "truth" to believe. In
You Let Me In, this debut actually delivers on a double-edged sword of truth. What really happened? It's up to you. I know what belief I took out of this, but you and I might disagree. It speaks to the author's skill that we can have such opposing takeaways.
One of the main sticking points (as I see it, anyway) for
You Let Me In revolves around its placement in the discussion of speculative fiction at this point in time. It's getting harder and harder for speculative dark fiction to deliver on an engaging, well-crafted, and memorable narratives. On the one hand, it seems like we're just getting more twisted and triggering narratives to deliver on this promise. On the other, some of the recent entries into the genre are dark and yet amazing (see Follow Me to Ground, which I also loved.) While this one's themes are dark and its content very upsetting to people with different expectations, I found it extremely singular and one-of-a-kind. Does it fall on the side of "too much" because of that? I don't know.
I struggled with my opinions. I definitely loved what it was doing in realm of writing and story development, but I really struggled to enjoy the content due to its extremely dark themes.
Bottom line: read this if you like the genre, but definitely go in with eyes wide open regarding warnings and expectations.
Thank you to TOR for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.Content warnings: (view spoiler)
[Potential rape (depending on the versions of the story), potential familial abuse (same as previous), consent issues throughout, bad family treatment of main character's mental health, childhood trauma, abortion discussed, death of a child (discussed, version of truth issue again), murder, mind games, problematic mental health professional, etc. (hide spoiler)]Blog | Instagram
Rating: really liked it
A glorious, pitch-black fairy tale of a book. Lush, strange and defiant. As soon as I finished it, I went straight back to the start and read it again.
