Hello friends and bookworms, I’m here to share with you my review of Level Zero by Dan McDowell. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Black Rose Writing in return for an honest review.
Level Zero was published on the 13th May 2021 and you can read the synopsis here.
Overall rating – 4 out of 5 stars.
I don’t want to give anything away with this one, as most of the enjoyment comes from not knowing what you were going to into, so this will be a shorter review from me.
This was a true GEM of a book! I honestly was obsessed when I started to read Level Zero, it had this hold over me as if I was in a trance like state reading it!
As soon as I started reading this book I felt this sort of unsettling and creepy vibe come over me, not enough to frighten me but enough that you knew it was going to build up into a great story. Which I’m pleased to say that Level Zero did.
This was completely different to anything I’d read before, in a horror novel at least, and it really strived to be different, you could feel that from the way the suspense built up and how the fear factor started to creep in, but all the while it was intriguing, you needed to keep reading, it was as if you didn’t have a choice.
One small irritation of mine was the sheer number of characters, it made it quite difficult for me to keep track of who was who, and I feel we didn’t get to see all of their true potential as some were more focused on than others. Which did, as we got closer to the end of the book begin to make the book a little confusing.
I will admit I was disappointed with the ending, it didn’t really make sense and I felt it didn’t encompass the rest of the book, it wasn’t fitting with the story and felt like it had been tagged on as an after thought.
WARNING MINOR SPOILER IN NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!!!!!
My favourite part of this book though was the idea of being able to call a number and have a scary story told to you, and you could pick what theme you wanted, like someone should set that up!
SPOILER WARNING OVER.
On the whole, Level Zero had all the makings of a really good horror story, something to get under your skin and creep you out but also not too scary that you couldn’t sleep at night! Aside from the minor irritations I had with this story, it was a truly good read and I’m really happy I read it.
It brought something new to the genre, and if you’re looking for something scary but a bit different Level Zero is the one for you.
Until next time, Em xxx
What Em's Reading 