Matthew's Reviews > Castle of Sorrows

I have read two other Jonathan Janz books before this and loved them. That is why it pains me a bit to have to report my mediocre experience with this one. I think it is a book that can still be appreciated by those who are really into gore and shock value in their horror stories, but for me it did not work as well as the others.

Castle of Sorrows is the sequel to The Sorrows. I LOVED The Sorrows – I thought it was perfectly creepy with the right level of horror, gore, shock value, etc. But, as perfect as The Sorrows was is as overbalanced I felt with Castle of Sorrows. It seemed like it had very little coherent plot for the sake of lots of gory shock value scenes frequently using gratuitously violent sex. I am okay with everything in the previous sentence as long as the entire plot doesn’t lean on it and it helps move the story along. In this case, it kind of felt like those Saw movies: how many gruesome ways can we kill people for no really good reason.

But I have to step back and say that I do enjoy the Saw movies, and I like a good slasher film every now and then. I guess with those I kind of just expect mindless, gory entertainment. In this case, after reading The Sorrows I expected more intricately woven plot driven horror and gore. But instead I just got an 80s horror b-movie highlight reel.

Maybe gore and shocks are what you are looking for. If that is the case, this is a book worthy of your attention. Just be sure to read The Sorrows first as it is a much better and well-crafted book overall, in my opinion.