Review: The White Road

The White Road by Sarah Lotz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A couple of years ago I read The Three by Sarah Lotz. In all honesty, I was extremely disappointed by the book. I had wanted a serious horror read, only to be given… well, a less than pleasing read. Due to that, I held off on reading any more of her books. Then I saw a Goodreads giveaway for The White Road. I had an extremely lengthy mental debate before deciding to enter. I decided I would give her another chance, the typical chance to redeem herself. If nothing else, I wouldn’t be disappointed when I failed to win the book. As with every book you’re not crazy excited about winning, those ones where you think ‘I will be content either way’, I won this one. It took me a while from the time of receiving the book to actually jump in, but once I did… well, it was a mixed bag of a read.

The book had such potential. There was the promise of a wonderful chiller, a read that would make up for what I experienced after finishing The Three. Unfortunately, this one left me with much the same feeling. At a push, I would say I enjoyed this one more – in fact, I know I enjoyed this one more, as there were some scenes where I wasn’t pulling my hair out in boredom or annoyance – but that enjoyment is only a small thing. In other words, this second chance is the last for Sarah Lotz. I’m sure there are many fans out there, but it is now clear that I will not be one of them. Her writing doesn’t do it for me, her books do not deliver what I expect, and as a whole there are plenty of other writers waiting for me to pick up their books and I plan to do so instead of continuing to reading work that is clearly not my cup of tea.

The first part of this book started out okay, before it started to drag on for much longer than I’d anticipated. Had I gone into the book without expectations of what kind of story I was to be given, I may have enjoyed this element. Instead, I was impatiently awaiting Everest. I kept holding out hope that part one would end with some kind of big bang, yet it never did.

Thus, I held out hope for Everest giving us the big bang. Sadly, it didn’t. It was the more enjoyable part of the story – these are the aspects that made it a clear winner over The Three – but it also felt as though it dragged. There was never the horror I’d been hoping for, rather it was the simple possibility of there being more. This is all well and good for building up suspense and creepy feelings, but it is rather disappointing when the entire story is based simply upon things seen in the corner of the eye. I kept holding out for more, I was crossing my fingers that we would be given something solid.

The fact that we never have anything solid with this book left me disappointed. Had there been some indication of what was going on, had there been a bit more than just the mind playing tricks, I may have accepted the lack of clear answers. As it was, I felt as though the story didn’t really give me much at all.

Were it not for those decent Everest scenes, I would have been even more disappointed with this one. As it stands, this is just a confirmation that Sarah Lotz is not for me.

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