I think this book has it's audience and if you like literary horror that leans into the prose and abstractness of it all but I found it a little too convoluted and there was very little in her that kept me engaged. LIkely would have DNF'd had it not been an arc

I picked up Supplication hoping for a mind-bending horror experience, but found myself more confused than scared. The story follows an unnamed woman who escapes captivity only to wander through a nightmarish city, encountering various strange figures along the way. While the protagonist's disorientation is palpable, I struggled to connect with her or understand her journey. Abi-Nakhoul's dense, stream-of-consciousness writing style initially intrigued me but quickly became overwhelming. Despite some vivid and unsettling imagery, the plot remained frustratingly vague, and I found myself lost in the fever dream narrative without a satisfying resolution. Though it aimed for hallucinatory horror, for me, Supplication ended up being more exhausting than frightening.

I really appreciate the e-arc of this, but I could not get into the writing and had to DNF pretty early in. I'm sure it will find a dedicated audience, but it is not for me.

Sadly, I had to DNF. I really wanted to like this one, but as I struggled with the stream of consciousness and the deep metaphors that I didn't get at all, I saw the ratings drop and drop and decided that I'll have to quit.

I expected strange, but this was intensely weird. You really have to pay attention and be in the right mood. An excellent read.

I absolutely love this cover, and I REALLY wanted to love this one but I just could not follow the plot. I tried multiple times to re-engage but was not successful and had to DNF. A fever dream stream of consciousness is often my jam, but this one just didn't work for me unfortunately. Thank you for the opportunity to review this title.

From the start, Supplication was like being dipped into a pool of liquid psychedelics. I had no idea what was going on, which I find I like in books, but this got to the point where I felt like I couldn’t trust the author enough to lead me deeper into the story either. I got some way in before abandoning, and at no point was I sure what was happening to our main character, whether we were dealing with a world like ours, whether there were one or multiple time lines. It was too confusing for my taste. The prose was very verbose, very floral. To its own detriment, in my opinion. So much going on in the text and yet nothing going on for pages in the actual story. It got maddening!

So truly, like a bad psychedelic trip I don’t think I’d like to repeat.

The novel "Supplication" captivated me with its captivating and intriguing nature. From the very beginning, author Abi-Nakhoul captured my attention and held it tightly until the very end. The vivid descriptions and intense plot left me feeling as though I was a helpless spectator, bound to a chair and forced to endure one terrifying event after another alongside the unnamed narrator. While the writing may have been slightly excessive at times, I believe this was deliberately done to create a sense of disorientation, which ultimately added to the overall effect of the story. I can confidently say that "Supplication" succeeded in provoking a sense of bewilderment within me, in the most captivating manner.

the cover is absolutely stunning and immediately caught my eye. the mysterious premise also intrigued me but i ended up feeling pretty disconnected from the author's storytelling.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a work of translated horror that feels more like experimental descriptive writing than a story? Are you cool with slogging through a book without a clear narrative?

Pre-reading:
I love unhinged books. I love this cover. Please be good.

Thick of it:
That's interesting. Desire as a psychotic break survival strategy

I put this book down, and I have been dreading picking it back up. It’s not that it’s particularly bad, it just takes a lot of brain power to read because of the translated language. And then I’m also not motivated to read it because I can’t see myself giving it any higher than a two.

I think this is artsy she’s getting raped, but I don’t know, and I’m afraid I’m reading into it, but I’m also like pretty sure that’s what’s happening.

I don’t wanna kill people, but the parasites wanna kill people

Simultaneously Miley Cyrus’s Can’t Be Tamed and also a horse girl.

But hair and fingernails don’t grow after death? The skin just contracts so it looks longer.

I have no clue what’s going on. I don’t know if any of this is a metaphor or if we’re supposed to buy that it’s actually happening.

Are all these people she’s encountering dead? I’m so confused.

Is she there to give birth? I’m so confused.

Is she there for an abortion? I’m so confused.

Detritus sin

So who’s gonna explain this book to me? I don’t get it at all.

Post-reading:
I have no idea what I just read.

Listen, when they described this book as a fever dream, they were not exaggerating. It is incoherent. It’s all purple prose that would be juicy if it actually led anywhere. There’s no clear string of plot for the audience to grasp onto to pull them through the story.

When the book opens, it reads like some torture porn psychological break. It’s set up with the flavor of a revenge thriller. And that’s the book I wanted to read.

But instead, you’re left floating through scene after scene that are bogged down with nothing but lengthy descriptions. It might be a flaw of the translation, but there’s nowhere for the reader to pause and catch a mental breath. It’s just clause after clause after clause.

And what’s frustrating is that there are some pretty little gems of quirky writing in here. I just had no clue what was going on, and I kept reading in the hopes that the ending would be some grand illuminating twist that would make you want to reread the novel in a new context. But it’s not that. You’re just left with more of the same.

There’s vague impressions of rape and abortion, but the story’s so unclear that I can’t tell if I’m reading into something that’s not there or if that’s the whole point. It’s dense. It’s hard to get through. It has horrific imagery, but I struggle to actually classify it as horror without a concrete narrative. It feels more like a descriptive writing experiment than a story.

Who should read this:
Translated horror fans

Do I want to reread this:
No? If someone can explain this book to me in a way that makes it coherent, I would try it again.

Similar books:
* Walking Practice by Dolki Min-translated horror, experimental writing style
* We Spread by Iain Reid-psychological horror about Alzheimer’s, unreliable narrator
* I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid-psychological horror, unreliable narrator
* Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker-psychological horror, unreliable narrator, purposely confusing to read
* Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko-dark academia, purposely confusing to read

I tried really hard to get into this one, but I just wasn't able to. I am still really thankful to the publisher, author, and netgalley for granting me advanced access to this digital collection before publication day.

DNF at 60% which is a pretty big bummer. I don't DNF very often and even less that far in.. but yeahhh...

There is really no way to describe this book. Go into it blind. Just know that a woman wakes up tied to a chair and ends up going on the most fever dream wild ride of a journey. If you like weird fiction then this is for you. 4.5 stars

Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

If you're ready to immerse yourself in a whirlwind of unsettling beauty and existential dread, then buckle up for Nour Abi-Nakhoul's Supplication—an enigmatic voyage into the depths of horror. This is a sublime “WTF did I just read” book featuring body horror and weird insect stuff, playing out like a poorly-lit indie horror darling. Abi-Nakhoul's prose is a mesmerizing tapestry woven with threads of doom and empowerment. Each page drips with a visceral sense of foreboding, balanced delicately by the protagonist's evolving sense of agency. From the chilling opening scene of awakening in a basement to the surreal encounters with strangers and the haunting exploration of memory and identity, Supplication is a literary rollercoaster that will leave you breathless. The narrative unfurls with the protagonist awakening in a basement, tied to a chair—a metaphorical rebirth into a nightmarish reality. Death and rebirth become intertwined as the protagonist navigates a labyrinth of uncertainty, encountering surreal horrors and grappling with fragmented memories. Themes of agency, identity, and the elusive nature of humanity permeate the narrative, shrouding the reader in an aura of existential unease. While Supplication dazzles with its lyrical prose and thought-provoking themes, there are moments where the narrative falters, leaving the reader grappling with ambiguity and confusion. The last third of the novel definitely needed some tightening. Supplication will resonate with readers who appreciate atmospheric horror, experimental narratives, and introspective storytelling. Fans of authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Jeff VanderMeer will find themselves drawn into Abi-Nakhoul's dark and surreal world. In the end, Supplication is a haunting meditation on the human condition, offering glimpses into the abyss of our fears and desires. While not without its flaws, it stands as a testament to Abi-Nakhoul's skill as a writer and her willingness to push the boundaries of genre and form.

📖 Recommended For: Fans of avant-garde horror, lovers of atmospheric prose, seekers of philosophical depth, admirers of unconventional narratives, and those intrigued by explorations of existential dread and empowerment.

🔑 Key Themes: Surreal Horror and Existential Dread, Agency and Autonomy in the Face of Uncertainty, Memory and Identity, The Boundaries of Humanity and Inhumanity, The Fragility of Perception, The Complexity of Human Connection.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Drug use (moderate), gun violence (moderate), medical trauma (minor).

Rating: 2.7 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 3/5
-Cover: 4/5
-Story: 3/5
-Writing: 3.5/5
Genre: Horror
-Horror: 0/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Maybe

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I am not sure how to start this review. The writing was definitely something new to me. It was poetic writing but with that it explained things to a painful degree. I don't think the story needed all of that and I am not sure if Nour was trying to go that route or just writes like that. It took away from the story and if it was trying to go the horror route it failed. I couldn't focus on the story because of it and if there was horror it was suffocated by the writing style.

I had high hopes for this books. The cover art, the synopsis, the publisher were all ingredients for a delicious feast. However, I didn’t quite connect with the story and ended up skimming through it in order to give this review.

***What I didn’t enjoy***

The plot wasn't the focus, which is fine and I enjoy narratives that focus more on character than plot. However, this book had neither. The reader is forced to jump around quite quickly with the narrator, and none of that is really driven by characterisation or emotion.

There were some really beautifully visceral pieces of imagery. However, it felt disconnected and I couldn't feel the emotion behind it. There were a lot of 'thens' and things 'suddenly' happening, which felt jarring and kind of like a cop out.

At first I chalked that up to the narrator's mental state - perhaps dissociation or psychosis - but that got exhausting after a while. I feel like more fluctuation there - parts of lucidity among the delirium - would have helped with pacing and connecting the reader to the story. It would have also helped accentuate wonder into what was and wasn't real, which would have helped me stay engaged.

***What I liked***

As mentioned above, there was some wonderful imagery. I really loved the way dialogue was represented, as if it was happening inside the narrator’s head. Gorgeous!

While I can always appreciate a book with intricate storytelling and I was so excited to dive into this novel, I unfortunately found the prose unnecessarily dense and convoluted which made the narrative challenging to follow thus I had to add this book to the DNF pile.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC.

Supplication was the most beautiful type of strange. Abi-Nakhoul grabbed my attention from the first page and didn't let go. I felt like I was tied to a chair right along with our unnamed narrator--forced to endure horror after horror. The writing was a little overwrought and lost me at times, but I honestly do think that was the point. It's supposed to be disorienting and I can confirm it succeeded in making me spiral in the best way. I can definitely see why this has been getting mixed reviews, but it really worked for me. Surreal nightmare fuel at its finest.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Influx Press for this e-arc!

Although I usually don’t rate my DNF’s, I’ve seen enough after 200 pages to:
1. Know that I am not going to change my mind about disliking it.
2. Have a profound headache, the likes of which not many novels can claim to have caused me.
There may be an audience out there who will eat a book like this up, and on the surface I thought I might be part of that audience. Unfortunately, I was not.

The story:
An unnamed woman wakes up in a basement, tied to a chair, a strange man looming over her. Following a bloody escape, she emerges from her captivity into the light of a strange and alienating town. Her journey through the streets of this nightmarish landscape, and her equally nightmarish mind is captured here in these pages.
What I liked:
The most striking part of Supplication is its prose. In fact, it’s basically all the novel has to offer, as the plot is barely there, and more so hinted at than actually developed. The author clearly has a great grasp of “the feeling of language”. She paints a hallucinatory picture in your mind with her words, and if the goal was to disorient and confuse the reader, they definitely succeeded in that aspect. Maybe, if I had read this as more of an experimental type of long-form poetry, I might have enjoyed it more, just for its artistic value… As it stands; it’s barely readable as a novel…

What I didn’t like:
The prose in this book isn’t so much purple, as it is somewhere outside the visible spectrum into the ultraviolet hues. Dense to the point of being almost unreadable, this was a labour to get through, and ultimately failed to deliver any plot or development of substance. Metaphors go on for paragraphs on end, seemingly without purpose or reason. Speaking of which; the same can be said for our protagonist. It’s (perhaps deliberately so) impossible to get a feeling for our protagonist, her motivations, or even her emotional state. She floats through the story like a ghost, not connecting to anything around her, let alone the reader. Again; this might be deliberate, as a manifestation of her post-traumatic state and feelings of isolation from the world as a result. In that case: well done to the author for capturing that. As the reader however, her character was so slippery and incorporeal that I felt like I had nothing to grasp onto.
Overall; a very marmite book, that unfortunately wasn’t for me. Credits to the cover though, for capturing the essence of the story: flowery, dense, disturbing, eye-catching, and something I would NOT hang on my wall as it’s distinctly not my personal taste…

Many thanks to Strange Light by Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I’m not quite sure what to think of this book. Some of the writing was beautiful and other parts were very hard for me to follow and didn’t keep my attention. This did not strike me as a hard hitting horror, but I feel everyone’s horror level/ideas are different. I feel like this will be THE book for some, but not most.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.