Initially this felt like it took a little while to get going - all great, character building stuff, but for such a short book I wanted to dive into the action a little sooner - indeed the book as a whole could have gotten away with being a little longer, as it truly rattles through the action when it starts. When we get there though - oh boy. The book goes from 0 to 100, really ramping up the tension and the action, which the slow build up definitely does help with.

At first I also felt that the number of POVs was a little excessive, but as we got to know each woman more, they all felt like a vital part of the story - and each woman had a strong narrative voice unique to their chapters, though the short chapters and POV swapping so often did make Renee's storyline of self discovery feel somewhat abrupt, and Lilah-Mae still felt a little stock-Christian character at times (though perfectly fitting into her specific reality tv archetype). I also loved how the chat-forum, blogs and letters were interwoven throughout, really helping to build the mythos and the tension (though the formatting on these sections in my ARC wasn’t great).

The book manages to skewer influencers and reality tv whilst still sensitively examining why a person might want to be part of either. Some may see the twists coming (though I personally was duped!) but they’re executed marvelously. This was actually less trashy or campy than I expected it to be (and I mean trashy in a complimentary way) with a tender beating heart underlying even the more schlocky moments. It’s gory, it’s nuanced, its weird - but most of all it's just really good fun.

This was gloriously nuts. A cut budget version of the Batchelor - the Catch - saves on its penultimate episodes by filming on the remote but gorgeous Otter Island (a fictional addition to the San Juan islands). The four remaining female contestants are in fierce competition for their own reasons, none of which include love. The producer is a jaded woman, just trying to get her cash cow to limp to the finish line. The Catch himself is an utter sleeze ball. And none of them have quite cottoned on to the fact that this island retreat is deliberately anti-tourist as this is where misfits have come to find a place for themselves. Including Patricia, a lonely cryptid who doesn't care for loud disturbances.

As well as a cynical and incisive commentary on the soullessness and lack of authenticity of both reality TV and aspects of internet engagement, this was also a clever deep dive into finding a place to belong when you don't quite fit into specific accepted parameters - especially when people look at you and peg you for something familiar and known. This was a lot of fun. King Kong meets the Batchelor with the camp-y macabre fun of those who are so desperate to conform that they will injure anyone who doesn't to do it, really getting their come uppence. After all, who is really the monster? Queers take back horror!

Patricia Wants To Cuddle, Samantha Allen

I found this book to be quite bizarre. Very different from my usual read and not one that I really understood or enjoyed unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber and Faber Ltd for a copy of this book, I rate it 1 star.

I really enjoyed this book as it was a perfect mix of pop culture and mystery. The action was really good and i was hooked from start to finish with this. The characters all felt so different and i loved seeing how they reacted to the situation differently I would read more by Samantha Allen as the writing and the characters were done so well. I can definitely see myself re-reading this in the future.

This was a wild ride and an absolutely great book. I truly enjoyed every page, and will definitely be looking out for future works from Samantha Allen!

When four women travel to a remote island off the coast of Canada for the semi-finals in a reality dating show, they have no idea that a night under the stars is about to go terribly wrong. As the women, and the crew are hunted by a mysterious monster in the forest, one contestant finds herself drawn to the dark, hairy being and the soul within.

This is a fast-paced romp of the book that really scoops you up and takes you along for the ride. I very much enjoyed this and found it really entertaining - as well as just very funny in parts. As someone who is partial to Love Island, I thought the dating show concept in this book was great and I loved that the characters we were following were all so different in their own ways.

I would have loved more time with all of the characters just to flesh them out even more, and really get a deep dive into their brains, and improve their relationships with one another. While the book's pacing was fun in that I got really swept up in the story, I definitely think parts of it could have been slowed down so elements of the story could have been more fleshed out and given a bit more explanation. I didn't really like that there wasn't really an explanation given for Patricia being on the island - and I found it a bit unrealistic that so much death could be just swept under the rug?!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved the satirical take on reality TV and the obsession with social media and appearances, and the realities underneath the surface. I think this would work amazingly as a movie, and would love to see it in that format in the future. There are so many great elements, I'd definitely recommend this to any horror fans.

I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said hundreds of times; if you’re looking for some easy entertainment I cannot recommend it enough!

Patricia Wants to Cuddle is just an all round fantastically fun book! A super quick read, with good characters, great writing, and laugh-out-loud moments.

I had hoped for more with the denouement but I had such a good time getting there I honestly can’t complain too much

I enjoyed this one, listened to it on audio and would recommend as a full cast of narrartors.

Alternating perspectives between women on or working on a dating reality tv show, a silly comedy about onset drama turns into a grisly horror as some mountain lesbians get involved. I felt like the pacing was off at points but the characters and their dynamics were interesting, if not explored in depth. A solid weird horror about the authenticity of intimacy and wildness in strange places amidst the ruthless drive of social media and tv’s panopticon commodifying human relationships.

3 stars

This has such an amazing premise - a reality dating show with gore and just the right amount of queerness to it, however I found the plot to be just too slow for me. There's a lot of build up, a lot of switching between our four main contestants perspectives, and I found that by the time the action kicked in I just didn't care anymore. And I really wanted to care. Some of the characters were fascinating, and Samantha Allen has perfected the satire, social commentary on the blurring between reality and TV. And the setting was perfect, hitting the right level of creepy woods with eerie stalking and furry not so friends.

It's a really unique story, I just wish the real heart of the story started earlier in the plot.

A unique story with interesting characters.

I found myself compelled to return to this story whenever I wasn’t reading it. It’s like The X Files meets The Bachelor.

A dark but fun read.

What can I say about this book? Well, for starters, its bonkers! It's like Lost, Survivor and The Bachelor or Love Island all rolled into one....so, a bunch of girls and one letch of a guy are in a reality TV show with the awful guy being the 'prize' and the gals all fighting each other to win him over. The girls are awful (well, most of them are, Renee is cool) and the guy is awful and the production team want them to be as awful as possible to make the best possible TV. It is such an odd book but I also, couldn't stop reading it! They are making the finale of the show and they head to a remote island to film it and things start to go....very very wrong. One by one, members of the crew and show have strange things happen to them and the people on the island are a tad strange too.

The craziest book I've read in ages but kinda fun!

This queer horror comedy was a delight from start to finish. Following a group of four women on a Bachelor style reality TV show who encounter more than just a hapless hunk in the woods. It neatly skewers reality TV characters although at times it tries to have its cake and eat it too by showing us that there is more depth to some of the women than it first appears and then promptly bumping them off. A slow start soon gives way to out and out gore and horror and make up some of the more spectacular set pieces. Short and snappy in places the plot could have been helped with some more exposition but as a whole this was a barrel of fun to read.

Highly original and intense satire with horror elements. Based around shows like The Batchelor, with the main characters being mainly a bunch of influencers that you really don't like very much. It's been described as a lesbian horror romp, and I think that describes it well, with perhaps the addition of the word insane at the start. It gets to just over halfway through the book before the insanity begins; until then it's just mainly from the POV of Renee, who isn't 'really' an influencer....

I've never read anything quite like it. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed the storyline and the ending was weirdly wonderful, but I didn’t particularly like any of the characters, which meant I wasn’t particularly bothered about what happened to any of them.

I'm afraid this was a 'nope, did not like' from me. I really tried, but, the characters were so one dimensional and irritating and I didn't really feel there was a plot. Perhaps for a younger demographic, but, I really struggled to get through it.

I do appreciate the opportunity to preview and thanks to NetGalley and Faber & Faber and I'm glad I'm in the minority and that this book is finding it's audience, just not me.

This felt like a stoner comedy-horror film that had been turned into a book.
It draws heavily from real life and could be argued to be a satirical take on reality TV and dating shows.
I enjoyed it, but the majority of the book was slow-paced, allowing us to get into the worlds of each character, although not in much detail, but then seemed to rush through the final 3rd of the book, in what I believe was an attempt to shock the reader.
I gave 3 stars and not less due to there being some funny moments and I appreciated the clever scenario that allowed many themes, such as race, religion and homosexuality, to be discussed. I also enjoyed the inserts from the forum and the letters but felt not enough was done with them.

This book!!!!

I just loved this, I’m secretly obsessed with hideous reality tv so the first part of the book which almost parodied The Bachelor really drew me in. As the book continued and things started to twist I was obsessed. It’s hard to talk about this book without including spoilers but be prepared for shock and gore!
Like nothing I’ve read before in the best way!

Society is now overflowing with reality television opportunities, with regular shows such as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here taking Z listers to a remote location for a series of choreographed tasks.

In Samantha Allen’s latest novel, she has created a new reality TV show, The Catch, where four women are taken away with one man, and the final woman standing will get the chance to be with said man.

There is commentary around the image needed to be portrayed when the camera roll, and how those people are forced to act up and put on this facade all for the ratings.

For the most part, the story is about the relationships between the characters as they approach the remote island location. Allen is really clever about sprinkling in subtle elements of danger which will hint at a more horrific tone that will come into play later.

When the script flips, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is brutal too, and certainly earns its gore stripes.

The characters are well-written and fleshed out to the point, Allen could have mixed up the order in which they become targets of an unseen force, and it wouldn’t have disrupted the flow at all.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle has plenty of surprises and a bonkers finale that will make you wonder how the story all meshes together so well. Recommended.

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen: 2/5 stars

Let me just preface this by saying: this book is really weird. Like really weird. And I’m kind of here for it? I think…

On the surface this book is about a reality TV show called The Catch, which is loosely based on The Bachelor. We enter the story as the show is down to its last four competitors, and they are taken to a remote island for the final two weeks. This island has a dark and mysterious past, however, with several people having gone missing. It’s also known for being very accepting of LGBTQ+ folks. Not that the competitors really care, as they keep their eye on the prize. And yet someone, or something, is going to force them to pay attention…

I loved the weirdness of this story - trust me, you will not be able to guess where this is going. Yet it felt like it was almost something great. The story is rushed through, as are the compelling potential themes of queerness, female relationships, race and reality tv; the author was clearly focused on getting to the climax of the story as quickly as possible in order to shock the reader with it. The characters suffer from this and remain completely wafer thin, despite you being in their points of view. The plot too is thin and almost boring, until the final 15% of the book. This needed an edit to tighten it up and bring the different POVs and styles together in a more coherent and less erratic way.

A fast-paced read that should’ve been something much more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Faber for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!