Chilling and truly fascinating. I can't believe this is a debut! I loved everything about it and will be recommending it highly to readers of horror especially.

I liked the story and the premise, however, it was a little hard to get through the beginning. Some parts of the story felt forced, specifically, the parts where the narrator was having visions or flashes to her past. I did enjoy the book overall, and I'm very interested to see how this author continues to grow.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

Indigenous horror is quickly becoming a subgenre that I can’t stop reading. This story reminded me of Annihilation and anything by T Kingfisher (terrifying). This answers the question of how well do we know the people who offer to help? What is the result of things that seem too good to be true?

This one sadly wasn’t for me. I’m always hyped to read own voices books- but I just could not get into this one, but maybe it’ll be your cup!


Thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for sending me an arc in exchange for my review!

I would definitely consider this a cosmic horror, and if you go into reading this with that in mind-you get drawn in to the story versus tripping over it. There are a lot of flashbacks, and weaving in and out of different worlds but it all melds together to form a cohesive story. Very well written, and great characters. Really enjoyed and look forward to more by this author

An Ordinary Violence was beautifully written and intriguing, as well as disturbing. It’s hard to review the book without risking spoilers, but in general: the main character, Dawn, tried to escape her troubled upbringing on the Canadian prairie with a new life in Toronto. But when everything comes crashing down, she returns home in time to see her brother released early from prison and to watch him become enmeshed in a disturbing supernatural conspiracy.

Chartrand is a brilliant writer, and it was easy to be caught in the rip current of the narrative and be pulled under along with Dawn. This book is cosmic horror, and the narrative reflects Dawn’s increasingly fragmented perception of the world around her. Many of the mysteries in the novel are left unexplained, which I actually find refreshing. It’s also an incisive critique of colonialism, but in a way that always feels thoughtful and sometimes darkly funny.

This is both a creepy and an atmospheric read. I haven’t been to that area of Canada but felt like I was there. I recommend this book to those who like unsettling horror with realistic, nuanced characters.

Thanks so much to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with this e-Arc! I have a planned review of this on my Instagram and will also review on Goodreads once I get to this read. This is one of my most anticipated reads of this year! Until then, I am giving a star rating as a placeholder on Netgalley. Stay tuned for my in depth review on all my social media platforms!

An Ordinary Violence was a beautifully written book.

The slow build up was really enjoyable and creepy. I was really enjoying the writing style and the prose, and even the flashbacks. I think the feeling of hopelessness when you end up back in your small hometown after trying to make a new life for yourself is really relateable to many people, including me. Some of Dawn's actions/reactions confused me, but I also really understand her desperation (in flashbacks) to escape her hometown and start over.

My disappointment came from the ending, which felt like it built up and just fell flat? Maybe I missed something or misunderstood the point? But it felt anticlimactic to me.

An Ordinary Violence was beautifully written and intriguing, as well as disturbing. It’s hard to review the book without risking spoilers, but in general: the main character, Dawn, tried to escape her troubled upbringing on the Canadian prairie with a new life in Toronto. But when everything comes crashing down, she returns home in time to see her brother released early from prison and to watch him become enmeshed in a disturbing supernatural conspiracy.

Chartrand is a brilliant writer, and it was easy to be caught in the rip current of the narrative and be pulled under along with Dawn. This book is cosmic horror, and the narrative reflects Dawn’s increasingly fragmented perception of the world around her. Many of the mysteries in the novel are left unexplained, which I actually find refreshing. It’s also an incisive critique of colonialism, but in a way that always feels thoughtful and sometimes darkly funny.

This is both a creepy and an atmospheric read. I haven’t been to that area of Canada but felt like I was there. I recommend this book to those who like unsettling horror with realistic, nuanced characters.

First of all, I want to thank the author and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. An ordinary violence by Adriana Chartrand is coming out on October 31, 2023.

The cover and synopsis of this was very intriguing. I was kind of disappointed while reading though. There is a lot of flashbacks and back and forth. It was honestly pretty slow for me and a bit hard to follow. #AnOrdinaryViolence #NetGalley

I know this is vague but I need time to process what all I read because I have a really hard time deciding on 3/4 stars ratings and I can't quite decide where this falls. When I read the initial description, it gave me the same feeling that Dark Places by Gillian Flynn gave me when I initially read the description, but I'm unclear as to whether I liked this equally or a bit less due to some choices our characters make. Someone said one of the character intros completely gave the mystery away and I'm not gonna lie - I'm often very oblivious to these hints or foreshadowing lol. So, any suspense or mystery (in horror or not) is typically quite fun and surprising for me!

A full, detailed review will be posted on Goodreads closer to the pub date and mentioned on TikTok. Thank you for this ARC and the opportunity to read more diversely.

Thank you NetGalley and House of Anansi Press Inc. for this ARC for my honest review! The cover art of this novel is gorgeous and absolutely eye catching. The synopsis sounded intriguing and I was excited to start novel. However, the story itself was all over the place. Honestly it felt like 85% flashbacks and filler with 15% plot. When we finally got past the Toronto flashbacks I thought for sure we’d get more grounded in the story but I was wrong. There’s brief moments of plot but they get shoved aside for flashbacks and I’d get pulled out of one setting into another without notice which only confused me. I’m not sure we really get to any plot of the story until about 70-75% in. The story was hard to follow and was just as difficult to keep my attention on. It’s a super slow read and even after finishing it I’m not sure what I really read or what the actual plot was.

This is an excellent, slow-burn, mostly quiet horror novel, with some really unnerving and hazy/fuzzy moments that leave the reader in a fever-dream style state. The writing is so amazing and immersive as well.

This was a new author for me. This story was a bit predictable, a bit all over the place. I pretty well knew where it was headed as soon as Tyler was introduced. Not a bad novel, but just barely kept me interested, sadly.
I was hoping it would go into more of aboriginal myth. This felt more like a psychological thriller to me. To many things were left unanswered.

An Ordinary Violence was gorgeous, hypnotic, and disturbing. It’s hard to talk about the book without spoiling anything, so I’ll just echo the publisher’s synopsis: Dawn tried to escape her troubled upbringing on the Canadian prairie with a new life in Toronto. However, when everything comes crashing down, she returns home in time to see her brother released early from prison and to watch him become enmeshed in a disturbing supernatural conspiracy.

This is one of those stories where the pleasure lies in the quality of the prose; Chartrand is an excellent writer and it was easy to slip into the riptide of the narrative and be carried away along with Dawn. This book is cosmic horror and the narrative reflects Dawn’s increasingly fragmented perception of the world around her. Many mysteries in the novel are left unexplained and I loved that. It’s also an incisive critique of colonialism, but in a way that always feels thoughtful and sometimes darkly funny.

If you’re looking for a creepy and atmospheric read, I highly recommend this book. I will be eagerly awaiting Chartrand’s next novel. To me, this was right up there with Laird Barron for unsettling horror with realistic, nuanced characters.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

4 stars

Ok first off let’s appreciate that cover art 😍

Ok now then. This book was completely enthralling, and I was hooked. Everything seemed to unfold just as it should. The characters were well developed and relatable. I really hope to see a lot more from Adriana Chartrand in the future.