So I finished The BuzzFeed Unsolved book
Full title being, "BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural: 101 True Tales of Hauntings, Demons, and the Paranormal".
So this one was not something I expected to write a review for, but I considered and ended up thinking--ah, fuck it. I'm going to be reading a lot more lately and I might as well also add my book reviews to my page, because, hey, it's my page. I can do whatever I want with it, right? So I might as well start with the latest book I just read.
Again, this one specifically I wasn't expecting to write anything for. But it was a book I purchased ages ago and didn't get to read on my plane like I said I would, so I got off my ass and started to read now until I was finally done. I won't be too long as there's not a lot of substance to review here, but either way, let's do this.
What I liked
The book is informative. It's pretty cool to get to read some short history blurbs on real places in the US with dark, "haunted" histories, and even a few other countries. Mostly the UK, but there was the--expected, really--shout out to Mexico's Doll Island which I appreciated a whole lot. On that sense it's a pretty good book if you want to read this sort of stuff!!
I also did enjoy a few of the running gags that Ryan and Shane had going on in the commentary. Their commentary is all over the place but it does feel like the sort of stuff you'd see in an actual episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved or even Ghost Files, even if in way shorter bursts. I'll get to that in the next section lmao. There were a lot of stupid, unrelated comments that made me laugh, but there were also a lot that did not.
I think that's it for me re: what I liked. I have a few things I disliked though, so...
What I didn’t like
So, that humour, the commentary, and the way it drops in sometimes? Yeah, it was also its biggest weakness. The length of some of these entries don't seem to have accommodated for a lot of their commentary and gags, and as such you really start to get the feeling that sometimes, these two didn't really want to chime in with a joke or something, but they had to for the sake of the book's identity. If they'd reeled it in a little and kept at least only some comments for the end of an entry rather than spread them all out through the entry for the chance of one actually landing, maybe this would've been a lot less of a slog.
Because, yeah. This book felt like a slog. I was considering dropping it like twice since I was getting tired of the repetition and constant interruption of Ryan and Shane's more unrelated comments. What's hilarious is the reason I didn't do it is because the next entry you'd actually see a place they did visit, or they'd say something actually good or funny, and you'd be hooked again. What a strange cycle that was.
Final Thoughts
If you're looking for a behind the scenes or anything of more substance, don't bother. If you want something to kill time with, get the audio book, or the ebook, because getting this as a physical release feels a bit like a bummer and, frankly, a bit of a waste of space for my shelf. Still, it was fun. Definitely not how I should have started my journey back into readership, but, sure, fun.
I want to imagine the audio book must feel a lot more like an actual episode of Unsolved, so maybe that's the actual, proper experience to give to this book. Otherwise though, yeah. This wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. It definitely was funny to read about Shane apparently eating a bird and then never say anything about it ever again though.
Thanks for reading!