I thought the first half was pretty strong and I was loving the atmosphere! I enjoyed it so much I recommended it to my partner. The second half of the book falls apart. When it comes to writing intense adrenaline scenes, he loses all complexity and atmosphere. It also became apparent in the second half of the book that he cannot write women very well. I did not notice this at first because on of the secondary characters is a woman who is very active in the plot and contributes to its’ progression quite a bit - she also seems to have complicated motives. I’m the second half of the book, it became apparent that he for some reason is unable to write sensible, complex thought processes for women the way he writes them for male characters. Women are also repeatedly subjected to physical and sexual torture in a way that none of the male characters are. I think it was very telling that one of the horror tropes he relies on is the degradation of the female body against one’s will. Apart from that, clearly has a weird obsession about women’s nipples being tortured/abused as it happens to more than one female character, repeatedly for some. I was so disappointed by this revelation that I kinda went through a tiny grieving period for the read because I enjoyed the first half SO much. I ended up not finishing the book due to the drop in effective writing in the second half of the book. The vaguely sexist themes were a bummer, but I might have pushed through them if the writing stayed strong.