Skip to main content
Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2024
Lauren Thoman’s “You Shouldn’t be Here” has real potential. There is a great paranormal story that could be further developed with more believable characters. Mid-range rating to be explained and I will start with the first glaring mistake – what about Sheetz? There is a clear demarcation line between Wawa and Sheetz in Pennsylvania, and it ends around the park that Potato likes to play in (okay, Maybe Lancaster is fair). If Madelyn is a PSU student – she would be living on Made to Order sandwiches and dark roast coffee. Also, the pop culture references can lose a reader if they are not familiar with them – a few are okay, but if you want to the story to live a while, the reader should be able to follow along.
I’m not going to nit-pick on each character. Positives – I love the Angie and Bas story. Strong character development, strong dialogue, and emotionally complex all around.
Syzygy – totally missed that they were British until about halfway through the book. The relationship with them and Madelyn is a good pairing for the story, however they don’t seem to the be Dave Matthews Tripping Billies crowd (i.e. the tattoos).
Doug Raymond is sadly believable and gross.
Plausibility – the paranormal is the most plausible. Without spoilers, Madelyn seems to have a lot of anxiety issues to even take on this very dangerous adventure. She complains about active shooter drills (which, where did she learn about tourniquets then), is always reaching for her anti-anxiety meds, and the reader is left wondering how much she does care about teaching if she only took the job to go on this mission. (Deep down I think she does care and is a great teacher, it just doesn’t come through).
Finally, Madelyn despises how Doug calls her sweetheart and objectifies her – yet it’s okay for her objectify Alex. It’s a nitpick but something to think twice about.
Again, overall, this has potential truly as a great paranormal story with a few bumps in the road.
I’m not going to nit-pick on each character. Positives – I love the Angie and Bas story. Strong character development, strong dialogue, and emotionally complex all around.
Syzygy – totally missed that they were British until about halfway through the book. The relationship with them and Madelyn is a good pairing for the story, however they don’t seem to the be Dave Matthews Tripping Billies crowd (i.e. the tattoos).
Doug Raymond is sadly believable and gross.
Plausibility – the paranormal is the most plausible. Without spoilers, Madelyn seems to have a lot of anxiety issues to even take on this very dangerous adventure. She complains about active shooter drills (which, where did she learn about tourniquets then), is always reaching for her anti-anxiety meds, and the reader is left wondering how much she does care about teaching if she only took the job to go on this mission. (Deep down I think she does care and is a great teacher, it just doesn’t come through).
Finally, Madelyn despises how Doug calls her sweetheart and objectifies her – yet it’s okay for her objectify Alex. It’s a nitpick but something to think twice about.
Again, overall, this has potential truly as a great paranormal story with a few bumps in the road.
