Sarah is worried. More than worried. Sarah is terrified. Her young daughter Emma hasn't been herself lately, and it's getting harder and harder to keep the whole thing under wraps. Especially when Nadine, the nosy next-door neighbor, is starting to suspect something and Sarah's sister Jess just shows up unexpectedly, making everything even more difficult for Sarah. If there is one thing Sarah does understand about Emma, one thing she is absolutely sure of, it's that she loves her more than words could ever say and she would do anything to protect her child. Will her mother's love be enough to save her little girl? And will she be able to figure out what happened to her precious child before it's too late to bring her back?
This was a really likable story that had a lot to enjoy. The main gist of the storyline here is incredible, making fantastic use of a maternal tone to everything that occurs as the nature of what's going on throughout here gets revealed over time. The struggle of coming to terms with the monstrous intentions inside her daughter, with the claims of what her daughter used to be and what the creature appearing to her is supposed to be, adds a fantastic depth to the first half here while also focusing heavily on the idea of the daughter still being present within the creature that's at the forefront of the story. The fact that there's enough evidence to where the mother believes something is wrong but still tries to keep the child safe allows for a more heartwarming story than anticipated with the whole idea of the relationship that develops between them.
It's even more apparent in the rest of the story away from the relationship that this one is just as equally concerned with the way everything transpires once the demonic form is introduced. The violence in the imagery, whether it be the creature's horrific form or the way it attacks others for the glee of it all, brings a more immersive experience to what's going on as the story takes us through some intriguing twists along the way. With the descriptive setups to the scenario as to why the monstrous child is attacking victims as the backstory for why they're getting viciously ripped apart, everything comes off with more care towards the situation as it unravels which is helped along nicely by the aforementioned storyline that adds some extra depth and care in the attacks knowing what's going on. The inventive nature of the sidestories cast for the other characters that appear, whether it's about the nosy neighbors who have their problems or the sister who arrives to visit adds an incredible sense of pathos to the violence.
Where it struggles slightly is general pacing, setting up the first half to be a bit of a struggle to get into with some unnecessary chapters and in-depth backstory on characters unnecessary in most regards. The use of going in on the backstory of a character the neighbor's husband fancied in his youth before he chose his wife, the relationship with the neighbor couple that explains how cruel and vile he was to her in the early stages of their romance, and the pranks pulled by family members on each other are somewhat unnecessary here. None of these mean much to the story at large and feel like needless diversions which is especially true of the rejected first girlfriend since she kills herself due to his actions in a chapter not really needed here with her character barely relevant to the story as a whole. This does come around eventually by adding the depth needed for characterization and doesn't make much of a difference in the long run but the divergence is somewhat noticeable in how it drops what's wrong with the child to deal with these issues.
4.5/5