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thebookaddict's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
🇳🇱: Dit boek was niet helemaal wat ik ervan verwacht had, maar het was leuk om te lezen. De focus ligt veel bij de queer romance en veel minder bij het verhaal eromheen, ik had het juist andersom verwacht. Ik las in de reviews dat het boek homofobisch was en soms zelfs een beetje racistisch. Ik keek hier anders naar. Ik vond het juist wel passen bij het boek, omdat we het hebben over 100 jaar oude (witte) vampiers die nog moeten "wennen" aan het idee dat het meer wordt uitgesproken als je queer bent en dat mensen met een andere huidskleur nu ook naar school gaan. Deze dingen kwamen sterk naar voren in het boek en dit kan dus ook kwetsend overkomen (lees zeker even de trigger warnings als je hier niet tegen kan). Ik vond het boek goed geschreven en je leest er vlot doorheen. Ik had alleen iets meer verhaallijn willen zien met betrekking tot de ziekte en het "medicijn" dit voelde nu juist meer als een zijlijn in het verhaal. Ook had ik meer willen lezen over de reünisten. Het concept van vampieren en een ziekte waar ze door sterven vond ik heel origineel bedacht.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
🇬🇧: This book wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to read. The focus is much on the queer romance and much less on the story surrounding it, I expected it the other way around. I read in the reviews that the book was homophobic and sometimes even a bit racist. I looked at this differently. I thought it fit with the book, because we are talking about 100 year old (white) vampires who still have to "get used" to the idea that it is more pronounced if you are queer and that people with a different skin color now also go to school. These things were strongly highlighted in the book and can therefore come across as hurtful (be sure to read the trigger warnings if you cannot handle this). I thought the book was well written and easy to read through. I just would have liked to see a little more storyline regarding the disease and the "medicine", this just felt more like a sideline in the story. I would also have liked to read more about the reunionists. I thought the concept of vampires and a disease that kills them was very original.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Cursing, Abandonment, Vomit, Death, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death
bree_h_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This was a little bit of a disappointing read. I had really high hopes for a sapphic vampire story, but just felt it fell short in a lot of aspects.
To start, there were some aspects I enjoyed. The world building felt solid and pretty realistic, which can be hard to do in urban fantasy settings with trying to balance the supernatural world in a way that feels realistic to the real world. I also thought some of the less touched ideas that were handled subtly were really well done. Specifically Kat and dealing with people’s sense of entitlement to hot people. There was also a really solid exploration of comp het in Kat’s development and discovery of her sexuality. Kat’s journey in sorting out her sexuality also felt ready well done and relatable.
Outside of that though, the book kept falling short. I think the book’s themes could have been handled well, but we were constantly being whacked over the head with them. It felt like someone who didn’t really get the topics the book was exploring was trying to explain them. It’s being shoved down your throat that discovering your sexuality is a journey and you aren’t entitled to know things about people, but then punishes/shames characters for being on that journey and/or not having the support systems to safely explore that.
On top of that I found every character pretty unlikable. I want characters to have flaws and blind spots, however there’s also only so much I can deal with before I decide the character’s just not a good person. Which is what I felt like every character fell into. Entitlement to know someone’s sexuality who you haven’t seen in three years, putting down more fem girls for being fem and not masc, ignoring boundaries setup by other characters (especially in the romance), and thinking someone is faking a panic attack for attention who has never displayed that kind of behaviour are just a few examples.
The final biggest issue is a really weak plot and ending. The book spent its entire run meandering about, occasionally dropping crumbs of plot, and then speed ran the entire plot in the last 25% or so. It just felt poorly done. Pair that with a poorly thought out ending (they took down the Big Bad Evil Conservative Capitalist and suddenly everyone everywhere was super accepting and no more bigotry happened) just mixed so well together to make the plot feel as flimsy as a piece of single-ply.
Overall it had a lot of potential and could have handled its complex themes in a nuanced, subtle way. However, it just ends up feeling like the author bit off more than she could chew.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Classism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Death, Murder, and Sexism
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual assault
lunep's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Classism, Colonisation, Infertility, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence
evelynyle_88's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Cursing
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I recommend reading some of the other review by BIPOC people (especially @bookstagramrepresents on Instagram) becuase there are some problematic things that have been brought up about this book. There's one conversation about the East India Trading Company that will definitely make you cringe when you read it. I know it did for me.
For the most part, I feel like this book had potential but it just kind of fell flat, outside of the things mentioned in other reviews. There didn't seem to be a lot of romantic chemistry between Taylor and Kat, and it was more told than actually shown in the book. All in all, there are probably better vampire books out there for you to read.
For the most part, I feel like this book had potential but it just kind of fell flat, outside of the things mentioned in other reviews. There didn't seem to be a lot of romantic chemistry between Taylor and Kat, and it was more told than actually shown in the book. All in all, there are probably better vampire books out there for you to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Death of parent, Cursing, and Domestic abuse
There is a scene that is kind of sexual assualt-esque when vampires coerce a group of humans into their house to feed on them, seemingly without their consent and wiping their memories.ezwolf's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
To be completely honest I read this because of the controversy it gained on BookTok and I wanted to read it for myself so I borrowed it from the library. I don't think it was as discriminatory as people made it out to be, but I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
The plot seemed to just be "high school but with vampires" for a good chunk of the book and when it did finally introduce other plot points it left them unresolved.
This book is told from Kat and Taylor's POVs and I disliked both of them. I didn't really like anyone in the book. I don't know if that's because I'm older and they're very teenager-y or if they were actually unlikable. Taylor suffered from "I'm not like other girls" syndrome and Kat came off borderline homophobic for a good chunk of the book. Also both of them were white but the narrative pushed very hard to show us how they were the only (or some of the only) vampires who cared about diversity and equality and yet the only characters that were not white were one of the mean girls who bullied both Taylor and Kat and the popular rich boy who was unaware of rich vampire privilege.
Also Galen's parent's whole backstory???
The plot seemed to just be "high school but with vampires" for a good chunk of the book and when it did finally introduce other plot points it left them unresolved.
This book is told from Kat and Taylor's POVs and I disliked both of them. I didn't really like anyone in the book. I don't know if that's because I'm older and they're very teenager-y or if they were actually unlikable. Taylor suffered from "I'm not like other girls" syndrome and Kat came off borderline homophobic for a good chunk of the book. Also both of them were white but the narrative pushed very hard to show us how they were the only (or some of the only) vampires who cared about diversity and equality and yet the only characters that were not white were one of the mean girls who bullied both Taylor and Kat and the popular rich boy who was unaware of rich vampire privilege.
Also Galen's parent's whole backstory???
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death, and Homophobia
Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual content, Racism, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Infertility, and Cursing
celestriakle's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book promised me a trashy, CW-style teen drama with lesbians and vampires, and that's exactly what I got. It met all my expectations, and it was a lot of fun! If you want a miracle of writing or a really well done book, this isn't that, but if you just want a good time, then by all means, enjoy this. Highly recommend if you're in the age group this book is actually aimed at.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Lesbophobia, Bullying, and Death
Moderate: Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content, Infertility, and Chronic illness
gays0up's review
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Lesbophobia, Blood, Homophobia, and Classism
bookstagramrepresent's review
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
I don’t even know what I just read but it was not good.
Kat, the Poor woke white girl MC - constantly mentions or shows off how much better she is than everyone else in the Vampire school, a lot of the racism and homophobia scenes are used just to show how much better she is than the other characters which is a huge problem. When she asks about why there aren’t more students of color one character doesn't know why and can list all of them for her because there are so few POC student and another asks her if she really thinks they would want to be at Harcote given the elitist racist vampire offspring - it is NEVER discussed that even if these other students of color wanted to go to Harcote they are not even granted an opportunity because of the racist school headmaster (a lot like what we see in real life with higher education institutions and academia circles). The racism in this book is so insidious.
There is a part where she's struggling to figure out her sexuality/queer identity while still dating a boy from school and those scenes are odd. She remembers her two queer human friends from home and their isn't anything really mentioned other than " just knowing" you're queer. I was hoping for more acceptance with this struggle but she magically figures herself out after berating herself for even questioning and this too comes across harmful. It's OKAY to not know who you are or where you might be in the queer spectrum. For someone who is supposed to be a 2022 teen coming from such an open and woke community in California this doesn't match with how she is in the other parts of the book. She's also not inclusive at all with the language she uses for someone who is supposed to be so woke.
Taylor is the other mc with a POV in the book and she faces a lot of lesbophobia which is not handled well or just used to make Kat look better or Taylor look like even more of a loaner. It's weird because while she is the only out queer person at the school she never once considers there could be other queer students until the absolute end of the book. She also comes across absolutely obsessed with Kat while engaging in a very toxic and secret relationship with another character. She's honestly so selfish in her POV scenes.
Kat, the Poor woke white girl MC - constantly mentions or shows off how much better she is than everyone else in the Vampire school, a lot of the racism and homophobia scenes are used just to show how much better she is than the other characters which is a huge problem. When she asks about why there aren’t more students of color one character doesn't know why and can list all of them for her because there are so few POC student and another asks her if she really thinks they would want to be at Harcote given the elitist racist vampire offspring - it is NEVER discussed that even if these other students of color wanted to go to Harcote they are not even granted an opportunity because of the racist school headmaster (a lot like what we see in real life with higher education institutions and academia circles). The racism in this book is so insidious.
There is a part where she's struggling to figure out her sexuality/queer identity while still dating a boy from school and those scenes are odd. She remembers her two queer human friends from home and their isn't anything really mentioned other than " just knowing" you're queer. I was hoping for more acceptance with this struggle but she magically figures herself out after berating herself for even questioning and this too comes across harmful. It's OKAY to not know who you are or where you might be in the queer spectrum. For someone who is supposed to be a 2022 teen coming from such an open and woke community in California this doesn't match with how she is in the other parts of the book. She's also not inclusive at all with the language she uses for someone who is supposed to be so woke.
Taylor is the other mc with a POV in the book and she faces a lot of lesbophobia which is not handled well or just used to make Kat look better or Taylor look like even more of a loaner. It's weird because while she is the only out queer person at the school she never once considers there could be other queer students until the absolute end of the book. She also comes across absolutely obsessed with Kat while engaging in a very toxic and secret relationship with another character. She's honestly so selfish in her POV scenes.
There are two Asian characters in this book. One is LucyK who is specifically mentioned as being Chinese when we first meet her (page 37 - I guess the white mc can just tell what kind of asian everyone is) and she is written as the mean girl's bff/sidekick. LucyK is a social media influencer and later holds an off campus vamp party in NYC SOHO and a really violent scene happens. Lucy tricked 4 winners of her social media contest to come party with her in the city and they are used as feeders for the vamp party. It's all completely nonconsenual and the other characters talk about how Lucy always throws these parties. Just Lucy. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is so harmful to link the ONLY visible Chinese character to violence against people who cannot defend themselves.
The other Asian character is the love interest king of the school type Galen. He is British and Indian. There is a whole scene (page 146) where he talks about how his white British father worked for the British East India company and that's how he met his mother in India, (who came from a wealthy merchant family so it's okay because "He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village" I cannot with this apologist colonizer bs. Racist apologist white colonizer passage shouldn’t have been in here PERIOD *screams* IDK why the woke mc didn’t call this out after she constantly comments on everything else. Kat asks him why he's not in the Students of Color Caucus and he basically replies that he's too busy and it's not for him which comes across as being beneath him and his status. I’m tired of white authors making their characters biracial for flavor and then disrespecting the nonwhite half! Galen is an odd character, his one dimensional even when his character goes from supporting the status quo to trying to make things better. He also constantly forces himself on Kat, she even has a panic attack and a few other terrible physical reactions to him that he completely doesn't notice and just does what he wants anyway. She doesn't even process this trauma but we see the effect it has on her throughout their time together.
The other Asian character is the love interest king of the school type Galen. He is British and Indian. There is a whole scene (page 146) where he talks about how his white British father worked for the British East India company and that's how he met his mother in India, (who came from a wealthy merchant family so it's okay because "He didn't just make off with a helpless girl from some village" I cannot with this apologist colonizer bs. Racist apologist white colonizer passage shouldn’t have been in here PERIOD *screams* IDK why the woke mc didn’t call this out after she constantly comments on everything else. Kat asks him why he's not in the Students of Color Caucus and he basically replies that he's too busy and it's not for him which comes across as being beneath him and his status. I’m tired of white authors making their characters biracial for flavor and then disrespecting the nonwhite half! Galen is an odd character, his one dimensional even when his character goes from supporting the status quo to trying to make things better. He also constantly forces himself on Kat, she even has a panic attack and a few other terrible physical reactions to him that he completely doesn't notice and just does what he wants anyway. She doesn't even process this trauma but we see the effect it has on her throughout their time together.
Unnecessary HP reference in the arc WHICH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Replaced with a Stars Wars reference which still comes off as ableist. Funny how that did not make it better.
There is a lot of ableist language (like the use of lame no one says this anymore please just stop) and the way things related with the disease in the book was just not handled well. The disease was created by one of the bad guys and put into BATS to spread into humanity. After everything we have endured with Asian Hate this pandemic that should NOT have been a plot point. The history of the disease in the book plays out almost like the HIV/AIDS epidemic and this does not sit right with me. The disease is also used to murder a character in the middle of the storyline and the way it's used as a threat is just wrong.
I've seen several other reviewers on bookstagram call out the Antisemitism in this book as well. There are a lot of Antisemitic vampire tropes in this book and it's worth reading up on that.
I've seen several other reviewers on bookstagram call out the Antisemitism in this book as well. There are a lot of Antisemitic vampire tropes in this book and it's worth reading up on that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Ableism, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Cursing
ladysmartypants's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I was so excited about this, until the problematic aspects of racism and antisemitism were pointed out to me. Others have shared the results of their research, so please refer to them for all the details.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia and Racism